- - - - - 4 ABY - - - - -

- - - - - Ben Kenobi's Home - - - - -

- - - - - Tatooine - - - - -

Fifteen-year-old Tess Naberrie stared into the absolute darkness, feeling the cold, heavy lightsaber in her hands. She pivoted to the left after sensing a need to do so, then second-guessed herself and twisted to the right just in time to block a blast from a hovering laser remote.

"So you said the Force can obey your commands," Tess pondered. "But Master Yoda said that it controls your actions. Which is it?"

"Both," Luke clarified. Tess' question had distracted her and the laser remote doled out its punishment to her arm. She winced and took off her blast helmet.

"I thought where the thing was hovering through the helmet," Tess explained, disabling the blue-green lightsaber that took her a month to construct. She gave herself a moment to catch her breath. That laser remote had her running all about the room and she was exhausted.

"What do you expect I would say to that?" Luke asked her. Tess sighed, nodding knowingly.

"Your eyes can deceive you," she recited. "Don't trust them."

"Stretch out with your feelings," Luke added.

Tess looked over at her secret master. In just one year, Luke Skywalker had aged significantly. While boarding an Imperial vessel a few months ago, he was infected with a lethal disease called Crimson Forever. He was cured after some serious dirty work on Leia, Lando, and Tess' part, but the disease had taken with it Luke's youthful glow. He now looked more like a man than a boy. A Jedi Knight.

Tess' training had remained a secret to both Leia and Chewbacca for a standard year now. Since his best friend's pre-carbon freezing wish was that Chewie look after Leia and Tess, and with Luke looking after the latter, the Wookie became just as loyal to the Alderaanian princess as he was to Han. Chewie therefore could not be trusted with the truth. Lando Calrissian, on the other hand, had walked in on a floating plate several months ago and Luke and Tess were forced to explain.

There was never a dull moment on the Millennium Falcon these days. For a while, they had a new companion working with them even if just for the money. He was a smuggler and exceptional pilot named Dash Rendar, and an old friend of Han's. Leia had managed the funds that convinced him to find out where the carbon-frozen Han had been taken. Unfortunately, he had been killed in the explosion of a timely escape from The Black Sun.

From droid impersonations of Rebellion finance ministers, to visiting a Master Yoda on the Dagobah System, to investigations of Imperial activity, to shuttle crashes, to creepy unattractive species lusting after Leia, to the monthly vengeful death plots, Tess could honestly say she never got bored.

Leia seemed to wrap herself up in Imperial business until Dash found where Han had been taken. She was good at it, too. Anyone who didn't know her would not suspect for a moment that the man she loved was nowhere to be found. However, those who really know her could see that many of her Rebellion efforts had connections to finding Han, so Leia distanced herself from them. It made Luke and Tess' training easier—that was for sure. Luke had even taken Tess to the Dagobah System to see Master Yoda twice.

For the longest time, the little green Jedi Master did not seem to think much of Luke while training him. Understandably when Luke brought Tess and revealed his intentions of training her, Yoda found the idea absurd. But when Luke demonstrated his training techniques, Yoda saw potential.

"Train yourself as you train your Padawan," the green creature had told him, "As Obi-Wan trained you. And soon, powerful Jedi you both shall be."

Somehow, Luke understood the Force better while training Tess than he did when enduring his own training; but once he realized that he improved himself a great deal, quickly impressing the three-foot Jedi Master. Luke still visited Yoda to continue his training, and as of now he was considered a Jedi Knight. Tess continued her training with Luke whenever he came back.

As far as training went, the fact that there were no known Force-sensitives besides the given company and Yoda did not give Tess much to compare to. Tess excelled in Force persuasion to the point that she successfully convinced Chewbacca and Dash that they had seen nothing when they witnessed her constructing her lightsaber. She had the Jedi Code memorized by heart and was getting better with the laser remote every day. Still, after what they had run into with the Empire before, Tess wanted to be able to defend herself. She saw what the Force was capable of when she ripped the jaw off of Admiral Chid Deltrod. She did not want to do that again, of course, but Tess wished she could harness control of a more light side appropriate form of that power. Considering the Empire's ever-increasing interest in her, part of her felt like her current training was fighting fire with ice.

The latest trip to the Dagobah System had left Luke more distant than usual. Tess longed to ask him about it, but their relationship when training was far different than their relationship in the cockpit of the Falcon. There, she could ask Luke anything. Here, Luke was Master.

Her thoughts bothering her, Tess removed her blast helmet and patted down the top of her long, single braid. She smoothed out her dark blue tunic, which could not help collecting dust on a planet like Tatooine.

"Something troubling you?" the amazingly observant Jedi Knight asked. Luke handed Tess some water and motioned for her to sit down. "You may rest."

Tess took the water gratefully and sat down, catching her breath.

"Not much, Master," she told him vaguely. Then, she made up her mind to be honest. "You just seem different since you returned from training with Master Yoda. That's all."

Luke gave her a look. Tess immediately regretted saying it.

"You worry about furthering your own training, Tess," he said gently. "And calming your mind. I sense you have been slacking on your meditation."

"We thought we had a lead on finding Han," Tess defended. "With Leia and Chewie trying to bargain with that sexually-frustrated Prince Xizor and you on the Dagobah System, Lando needed help flying the Falcon." In her self-defense Tess had forgotten her more polite Padawan self.

"Sometimes I fear you think this is just a game," Luke sighed. "That Master and Padawan are little roles we play to entertain ourselves."

"Of course not, Master," Tess insisted. Though admittedly sometimes she did feel that way. She half-expected both of them to break character one moment and just burst into laughter.

"Then I insist you—"

Suddenly, Luke was cut off. Tess sensed it, too. Quickly, Luke grabbed the blast helmet out of Tess' hands and placed it on his own head, stuffed her lightsaber in one of the deeper pockets of his robe, and whipped out his own lightsaber.

Tess fell to the floor and positioned herself lying on her stomach with her feet in the air and her chin in her hands.

By the time Leia Organa entered the late Ben Kenobi's old house, she saw nothing but a Jedi practicing his Force reflexes while an observant Tess sat on the floor to watch. Luke expertly deflected each laser blast from the remote with his lightsaber while simultaneously expressing a helmet-muffled greeting to Leia.

Performance mode engaged, Tess turned to Leia with a smile.

"He got hit twice," she blurted. "If he gets hit again he owes me ten credits."

"Luke," Leia said seriously. Something about her tone was important. Luke heard it, too. He pulled himself away from his Force concentration so fast that he got hit by the laser remote again.

"Ten credits!" Tess exclaimed triumphantly, still in character.

"What is it?" Luke asked the princess. Both the Jedi Knight and his secret Padawan neared her.

"We're one step closer," she said with tentative relief, as if she was afraid to be too hopeful. "Lando conned his was into the Hutt Guardsman's Guild. It won't be long now until we can make our move."

"Don't worry," Luke assured Leia. "Han is a good as rescued."