Kess called ahead to make sure Gina was prepared to see her, and to make sure Dad was sober, but somehow Gina's assurance that he was didn't help her tension building in anticipation of this meeting. Luke held her hand in the lift to lend her as much strength as he could but separated once they were in the hall. They were both in civvies for this, Kess noted, as if Luke was trying to make a statement by not coming to face her father in Jedi Uniform. But what did that matter when they both had lightsabers on their hips?

Gina was first because it was her husband in Imperial custody. The moment she opened the hotel room door, Gina came out and gave Kess a big hug, more to receive the support in it than in relief that Kess was alive, but that was okay. As they stepped into the suite, Ben was playing with model fighters on the drink table and peaceful animated shows played on the vid for him.

Kess tried to wave at him. "Hi, Ben."

The boy looked over, squinted for recognition, and waved back, lost. "Hi."

"It's your Aunt Kess," Gina told him. "Come give her a hug."

Ben looked blankly at Kess for a long moment. But in that moment, Kess could feel tentacles of curiosity reaching at her. She smiled big, nearly laughing, "You trying to figure me out?"

"I don't remember you," he explained simply.

"I know. I understand. That's okay." She stepped over and sat on the floor on the other side of the short table. "You don't have to give me a hug if you don't want to."

He angled his head at her. "You kinda look like my dad."

"That's because I'm your dad's little sister. I've just been away because of my job."

"What's your job?"

She pointed at the toys. "I fix those."

Ben began to grin. "Like, real ones?"

"Mm hm." She nodded. She pointed at the other stranger standing on the side of the room. "And he flies them."

Ben's bushy blonde hair fell in his face with whiplash. He tried not to look excited, but it didn't work. "You do?"

Luke nodded.

Ben sat up fast. "Can I see it?"

All three adult heads shook at that, Luke took control and answered politely as he sat down in the nearby chair. "Someday. But only if your mom and dad say it's okay."

Ben slumped to that. "Dad's not here." His Force Print tightened hard.

Luke and Kess exchanged glances.

Gina couldn't hold it in anymore. "Can you please tell me what's going on with Nik?"

To that, they both got up and ushered Gina into the nearest bedroom so they could close the door.

"We don't know yet. We know they're posing him as Emperor Tovecus but—

"But Nik would never do that!" She pleaded. "Nik would never go along with that!"

Kess took over. "I know. I know. But remember that he hasn't actually done anything yet. All we've seen of him is standing at presentations and not even saying anything—

"So they did kidnap him."

"We think so. Yeah."

"Then why did he leave me the note?" Gina accused.

Kess heard about it but Gina was right, it didn't add up. "Can I see it?"

Stomping, Gina rushed over to a folio on the dresser and brought it back over.

It was on paper! And a ripped piece of one at that. So old it had almost yellowed to parchment by now. The fluid, ink pen handwriting was close, but Kess didn't think it was Nik's.

"The time has come for the next generation to take their place in history. And I must do my part. Thank you for everything. The Force will always be with you. And so will I."

Kess blinked back. "This isn't from Nik. This is from Grandpa."

"What?" Gina snatched it from her fingers to look closer.

Kess pointed, "That's the note Grandpa left Grandma when he left."

Luke offered gently, "Perhaps Nik knew he was in trouble and left it hoping Gina would recognize it and call you for help."

Kess nodded hard to that. That was likely. To Gina, she asked. "What happened when he went missing?"

Gina shook her head. "He just didn't come home from work one day. That was it. And when I went out looking for him, Regit told me that Nik said to tell me about this note."

"Who's Regit?"

"His friend from work. They go to the pub on Centaxdays and watch sports or something."

Luke and Kess looked at each other and put it together, nodding alike. Kess murmured, "He knew he was in trouble."

Luke suggested, "As soon as he realized what was happening, he told Regit the message, and let himself get taken so they didn't come looking for his family too."

Kess nodded, "That sounds like Nik."

"So this isn't from Nik?" Gina seemed to panic more about that.

"No, it's from Grandpa. You never met him, but he was a Jedi. And Nik thought fast to keep you safe."

Gina took a big sigh and wiped her face with her palms. "But he's not safe!"

Luke assured. "If they've got him posing as the Emperor, I guarantee that his health is not in danger. If anything, he's just drugged right now. We're going to get him out of there. As fast as we can. But in the meantime we need to keep you and Ben and Dane as safe as possible so the Empire doesn't come for you too."

Gina hugged herself and nodded. She was trying so hard to keep her cool. But this was the hardest part. Waiting. With no news and no details. Kess tried to hug her again but Gina pulled back as if this was all her fault.

Hurt by it, Kess tried to let it go. "Gina, please understand: the less you know; the safer he is."

Gina nodded, but her eyes were like knives. "Get him back," she said, then turned her knives to Luke. "And then we're going home."

Kess swallowed hard. Frowning, Luke nodded, but with respect. "I understand."

Luke and Kess exchanged a glance as they turned for the door.

"And so is my son," Gina hissed.

They paused, but Kess glanced back and met her eyes with a nod. "I get it, Gina." But she held out her hand and returned knives of her own. "May I have the note, please?"

