Once she recovered from her moment of weakness, she wiped her eyes and pulled herself together. Luke agreed to tell her his revelation as soon as he confirmed it, but didn't want to muddle her head with falsehoods in case his memory was wrong. With all that she just learned, Kess agreed to that, and Luke took her home so she could meditate.

During the drive back, Kess looked at Grandpa's note again and wondered about all the new questions cropping up in her mind. She grew angrier for Grandpa not answering them already. She remembered when Nik showed the note to her the first time. They were hiding in her bedroom while Dad yelled at the coroners taking Grandma's body away. Three deaths in three weeks. Kess couldn't stop crying that day. Her big brother held her close, crying quietly himself, but still being the strong one so she could fall apart in a safe place.

"I guess there is one saving grace to all this," she finally said.

Luke pulled up next to her barracks and parked. He was saddened too. "What's that?"

She smiled through her tension. "Nik thinks you're awesome."

Luke smiled reluctantly and nodded. "Well, one down, I guess."

She unlatched the speeder door. "Call me as soon as you find that record, okay?"

"Sure."

She got out and closed the door. "And thank you for coming."

Luke pressed a difficult grin and nodded. "We'll warm him up. S'just going to take some time."

Kess shook her head with a low laugh as she walked toward her barracks. "You're more optimistic than I am."

Not two hours later, Luke was back, and Kess hadn't really meditated at all.

In the middle of everyone else's workday, none of the girlies were home. Kess let him in without hesitation. "Why did you just comm me?" Her eyes widened in fear. "What did you find?"

He motioned her over to the couch to sit down and explained as they did. "I came over instead of commed because we've been called into a meeting in an hour. But this is what I found." He flapped the datapad in his hand as he sat down and gave it to her, facing each other by sitting sideways on the couch. "I was right."

Kess looked it over as he explained.

"Obi Wan was born on Stewjon. The Jedi Order adopted students as babies. That's why we all keep thinking he's from Coruscant. But he must've had family back there. And now it makes sense. Maybe he had siblings. Force sensitivity can skip generations, just like any other trait. So I think your mom was his niece or something to that effect. And she would have to go into hiding too because if the Empire found out she was Force sensitive with Force sensitive babies, you guys would be tracked down and killed by Order 66 too."

"So he reached out to anyone he knew was at risk."

"That's what I would've done."

"That would explain why Nik's DNA tested positive."

"And why Old Ben treated you guys like his own."

She put the datapad down. "We don't know this for sure though."

"I know. But it fits. And the Force tells me this is the truth."

"So I am a Kenobi after all."

Luke grinned softly. "I never doubted it."

"Thank you," she said sincerely. "For putting up with all this. I know this isn't your responsibility."

"In a way it is," he tittered. He shrugged, "Some of it is."

"No, I mean—

"I know what you mean." He was sincere. "We will never know the details about what happened between your grandfather and my father. All we can do is pick up the pieces and try to make it right. And that's what we're doing."

Kess nodded at her lap. "Gosh, I wish he would show up and explain all this."

"Maybe he will someday," Luke said. "But right now, I'm hoping he hasn't because he's spending all his energy secretly supporting Nik."

"That's right!" Kess gasped. "Nik can probably see him too! Maybe. But if he can. . ." And she breathed again, now with a big smile. "Thank you! I hadn't thought of that. I keep thinking Nik's alone but he's probably not alone at all!"

Luke kindly shook his head. "I'm hoping not. I've certainly put my vote into it for whatever level they listen to me."

She looked up to the ceiling. "It's okay Grandpa! You go do that! You can explain yourself to me later!"

Luke chuckled.

"Oh wow, I feel so much better."

"I'm glad."

She shifted her focus. "This meeting, though. It's about the thing?"

'The thing'. That was one of the terms getting thrown around a lot these days. Other terms were, 'the big date', and 'our next trip'. Though almost nobody knew the details, including the timetable or the destination, everyone seemed to know a full force advance was imminent.

"Yeah. And you and I are going to—" He stopped short and glanced around. "Has your place been scanned recently?"

"Yeah, yesterday."

"You and I are going to be the team to go get him. So, why don't I figure out how to get us in and out of there, and you figure out how to secure him and convince him to come with us."

Kess paled to realize what he meant. "You really think he's . . . . I can't imagine. . . ." She didn't want to say it aloud.

Luke was gentle about it. "I hoping not too, but we have to be prepared in case he is. He's probably drugged. They could be torturing him. You have to be prepared to find a man that has no resemblance to the brother you knew."

She let out a shaky sigh and covered her mouth with both palms.

"The good news is that they didn't get the rest of the family, because they would've used them against him. And they still might find ways to do that. They may have convinced him that they're dead—just to get him angry. They may be poisoning his mind with ideas that your family has hated him all along. With mind-altering drugs, it's possible they can make him believe anything. . . . Your job is to find a way to yank him out of it."

She brainstormed. "Photocaps of Ben and Gina, maybe. Regale tales of when we were kids?"

"Have that stuff ready, sure, but do you have anything stronger? Something that only the two of you know? A memory that you both refer to often?"

Kess thought hard.

"Something about Obi Wan maybe? Maybe when the two of you starting thinking he was a Jedi? Or some training that he gave you that you now know was Jedi training?"

Her eyes flashed to him with an idea. She pulled the note out of her pocket . . . and launched off the couch. "Grandma's wedding locket."

Luke watched her go into the bedroom. "He'll remember it?"

"Oh yeah, he will. Grandma always wore it outside her clothes unless she was cooking." She stepped out and hooked it around her neck. She stepped to the couch and offered it in front of her to let him see it.

Luke fingered it with a grin. "I still regret not getting Aunt Beru's before I left." He smiled at the locket as he let it go, but his eyes saddened. "But I don't if I could've stomached it even if I thought about it at the time."

She stuffed the locket to hide under her tunic. She noted the bitter taste on the Force when he said that, so she opted to save her questions for another day.

He glanced up, coming back to the present, and climbed to his feet. "Let's get to this meeting."