-Darin-

The next four weeks played out almost the same as the first day. Sadie's grandpa never remembered who I was. Every day was like him seeing Carter for the first time in a long time.

Sadie was doing alright. With me helping, it allowed her to get some more sleep. I also brought a few books from the library for her to read. Who knew she liked novels by Ghrik Aadedai?

Today was the same as the other days. Sadies grandpa was napping and Sadie was reading a novel outside. I was inside the living room with a holocron. The holocrons, I found, were of infinite use. I was using them now to analyze the routes of multiple different vehicles who were confirmed as drug transports. They were very good at avoiding detection. They all would take multiple paths and would cross over consistently. What made it worse was the path changed each time. I had carefully placed trackers on them and was recording them for the last two weeks. The holocron was showing me a map of the area with the paths they took traced in red.

As I was analyzing it, I thought I felt something in the Force. I disregarded, thinking it was just a random flutter, and went back to studying the maps.

A cold, hard muzzle pressed against the back of my neck.

I slowly lifted my hands in the air. I started to stand slowly but the blaster pushed me back down.

"Don't move." The calm voice left no question as to if he would actually shoot.

I recognized the voice of Sadies grandpa. But… why? We were getting along fine.

"You try something, and I'll put a hole through your neck."

Since I prefer my neck without any holes, I decided to listen.

"Where's your saber?"

"In a cubby. By the front door." I would put it there as a peace offering for Sadie.

"You listen closely because I'm going to ask this once. Where. Is. My. Granddaughter?" His voice was calm and authoritative.

"She's outside."

He growled in anger and pushed the blaster deeper into my neck. "Liar."

It's rather difficult to keep your voice calm when you're sitting on the ground with a blaster against your neck, but I managed to do just that. "No sir. I can call her in. Using the commlink."

"Do it. Nothing funny, you hear?"

Slowly, I moved my hand to the commlink and pushed a button.

"Sadie. It's your grandpa. I think he's lucid."

He pushed the muzzle further, forcing me to bow my head. "You better hope she comes."

A few moments later, the door opened and Sadie walked in. Her smile turned to a look of horror. "GRANDPA NO!"

Seeing her in the room, he pulled the trigger.

I Force pushed the blaster to the side right as the shot fired out. Instead of being lethal, it only grazed the left side of my neck. I used the Force to pull the blaster out of his hand and into mine. He tackled me to the ground, making me drop the blaster, and started punching me in the face. I raised my arms to defend myself.

"STOP IT!"

He kept punching me. I was trying so hard not to fight back, but I could only defend for so long.

Suddenly, a blaster bolt whizzed by, narrowly missing the two of us.

"I SAID STOP!"

The old Mandalorian stopped hitting me and got off of me. Sadie rushed to my side, but I waved her off.

"Worry about him. I'll survive." I grunted. I turned my attention to my neck wound. I concentrated on the cauterized tissue and accelerated the healing process using the Force. Within seconds, the wound was closed. I did the same with all the other injuries.

I glanced at Sadies grandpa. He was winded and his knuckles were busted from trying to kill me, but otherwise he was fine.

"You shouldn't have interfered" he muttered at Sadie.

"I had to."

He noticed me starting to move.

"You're lucky she came to your aid. I would have killed you."

Sadie sighed. "No, you wouldn't. He was holding back."

"Holding back my ass."

I laughed. "I didn't make a single offensive move."

"Darin" Sadie said sternly. I shut my mouth.

Her grandpa started to get up, but Sadie held him down. I could see the hatred burning in his eyes. "Since when have you been on their side?"

"He's different."

"That's bull."

Sadie ignored him. "Darin? Can you help?" She motioned to his bleeding knuckles.

I focused on his injuries and quickly healed them. She nodded at me.

He watched her as she walked away to grab a towel. I reached over, arms shaking, and turned off the map and tracers that I was analyzing before. The analysis can wait. Sadie came back with a wet towel and started cleaning the blood from her grandpa. She then went to me.

"No. I can clean myself." I tried to prop myself up, but my arms buckled underneath me.

"You can barely lift your arms. Hold still." She placed the cool cloth on my face and started cleaning the blood.

As much as I hated to admit it, she was right. Healing wounds that quickly was an incredible drain. I haven't had my powers for too long so I still needed to work with them. The more I use them, the less tired I'll be afterwards.

"You should suffocate him while he's down."

"Grandpa stop it. He's not going to die."

"I knew that they'd come back for you. And when they did I swore to your parents that I'd protect you."

Sadie froze. "For me?"

Realizing that he'd said something he shouldn't, grandpa tried to go back. "Well, no, they didn't come just for you, they just-"

Sadie went and knelt by grandpa with the bloody rag. "Why did they come for me?"

