Jedi Temple, Shedu Maad; 44 ABY

The Temple was on edge. Reports about the disaster on Ossus. The Academy had been emptied during the conflict with the Lost Tribe, but a number of Jedi were using it as a remote hub to coordinate local action. From what reports they could gather, a bulk freighter of supplies that had been bound for the Ossus base had instead crashed headlong into the sanctuary there. A disaster was the perfect term. Dozens of Jedi confirmed or presumed dead, all Jedi Knights.

Luke could feel it, a fog of despair had fallen on Shedu Maad. No one said it aloud, but many suspected the Lost Tribe, they had attacked the evacuating ships there before. Personally, he didn't know what to think. It was too damaging an event to be purely happenstance, but there was no machinations behind it, just random destruction.

Walking through the twilight-lit halls of the meditation copse, Luke sought clarity under a gnarled tree. Most everyone was asleep, but the Grand Master couldn't find rest on his own. Things weren't right. Truth be told, he was still worried about Ben. Upon reflection, Luke realized he'd made mistakes in dealing with Ben after he came back from Abeloth's world. He'd allowed his own connection to his son to give him too much reign. When Vestara escaped, it had been easy for her and Ben to get out off the Temple grounds.

Crossing his legs into a meditative posture, Luke turned his thoughts to just that. Had he been too emotionally involved? Of course, Ben was his son. But did that make him right? Ben and Vestara were adamant about what they needed to do, to stop Abeloth, whatever that had entailed. Should he have supported his son? On one hand, Luke knew the dangers of following visions as if they were dictations, the damage that could be done. But Ben knew that too. It was just so difficult to understand what had happened to his son—and Vestara.

That was another sore issue. Where exactly did Vestara stand? She had been adamant about her desire to join the Jedi, he'd been sure. There weren't many beings who could actually trick him, and he doubted she'd had the experience to do so. Yet, when the time came on Coruscant, she'd betrayed them all to the Sith, to Abeloth. She later helped Ben kill Abeloth's avatar, so what exactly did that mean? For that matter, could Ben have lied about his story? No, Luke was sure about that. He knew his son better than anyone, and Ben had been honest about what he'd said.

The truth was Luke was also afraid for Ben. He'd known what it had been like to fall in love with someone on the dark side. Shira Brie, later known as Lumiya, had done it to him. What would Vestara do to Ben? For that matter, Luke tried to consider the possibility of it working the other way. Luke had turned around the life of another Imperial assassin, had loved her, and married her. Mara was always the stronger of the two of them, she'd kept an edge from her old life even as a Jedi Master. Vestara was much darker than Mara had ever been, even under Palpatine, but could she put it aside for her feelings?

Luke shook his head, this endless series of questions would do him no good. For better or worse, Ben and Vestara were on the run. Luke needed to find them. He calmed his mind, letting the worries of seconds before flow like water off a roof. He opened himself to the Force, the interwoven lined of rainbow color that connected everything. Feeling the unease of the Temple, the resolve of the Masters, and something . . . murky. That last one was new, not exactly clear, but somehow familiar, like the face of an old friend after decades apart.

His eyebrows rutted, the Jedi patriarch sent a more insistent probe to the murk. Ben had said something, before the last time he'd gone to see Vestara. Had said that Abeloth did something, changed something. Could this be it? He reached out to it, but found himself adrift in a void. Vortexes of gravity surrounded him, black holes of power draining the life of the galaxy. At the center of the largest on, opalescent slits watched him from the singularity, waiting for revenge for his actions.

Luke's eyes shot open as he left the vision, unsure of what it meant. He ran his hand through his hair and found it mopped with sweat. The Maw, that's where he'd been. His mind still as nimble as always, it didn't take long to connect Abeloth, Ben, and Vestara to the Maw, the prison planet where they'd first faced her. He felt it pull to him.

He left the alcove and went to his quarters. He'd just been wondering about his son acting on visions and he found himself compelled to do so. He left a message for the Masters and then called Leia. Han answered first. "Kid? Is everything alright?" He sounded groggy, it was the middle of the night on Coruscant.

