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Chapter Text

Dakota hummed to himself as he swung his lightsaber around carelessly. He knew that he was being reckless, and he really shouldn't mess around with his lightsaber. It was a sacred weapon, not a toy, but it had been so long since Dakota had brought it out, and he wanted to enjoy this while he had the chance. In a few hours he would have to hide his lightsaber away until the next time he could afford to spar.

Dakota really hated the Empire. He'd been raised very strictly to see his lightsaber as his life, and extension of himself, and that he should regularly connect to and use the Force. Now though, with the Empire killing off any Jedi they could find and hunting down everybody who was Force sensitive, Dakota had little choice but to lie low, hide his lightsaber away, and keep his Force use to a minimum. It was really inconvenient.

Dakota only pulled his lightsaber out when he absolutely needed it to defend himself when an unlucky Stormtrooper came across him, or when he was training, which he only did often enough to maintain his skills. Dakota was usually so careful, because he liked living and he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that, but he couldn't resist the urge to get careless like this when he was getting ready for sparring practice, just because he knew his partner wouldn't approve, and getting a rise out of him was Dakota's favorite thing in the world.

"Dakota!" He grinned to himself. There was his partner now. Dakota turned to see his Neimoidian friend storming towards him.

"Hey, Cav," Dakota used his lightsaber to wave. Just as he'd expected, when Cavendish saw this motion he went from angry to absolutely furious. Cavendish harshly grabbed Dakota's sleeve and pulled his arm down so quickly that the lightsaber might have burned one of them if Dakota hadn't retracted the blade.

"What are you thinking?" Cavendish hissed. "Do you want to get caught by the inquisitors?"

Dakota smirked. "I already am." He shook the arm that Cavendish was still holding. "You know, because you're an inquisitor, and you're holding onto me." Cavendish glared at him but said nothing. "I'm saying that you caught me."

"Yes, I get it!" Cavendish quickly let go of him and crossed his arms. "It's a wonder that you've survived this long."

"Look at me," Dakota gestured to himself. "I'm not really what people think of when they think jedi."

"You're not a jedi," Cavendish said sternly, and he was right. Dakota may have been raised by the Jedi, but he'd left the first chance he got. All of the discipline just didn't agree with him, and he didn't really want to dedicate his life to the Force when he'd never been asked to be connected to it in the first place.

"Well, most people don't know that someone can have the Force without being a jedi," Dakota said. "As long as people don't look at me and think jedi, I think I'm safe."

"That doesn't mean you should go looking for trouble," Cavendish said. "And being in possession of a lightsaber is the fastest way to find some."

You know I'm usually more careful than this," Dakota said. "Remember, when we first met it took you months to figure out that I had the Force."

"Yes, I remember," Cavendish's expression softened slightly. He looked more concerned than angry now, and Dakota felt a little sheepish. It was one thing to push Cavendish's buttons, and another to actually worry him. "Just...be careful. I didn't agree to keep quiet about your presence so you could go and get yourself caught by somebody else."

"I'm not planning on being caught," Dakota assured his friend. "But I'll tell you what, if I'm going to be brought in by anybody, I'll make sure it's you." Cavendish was very hard working, but he wasn't a very successful inquisitor. He had yet to bring in any Force sensitives, and though Cavendish didn't talk about it a lot, Dakota knew that he was frequently punished by his superiors for his failures. Dakota imagined that the only reason why Cavendish wasn't disposed of completely was because he was incredibly knowledgeable about the theories and principles of the Force. He just wasn't very good at putting it into practice.

"I doubt you would have much of a choice," Cavendish gave him an unamused look, clearly unhappy. Dakota didn't want to agitate his friend more. He didn't often get the chance to spare with, or even talk to, Cavendish, and he didn't want to spend the entire time fighting.

