It hadn't been a great night. The spacecraft wasn't the most stable ship in the galaxy, Ylio had found out, nor was it the most quiet. Besides the neverending shaking of the ship as it traveled through hyperspace, the engines of the ship produced a loud humming sound, and, if that wasn't bad enough, the door to the cockpit couldn't fully close. With the slightest tilt of the ship, that door would slide open or shut, creaking as it moved. All in all, not too great a situation for a boy to sleep in.

He had given up sleeping still being awake after two hours. It was terrible. He couldn't move, he was afraid of waking Roh, who was sound asleep. Ylio wondered how Roh could sleep in this noise.

"Probably used to it..."

He then glanced at the ceiling, sighed and thought of what was ahead of him. Coruscant, a place he had heard about, a place he had read about; soon, it would be a place he'd see. It was exciting, though terrifying all the same. Coruscant was home to the jedi, who, according to Roh himself, were searching for him. Roh's plan was risky and made little sense to Ylio, but then again, he knew more about the galaxy. Practical knowledge that is, theoretical knowledge... maybe... Ylio had read much about the galaxy after all, what else was there to do, back home.

"Home..."

Back home, he used to have a pet bird, named for the patriarch of the family, Yrus. Yrus was kept in a small, white cage. It was a beautiful blue bird, and Ylio had loved it. But as he grew up, Ylio noticed that the bird was unhappy in its cage. One day, he took the bird out of the cage, brought him to the garden and allowed it to fly away. He never saw him again.

Home had been a cage for Ylio. Now he was set free, flying a way, probably never to be seen again by those who held him in a cage. Never to see his parents again...

If only Ylio knew what happened to Yrus. The poor bird couldn't survive in the wild. Had it not been attacked and eaten by a cat, it would've starved eventually. Then again, Yrus had no Roh to watch over him.

"Awake already?" Roh asked. "Or must I say, still?"

"I didn't sleep."

"You will get used to the sounds," Roh said. "It took me a while as well."

A warm smile met Ylio's eyes as he turned towards Roh. For the first time he could see Roh's face. It was as if he was looking at his grandfather. Soft eyes, a wrinkled face, white hair on an ever balding head. The colour of Roh's eyes was peculiar though, unnatural even, but kind all the same.

Roh stood up from the chair he had slept on and walked up to the main controls of the ship.

"We're nearly there, young one," Roh said as he looked up their position on the galaxy map. The JMC-VA01 was old, rusty and plain uncomfortable, but it could get one from A to B in a reasonable timeframe.

Ylio paid little attention to his benefactor, his mind was back home again. It would nearly be the end of the afternoon there. It was just one day ago that Ylio bumped into Roh, now, he was accompanying the man to Coruscant. Hardly a thing a sane person would do, that is true, but the situation was dire, was it not?

"Mister Vagos," Ylio said. The man turned towards him, leaning against the back of the pilot's chair.

"Yes?"

"Why Coruscant?"

"I told you why, young Greh."

Greh... that was his name now. It was unsettling not to be called by his own name, but this would be reality from now on. Like Roh had said some time ago, Ylio had to go, in order to be safe. Greh wouldn't just be a mask, a mask is too easy to take off. No, Greh would be a new identity, a new skin.

"Yes, yes. Jedi won't expect it... but that can't be the only reason."

"How so?"

"Well... the Jedi expect us to go to Nar Shaddaa... right?"

"Indeed."

"So, going to any planet but Nar Shaddaa would be doing what the Jedi don't expect... so there must be another reason to go to Coruscant specifically."

"But, Coruscant has the highest concentration of Jedi on its surface, making it the last place they would look for... 'fugitives' there... However, you are right to be suspicious. There is more to my decision to go Coruscant than I have told you."

"I knew it!"

"Yes, yes, impressive... for a youngster like yourself... But may I ask you something now?"

"Sure..."

"Why did you choose to come with me?"

"I had no choice..."

"Oh but you had a choice. You could've chosen to stay and take your chances, or to hide on your homeplanet, closer to your parents. Or you could've chosen to accept your fate, to become a Jedi, to serve in the Order. So tell me, why did you choose to come with me?"

Ylio didn't answer immediatly, and pretended to come up with an answer. The truth he already knew, but he hoped that the old man would drop his question and move on. He, however, did not. He waited, patiently.

"I want to be free," he said eventually. "And with you, I'm as free as I can be. In the Order, I wouldn't be free... Hiding on Alderaan, I wouldn't be free, since people would be searching for me there. Besides, my family is known and hated by some... I wouldn't be able to show my face outside... but with you, with you I'll be able to see places I've never seen before. You're taking me to Coruscant of all places, a place I've only visited in my dreams."

