Location: Luke Skywalker's mind

A tsunami of information washed over Luke, flooding his memories, and expanding the limits of his psyche. Multiple universes were born and destroyed at the speed of light.

In that moment... He understood. The past 100,000 years of galactic history became clear. He saw how one event/disaster/triumph, was linked to another; the catalysts, the accumulation and cascading of seemingly unrelated events, conspiring to form pivotal moments in time.

He also saw the the future. More specifically, he saw the future path of his order. The sudden appearance and action taken be his new Order of Balance had been necessary, but judging by Jorj Car'das's collection of data on "The Ones" and their dealings, he now understood more fully his order's role in the galaxy. His order would have to change; evolve into something... better.

The Data kept flowing in, and filling his mind. The speed and ferocity of the process made Luke feel... hot. Like he was... He was on fire!

But he wasn't burning up. No human could survive the absorption of so much knowledge in such a short amount of time. But the force allowed it.

It protectect his neurons and synapses from instantaneous combustion. It kept his body from flying apart. And then... Nothing

At that moment, he realized his body and mind was... Nowhere

He had used the force to transport himself from Naboo to Exocron; to the Library buried deep under a mountain. But this was different. He had been caught up in a rapture of energy and the force. He was devoured by the force, like light by a black hole.

Now he was surrounded by the infinite blackness. Or to be more accurate, he was drowning in it.

Just when he was about to accept the fact of his apparent death, light began to trickle in. It was extremely feeble at first, but it grew, slowly lighting up the scene around him.

Above him, he could make out a blue sky

And below him, lay a landscape of yellowish- orange.

Then he felt it. That unique mixture of wind, sun, and sand that had been seared into his earliest memory.

"Tatooine! I'm on Tatooine!" He knew it to be true. And as his sight cleared completely he knew precisely where on that big spinning sandball he was.

He had been here a lifetime ago. He had returned in a vision a few years after that. And here he was again.

But this time he was standing, not on a hover skiff, but on the top of a sand dune. Before him, was a familiar pit, with a familiar tentacled maw waiting at the bottom. The Great Pit of Carkoon

Curiously, his danger sense was not tingling. He felt more like an observer on an exotic wildlife expedition. That is until he heard it.

"LUKE! LUKE! I NEED A LITTLE HELP HERE KID!"

The shout came from below him, near the rim of the pit. It was... Han!

Not young Han, but the Han of now. From that one fact, Luke surmised that this wasn't a vision of the past but a symbolic glimpse into the future.

Han was on his hands and knees trying to crawl up out of the pit, but his efforts were useless.

Luke went to help his friend, but he couldnt move his feet. He looked down and saw...He was sinking into the sand. Already, he was buried up to his knees.

When he looked back up, he saw that a tentacle had grabbed hold of Han's legs and was eagerly pulling him towards the beak in the pit's centre.

"C'MON KID, IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING, IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"

Han yelled up to him with an increased sense of urgency and fear.

Luke stretched out his hand toward Han and called upon the force to pull him out, but the force failed him. No! No! How could this be!

There was no saving Han. And as the beak opened wide to accept it's new prize

Luke Skywalker let out a scream that was equal parts desperation and horror:

"HAN!!!"

And he was gone. Luke looked back down to the sand we're his feet should be, and saw that it was now up to his chest. The pressure of the sand was unusually great. In fact, it was paralyzing.

When he raised his head back up, he was overwhelmed by feelings of expectant hopelessness and terror.

There, at the rim of the pit was...

His whole family:

Ben! Leia! Jaina! And... No... No!... It couldn't be. He had been so careful to keep her at a distance!

Dena. By this point the sand was up to his mouth. He tried to yell out, but ended up choking on a mouthful of sand. Before his eyes slipped under the surface, he watched as everyone he cared about was overpowered and devoured by the titanic beast.

He had utterly failed them. He would utterly fail them.

Then Darkness.

Location: Naberrie Lake house on the planet Naboo

Dena was in full panic mode. Nobody had seen Luke in hours. At first she just assumed, like everyone else, that he was meditating in his room. But when the evening meal came and went with no sign of him, she knew something was wrong. With no response to the pounding of her fists on his antique door, she used Luke's lightsaber to slice right through the lock. The door swung open to reveal... Nothing!