"Are you ready to get started?" Dakota asked. He pushed back his robe and grabbed the other lightsaber that was attached to his belt. He held it out to Cavendish. The Neimoidian allowed himself a small smile. Cavendish held out his hand and used the Force to pull the lightsaber into his hands. As an inquisitor, Cavendish was most familiar with using a double-bladed spinning lightsaber, but he'd insisted on learning how to fight in a more traditional way, so when Dakota had found an old lightsaber, he'd given it to him. Cavendish couldn't keep his new lightsaber with him, so Dakota held onto it unless they were together and sparring.

Cavendish activated his lightsaber and just stared in awe at the blade for a long moment. He did this every time he used it. Cavendish never seemed to get bored of looking at his bright orange lightsaber. Dakota quietly watched Cavendish admire his lightsaber for a moment before he activated his own weapon, which was almost completely opposite of Cavendish's. Where the Neimoidian's lightsaber was orange with a light core, Dakota's was indigo with a dark core.

Cavendish always used to ask Dakota what the dark core meant. It was a lot of fun to tease him with by making up an obviously made-up reason, but the truth was that Dakota didn't know for himself. It was just how his lightsaber was, and it was how he liked it.

Cavendish gave his lightsaber an experimental spin before he lunged at Dakota without warning. Dakota laughed and easily blocked Cavendish's attack. The older man did this every time. Dakota had been surprised and gotten slightly burned the first time, but after that he'd learned to be more aware, and Cavendish had learned the importance of self-control.

Dakota blocked all of Cavendish's attacks with relative ease. It was almost too easy. Dakota would think that Cavendish was holding back on him, except that wasn't the man's style. Dakota didn't think that Cavendish knew how to hold back. A closer look at Cavendish's movements and foot placement gave Dakota another explanation.

"Oh, you're trying form one today?" Dakota asked. Cavendish's silence was enough of an answer. "Do you want me to show you how it's done?"

Cavendish glared at him, but after another five of his attacks were easily deflected he lowered his blade slightly. "Yes, fine, very well," Cavendish said this as though he was doing Dakota a favor by accepting his help. Dakota didn't mind though. He knew that Cavendish didn't like to ask for help. He wasn't about to bug him about doing it politely.

"Well, for one thing, you're trying to attack me," Dakota said. "Shii-Cho isn't an offensive form. It's mostly used for defending and disarming. That's why it was used to teach younglings, because if you're going to be swinging around a deadly weapon, you might as well use it to not get yourself killed." Dakota quickly moved his blade, aiming for Cavendish's lightsaber rather than Cavendish himself. Because the inquisitor wasn't expecting an attack, let alone one on his weapon, he was caught off guard and his lightsaber went flying out of his hands. It landed harmlessly on the ground.

Dakota lowered his lightsaber as Cavendish went to retrieve his. The inquisitor turned and looked at him, slight awe and determination in his eyes. "What else can Shii-Cho do?"

Dakota grinned. He couldn't remember the last time somebody had looked at form one as a skill worth learning. For most jedi and padawans, form one was just training for younglings to learn the basics. They may know, theoretically, that it could develop into so much more than that, but most of them would rather learn other forms than expand on the first one.

Cavendish though, he'd never learned form one, and he looked very eager to be taught. Cavendish had barely enough midichlorians to be considered Force-sensitive, so the Jedi hadn't found him when he was young. In fact, nobody had found Cavendish. He'd found the inquisitors himself, and actually asked if he could join them. Dakota didn't know why anybody would want to be an inquisitor, or why the inquisitors would want somebody who had never been trained in the Force, but there they were.

"Well, it relies a lot on instincts," Dakota said. Cavendish frowned, obviously displeased.

"I've never been able to get a hang of the Force." Cavendish said.

"I'm not all that good at it either." Dakota admitted. The only skill he was really proficient at with the Force was healing, though he was getting better at manipulating the Force around him to better blend in with his surroundings. He wasn't all that good at it yet. If people knew he was there, they would easily see him, but if someone wasn't looking too carefully, he could blend in decently with his surroundings. One of these days he would have to test it out on Cavendish, see if it worked on Force sensitives, otherwise it wouldn't really do him much good.

