A bug crawled on top of a fallen log and rested in a glorious beam of sunlight. He was big bug, about the size of a lightsaber power cell, fat and juicy, with an exoskeleton that flapped when he needed to get down from a high place. He would be an enticing morsel for a bird save for the bright warning of hot pink poison striping along his dark brown body.

The bug was in a good mood, for the rain was gone and the log was vacant. The bark on this kind of tree was particularly yummy. He used to come here a lot when he was still a little bug, but other creatures infested the place for a long time. They smashed tree bark and squished grass until their foreign stink permeated all that delicious crust.

But now the creatures were gone and the rains washed their stink away. Baby grass grew out of the pounded mud. A new branch reach down from a neighbor tree and tickled the log with its tiny leaves as a friend petting a passed loved one. The bug twittered its pink and brown wings with happiness and reached out with its antennae to peruse that the crushed bark for a first scrumptious bite.

A noise.

The stink came first. The slow pounding of big feet came second. The bug rushed his little feet for cover in the twisted mess of dead roots at the far end, but Luke Skywalker saw him before the little guy got away.

Luke stopped his boots. He put a hand out to stop the advance of the person behind him. Kess stepped up behind his shoulder and peeked.

Panicked, the bug ran hard until dove into a crack between dead roots. They weren't chasing him like a bird would, but he was angry now and turned around to look at these returning invaders. In defiance, he grabbed the nearest bite of bark he could reach, gestured rudely with his antennae, and disappeared.

Luke smiled big. Kess smiled too. "I think we interrupted lunch."

Luke stepped over the log and dropped the duffel to the other side with routine, but he noticed the new grass in the formerly naked mud spot under his feet. "I knew I was missing this place," he said as he squatted to rummage through the duffel. "Guess it's been longer than I thought."

"It's only been a month," her eyes shifted, "or two?"

"Nature doesn't wait to take back what's hers," Luke said. He pulled out a rolled up blanket and shook out the dust and twigs from its previous use.

Kess sat on the long in her usual spot but didn't take off her little backpack. She looked up at the canopy, the flitting birds, a rodent on a far branch. . . . She took a big sigh and closed her eyes, but then opened them in gentle sorrow to gaze at the clearing. "Guess it was never really ours to begin with, was it?"

Luke shared a sad grin. He spread the blanket out and lay it flat on the old, stronger grass toward the back of the clearing. Kess watched him do this with lament. How long had she waited for training to be over so she could make out with him in this beautiful place? Had he considered the same? This was their place to be alone together, even when they weren't together. But now . . . .

A third pair of boots stepped slowly up the path behind them both. Ice eyes shifted with distaste to take in this setting. Zach Vanech shrugged his hands. "What the fuck is this?"

Luke finished tugging the corners until the blanket was flat and stood tall again. "It's just a place."

Zach looked around again, his mouth grimacing at the feral trees, the sticky humidity. He quickly waved a mosquito from his face with panic.

Kess eyed him over her shoulder. "Have you ever been anywhere besides Coruscant?"

"I'm from Kein," he grunted. He stomped onto the log and jumped down the other side, crushing the new grass with his black boots. "But I don't remember it." He set his hands on his hips and looked up through the trees like they were a herd of foreign creatures.

"They don't have trees on Coruscant?" Kess grinned.

"Not this . . . untamed," he murmured with distrust.

Kess couldn't tell if Zach was fascinated or disgusted. She shared a grin with Luke as he returned to the duffel and pulled out bottles of water. He tossed one to her open hands and took a step to offer one in front of Zach.

Zach eventually noticed and took it. He unscrewed the cap and sipped, but looked back up at the unkempt trees and the birds. He strolled around a few paces and noticed water in the stream flowing wherever it wanted. Finally, in the center of the clearing, he faced down Luke and Kess sitting on the log and shrugged his hands until they slapped against his thighs. "What are we doing here?"

Luke flashed a new smile. He gestured to the blanket on the ground beside the man's feet and offered, "Sit down."

