Yay, I updated twice within the same month! It's a new record!

Okay folks, this chapter is kinda short, butvery important to the story. Lots of foreshadowing is involved. In fact, this entire chapter is pretty much one big literary foreshadow. However, don't take stuff literally in the vision; as some things are not as they seem…

Rove fidgeted with the buttons running down the front of his new grey uniform and sighed. This was the first time he had ever wished that he had done better in school. But it was too late now. At least the imperial youth program treated its participants better than the imperial army. There was even the chance that he could become a captain or something one day.

A whistle went off above the new recruits and Rove dropped his hands beside him to stand in attention. This was humiliating. He had never given in to authority before and suddenly in a rush of anger, decided that he wasn't about to now. So what if his career was flushed down the drain? "It's not like I was ever going to amount to anything anyway…" With a smirk, he crossed his arms and leaned to one side jauntily. The other recruits eyed him warily, wondering each to himself if they should say something to this new troublemaker.

A few moments after the whistle sounded, a dark figure, cloaked in black began winding itself slowly through the ranks. The footsteps echoed loudly in the high-domed room and grew louder with each step closer to Rove. The emperor. Rove bent over to get a better glance of the face under the hood and laughed to see a wrinkled old man. "So you're the illustrious emperor of the galaxy?" He sneered.

The emperor gave a sickly sweet smile before grabbing Rove by the throat and holding him up off the ground. "So you're the failure?" He sneered back inside Rove's mind. Rove's eyes went wide with fright and he struggled against the old man's grasp. The emperor cackled menacingly at watching the young man writhe helplessly. "I sense a great deal of fear in you…and anger…" the emperor paused, a curious look crossing his face. "Oh my…" he snickered darkly "I see that someone has been tampering with your mind young man…let's take a look shall we?" The emperor closed his eyes and probed Rove's mind, expecting to find some painful memory suppressed by a healer or psychologist. But what he found was quite different…

Rove crumbled up in a heap on the floor when the Emperor dropped him. "Thank you dear boy. You have provided me with some most useful information." Rove gasped as the air entered his lungs again, his color returning a bit. "Ran into an angry Jedi did we boy?" The emperor cackled. "Well, how would you like to help me take care of her?"

Memories of the night that Aine had nearly killed him now flooded his mind now that the emporer had probed it. He had always wondered what had happened that night, when he had been found bruised and bloody. He had assumed that he got into a drunken fight and was tossed out into the alley. Now he knew, and wanted revenge.

"Of course sir." He said, smiling darkly to himself. "It'll be my pleasure."

The emperor closed his eyes ecstatically. "You have much anger. Good. We will destroy the Jedi, once and for all."

Rove grinned. "Whatever you say boss."

The emporer gave a nod and walked away. "So she escaped did she? This is excellent news indeed. Didn't even change the child's name! The fool. Probably thought I wouldn't suspect. Anakin told me everything. The council never could keep a secret…" He rubbed his craggy hands together and grinned, yellow teeth peeking out between creased grey lips. "She will join me."

OOO

"Oh Leia, this is awesome!" Ianna remarked as she lifted a new blue-beaded dress out of its box. "Thanks!" She folded it back awkwardly and smiled a smile that was just a tad bit too overdone.

"I know you're thinking: why in the world did my best friend buy me something she knows I'll never use?" Leia eyed Ianna knowingly. "Am I right?"

"Noooo…." Ianna avoided Leia's stare. "I love it. In fact, I'll wear it tomorrow."

Leia feigned a sigh "really, because I was thinking that maybe you could wear it to your birthday ball that I'm throwing in your honor tonight…"

"Ball? As in dancing and fancy clothes?" Ianna looked up in disbelief.

"That's right. It's not your 16th birthday every day you know." She grinned mischievously "And besides, I was bored and someone needed to have a party to kick off the summer."

"Omigod Leia!" Ianna jumped up and hugged her best friend. "Thanks so much! I've never had a birthday party before!"

"It was nothing." Leia said obviously pleased with herself. "I also couldn't help but make arrangements for Lorin and Orill Solis to be our dates…" She rubbed her hands together sneakily.

"You didn't!"

"I did."

"The same Lorin and Orill who are the ambassador's sons from Coruscant? The same Lorin and Orill who have the shiny blonde hair that blows in the wind? The same Lorin and Orill who…"

"Yes Ianna." Leia folded her arms and rolled her eyes in mock annoyance.

"I don't know if my mom will let me." Ianna frowned and gathered her legs up in front of her.

Leia grabbed Ianna by the shoulders and shook her urgently "No. You're not even going to go there Ianna Starcross! She has to let you go! I mean, it's your sixteenth birthday! You're old enough to make your own decisions, and if you want to go with Lorin, you should be able to!"

"You ask her then." Ianna smirked.

"Okay then, I will!" Leia retorted with a smirk of her own.

"Okay…it's your life in danger, not mine!"

OOO

Aine adjusted the hood of her green cloak as she exited the house. The temple had been calling to her. The force was leading her back into the woods. She wondered what could be so important. She had never sensed anything so compelling. It had been going on for about a week now. She hadn't been able to sleep without nightmares tormenting her since it started; it was time for peace.

As she drew nearer and nearer to the temple, the feeling grew stronger and stronger. Aine became worried. The stone pillar appeared amidst the trees and Aine realized that the force was drawing her to it rather than the temple itself.