"Instincts are different from the Force," Dakota said. Maybe for many trained and experienced Force users, they were one in the same, but Dakota had seen far too much in his life to think that was always the case. "You know that everybody has instincts, and very few people have the Force."

"Just because somebody doesn't have a high enough midichlorian count to be considered Force sensitive doesn't mean that they lack the Force completely," Cavendish said. Dakota just barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Cavendish was starting to sound like the Master Jedi before they'd all been killed off or disappeared.

"Yeah, yeah, the Force is everywhere," Dakota lifted his lightsaber in a clear invitation to continue sparring. "Save the philosophy lesson for later," It wasn't that Dakota didn't want to have a discussion about this with Cavendish, it would actually be really nice to talk to him casually about all of this like they had before they knew that they both had the Force. However, this wasn't the time for that. Cavendish didn't have a lot of time to spar, and Dakota didn't want to waste a second of it.

Cavendish raised his own lightsaber, but before he could move in a beeping sound came from his robe. Cavendish and Dakota both froze and just stared at each other for a moment before Cavendish quickly pulled his small holoprojector out from his pocket. He deactivated his lightsaber and Dakota, who was used to this song and dance by now, used the force to pull it back into his grip so Cavendish's hands could be free. Dakota crouched down and tried to pull the shadows around him, just like he'd been practicing, as Cavendish answered the call.

Dakota relaxed ever so slightly when he saw Brick standing there. He was another inquisitor. He was technically Cavendish's superior, but at least it wasn't his boss or the Grand Inquisitor calling.

"Brick," Cavendish stood straight as a rod. There was nothing but respect in his voice.

"Cavendish," As respectful as Cavendish was, Brick's tone suggested that he would rather be speaking to dirt. Dakota clenched his fists around the two lightsabers in his hands. Cavendish deserved so much better. "Where are you?"

"A small planet in the outer rims." Cavendish said. "I don't remember the name."

Brick scowled. "Careless. How can you expect to get missions if you can't even keep track of where you are in the universe?"

Dakota seethed. He knew for a fact that Cavendish knew perfectly well where they were. He was the most organized, in control man that Dakota had ever met. Cavendish was the one who had picked this out of the way planet, and the one who had reminded Dakota dozens of times when and where they would be meeting. If Brick knew Cavendish at all he would know that he would never forget the name of the planet he was on.

Cavendish swallowed thickly. "I-I shall strive to be better, Sir."

"That's just the thing, Cavendish, I don't think you can be better." Brick said. "But I guess our boss disagrees." Brick straightened, finally looking professional, like he had called for a reason more than just to give Cavendish a hard time. "Block wants you to go to the Auril sector. He wants to be sure that there isn't any Jedi propaganda at the Great Jedi Library on Ossus."

"Of course," Cavendish said. "I shall leave immediately." Somehow Cavendish seemed to puff up and deflate at once. He was always proud to be sent on missions on his own when all of the other inquisitors had to go in pairs, at the very least. However, the only reason this happened was because Cavendish was only ever given small, practically inconsequential missions that his bosses and superiors didn't think were worth anybody else's attention.

"It's an easy job, Cavendish," Brick said. "Try not to screw it up." The hologram turned off and Cavendish sagged. He looked exhausted and frustrated. Dakota watched for a moment as Cavendish gathered himself. Finally the Neimoidian straightened, adjusted his clothes, and returned his holoprojector to his pocket.

Dakota sighed and stood up. He stretched and returned Cavendish's lightsaber to its place on his hip. "So I guess that's it for sparring today?"

Cavendish turned to look at him. "I apologise, Dakota, but duty calls. I have to go."