He pointed at me. "He knows!"

"Pfft. I was her age. I wouldn't know why-"

I stopped, the realization dawning on me. My eyes widened as I looked at her grandpa. "She's…"

He nodded.

"What?" Sadie looked as confused as someone could possibly be.

"So then you moved here because..."

He nodded and asked "You really didn't know?"

I shook my head. "Not a clue."

Sadie looked between us. "What am I missing?"

"Do I tell her or you want to?" I kind of figured Grandpa would want me to do it, but I asked him just to be polite.

"Do we have to?"

"At this point, yeah."

"Okay guys come on. Why are you buddy buddy now? What's going on?"

I looked to Grandpa. He nodded at me. Oh boy.

"Well. Sadie. It turns out that you are Force-sensitive."

She reacted like I expected. Disbelief. She looked from me to Grandpa, and back, trying to see if this was a joke. It wasn't.

"But… I don't feel…"

"I know. Force sensitivity can be hard to find in people who aren't aware of it. I don't know why you haven't found it yet."

I struggled to my feet, still wobbly, and helped her sit. Grandpa slowly got to his feet and went into the kitchen to get water.

"So now what?" She looked at me. Great. I have all the answers apparently.

"Well. Uhh… You can go to the Jedi." I saw the panicked look in her eyes. "But I know that that's the last thing that you want to do. So-"

"Oh my god. I killed my parents."

Her grandpa walked in the room with a glass. "You did not. Don't ever say that again. You can't control something like that. The Jedi who came there did that."

She nodded. He handed her the glass and she drank. He looked to me. "What other options?"

Great. Him too. "I can try to train you myself. No Order interference. But I don't know how that will work. I was promoted to General recently, so I was given a month to read over information they require me to know. But my month is almost over, so I'll take a quick test and then get troopers assigned to me and will go off to other systems. You'd have to go with me if I were to train you. But that would require you to be a Jedi. The only other option I can think of is you avoiding any training and hoping for it not to get out of hand, though I highly doubt that. If the Order was willing to kill for you, you must be powerful."

Neither of them seemed to like any of the options.

"Look, let's forget everything that just happened for now. Now is not the greatest time to figure things out. You're lucid, so I think you and Sadie should spend as much time as you can together. Don't know if you'll have another chance. I'm gonna see myself out. I'll keep my commlink on in case you need me. Sound good?"

Sadie nodded. "Yea. Yea okay."

I left the apartment and decided to get to work on my second project. Something I'd been trying to do to make the neighborhood slightly slightly better. I Force-jumped to the roof of the complex and then one over before pulling out the holocrons again. The maps up, I stared at the scenes in front of me. The transport routes were key to finding the hub, but I was missing something. The shifting patterns, the various paths, they all made a large jumbled mess.

I shifted and grunted. I was still sore. That old man hit pretty damn hard.

I rubbed my bruised forearms. I absolutely did NOT like that Sadie had to clean the blood off of me. I needed to train more. Prevent myself from becoming overexerted like that so easily.

I stared at the bruise. Fascinating how blood pools in those regions. It's normally so controlled and orderly, flowing through the vessels. I stared harder at the discolored tissue and felt an itching feeling, like something about that was important.

It hit me like a transport ship. Eureka. I was just a Bluurg. A big idiot. I quickly scanned the map and had it shine a bright blue at the point where the lines intersected most. And there it was, at a place I knew all too well.

An abandoned warehouse, owned by none other than Bebo the Hutt.

Tracking Bebo down was the easy part. That disgusting slob loved the high life. Luxury penthouse suite. Getting him to meet me wouldn't be as easy. As I crouched on the roof of the building next to his penthouse suite, I weighed my options. I could break in and go full Solo, but that would probably end up in too much noise and too many questions. I could go sneaky and silently, but that required breaking in or taking down all of his security, neither of which I really wanted to do. I think this is one of the few times just walking in through the front door is best.

I jumped down the side of the building and hurtled 200 meters down, using the Force to slow myself so I wouldn't turn into a flatcake.

Oh man. Thinking of flatcakes made me think of Sadie's flatcakes. They're delicious. Soft, fluffy, and so full of flavor. Put a little whipped cream and fruit on it and-

Stop it. Focus.

I entered the lift and rode it to the top floor. As I got off the lift, a couple guards started to stop me but stopped when they noticed my Jedi robes.

That's right boys. I am the law. Don't mess with me.

Bebos suite was much larger and way nicer than mine. I could see various pieces of art hanging on the walls and priceless antiques on pedestals. I could hear music coming from a room in the back. A blue Twi'lek lady came out of one of the rooms carrying a tray of drinks. She yelped and jumped in surprise when she saw me. Instinctively, I reached out and used the Force to catch everything before it landed with a clatter. I put the liquid back in the cups and the cups back on the tray.