Thayl had once told her that sometimes the pillar held visions of great importance. But Aine had never touched the pillar without chanting the words of protection. Although the stone could be useful, it could also be dangerous. Thayl told stories of Jedi who were rendered unconscious by their visions. Aine was not completely sure of what she should do. But it called out so strongly…

She took a deep breath and reached a single white finger out towards the standing stone…

OOO

Alderaan floated silently in space like a tiny blue and green jewel. From the blackness of space, a shadowy hand reached down onto the planet and scratched a long scar across the surface. A lone scream was heard from the planet, but soon several others were heard accompanying it. The voices alternated up and down in an unharmonious cacophony of pitches; but the one single voice still dominated over them all. Two bright stars flew from Alderaan's surface and faded into the darkness. The screams subsided, and all seemed peaceful for a moment. Then, the shadowy hand returned, wrapping it's long grey fingers around the little planet like a rope. The fingers paused. The fist tightened. The voices began rising again as if in some twisted opera. The hand closed. And darkness fell over all.

The two stars still twinkled faintly in the distance. They grew closer and closer until they appeared to be two suns shining over a tawny yellow planet. A meteoroid fell from the sky into the planet, leaving a golden streak in the blue sky. The sand blew up from the impact and concealed everything around, blocking the sun out.

The sand settled, and Aine saw two blurry figures embrace. The view reeled to reveal two more figures caught up in a passionate kiss. The sand flew up again and settled to show Aine sitting in her green cloak atop a massive dune. Silent tears flowed down her cheeks. The scene then switched to one of Ianna, lying on a mat with her eyes closed. Broken shallow breath echoed loudly throughout the room and Aine saw herself watching sadly from afar. The sand blew up again and Aine saw a small girl with dark hair and frightened grey eyes running through a rocky canyon. She saw herself standing in the middle of the desert, a flaming red sunset swallowing her up in its terribleness. She was screaming someone's name, but the sound was blurred beyond comprehension by a low whirring sound that grew louder with every passing moment.

Suddenly a grey metal ship passed over Aine's view and orbited around the yellow planet. A thin shadow, the same one that had obliterated Alderaan, stretched out from the ship and drew back one of the two suns and covered it with darkness so that it shone grey rather than golden. The ship flew swiftly away, taking the sun with it.

A new sun rose. A smaller one, but with the light of the old sun, it gave enough light to bring hope to the planet again.

OOO

Aine was thrown onto her back by a powerful force. The vision had been fulfilled. The strange feeling was gone. She wiped the perspiration from her forehead in relief and sat down on the leafy forest floor. "What could this vision have meant?" She pondered. "Alderaan seemed to be in some kind of trouble, I know that much…but when? Should we leave the planet? Or should I wait and see what happens? The two stars flew to some desert planet…I suppose that could symbolize Ianna and me. What planet could this be? Is Obi-Wan there? I wish I could have seen more. Who in the world could have been kissing? I have control over my emotions, so it couldn't be me. Could it be Ianna? She is young, but knows that romance is forbidden by Jedi law." Aine paused when she remembered the vision of Ianna "She looked like she was dying…" Sadness and anger broke through their barriers and welled up in her chest. She quickly turned her mind to a different part of the vision "The little girl…who was she? She looked very familiar somehow. And why was she frightened? What does all this mean? Some things seemed symbolic, but others seemed like real events…I wonder what the end of the vision meant?" Aine knelt and bowed her head in meditation. It would take some time to sort her thoughts out. "I wonder if I should tell Ianna…"

OOO

Ianna and Leia burst out of Ianna's room and ran downstairs sounding like a small stampede over head. They thundered downstairs to find Aine coming in the door. Ianna sensed that she was strangely distressed and motioned for Leia to rein back before jumping her with news of the party.

"Hi mom…you okay?" Ianna asked tentatively.

Aine looked past her soulfully. "Yes Ianna. I'm just preoccupied about something. I need to go rest." Ianna nodded in understanding, and without another word, walked up to her room.

"That was weird." Leia remarked after a long pause. "What's up with her?"

"You know just as much as I do." Ianna replied shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, do you have any idea as to if she will be feeling better within the next hour or two? Because we need to ask her if you can go to the dance." Leia urged.

"Well…" Ianna wracked her brain for a solution. "She seems really preoccupied…so if she hasn't come out of her room in two hours, we'll just go ahead and leave."

"Are you sure?" Leia asked warily.

"Yes." Ianna answered firmly. She gave an annoyed glance at Leia. "Why did you spring this on me at the last minute anyway?"

"I like being spontaneous. If I'm ever going to be a successful politician, I have to be good at keeping people on their feet." Leia answered with a laugh. "I think life would be completely boring without its little surprises, and I'm just trying to help it along." She looked at her watch. "Hey, while we're waiting, why don't you try on the dress? I can help you accessorize."

Ianna groaned. "Ugh, why do you always convince to do such girly stuff?"

"Someone has to. Otherwise, you'd still be that scruffy-looking kid who always wore that nasty grey tunic."

"It wasn't that bad!" Ianna protested. "On Dantooine, it would have been considered stylish! And besides, my tunics are comfortable!" She paused "Am I really scruffy-looking?"

Leia rolled her eyes. "Yes Ianna, you're so scruffy-looking that Lorin Solis agreed to be your date. You pitiful thing you." She droned sarcastically. "I'm glad that I don't have waist-long think, glossy black hair and a seamless complexion."

"Thank-you Princess Organa, that will be all. I get the message." Ianna opened the box and took out the dress.

"Don't worry, it will be fun." Leia assured her.

"I hope so."

READ AND REVIEW! I know that there are those of you out there who read my story and don't review it! I'm on your alert lists for heaven's sake. It won't kill you to review. I'm not going to bite your head off or anything. Unless you flame me. Flamesbad.

Cameo chance is still open. Just say so in a review if you want one.

One of two things will happen in the next chapter. I haven't decided which way to go yet. So I would like some imput from the readers. Would you like a cute, humerous chapter, or a dark, dramatic chapter, or a combo? If you vote for dark or combo, it might speed the story up considerably.

R&R! That means you!