Rishy, no, Hope clutched the large hand tightly. The man kept his head down, eyes on the ground, shoulders hunched over. Hope knew this was a dangerous area. She figured the man knew what he was doing, so she copied him. But something made her look up. The soft blue haze appeared in front of her. The bearded man, or ghost, was back.

"Youngling—" the ghost started. But Hope silenced him with a glare.

"Quiet." She hissed, "Someone will hear you."

"They can not hear me child. Only you can hear and see me." The ghost said silently.

"Why?" Hope breathed.

"Because, you are strong in the Force." The ghost smiled, "Youngling" he received a glare from the six-year-old, "Child." He corrected himself, "You must keep your chin up, and your head held high."

Hope shook her head, and whispered, "But the man—"

"Does not know what he's doing, he is from up there." The ghost indicated Upper Coruscant. "You two are attracting unwanted attention, you look weak. Tell him to raise his head, tell him you have been trained for these situations so that he'll listen."

"But that's lying." Hope mouthed.

"Then it is a good lie." The ghost whispered and looked behind him. Hope followed his gaze; some shady figures were looking in her direction.

A good lie. Hope told herself, and then she turned to the man. "Keep your chin up." She whispered, "Master Yoda said when you're in rough parts of Coruscant, to keep your chin up." She clenched her teeth against the lie, Jedi, even Younglings, did not lie.

"You sure he meant that literally?" The man whispered. Hope nodded, and the man did as told. The shady figures receded to their shadows.

This was a lesson for Hope, one that she would not soon forget; people wouldn't follow what she said, but if she said someone else had said it, someone of power, then, they listened. "Who were you talking to anyway?" The man asked her as they reached his speeder. Hope looked behind her at the ghost, but he was already gone.

A good lie. Hope is a good lie. "The Force." She said with confidence, then looked back again and whispered, softly so the man could not hear, "I think."

Teri had thought at first the child was talking to him. But she had said to be quiet, and he wasn't talking. She'd had a conversation with air, and then told him to do the exact opposite of what they'd both been doing five paces ago. And when he'd asked her who she'd been talking to… She said she was talking to the Force, I mean, I've never heard of Jedi talking to the Force, but maybe it's different when their little? Not for the first time since he'd made his decision, he asked himself, What have I gotten myself into? He was beginning to realize that there was a reason Force-Sensitive children were taken away from their parents at an early age. But he didn't have regrets, no, he didn't have regrets. How could he? He'd only known the kid for a half hour.

Hope watched from the back seat of the speeder as Coruscant sped by. At first it had been ugly dingy buildings, with arachnid-web cracks and Hawk-bat droppings. Then, as they began to ascend, she watched the cracks disappear, and the dropping became less frequent. Next, the buildings became colored, first in the grays of faded paint, and then in vibrant hues. As they climbed even farther, windows began to dot the walls. First, they were windows with metal bars; then they became entirely glass. At one point, their speeder reached a cloud bank, overhead was a grid work of lasers to prevent speeders from going up any farther. Hope became frightened and confused, but the man just pulled over to a small booth, where a lady sat. The woman was human, in her thirties, and far too young to be gray-haired already. But Hope could see that despite the woman's dye job, gray was growing in at her roots.

The man flashed a small card, and the woman pressed a button, the lasers opened in one section, and the man pulled over to it. As they passed, Hope met the woman's eyes; they were too old and weary on a young once beautiful face.

Hope didn't—couldn't—know this, but the woman's face had been destroyed by bad lies. The woman, hoping to get a promotion, and climb the ladder so to speak, had listened to a friend and bought certain beauty product. It had disfigured the young lady's face, pockmarked it and discolored it, and the woman had been cast aside by society. She'd lost her husband, her friends, and even her family had pulled away from her. The woman had never gotten the promotion.

It was after the speeder bike pulled past the cloud bank, the sudden change came. The woman that greeted them on the way up was at least in her late fifties. This woman had dark red hair, and she was glamour-ed with false beauty and ornamented with gaudy, most likely expensive jewelry. While all the way up, the changes had been gradual, now, it seemed between one floor; the shift was dramatic. Shiny colorful metal walls, and expensive speeders. The holo-ads, that had been sleazy up until this point—although Hope didn't register this fact, she did register a change—became classy and polished. Windows were even more polished, until they shone blindingly.

This would be another lesson for Hope, there was a top class, and a bottom class, and only one floor in between. However, if you didn't have the right mode of transportation, good luck moving up.

Finally, it seemed the speeder had come to its destination. The vehicle perched on a circular landing platform; that stuck out—not unlike a mushroom from a tree—from the circular richly colored blue building.

"We're here." The man said tiredly.

I should stop thinking of him as "the man", according to our story, he's my father. She decided to try it out. Her father got out of the speeder, and came around to her door to help her out.

"Come on dear." He picked her up, but he didn't set her down. She could tell he was nervous, and wanted to get inside the building quickly. Hope was beginning to notice how many clone troopers littered the area now that they were out of the lower city.

The building they entered into was classy but dark. Heavy smells lathered the air. Her father quickly turned left, even though they were inside, he had not put her down. Hope looked behind him, over his shoulder to the other hallway they could have chosen, down at the end was a door, she could hear armour clanking and the shifting of feet. Troopers are interrogating everyone here; they're looking for Jedi who might have escaped. Hope sucked in air; fear began to claw at her gut. Then she let it out. She could feel her thoughts narrowing to get away! Troopers! And run! Don't look behind you! She didn't try to push those thoughts away; instead she concentrated on what minimal training she had. She sifted through her memories and came across one technique that would help her, Jedi Flow. A trick taught to Younglings to help them overcome fears. Hope thought of all the blocks in her mind's eye, and let the Force wash over them, loosen them, and let them drift away. What she was left with was clear thoughts.

"Daddy." She whispered, "Turn around, go back, to the right."

"That will bring us closer to troopers dear."

"I know, that's the idea," Hope then forced her lie to form into words, "Master Yoda says, sometimes the best place to be, is right under your enemies nose."

Had Teri known Master Yoda, he would have known that Master Yoda speaks backwards, and so if Hope was repeating something she'd heard, would have told him it backwards. But Teri didn't know Yoda, so he turned around, and went back to the right.

Hope swallowed, she wasn't sure this was a good plan. But then she heard the click-clack behind her of clone troopers. If we'd continued to go the way we had, it would have looked like we were trying to avoid the troopers in the next room. That realization was a blow to Hope's fear. In her confidence, Hope decided to make certain the clones didn't suspect her as a Youngling. With the impatience of a normal child, Hope tugged on her father's sleeve. "Daddy, I want down!" she whined. At first, the man gave her a confused look; he'd begun to pick up his pace, and setting her down, would slow him. But Hope gave him a determined gaze and he relented. She made sure to walk normally, and slowed her father down. Eventually, the clones caught up with them.

Her father gently urged her to give the two troopers room to pass. But the troopers didn't pass.

"Hello civilians, we're performing a routine check on everyone." The trooper stated, the mike that transferred his voice from inside his helmet, to outside his helmet made his voice static and robotic. In Rishy's experience, troopers always took off their helmets when speaking to civilians. Hope was learning this was not the case. "Your identifications please."

A big thanks to My Lady Vader, darkangel1994, and The Name Is Unimportant for your reviews!

This is one of the slower chapters, it speeds up after this... I hope you enjoyed it!