"No, I get it," Dakota said. He didn't like the thought of his friend raiding the Great Jedi Library, but he wasn't about to say anything about it. Cavendish kept Dakota's existence a secret from the other inquisitors, even going so far as to lie about not knowing the name of the planet he was on, just in case, should they see Dakota through the hologram, they wouldn't know where to begin looking for him. Cavendish risked so much for Dakota's sake, he wasn't about to ask even more from him.

"I'll call when I'm available again," Cavendish said. He pointed sternly at Dakota. "Don't be so reckless. If you get caught, I can't guarantee that I can help you."

"I know, I know," Dakota adjusted his cloak to cover the two lightsabers. "I'll stay out of trouble,"

"See that you do," Cavendish said. He quickly walked back in the direction that he had come from. Dakota sighed and began to make his way back to the small town he had been staying at these past few days. He knew he should probably leave this planet as soon as possible, but he wanted to grab a bite to eat first.

Dakota passed by a few locals, but they ignored him. They were the reason he liked this planet so much. They all minded their own business. If he didn't bother them, they left him alone. It was a shame that he had to leave, but it really wasn't smart to stay somewhere that he had been using his lightsaber in the open.

Dakota walked into the first cantina he came across and ordered the very first thing that caught his attention on the menu. He didn't recognize the name, he didn't even know if it was a drink or a meal, but he didn't care. He just needed something in his stomach. While Dakota waited for his order he glanced out the window, wondering if Cavendish was going to be okay. He may have a relatively easy assignment, but easy didn't necessarily mean safe.

"Excuse me?" Dakota jumped when he felt a hand touch his arm. His free hand instinctively moved to under his cloak, to where his lightsaber was. He whipped around and froze when he saw a young Caamasi looking at him. She looked like she was barely an adult. Dakota let out a sigh of relief and moved his hand away from his cloak. He doubted this girl was a threat to him.

"Hey," Dakota gave her a small smile. "What's up?" Had he accidentally stolen her seat or something?

"Uh...my name is Sara Murphy." The girl said quietly. She looked around somewhat nervously and sat down next to Dakota. She leaned towards him, and he leaned towards her too. "I...I saw you outside earlier, with your…" She trailed off, but Sara's gaze wandered to Dakota's side. He adjusted his cloak to better cover the lightsabers. "I need your help."

Dakota's chest tightened. He had a bad feeling about this. He stood up, but Sara didn't let go of his arm. "Kid, I can't just-"

"Please," Sara said desperately. "My little brother needs help."

Dakota grimaced and ran a hand through his hair. "I...look, can we talk somewhere private?" He knew he was making a mistake. If Sara knew that he had the Force then he was in big trouble, and he had to get out of here, but he couldn't just leave a kid on his own, not if there was something he could do about it. He may have a decent sense of self-preservation, which was how he had survived this long, but he had always cared too much about other people, especially kids. It was why he had tried so hard to learn Force healing.

Sara smiled in relief. "Of course," She let go of Dakota's arm and followed him out to the back of the cantina. Dakota completely forgot about his order. Some things were more important than filling his stomach.

"So, what's going on?" Dakota asked. "What makes you think I can help?"

"You're a Jedi, aren't you?" Sara asked. Dakota looked around anxiously.

"I'm not a Jedi," He said firmly. "But I have the Force."

"That's...that's the magic that lets Jedi do weird things, right? Things that people can't explain?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, something like that," Dakota said. "Why do you want to know?"

Sara sighed. "Because I think my brother might have the Force himself."

This wasn't good. This definitely wasn't good. If Dakota was smart he would walk away from this whole thing and forget about this Caamasi and this planet. As a Force-sensitive himself, he was at enough risk on his own. If he was around another Force-sensitive, that would just make both of their signatures stronger, and they would both be in more danger than before. This was an incredibly reckless plan, and Cavendish would probably kill him for even considering it, but Dakota couldn't just leave a kid to his own devices.

