My name is Nikolai Lendra. My wife is Gina Lendra. My son is Ben Lendra. . . .

Nik washed his face with the coldest water coming out of the tap. He set his palms on the navy marble counter top and locked his elbows. He stared at himself in the mirror and forced himself to see what his eyes saw.

Brown hair. Brown eyes. Tanned skin. Strong cheeks. Open mouth. A huffing breath made his shoulders rise and fall. Fresh out of the shower, he was naked save for the black towel wrapped around his waist. This was the moment in his day that he could remind himself he was human.

In the reflection of the mirror, his eyes saw that starring glint of the lights against the polished frame of the protocol droid. N4 was standing at the ready behind him. Or was it N5? He couldn't tell the two droids apart. But they were always there. Tweedles Dum and Dee, Nik thought. He grinned. That's what Dad used to call us.

He looked at himself in the mirror and saw that he was human. His saw that his shoulders and arms were big from moving barrels of solvent at work. His saw that his skin was darker than the skin he was born with because of all that time under twin suns. It wouldn't be long before he was ushered out of the semi-privacy of the lav and surrounded by Imperials in gray uniforms and red armor. So, for the moment he could stare into his own brown eyes, he recited it all in his mind again.

My name is Nikolai Lendra. I'm from Tatooine. Arkanis Sector. My mother is dead. My father is an alcoholic. My sister is a Jedi . . .

The lights dimmed. N4 powered down with a dying electronic noise.

Nik looked over his shoulder. The droid stood like an abandoned marionette. He glanced to the ceiling. The lights glowed at half their usual brightness. Were they even adjustable?

His eyes came back down to find a bright man standing in the dark lavatory beside him.

Grandpa?

Nik rattled his head and put both hands on his forehead, grunting in loud anger against the drugs.

"Calm down, Nikolai."

"I'm seeing things," Nik shuddered. "I'm hearing things—

"It's alright, lad. Calm down." The voice was soothing. "Breathe."

Nik controlled his breathing and slowly lowered his hands. Forcing himself to find bravery, he opened his eyes again. He glared untrusting at the vision of a ghost.

Obi Wan Kenobi looked just as he did the last time Nik saw him alive. Old, gray, wearing robes the color sand and dirt. The mouth behind the beard was a thin line of severity.

Uncertain and shuddering, Nik shook his head, smacking a parched mouth, and pleaded against this insanity. "Grandpa, they're drugging me, and they're," hard swallow, "I don't know where anybody is. I don't know if Gina and Ben—

"They're safe," Grandpa assured. "Gina, Ben, and your father are all safe. They're with Kesselia now."

"Kesselia," Nik tried to remember. "Kay Kay's a Jedi."

"Yes, she is." Grandpa nodded, "And she's coming to get you. She just needs a little time."

A knock sounded on the door. And knocks didn't wait long for Nik to answer before they barged in on him.

Nik stared at the ghost in a plea, "Wait—

The image was already fading. "Hang in there, Nik. I am with you. . . ."

The image was gone, the lights were back, and N4 perked back up and several people rushed into the bathroom.

"My lord? Are you alright?" Hands guided him away and pulled the towel from his naked hips. Palms pressed his shoulder and forced him to sit in on the lav chair. "Here let's get you dressed. N4, get Lord Tovecus some water. . . ."

Nik set his hands on his knees and stared wide eyed at the ground.

"Eye-Two? I think Lord Tovecus needs a little more practice."

My name is Nikolai Lendra. My sister is Kesselia Lendra . . . a Jedi. . . Kay Kay's a Jedi. Of course she's is coming to get me. Of course she would. Just gotta hang in there.

Nik offered over his forearm. And he took a deep breath as he stood and offered his other. They zapped him again, and made him recite it again, and he believed it again, but turning away from the event moments later, Nik saw the sunlight shining through the windows, and he remembered again.

Brightness.

The ghost was brightness.

The ghost was grandpa.

I am not alone.