Somewhere halfway up the prime meridian of Iktri, a small, used transport landed in the middle of a green grassy valley, and two Jedi stepped out.

Kess walked out into the field and looked around in smiling awe. Luke strolled slowly behind. The sky was a flawless blue. Distant mountains reached up in majestic purple, capped with white peaks. Forests of pine spilled down the slopes only to a stop cold at this wide swath of natural meadow. The wildflowers and green grass waved in the breeze up to their knees. It was surreal.

Soon, Luke stepped up behind her and reached one arm around the front of her shoulders. His other hand pointed out, aligned so both eyes could identify the landmarks. "Twenty kliks, in sort of an oval shape, so, from the base of that mountain there." He turned his arm and pointing finger slowly around in a circle. "Halfway up that slope, to about that hill there, that slope, including the peak, and—"

His arm and finger continued the circle almost to the beginning, where the field and little stream disappeared over a distant drop off.

And his heart began to pound.

"About a klik out over the ocean."

Her brows lifted. Her face splashed with glee. "Ocean?"

Giddy, she grabbed his hand out of the air and yanked along wide grassy valley to go see it.

Kess tugged him like a little kid. Luke smiled at it too, but he was oddly quiet. They settled into an easy hike along the gentle field, side by side, holding hands as they walked. They talked about the constructions donated so far. At'Bintar was going to build them a meditation temple. Tyrona offered a library. Cagharten arranged family-sized dormitories. Kein suggested a small landing hub. Helmba opted to donate a galley and dining hall. This first wave of construction promises was organized by King Padel of Flan to symbolize the new unity of the Serra Six and to honor the memory of his son, Prince Petra.

Their feet stopped atop a short cliff. The shore was only about twenty meters down but the turquoise ocean crashed onto a long spit of white sand. Kess absorbed the view. To have a beach right next to the Academy seemed fitting. This little beach wasn't long enough for Luke's crazy runs at oh-dark-hundred in the morning, but that was okay, the symbolism was complete.

The shore curved gently in from the south and tightened as it curled around—almost to the shape of a cape—at a short outcropping of rocky cliff to the north. The south side was lower and tapered down to meet the shore kilometers away, but boulders littered that part of the angled cliff. Kess pointed out at a spot. "Looks like we can climb down over there."

And she was gone.

Luke's heart thudded in his chest. His feet stepped to follow.

It was a little difficult getting down but Kess managed it bravely. As soon as she was safely on the beach, she turned to the crashing waves and spread her arms. "This is awesome!"

Luke strolled in the sand behind her and watched. He lowered his chin to his chest and found his peace.

She came around and landed against him, giving him a big, rocking hug. "This just seems too good to be true."

He looked out over the ocean and nodded. He sighed slow and shaky but he didn't speak. His eyes looked down into hers. He looked terrified.

She cocked her head. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing." He pulled away and took her hand again, holding her near him so they could stroll down the beach together.

"I know what you're thinking," she said sneaky.

"Oh, you do, huh?"

"You're thinking the long story is over. But I think it's just getting started."

"Is that so?" A grin spread across his face but he watched his boots walking through the sand. "And why do you say that?"

"Because now you get to do all those things you've been waiting for the chance to do." She said this distantly as she looked over the ocean, and the beach, and the vertical cliff stretching along the shore, up where they were standing a minute ago. "Now you get to build. And that's going to be the longest story of them all."

She glanced over. And he glanced back. His Force Print shuddered with trepidation.

Kess squinted sideways at him, urging with concern now. "What's the matter?"

Luke quickly shifted his eyes. Before she could talk again, he used their holding hands as a leash to turn her around. He made her face away from him and stepped up to her back to point at something new. But he didn't aim her to face the shore or the sea. He murmured as he settled behind her, rummaging through a breast pocket. "King Padel offered to build something too. So I thought, maybe. . . ."

His free hand came around with a transparent photo cap. It was the promotional photo of a building, made up of five, wide, white cylinders, offset from each other, some reaching high and some reaching low, each holding several levels of rooms. The drawing cut out sections of the windowed walls to display the suggested interior: elevator, study, living suite, bedrooms, a kitchen . . . .

Kess's eyes dilated.

And the whole transparent photo hovered in front of a spot against this beach cliff.

Her breath left her lungs. Now, her heart thudded in her chest too. "Are you serious?"

She tried to turn around to look at him. At first, his firm arm tried to stop her, but his strength crumbled and she turned anyway. The poor boy stood there as if he was in trouble. His shoulders cocked with shyness as his fist hid timidly in his pocket.

Kess smiled at him with loving assurance in her eyes. "It's a wonderful surprise."

Luke swallowed hard. He sighed harder. He nodded distantly. He muttered. "That wasn't the surprise."

She blinked.

Now he was more nervous than before. His hand dug in his pocket. He stared at her like a deer in headlights when his fist came out to hover in front of him.

He stopped it there . . . he looked at his own fist.

Kess stepped closer. All she could see was a dangling black string. She used both hands to guide his fingers open.

A twin locket rested in his palm. Two, flat, thumb-print sized pieces of bone fused together, decorated with the darker carvings of curly cues and zigzags.

She didn't need an explanation, but her eyes glanced up to find him struggling for one anyway.

"So um," Luke's voice trembled as he murmured, "It was a bit of, um, a group thing. I got one half, and Han and Leia got the other. I guess they thought I didn't know how to get one. And um," hard swallow, "Kayla fused them together for me."

A tear splashed out of her eye with a smile and a breath.

"Ashten found me a chinkle tool to um, start the carvings on the trip over. And the other day, Wedge and Yana helped me pick out the cable for it. It's, uh, it's Socorro silk twine. Turns out Lando and Joanne were from the same system."

She looked to him with a new smile of surprise. "How long have you been working on this?"

Luke shoulders shifted shyly but he smiled to admit it. "I picked up the first one on my trip to see Ambassador Danje."

Her eyes fell back to the locket in his palm, now seeing all the pieces of support blended together in this little thing. The size of the symbolism was immense. Her fingers were afraid to touch it.

She looked into his eyes again. Is this really happening? Her heart pounded with equal fervor as his.

Luke swallowed hard to stare at her. He rubbed his lips and forced himself to breathe. And then he whispered it, "Will you marry me?"

Kess exhaled in a laughing smile. She flew into his arms and kissed him on the mouth. Luke released a smile of relief. He wrapped both arms around her and hugged so hard that he picked her up.

He kissed her again, this time holding both sides of her face to do it, but the kiss fell apart to end in a nose-to-nose giggle of giddy nerves.

And the image began to drift away.

Luke let go only enough to unravel the string from his hands and hook it over her head. Kess grinned down at it on her neck and smiled back up at him.

Then Luke took Kess's face with both hands and kissed her again.

The view shrank further.

Not yet.

It's time.

In the retracting distance, the two bodies burst into action on the beach. The body in black chased the body in bone-white, but the chase reached hardly ten meters away before the tackle. They rolled until sand covered them both. The rolling slowed. And finally settled still as the couple began to make out in a sand dune.

.

Come on, old friend.

Anakin let go of the pulsating life and floated away. Pieces of his uniqueness spilled into the void like drips of water into an ocean.

Obi Wan's existence glowed softly to watch a moment longer. Then he, too, dissipated entirely.

.

The Force will be with you, always.

.