"Why?"

Luke laughed easily and shook his head. "Nothing bad is going to happen, Zach."

Zach pressed his mouth with impatience, turned his feet around, and lowered himself cross-legged on the blanket. He shrugged his hands from his knees. Now what?

Luke set the water bottle aside. "Do you remember how to meditate?"

Zach pinched one eye shut and angled his chin down. "You're fucking kidding me."

With a grin, the Jedi Master shook his head.

The assassin-looking pimp set a hand on his thigh and glared. "After all I've done, and this what you want to start me with?"

Luke set his hands on either side of his knees and locked his elbows. "Have you ever been in a bacta tank?"

"Yeah, why?"

Luke sat up again and gestured at the nature around them. "Think of this place as a bacta tank for Jedi." He arched a brow with a new smile. "And you are long overdue for a dip."

Kess smiled at the humor of this too, but kindly so, because she understood Zach's reaction far better than Luke probably could.

Zach's untrusting eyes observed them both, then his finger motioned at them both. "And you two are just going to sit here and watch?"

"No." Luke concluded quickly and stood up again. He tossed the bottle back to the bag. "Actually, we're going on a hike. Just to give you some privacy, though. We won't be far."

Zach looked around again, eyeing for predators, and not trusting it when he didn't sense any. There were no safe walls here. No trusty surfaces. The wind blew at an unscheduled beat. The trees made noise. "I don't like it here."

Kess stood with Luke and both stepped over the log to leave. "We won't be far," Luke promised.

And they walked away.

Kess waited until they were well out of earshot before she tittered. "He's like a thirty year old callus."

"Yeah," Luke murmured, both watching their own boots as they hiked away. "But there must still be something underneath it or he wouldn't be here."

In comfortable silence, listening to the birds caw and the trees whisper, inhaling the richness of the earthy smells, Luke and Kess strolled through the jungle toward Toban Ridge. One by one, they climbed up the boulders that littered its base, soon finding a wide, naked stone that rose almost above the tree canopy. They'd never been to this spot before, but that didn't matter. Luke crested it first and turned around to offer a help up. She stood on the boulder next to him and looked at the view.

It wasn't much of a view. They weren't high enough to see over the trees. And Toban Ridge reached up meters above their heads behind them. Still, there were birds out there. And the treetops were greener in this sunlight. The red-orange gas giant spread above them like a cowering ball of cooling lava.

Kess sat down and took off her backpack.

Luke draped one leg over the side of the boulder and set up his other knee to prop his elbow. His eyes kept aim at the jungle where Zach was, though the man was hidden from conventional sight. "There he goes."

Kess glanced. She still couldn't sense the man's demeanor, but she decided not to make an issue with Zach Vanech's unwavering Empathy block. She wondered if Zach was letting Luke in or if Luke could just see through it.

"Guess we're going to have to find a new spot now, huh?" She settled on her hip as she pulled out snacks from the backpack.

"Like what, an apartment?"

Kess flashed a laugh.

Luke turned teasing smile at her. "Are you dropping hints now?"

"I didn't say that!" But her giggle was guilty. "You said it. I didn't say that."

Still grinning madly, Luke picked a mipnut out of the container she offered and popped it into his mouth. He eyed directly into her guilt, but this kind of guilt made him glow.

"House on a beach cliff," she admitted maturely, meeting his gaze. "But only if you're taking requests."

"Hm." He still grinned about it as he plucked out another nut and chewed. He looked out towards the clearing again, but his tone softened to reality. "Honestly, I'm not sure what we're going to do about finding a place like this once we take Coruscant back."

"The Temple underneath the Palace was quieter," she offered, but she didn't like that idea much either.

He selected another nut. "We'll explore it, of course, but. . . . It's not going to work as a 'home'."

"Leia's not going to want our growing gang too far from the Capital," she thought aloud. "Not if we expect to get Senate support for all this."