I put my finger to my lips and handed her the tray. She nodded vigorously and darted off with the tray to the back of the suite. When she opened the door, that unholy smell that was always around Bebo wafted into the hallway. I fought back the waves of nausea and made my way to the party.

I barely opened the door and slipped inside. The dance floor was filled with people. Some obviously were servants that had no choice, but some seemed to be fancy older people who I assumed were business partners. Waitresses darted through the crowd. I spotted the Twi'lek who I startled and nodded at her.

I scanned the rest of the room. One exit. Unless you count the windows but the 220 meter fall made that unlikely. Ceiling had a few vents, but they didn't look big enough to crawl through. Nobody had noticed that I was here yet. Alright, game on.

Bebo sat in the corner . A band was playing some weird current techno-pop which I honestly could have done without.

I stepped fully in and slammed the door closed behind me. The thundering boom of the heavy oak interrupted the party and silence filled the room as attention turned to me.

"What a party." I said loudly as I slowly walked through the people. The dancers moved aside as I made my way in their direction as if they were magnetically repelled from me. I looked to the band and gave them a thumbs up. "You guys are quite talented."

I honestly thought the music was garbage but no matter. They didn't respond to my compliment anyway. How rude.

I sauntered over to the middle of the dance floor, right in front of Bebo, and smiled. "Well hello there."

He huffed. "Did your master send you?"

"I have no master."

I walked over to the bar and grabbed a fancy glass full of wine and took a whiff. "Very nice." I then slammed the glass down on the bar. The glass shattered and wine spilled everywhere except on me. I made sure to use the Force to keep from getting wine on my robes or glass in my hand.

"I do apologize but this party is over. Go on. Shoo."

The partygoers quickly spilled out of the room. When the room was empty, I turned to Bebo. "Nice place you've got here."

"Why are you here?" He spat each word at me with contempt.

I sighed and kicked some of the glass around me. "You should really have someone clean this mess."

Bebo pushed a button and a door opened. The servant who I had startled earlier came in.

"Clean. Now."

She winced and hurried over to me. I held my hand up and she froze. I could see her begin to panic as she realized that she was paralyzed.

"I do apologize. I'm not a fan of freezing people. But please. Don't clean this."

I let her go and she nodded.

"What do you think you're doing?"

I ignored him and focused my attention to the Twi'lek. "What's your name?"

"Kali"

"Mmhmm. Tell me. Do you have a family?"

"No sir."

"And how old are you?"

"18."

"And how much do you make?"

She shuffled awkwardly and mumbled "25 chunks."

"25 chunks! 25 chunks a week?"

She nodded.

"Thank you. You may leave." I watched her as she scurried out of the room.

"You know, I could sell her to you-"

Anger quickly swelled. He started grabbing at his throat and gasping for air. I kept the Force constricted around his windpipe until he was about to black out, then let him go. He dropped and tried to regain his breath.

"When the Alliance hears of your actions they will punish you!"

I chuckled. "I don't answer to the Alliance."

His massive eyes widened and he began trying to wriggle away from me.

"How pathetic." I froze him mid-wriggle. "Yes, yes. I remember the arena. I remember beating the Gauntlet. And I remember you selling me."

I unsheathed my saber and swung it at his gargantuan neck. He closed his eyes and winced, ready for death.

Death never came. When he opened his eyes he realized that I had stopped the blade five centimeters from his neck.

"I would love to kill you. But that is inherently unsatisfying. Death is too good a gift for you. You don't deserve it. But there are… other methods of punishment for you."

I pulled my saber away from his neck. "You are worth more to me alive than dead."

He rubbed his neck. "What do you want from me?"

"Your drug business. Shut it down. All of it."

"You're crazy. No. I won't do it."

I raised my eyebrow. "Excuse me?" I took a few steps towards him and he recoiled. "I must be hearing things. Because why would you EVER say no in your position? I mean, I can't imagine why anyone who values their life would reject an offer like this, especially in these circumstances. You know what I mean? Now, if you don't mind, can you repeat what you said so I know I'm not losing my mind?"

Bebo hung his head. "Yes. I'll shut down the drug business."

"Good to hear. Good to hear. And you know that I'll know if you're lying to me, right?"

He nodded.

"Great. Oh and one more thing. Kali and the rest of your servants who you bully around so much? Quadruple their salary. And don't add any extra work, or I'll know."

Bebo nodded dejectedly.

"Good. Well, this was a fantastic party, but I am going to see myself out. Have a good night!"