"Such honesty," Roh noted, "I did not expect that."

Roh sat down on the pilot's chair and turned away.

"I understand your reason," he said, "and you were right to come with me. I can offer you freedom without boundaries. Everything that holds you back, all the chains that bind you... I can teach you to break them, to be free..."

"If you let me, of course..." he added.

"But... the Jedi are the only ones keeping me from being free... at the moment."

"That is what you think, but you know so little young Greh. Don't worry though, once I've started teaching you, you will see... you will see all the things, all the people who hold you back... and how to be free from all of them. When you know, there will be no place you can't go, no longer will you have to fear anyone, since there won't be anyone who could imprison you, or make you do something, or have you go somewhere without you wanting to do so. You will be the master of your future."

"I thought you'd only keep me away from the Jedi, but you're able to teach me to do that myself?"

"If you want me to, yes."

"Then teach me," Ylio said.

Roh smiled, Ylio could see that, even though the man had his back turned towards Ylio. He could see that the corner of Roh's mouth curled upwards, and that was enough of a clue. The reason for the smile, he did not know. It posed a new question for him, a new mystery to solve. What reason would Roh have to be happy? If it had to do with Yhim being willing to be trained, then why would Roh be so happy about that?

"Very well, young Greh," Roh said. "You will be taught. You will be taught in a great variety of subjects."

"All necessary for me to be free?"

"That, and for you to be able to survive on your own in the galaxy. You will need to be able to take up my mantle in the company after I won't be able to wear it myself anymore. The mining business... it's not the easiest business in the galaxy. One often ventures far into the Outer Rim, especially those who work for the JMC..."

"The JMC?"

"The Jonex Mine Corporation, the corporation I work for. You couldn't have known of course... But like I said, one will often venture into the Outer Rim, and, as you probably know, the Outer Rim is... dangerous."

He indeed knew that, not only from what he had read, but also from what he had heard from his father. It had always been father's first reaction to bring up the dangers of the galaxy whenever he voiced his dreams of travel. The Outer Rim would be brought up, and, father would tell stories about pirates, smugglers, crime lords and what not as to move him, Ylio, to give up on his dreams of travel. Now, if everything his father had told him was true, Ylio questioned, but, there must have been some truth to his stories.

Roh took Ylio's silence as a yes.

"So not only will I need to teach you how to properly manage a company, I willl also teach you how to defend yourself against all kinds of dangers..."

He observed Ylio, having turned towards him once again, trying to sense his feelings. The Force failed him, for the first time since... ever really. The Force had never failed him, not a single time since he discovered he was a Force-sensitive. But now, he couldn't get a read of the youngling in front of him. That was inconvenient, but an inconvenience he could overcome. It would have been better, safer if you will, for him to be able to sense the youngling, but going in dark would have to do. He was able enough to pull this off.

"...against the Jedi," he added slowly. He instantly regretted it.

Ylio looked up.

"But... why would I need to defend myself against the Jedi? Wouldn't hiding from them suffice?"

"The Jedi are... presistent and ah... skilled..." he responded, slowly choosing the right words to say. He couldn't afford another mistake. "I will be able to keep you away from them, and you might be able to stay hidden, in whatever way... but it would be for the best that, if the occassion arises that they find you, you will be able to fend them off."

"To be able to escape, of course," he quickly added.

"I guess it would," Ylio said. The confused look on his face made place for a smile. Roh had given him enough of an explanation.

"For now though," Roh said, "let's assume that in the end, teachings of that kind won't be necessary at all. After all, the Jedi are searching for Ylio Chron, not for Greh Vagos."

Ylio nodded.

Roh again turned his back towards Ylio and spoke not another word. Ylio didn't ask any other questions, instead, he sat back and allowed his thoughts to drift.

In his thoughts, he was back home, playing beneath a tree with his toy figurines. The figurines, depecting many heroes from the time of the Old Republic, had been in the family for a long time. Ylio played with them, as his father had before him, and his father before him, through the generations. When were they made? By who? Who bought them? Who exactly did they depict, and what did those people do as to earn the honor of being made into a figurine? Such questions hadn't been on Ylio's mind then, nor were they at his mind at the moment. The only questions on Ylio's mind were if he had done the right thing by leaving Alderaan, and, what the future had in store for him. Was his future life to be as heroic as the lives of all those depicted in his toy figurines, whatever that might mean? Or was he treading down quite an opposite path...?