Luke's "room", was more of a galactic observatory, then a personal living space. In some ways, it mimicked the infamous inner sanctums of men obsessed with control and strategy. Men like Emperor Palpatine, and Grand Admiral Thrawn.

But the focus of Luke's obsession was something else entirely: Balance. He lived and breathed balance.

Hours of meditation in this "observatory", would allow him to reach out with the force, and sense impending disasters.

Unlike Thrawn's or Palpatine's lairs, this place didn't radiate cold menace. Just being inside Luke's room, gave Dena an overriding sense of calm and peace, and.. love

Dena knew, that this room had special meaning to Luke. When the order of balance had first taken up residence in the lakeside mansion, this was the only room that had been boarded up. Inside, it became apparent that someone had started extensive renovations, but then gave up. In the corner of the room, was what what looked like a pile of furniture that had been covered with thick white sheets.

She was standing beside him when he had pulled away the sheets to revel 5 pieces. A beautifully crafted wooden rocking chair, a large antique looking trunk, a small corner table , and 2 cribs.

On the small table was a small holo projector. When he had activated it, a life size hologram a young and beautiful woman appeared. Her Frame was small, her hair was luxuriously thick, and she seemed to be dressed in a light satin night dress. The image barely moved. The women just smiled and stared down in love. Affluent expectant mothers often had such devices made to help sooth a newborn to sleep. Or in the case of the two cribs: Newborns. Twins.

Leia and Luke.

What made Luke so frustratingly attractive to Dena , and Mara before her, was Luke's unguarded manner. That honest farm boy charm that lacked all ego or pretence, would always be part of him. As he looked upon the mother he never met, he could feel her love reach out to him over the past 60 some years. He didn't speak a word, although the small stream of tears travelling down his cheeks and dripping off his chin said everything.

Now, She noticed that same holoprojecter was on a side table beside Luke's bed. Luke's empty bed. Tahiri appeared at the doorway,

"Dena! What the Hell?" Tahiri stood before her pointing at the severed lock on the door.

"Luke is missing! I've checked everywhere!"

Dena said distractedly.

Tahiri closed her eyes and reached out with the force. She could sense the bright force presence of Raynar. He was walking along the beach. She could feel Shadree, in the hanger bay, helping R2 with ship maintenance. But she didn't sense any trace of Luke's powerful and distinct presence. Concentrating harder and reaching deeper in the force she cast out her awareness over the province , the continent, the entire planet. Luke was Gone!

"Ok." Tahiri said slowly while opening her eyes again. "I think we go a problem."

There was no time for Dena's dread to blossom from that statement. With a powerful pop of compressed air, Luke burst into appearance; quite literally. He just stood there, a circle of flames surrounded him. In fact, he appeared to be on fire himself.

Dena couldn't think. She went to grab hold of Luke to somehow save him from the inferno.

Her reaction was borne out of pure impulse and goodness of heart. Unfortunately that did nothing to shield her against the very real heat coming off the flames that covered Luke. The force protected him from the surge of energy the threatened to devour him, but Dena had no such protection.

She cried out as her hands burned on contact with his tunic. She fell to the floor crying out in pain. Tahiri had reached her in an instant and cried out "HELP! WE NEED A MED PACK HERE!"

She looked over the wounds and was heartened by the fact that they didn't look too bad; mostly 1st and 2nd degree burns.

She looked over at Luke and saw that he was still burning, as was a circle of flooring around him. On his face, he wore a peaceful expression; eyes closed. It seemed to her that he was... Meditating? Meditating so hard that he burst into flames? She had seen some strange things in her eventful life, but this... This had taken things to a whole new level.

"Is he...?" Dena manage to sputter out the beginnings of question but Tahiri cut her off: "He's fine Dena!" She wasn't totally convinced of that but the last thing she needed was a hysterical wounded Dena. "SOMEBODY! WE NEED HEL..." just then, Raynar and Shadree appeard at the doorway, the latter holding a med kit. Although they had not heard Tahiri cries for help, they had felt something wrong in the force.

Both of them were momentarily frozen in place by the sight of Luke.

"Shadree! Over here, I'm going to need 4 large bacta patches!"

With that, the young girl leapt over to the two women on the floor and immediately started to work on Dena's hands. Ironically Dena, being a biot, had an extremely strong metal frame, and possessed artificial organs that could function indefinitely. Yet she could still suffer pain, and injury like everyone else. Judging by the expression on her face, she was suffering a lot of pain at the moment.