"Well," he tongued a piece of nut from a molar. "The Senate support is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to all the other stuff they've got going on. Even still, I don't want us far from the Capital either."

"So what are we going to do?" Kess asked, looking at him for the big answers.

He shrugged and his eyes found her again. "We'll think of something."

In truth, they had bigger missions between here and there anyway. A lot could happen in the next few months. And a lot could go terribly wrong.

Upon the gang's return from the Plan Cresh mission, the first order of business that day was to debrief the details to dozens of stiff faces in the CIC bunker. The plan wasn't as a successful as they hoped. Six representatives the Serra Systems were present at Prince Petra's party, but not all of them got the chance to read the Alliance's proposal before they were expected to agree to it. Additionally, Baron Flintob of Kein was still clueless about what Petra's carefully worded toast was really about. Leia had the daunting task of confirming that each of the system representatives understood and agreed to the Alliance proposal without actually contacting any of them.

But that was Leia's job now, Luke said to console Kess's worry, and the Jedi had a different one.

The Alliance was quick to react to the new face disembarking the Falcon. No one trusted Zach Vanech, and for good reason, but they extended as much respect as they could afford. Vanech was not permitted on base except by escort of either Luke or Kess. Period. There was a brief thought that Lando or Han could show him around, but Mon Mothma doused that idea as soon as she learned of Vanech's childhood history and slumbering Force skills. They didn't treat him like a criminal or a captive, but he wasn't part of the rebellion yet either.

Vanech didn't seem to mind any of this. The day they arrived, Lando drove him out to South Base where he took his freshly earned bounty and reserved a hotel room for a long stay. And the first thing he did when he was alone was make a subspace com call.

Amongst a choice few in a big office, there was some quiet disagreement whether they should tap the call. On the one hand, the man had a right to privacy, not to mention the deeper need to show the mission-helper and tentative Jedi Apprentice some basic respect. On the other hand, the Alliance needed some assurance that the man was not a threat, especially after Luke admitted to the rest that Zach Vanech was indeed on the dark side.

Kess watched the difficulty brew in Luke's brain while that meeting was going down. The Jedi Master acquiesced, uncomfortably, with a compromise that the other two Jedi—alone—would review the call after it was finished so they could simply state the level of threat in non-detailed, numerical terms.

Mon Mothma was fine with that, and Luke and Kess tapped in from the CIC bunker to watch a recording of the call together.

Predictably, Vanech had called Saffron, and most of it was the tone of 'Where the hell did you go?' and 'When will you be back?' The most Vanech told her was that he was 'taking some time off to clear his head'. Saffron seemed to know why without explanation. He then told her she was in charge of everything until his return. He told her who was handling what, who to trust, who not to trust, and gave her some codes (but told them in code) so she could access anything she needed. Finally, he told her that if she needed anything that he couldn't manage from a distance to call Prince Petra because 'that little fuck owed him a big fucking favor'. Saffron seemed to accept all this with reluctance, but seemed pleased to know he was safe.

Finally, she asked with a different tone. "Did it work?"

"Did what work?"

"Whatever that thing was? With the lost kitten?"

Vanech paused before answering that. He said, "Don't know yet." Then added, "But make sure everyone knows their exit routes."

That too was probably in code, and Saffron nodded like it was a sinister password.

On a scale from one to ten, Luke reported to Mon Mothma and Leia that Vanech's call was a 'two', but the man could still likely be much higher than that until they pulled him back into the light.

That's when Mon Mothma's eyes turned from Jedi Skywalker to Jedi Lendra. "May I have a moment?" It came out the strength of a calm order. The woman moved gracefully to a chair and sat down.

Kess grinned goodbye at Luke and dutifully turned to go.

"No. With you." Mon Mothma pointed at Kess and eyed the others instead. She was dismissing Luke and Leia.

The pair eyed each other deeply as they both turned and left. The others filed out of the room as well. Admiral Ackbar was the last to close the door behind them all.