Gina took a step and handed it over. "I don't want to see you again until he's back. You stay away from my son until my husband is back."

Kess took the note and left without another word.

In the hotel hallway, she shook her head. "And that was supposed to be the easy one."

Luke patted her arm and thumbed the chime of the hotel room next door.

Dane opened the door already pissed off. He looked at Kess, looked at Luke standing behind her shoulder, and turned to stomp back into the suite, leaving the door open.

As Luke closed the door behind them, Kess groaned quietly in the entrance hall. "I like your family better."

Dane paced the back of the living room until they were standing in it too. For a minute, they just let the man rant.

"I have to find it out on the news that you're alive? Regret to inform you my ass! Was that your way of taking revenge? And not two weeks later Nik gets nabbed by the Imperials? Do you people have any idea the mess you've made of my family?"

Luke brought in a big breath. "Mister Lendra, I am sorry I didn't write you again. I have no excuse."

"No, you don't!" Dane paced up to face Luke down, and Kess could smell the alcohol on his breath from where she stood beside him. "I didn't come here for my safety, you sonofabitch. I came here to kill you."

Luke looked at the floor and Kess could sense it. Luke didn't feel much like a Jedi right now. Right now, he felt like an unwanted suitor from the wrong side of Anchorhead.

Dane yelled louder, whipping his hand in the air with a fatherly threat. "And just because she's still alive doesn't mean you're pardoned. It just means that your death has been postponed!"

"I understand," Luke told him.

"Dad, he didn't know I was alive either—

"I don't give a damn!" He shouted, now stepping to her to cower over her. "How many people do I have to lose before you give up on this blasted—

Dane tried to grab her lightsaber off her hip so he could throw it, but he misunderstood the latch, giving Kess enough reaction time to grab it before it got away. She wagged the hilt at him with a scolding of her own. "Don't!"

The old man's mouth grimaced so hard that his teeth came out. He looked ready to deck her.

"Don't." She ordered hard, and gestured the hilt at his nose. "There is nothing you can do about this. This is me. And you have to find a way to live with that."

"You think you're grandfather's proud of you, don't you?" He accused. "If he wanted you to be a Jedi, he wouldn't have given up his own knighthood in the first place!"

"Extenuating circumstances, Dad! The man was in hiding. And you know that—Hell, why am I even explaining this to you! You knew who he was all along!"

Dane gave her a dark look and paced deeper into the room again. As Kess continued, Dane picked up his tumbler and a bottle and poured himself another drink.

"He had a reason to lie to us all those years. You didn't. Why didn't you tell me from the beginning that you weren't my real father?"

Dane slapped the bottle back down on the table and turned to her, but his voice lowered to a quiet cold. "She didn't want you to know."

"For Fuck's Sake, Dad! Say. Her. Name!" Kess's wrath gurgled up so quickly that Luke reached over and tried to take her hand, but she whipped it away from him.

"Fine." Dane saw it, and he met Kess's eyes across the space. "Alexi didn't want you to know."

"Why not?"

He flapped a hand in the air. "Why do you think? Because she didn't want you asking questions about who was!"

She fought right back, "Well, I'm asking them now!"

To that, Dane cocked back with angry pride. "She never told me his name. I'm not even sure she knew it."

Kess blinked.

"Does that make you feel better?" His voice was icy. Then he pointed with his drink. "And he didn't pay her very much for the privilege either. Maybe that's the nugget you were looking for, huh?"

Her stomach flipped, but she eyed her father to sense out if this was the truth or if he was just trying to sting her with lies. She couldn't tell.

Dane flopped back onto the couch with his drink and set his elbows on his knees. "Old Ben bought her so she wouldn't have to do that kind of work anymore. And from then on, everyone treated him like a fucking saint."

Stunned, Kess stepped in front of him. "Do Nik and I have the same father?"

"As far as I know," Dane said snidely. "I didn't ask her for a lot of details."

Palms covered her face. And soon Luke's hand was on her shoulder. She flashed anew. "Are there any records?"

"I doubt it." Dane said. "She didn't want you kids to know. Why would she leave records around for you to find?"

Kess yelled. "Dad, I need to know!"

"I don't have the answers you want, precious." Dane shrugged it off and slurped his drink. "If I did, I'd tell them to you. All I she told me was that somewhere between Stewjon and Tatooine, she got caught up in a bad business and would do anything not to go back into it." He pointed hard at himself. "And I'm the one who provided for her so she didn't have to."

Luke's chin shifted. "Stewjon?"

"What?" Dane blinked and rattled his head.

"She was from Stewjon?"

"Yeah. So? Y'know how many people in this galaxy who don't live where they were born?" Dane put a palm out at Luke and eyed Kess. "Get this idiot out of my face."

But Kess wasn't paying attention to Dane anymore. She was looking to Luke. "What?"

Luke met her gaze, but he had a new light in his. His brows settled. His expression told her to stay on this until they were finished—an explanation was soon forthcoming.

Kess accepted that. She sighed hard at her father. "Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all?"

Dane finally sighed too, but he shook his head. "She didn't like to talk about it. And I didn't make her. She wanted a new life. Leave her old one behind." He shook his head again. "She wouldn't even tell me her name."