There was a flicker of light behind them and they turned around to see the flames that had been covering Luke, puff out of existence. He just stood there with no hint of charing, or burns. Only small wisps of smokes rose from his body.

His eyes burst open wide. He needed no updates of the situation; somehow he was aware of everything that had happened around him while he was caught up in the trance. In a blink of an eye he was there with Dena and Tahiri. He effortlessly picked up the injured woman, and hurried her to the Mansion's well appointed Medbay.

All the while she looked up at him with the greatest feelings of relief and gratitude. He was the very portrait of stern anxiety. He gently placed her on the examination table and barked at the stationary Nurse Droid: " Droid! Wake up!" The Droid whirred back to life and silently started examining Dena's Hand.

"Luke! I'm Ok! Really!" She started

He would have none of it :"NO! YOU'RE NOT OK DENA! As long as you are here, as long as you keep trying to get close to me you are in Danger!"

She yelled back "YOU ARE NOT DANGEROUS LUKE!"

"Oh yeah?" he had momentarily shoved the droid aside and grabbed her forearms, raising her burnt hands to head level. "What do you call this?"

The others had followed the pair to the Medbay but on hearing the heated exchange, they had thought it best to retreat elsewhere in the house.

She looked at her hands, and then looked at him:

"I call this... life."

Luke had to somehow get her to understand he was poison to any woman that ever loved him. Gaeriel Captison. Akanah Pell. Calista Ming. And finally his dearest beloved: Mara.

They all had loved him fiercely. And he had loved them all, with everything he had.

But all his love couldn't save them. They had all died horrible deaths. Luke knew in his heart that their deaths came from being with him, from being at his side. His vision had only served to confirm his belief. His family was in Danger! And Dena would be too if he allowed her to get close.

He took a deep breath and gently placed her arms on her lap, allowing the nurse droid to resume it's duties. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he looked at her, with a lifetime of love and hurt in his eyes.

They just stood like that for what felt like a heartbeat and an eternity.

"Dena! You have helped me so much. When I was lost and confused... It was you that guided me back. You have been at my side, and have worked harder than anyone else here... But listen to me Dena... I... I Love you." The look of hope and shock was painted on her face. He couldn't stop. He had to get all of this out.

"That why you have to leave here and never come back."

He barely managed to get out that last part before a his eyes became misty and ripe with unshed tears.

Her face betrayed her confusion. Confusion that quickly morphed into indignation.

"I stopped being told what to do and who to love the moment I betrayed the Qrephs!" This time it was she that pushed the droid away and hopped off the table.

She stood right in front of him her face a mere finger's breadth from his.

"I get it Luke. I finally get it...I'm sorry for all the pain you've endured in you life. I don't want to add to your anxiety. I love you. And I want what's best for you, even if that means letting you go..." her voice began to tremble, and her tears began to flow. "I leave in the morning... I'm sure the Jedi will have me back."

Luke was emotionally paralyzed. This is what he knew to be the right course of action. Dena would be away from him. He wouldn't drag her down into oblivion like the rest. At the same time, he wanted to be more like his Corellian brother and law, and just dive head first into a bad idea because his heart told him too.

"Don't speak" she command. And then she kissed him. That perfectly simple kiss was a silent memorial of a relationship that would never be. She sat back down on the room's bed and allowed the droid to proceed.

He then felt his feet moving, taking him out of the room and away from her kind eyes. He had to... He didn't know what do.

No! He knew exactly what to do. The knowledge he had gained from Jorj's library would wait. Dena... Kind Dena... Loyal Dena... She would be safe.

Now he had to get ahold of his family.

He made his way to the ship, and used the communication system to reach out to Han and Leia...

Nothing.

He tried to get ahold Jaina at the Jedi Temple, but to no avail.

With desperation starting to take hold of him, he hailed Ben's commlink. Only silence greeted him in return.

With a sinking feeling in his heart, he made his way back to his room and activated the holographic projection of the galaxy. Their was trouble out there; an imbalance, that involved his family. All he could do, was stretch out with force and find that imbalance.

Little did he know, that a series of events on the imperial world of Bastion had already sealed the fate of his family.

The game had been changed. Starting right now