This time, Luke stayed in the clearing with Vanech and meditated with him. At least, he pretended to. Luke sat on the ground with his back against the log whereas Vanech was on the blanket several meters further in the clearing. It seemed to give the man enough bubble of space so that he'd be willing to close his eyes. He was too alert when anyone else was within arm's reach.

But Luke wasn't really meditating; he was observing with his mind. Vanech's Empathy block was like a muscle in permanent spasm, always flexed from the need to block people from getting in. Luke wondered if someone had been using the Force all his life to cause such a reaction. Perhaps it was just Vanech's natural defenses overflowing into his innate abilities. Luke wasn't sure, but it was one of the things for which he was passively observing.

After a half an hour of struggle, Vanech began to drift and the block began to fall away, but the man caught it and quickly yanked it back up with a grunt. "I can't do this."

Luke opened his eyes but his expression didn't change.

Vanech dropped an elbow on his folded knee and bitched. "Why are you doing this?"

"You helped us, I'm helping you." It was as simple as that.

"I don't even like you," Vanech hissed.

Luke grinned and shrugged. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Vanech flattened his mouth and looked away. Now both elbows dropped to both knees in an angry slump. He pushed to get up. "We're done."

Luke shrugged an eyebrow. "Alright. When I'm done meditating, I'll take you back." He wasn't going to meditate though. That wasn't his reason for being here.

"No." Vanech cowered over him with an order. "You're going to take me back now."

"No." Luke said it firmly. "I'm going to take you back when I'm done." And he stared back up at the other man until Vanech accepted it.

Vanech turned away and paced to the back of the clearing, cussing at himself. "What the fuck am I doing here?"

"Running," Luke said, and closed his eyes again. "It's too bad it followed you."

"What?"

Luke poked an index finger at the man without opening his eyes. "Whatever that was that almost seeped out. You came here thinking you were going to leave it behind on Coruscant. But you brought it with you. And you don't want to meditate because you know you're going to have to face it."

Vanech hitched a sick smile and paced some more. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Not the details, no." Luke peeked one eye open. "But do you think I wouldn't have figured it out if I hadn't already been there myself?"

The man didn't answer. He just stared at Luke like he was studying him. Luke stared back for a long minute.

Then he shrugged his brows again. "I'm not asking anything out of you, Zach. But you've been through hell, and you're in hell now, and I think you came to Yavin because you know I'm the only one who can help you get out of it."

Vanech angled his chin away and paced harder now. "My hell keeps me warm at night. It doesn't need to be fixed."

"If that were true, you wouldn't've come." Luke closed his eyes again.

Vanech stomped over and shouted. "You quit trying to psychoanalyze me! It's none of your damn business!"

Luke shifted hard eyes up to meet him. "No? Then what are you doing out here?"

"I'm asking myself the same question." Vanech paced away again.

Luke watched him for a beat. He folded his own legs in and dropped his elbows to his knees. "Can I ask you something?"

Vanech stopped and stared at the wall of jungle with his hands on his hips. He didn't answer.

Luke asked anyway, "What did Kess say to you that turned you around?"

Vanech glanced back.

But Luke kept the gaze. He knew it. He knew it wasn't something he said. Maybe the guys pushed Vanech over the edge to capitulate toward the end, but Kess must have said something to bring him most of the way before they got back from the party.

Vanech's mouth was parted now, and he closed again, licking his lips with difficulty. "It doesn't matter." He flopped back down onto the blanket and crossed his legs again. "Ask her."

"I'm asking you."

The man shook his head again, but his eyes were darker now, sadder. "It's never enough. You never . . . 'quench' it. That's what she said."

Luke nodded at his lap. "She's been there."

"I find that hard to believe."

"It's true." Luke lifted his brows. "I was there when it happened."

Vanech challenged, "And you didn't slice her in half for it?"

"Why should I? I'd much rather bring her back. Just like I'd rather bring you back."