Kess was still in her bone and brown civilian clothes, but she stood at attention anyway.

Mon Mothma seemed humored by this and gestured to the other chair.

Uncomfortable, Kess sat down . . . at attention.

"I'm speaking with you directly because I feel it would be inappropriate at this point to put this through a proper Chain of Command."

Kess rubbed her lips hard, but she nodded. If she was talking about the military, Leia was in the way. If she was talking about the Jedi, Luke was in the way. And both now carried personal bias on certain decisions in Kess's life.

Kess braced herself. She knew this meeting coming.

"You're helping Jedi Skywalker handle Vanech." It was a statement, not a question.

"Much as I can," she confirmed.

Mothma spoke carefully. "You're nephew is Force-Sensitive. Yes?" She lifted her chin.

"Yeah. I'm mean, yes, ma'am. I guess he is."

"And your brother is, at the moment, Emperor Tovecus."

Kess scratched her eyebrow. "Um. Yes, ma'am."

Mon Mothma nodded, starting high and ending low, then nodded again. "I have, on my desk, right now, a request to re-assign one Lieutenant Lendra to the Supply Warehouse." He words ended with a pointing eyeball.

Kess bit her blushing mouth closed.

Mon Mothma continued to stare at her with an angled chin of instruction. The ridiculousness of this was clear in the Chief Commander's Force Print.

Kess fought the shy smile, but she groaned at the ceiling. She rubbed her eyes and returned her hands to clasp neatly in her lap. She blinked a dozen times and finally met Mon Mothma's pressing gaze with bravery. "Chief Commander, I think it's time I resign my commission so that I can focus on my Jedi duties."

Mon Mothma hardly let her finish. "I think so too," and popped out of her chair.

Kess remained in hers for a moment more and watched the uncertainties blossom along this new life landscape.

Mon Mothma had already moved on, speaking easy and quiet as she returned to her desk. "As decorated soldiers of the Rebellion, you and Jedi Skywalker will both retain access to military facilities until we leave Yavin 4, but we must consider you civilians now."

Kess slowly stood and faced the facts. She wondered a thousand things but didn't have the guts to ask them. She took only what information Mon Mothma offered up without question and ended the conversation with, "It's been and honor and a privilege."

To that, Mon Mothma smiled; a genuine, wide, warm smile. "And we were fortunate to have you."

Kess went home alone after that. She didn't tell anyone. Not yet. Luke probably guessed, but he didn't say anything. Still not a full day since they're return, there was too much to do; things like sleep, shower, do the laundry, answer mail, pay bills. . . find a THX1138 chip for Artoo . . . put up with Dad's yelling and Gina's fussing over what was happening with Nik . . . and get Zach Vanech out to the clearing as soon as possible so the man could kriffing relax!

But he wasn't the only one that needed it. The Plan Cresh mission took a toll on them too.

So, while Zach Vanech struggled alone in the clearing to clumsily remember how to meditate, Luke and Kess lay down on that high boulder and basked in the sun like a pair of lizards so they could meditate for a long time too.

Stretched out on his back, Luke suddenly rolled his head to the side and peek one eye open toward the clearing.

Stretched out perpendicular from him, Kess picked her head up from his hip and looked for a clue. "What?"

Luke exploded in a giddy little snicker. "He fell asleep."

She sat up giggling. "That just means it worked."

Yavin was half gone over the horizon. Unhurried, they climbed up from their lounge and packed away everything in the backpack. Refreshed. Peaceful. Perfect teamwork.

"Y'know," Luke mentioned, looking out at the green trees and coasting birds. "I just noticed a flaw in your plan."

Kess threaded the backpack behind her arms and began the climb down. "What plan?"

Luke was quiet as climbed down behind her, but he was quiet for a beat longer when they reached the jungle floor and began picking their way back. He waited until they were nearly in hearing range of the clearing, to the point that she couldn't respond without intrusion, before he answered.

"Yavin 4 doesn't have a beach cliff."