"...I'll do what I can." Dakota said, despite his own personal self-interest. "Let's go."

Chapter Text

Dakota didn't like traveling through hyperspace, but he knew that it was unavoidable. Ever since the Empire. If he needed to make a quick get away, or suspected that somebody was onto him, he had to go into hyperspace. It left him feeling sick every single time he went in or out of it, and the sight of hyperspace itself made him dizzy and hurt his head, but it was better than to be caught by the Empire.

Still, unless his life depended on it, Dakota would prefer to not use the hyperdrive at all. If he'd known when he'd followed Sara onto her small ship that they would be going into hyperspace he may have turned right around and forgotten about the whole thing. Now it was far too late to go back.

Because Sara was handling the controls just fine on her own, and Dakota didn't want to make himself dizzy and vulnerable when they got to wherever they were going, he left the flying to her. Dakota spent the trip going through the ship's computers. Though the ship itself was an older model, the computer seemed to be brand new, as though it had recently been replaced, and yet it lagged and glitched like an outdated system. If Dakota was an engineer he might be more fascinated and concerned about this. As it was, Dakota just shrugged and brought up all the information he could find about the planet Sara was taking them to.

It was mostly habit at this point. After so many years of constantly traveling from one planet to another, Dakota was used to finding some quick information before he went somewhere new. It wasn't very thorough, he just learned enough to make sure that the natives of the planet wouldn't kill him at first sight, whether there was a stormtrooper base on the planet, and if there was any Force nexus nearby.

Dakota had accidentally stumbled upon a dark side nexus once, and it was enough to make him not want to repeat the experience. He had been so cold, distressed, and hopeless. Dakota didn't like to think about what might have happened if Cavendish hadn't met up with him shortly after that and helped talk him through how to overcome the overwhelming chill. That was actually when Cavendish had learned that Dakota was Force-sensitive. Cavendish had to have access to Dakota's mind to help him, and he'd quickly found his inner Force signature. If Cavendish hadn't needed to take several days to recover from using so much Force at once he likely would have turned Dakota in then and there.

Dakota wasn't always the most cautious person, but the very least he could do was make sure he wasn't walking into trouble. A quick search didn't reveal a whole lot of information about their destination, Povenmarsh, just that it was a relatively small, mostly uninhabited planet in the outer rims. Nothing to worry about, except for a bright warning that claimed that the planet, as well as any nearby planets, was part of Murphy's Sector. Dakota didn't know what that meant, but he knew better than to just brush aside a warning that was literally flashing in front of his eyes.

"Hey, what's this Murphy's Sector thing about?" Dakota asked.

"Huh?" Sara leaned over to look at the screen. "Oh, that shows up wherever my family lives. You remember how I told you that weird things happen around Milo? Well, it happens around my dad too. All the males in my family, actually."

"All the males?" Dakota frowned. Force-sensitivity was fairly genetic, but Dakota had never heard of it affecting only males, let alone every single male. Dakota had a feeling that this wasn't a matter of the Force. "Only the males?"

"Yeah," Sara said.

Dakota leaned back in his chair. "Tell me exactly what kind of weird things we're talking about here."

"It's hard to explain," Sara said. "It's like they have the worst luck in the world. It seems like whatever can go wrong, well go wrong around them. No matter how much we prepare, or how careful we are, things always go wrong in the weirdest of ways." She started to go into detail about different things that had happened, including numerous bantha attacks, even though those creatures shouldn't be anywhere near Povenmarsh.

By the time they left hyperspace and reached the planet Dakota had heard so many stories that he could hardly believe it, but he could sense the truth behind Sara's words. Her claims were real. Sara landed the ship near a nice looking house. She gave him a small smile and left the ship. Dakota adjusted his cloak, making sure that his two lightsabers were hidden but within easy reach, and followed after her.