"Everything's fine, Han, I just needed to speak with Leia." Luke wasn't entirely sure it would be a good idea to bring up the fact he thought he knew where Ben and Vestara had gone with Han still holding a hefty grudge against her. Leia was more moderate in her opinion.

"Luke?" Leia's voice took over the comm call, she sounded just as tired as Han had. "What is it?"

"I've seen a vision, Leia," he said, not entirely sure how to pass on the feeling he needed to go to the Maw, but wanting to assure his sister and brother-in-law that he wasn't losing it. "I'm going to be heading to the Maw."

"The—the Maw?" Leia was certain she'd misunderstood in her tired state, why in the galaxy would he need to go there.

"Yes, I think that's where I'll find Ben."

"And Vestara?" She asked, Luke heard a Corellian curse in the background and Han demanding to know where 'that witch' had gone to now.

"I think so, but I needed to let you know you'd be going." Luke was already starting to gather what little he needed to take with him, most of his personal effects still remained on the Shadow. "I left a message for the Masters, but I just needed to talk to you about it, to hear your voice."

"You know we'll support you, Luke."

He stopped his gathering and sat by the comlink. "Am I doing the right thing?"

Leia paused. "If you think you have to, then you should. Do you think you do?"

"Yes."

"Then you have your answer."

"Thank you, Leia." He sighed, she'd at least gave him as much of an unbiased perspective as he could get right now.

"Luke, do you think you should bring other Jedi with you?" Leia asked before he could start the parting goodbyes, "Maybe some of the Masters?"

He'd thought of that before he called. "No one else had the vision, so it must have been meant for me alone," he reached for the comlink connection. "Sorry for waking you up."

There was another pause, like Leia reaching out to him, too distant to touch. "Be careful, Luke"

"I will." He ended the transmission. He'd gotten the clarity he needed. Within the hour, the Jade Shadow was rising through Shedu Maad's atmosphere and began its journey to the Maw.

Luxury 5000 Yacht Rook, Hyperspace; 44 ABY

After the incident in the hanger, Ben and Vestara decided that they really needed to eat something. The IV bags they'd used until the other day kept them nourished, but it did nothing for an empty stomach. Besides, it would help them get their mind off of thoughts of them actually becoming more and more like Abeloth. The dining hall was large enough to hold over a dozen diners, but they ignored it for the table inside the galley. Ben was delighted to see that the stores included a variety of foodstuffs not generally found in starships, at least not the kind he'd normally been on. In no time, two nerf steak meals were steaming before them.

They ate quickly enough, and in silence. Neither really wanted to bring up what had happened, but unable to think of much else despite the food. Not all that long after, however, they found themselves doubled over in pain, their stomachs twisting violently inside them. Finding the wash basin simultaneously, they both expelled what they'd just consumed, unable to keep it down.

"What's happening to us?" Vestara asked, wiping her mouth with a towel.

Ben copied her movement with another rag. It seemed that they couldn't ignore it, that no matter what they did, it was creeping its way in. "I don't know, Ves," he was drawing in deep breaths. "Not exactly what I signed up for, though."

"He said he couldn't eat, either." Vestara said, eyes off to the side as she sifted through her memory.

"Who?"

"High Lord Taalon." Vestara hadn't told Ben about her encounter with the Keshiri Sith in the Lake of Apparitions, or of his accusations. She and Ben seemed to be on the same path, but the idea of suckling from Abeloth was even more nauseating than her reaction to the food had been. "I'd rather die than rely on that creature for food."

"We'll figure something out, Ves," Ben could feel the sickening wave come off of her when she'd thought about how Taalon had finally begun to sate his hunger. "We can use the IVs until then."

They found themselves in one of the forward lounges, unwilling to go to the medbay just yet, their bodies still shaking from the food. Vestara sat rigidly in one of the high-back chairs, lest she upset her volatile disposition even more. "Do you regret it?"

Ben looked up. "Regret what?"