Kess blinked again. "Alexi wasn't her name?"

"No, she changed it when she got to Tatooine." Dane shrugged hard. "I guess."

Kess put a splayed palm over half of her face, then gestured hard at her father's naiveté. "Don't you get it, Dad? She was in hiding! Just like Grandpa!"

"Of course she was! Wouldn't you be if you were a sex slave? She didn't want the owner coming back for you kids!"

Luke finally spoke. "What if the sex slave was just part of her cover story?"

Dane curled his lip at Luke, "Leave before I break this table across your skull."

Luke took one step toward the drink table and eyed Dane as he plucked the tumbler out of the man's hand. "With respect, Mister Lendra, you couldn't pick up the table right now if you tried."

Dane shot to his feet with a shout, "Oh yeah, you wanna see?"

Kess stepped quickly between the two men with her palms out. The table remained on the floor between her and her father, but that just meant he had a handy weapon.

Her gesture made Dane pause. He relaxed and sat back down on the couch. She had to glance to see that Luke took a deep step back as well, and was now placing the tumbler on another table across the room.

"I'm going to wait in the hall," Luke murmured.

"No." Kess insisted. "No, you're not. You're gonna wait right here." She looked Luke hard in the eye and pointed at the floor beside her.

Kess had never ordered Luke to do anything like that before. Not once. Certainly not with such a harsh command as if he was the one in trouble. But this was her arena, and her fight, so Luke turned his feet back and stepped back beside her as ordered.

She then turned to point a hard finger at her father with another harsh order. "And you are going to get used to his presence."

Dane blinked away and waved it off.

"What about grandma?"

"What about her?" Dane challenged.

"Were she and grandpa already married when you met them?"

"Yep."

"Was she from Stewjon too?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

"Was she even Mom's mom?"

"Don't know. Don't care."

Kess drooped her head.

Dane shrugged his hands. "Hon, you're asking me shit I never had the answers to. I cared about Alexi. There. I said her name. That's what I cared about. But Alexi came with a package so I cared about you guys too. I did my job. As a husband and a father. How dare you poke into to history so you can pretend that I didn't."

"I'm not trying to pretend anything! I'm here, aren't I? I just need to know where me and Nik got our Force powers from. That's why I'm asking all these questions."

"They came from your mother!"

"So mom was Force sensitive?"

"Of course she was! Why do you think that fool bought her? All that bastard wanted was to turn the lot of you into his little heroes! But your mom was strong against it. And good for her for that!"

Kess took a deep, dark breath. Then, in an overwhelming bubble of frustration, she yelled at the ceiling. "Now would be a good time for you to stop by and explain some of this!"

Luke touched her elbow.

Kess deflated. She sighed at the floor and motioned to her father. "Thank you. For what it's worth." She turned to leave with a hard tone. "For telling me the truth finally."

"Yeah, well, thanks for finally letting me know you're not dead." Without a glass within reach, Dane just reached and snatched the bottle from the table.

Kess spun and pointed and inhaled to shout—

But Luke spun to put his body between her and her father now. His palms came up gently. His eyes found hers with calm guidance.

It caught her and she forced herself to calm. She nodded at Luke, and Luke backed up. She took a deep breath and asked her father with respect. "Do you want me to come by again?"

Dane was melting now. He rested his elbow on the armrest and scratched his fingers into his black hair. His eyes were closed as if ready to go to sleep. "Just don't bring him." His words were slurred.

Brokenhearted, Kess struggled with what to say, what to do. She wanted to put him to bed. She wanted to hit him. She wanted more information. She wanted to yell and scream and cry. Instead of all that, she just grabbed her forehead with both angry hands and stormed for the door.

Outside, Kess paced a little circle in the hall, only then noticing that Luke hung back in the living room for a beat longer. Dane told him something and Luke didn't respond to it. He stepped out as severe as she had, just calmer about it, and shut the door behind him.

"What did he say?"

"Don't worry about it." He was frowning as he started down the hall.

Kess stepped fast in front of him with clenched teeth. "What did he say?"

Luke licked his lips carefully. Though his chin was level, his eyes were on the floor. "It was just an idle threat."

She scoffed sickly, "Worse than the one about killing you?"

By Luke's eyes, apparently it was.

Her heart sank. "What did he say?"

Luke clearly struggled, but he knew he was trapped in a corner. "He said that . . . if I marry you, you're not welcome back."

Breath escaped her lungs in a quick thrust. Was the idea even on the table? Even if it wasn't? Even if it was? Luke met her gaze like it was a threat worth its weight.

She tried to move, she tried to turn. She shrugged pitifully. "I guess the only good part of this is that you're not trying to convince me I don't have to worry about that decision, huh?"

Luke didn't say anything.

But Kess was already falling apart. She moved her arms in the air without even knowing if she wanted to shrug, or strangle something, or punch the wall. She finally just wrapped her forearms over her head and curled over in a tidal wave of tears.

Arms wrapped around her instantly and she dove into the chest and gripped him hard. She cried for a full minute, right there in the hall, and Luke held her tight and whispered into her hair. "I've got you."