Vanech flattened his mouth again at this idiocy.

Luke shrugged his hand and grinned. "We don't have to be friends. You don't have to like me. But I don't mind putting effort into bringing you back so that I don't have to worry about you being an enemy that I might have to slice in half later."

Vanech smiled at the challenge. "You really think you could?"

"Oh, I know I could." Luke said without hesitation, but he angled his head. "But I'd rather not."

They stared each other down again until Vanech accepted that Luke's words were true.

The man shifted, angling his posture with a thought. He peeked over. "What happened to her?"

Luke considered his right to tell him and decided that Kess would be okay with a vague explanation under the circumstances. "She . . . grew frustrated. With men. And I mean really, really frustrated." He lifted his eyes and crossed his arms at his chest. "And righteously so; she was in love and wasn't getting any back. And yet she couldn't get away from him enough to let him go."

"How'd you get her to come back?"

Luke grinned to admit the truth of it. "Well, I quit being an ass and finally told her I loved her too."

"Isn't that 'feeding' it?"

"Yes and no," Luke sighed to think about it. "She wouldn't have gotten that frustrated if she wasn't already sensing it from me. She just didn't want to believe her instincts."

"Sounds too simple."

Luke admitted with a bold grin. "I'm simplifying it on purpose because it's none of your business."

Vanech seemed humored by that. "How the fuck did she ever fall for you in the first place?"

To this Luke, flashed a laugh, "I have no idea."

Vanech widened his eyes with a flare of agreement and shook his head away. "That trick's not going to work for me."

Luke lifted a knee so he could rest an elbow on it. "Did she know you loved her?" He wasn't sure if this was the case, but it was a good enough guess.

Vanech flashed back with an angry glare. "None of your business."

Luke could only grin that he guessed it right, but he sobered too. "And she's gone now?"

Vanech's face pinched shut. He whispered away, "Get the fuck out of my head."

"I'm not in your head." Luke said respectfully. "Do you really think Kess and I wouldn't recognize all this if she and I hadn't been through it ourselves?"

Vanech squinted at him. "You're the only ones who've detected it."

Luke shrugged his hand and scoffed. "She and I have a few more skills than other people."

"Fuck you," Vanech murmured.

Luke continued to grin. "I'm wondering what you're old Jedi Master would say to you right now. I'm sure you had one. And I'm sure he or she was strict and stoic, always talking you down from your anger, always trying to yank you back into the fold. Even at six." He rubbed his lips and shook his head. "I can't imagine what you've been through, man."

Vanech didn't meet his eyes that time. He just stared at the blanket. His jaw rippled under his cheek.

Luke pressed a sad grin and whispered, "Anyway." Slowly, he pushed himself up from the ground. "I'm gonna go meditate over there for a little while and," he climbed over the log and stepped slowly away. "See if I can think up new ways to annoy you."

Luke kept his back to him, but he could sense the spike of humor and the dismissive sigh afterwards from Vanech, and he knew he got through. He was starting to sense it now, really sense it. Vanech was in pain. Luke was hardly out of the clearing when that solid wall in Zach's soul began to come down, and he could feel it as acutely as if the pain was in his own heart. Vanech was suffering lots and lots of pain, old and new, hidden and clear, vague and sharp. There were so many layers to it Vanech's Force Print looked like a bitter purple baklava.

Luke strolled to his speeder parked in the dirt road and sat on the hood to wait this out. He didn't need to close his eyes to sense what Vanech was up to, to know that Vanech was—for a moment—just letting it all hurt. Luke remembered back when Kess fell apart on Dagobah. He remembered when he was crying over her death right here in this clearing. Vanech was different, obviously, but the method was the same. Vanech needed a safe place for it all to bleed out, just like Kess had, just like Luke had. And for what microscopic amount the man allowed himself his weakness today, Luke was glad to have helped provide this stranger the opportunity so he could work his way through a little bit of it.