"Drinking with me," Vestara's melancholy eyes sought his. "You could have had a much better life without this."

"It doesn't do to dwell of 'what ifs,'" Ben said. "It doesn't lead anywhere good."

"Yet I can't not think about it, Ben," She glanced down. "I did it out of weakness and then went on to tempt you."

"You didn't force me."

"But if you hadn't, you'd be with your father right now instead of being here."

"I'd probably be hunting you down if I wasn't here." Ben admitted, it was strange how one's priorities changed so quickly. "But what about you? All alone?"

"I could take care of myself." She sounded more like she was defending herself than stating anything factual.

"Do you remember how you were in the Temple?"

Ah, that brought back something she'd pushed down. Since escaping, Vestara hadn't really thought all that much about her incarceration, the way her anger overpowered her. Since then, there hadn't been a relapse. "I hadn't thought about that." Vestara said, "I never did figure out what happened."

"I have a theory," Ben raised a slender finger.

"Do tell." She winced as another wave of pain shot through her. She wouldn't be able to look at a nerf after this without retching.

"We know that everything there is based around balance," Ben started. "But what if Abeloth had been the only one to use the Font and Pool?" He seemed to be recovering much faster than Vestara was, he hadn't cringed in the past for minutes, at least. "We know that the first person takes in the Dark Side, but what if there was no one to take the Light?"

"So, I'd have become Abeloth," Vestara wasn't too pleased with where this was going, "without you."

"I did seem to be able to calm you in the Temple," Ben pointed out. "What do you think would have happened if you were isolated for thousands of years like that?"

She shuddered, though this wasn't from the nausea. "I'd be in pretty bad shape." A massive understatement.

"But that's also why you don't need to fear becoming her," Ben said, "because you'll always have me."

Vestara smiled slightly, it did make her feel a little better, at least if Ben's theory was right. Something else he'd said also struck her, something that neither had brought up before. "Do you really think we'll live that long?"

"Huh?"

"We know Abeloth has been around for thousands of years," Vestara gestured to the two of them. "Do you think we'll be around that long?"

Ben hadn't really thought about it, either. He'd known that Abeloth had lived that long, but they'd done what she had, so would they now, too? "I have no idea," he confessed, "but that's a long way off."

"Would we be together for that long?"

"Getting tired of my company already?"

"You know, people keep telling us that we argue like an old married couple." Vestara pointed out, "I'm starting to understand why."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

Vestara felt her heart leap to her throat, was he actually suggesting that? She loved him, yes, even agonized about their future together how they were now, but she hadn't really thought all that much about their relationship changing over time. On Kesh, marriages weren't particularly common or rare, but many of them did start with the couple being rather young. It was something of a necessity, as it was difficult to establish trust with a peer in rivalry for a position of power. Her parents had married when they were in their mid-twenties, Vestara knew. Of course, that was on the outside, as Lahka wasn't Force Sensitive, and thus wasn't a rival to Gavar in any form. Vestara felt a pang in her chest when she thought about them, the father that tried to kill her and her mother lost to Abeloth's rage. That had ended badly, to be sure, but what of she and Ben?

"Ves?" Ben's soft voice cut through her thoughts.

"Is that . . . something you want?" She wasn't really sure how to respond, was that something she wanted? Yes. The answer was simple enough. She may not have thought about it much before, but it was something she found herself longing for instantly. To be tied to Ben by more than a need to stay sane or to keep balance, but to be together because they wanted to.

Ben had said it before he'd filtered it though his mind, is that such a bad thing? He couldn't believe he'd been so blatant. So much for being suave or subtle. Then again, she'd responded much better than he'd expected, a sharp Force slap for presumption. He could feel her, slightly hopeful as she asked him if it was something he wanted, it gave him the confidence to give a genuine answer, one he probably wouldn't have otherwise."Very much so."

The pain from the meal forgotten, her spark of hope flamed a bit, fanned into a warmth radiating inside. "I'd like that, too."

Author's Note: Yes, I threw in a marriage proposal. I know, I'm mildly sickened with myself for being that sentimental.