The second that Dakota stepped foot on the planet he felt a rush of numbness wash over him. It felt like his connection to the Force was being smothered. He knew about Force-suppressants, but he'd never felt anything like it for himself. Dakota's Force powers had never been all that strong, but he'd been connected to it all his life. He felt a little lost without it.

"Hey, are you okay?" A young man's voice asked. Dakota felt a somewhat clawed hand on his arm. The numbness got even worse. It didn't hurt, but it was a little uncomfortable and very unfamiliar.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Dakota said. He gave the boy a small smile. "I just...felt a chill. No big deal." Dakota pulled his arm away from the kid's grip and held his hand out in offering. "Hey, the name's Vinnie Dakota,"

"Milo Murphy," The young Caamasi shook his hand. "Nice to meet you. What are you doing here? We don't often get visitors." Milo sounded so excited to see a new face. Dakota couldn't help but return his smile.

"Your sister invited me," Dakota said. "I've heard some pretty interesting things about you. Some kind of family jynx or something."

"Something like that," Milo raised an eyebrow at his sister. "Are you still trying to get rid of this thing?"

"I'm just trying to help you," Sara said. She put an arm around Milo's shoulder and pulled him into a half hug. "I thought if anybody could help, it would be somebody like Dakota."

Milo frowned slightly in confusion. "A Devaronian?"

"Not exactly," Dakota chuckled. He grabbed for his lightsaber hilt and held it out for Milo to see, but was careful to keep it pointed away from Milo or Sara Whatever was going on with Milo, there was no reason to tempt it. "Have you ever seen something like this."

"Never," Milo said. He reached out towards the lightsaber, and just before he touched it the blade came out on its own. Dakota quickly shifted it just to make sure that the kids didn't get hurt, but in doing so he brushed the blade against his arm. Dakota grunted in pain and dropped his weapon.

"Are you okay?" Milo asked, panicked. Instead of moving towards Dakota, he took a step away from him. "I'm so sorry, I didn't try to-"

"Kid, it's fine," Dakota knelt down and grabbed his lightsaber. He retracted the blade and put it away. "I've lost count of how many times I've hurt myself worse than this." Dakota put his hand on the burn and tried to gather the Force around him. It felt like it was resisting him, but Dakota had been doing healing for so long that it felt like second nature at this point. He stubbornly pulled and manipulated the Force, but the energy pulled back so harshly that the pain in his arm began to feel worse.

Dakota furrowed his brow and continued trying to heal the wound, but the pain got worse the more he tried. When Dakota saw the wound start to bleed he had to stop. Lightsabers had a tendency to cauterize wounds, so they rarely bled. This kind of thing wasn't supposed to happen, especially when he'd only been grazed by the blade.

"Th-this isn't supposed to happen," Dakota said faintly. Sara took Dakota's uninjured arm and pulled him towards the house.

"Hang on," Sara said. "Milo-"

"I'll find a bacta patch," Milo ran into the house. The two of them were clearly worried, but not frantic. They were acting like they did this kind of thing all the time, and if what Sara said was true, they probably had.

"What were you trying to do?" Sara asked.

"I can usually use the Force to heal," Dakota stared at his arm in shock. Right now, he couldn't use the Force, he couldn't feel it at all, and he didn't know why. When Dakota had been looking for information about this planet, he hadn't found anything about it being particularly high or low in the Force. Povenmarsh was supposed to be completely neutral, and yet being on this planet made him feel numb. "I don't know what's wrong."

"Well, how about we take care of this cut first, and then we'll worry about your jedi Force powers," Sara said.

"Not a jedi," Dakota said automatically.

"Yeah, I know," Sara just gave him a small smile. "I'm just trying to get your mind off this whole thing. Is it working?"

"Not really," Dakota chuckled. "But thanks anyways." Sara led him inside the house and to the couch. Somehow, the numb feeling was even worse in the house. Dakota was slowly starting to get used to it though.

Milo returned a moment later with a bacta patch. The boy kneeled on the couch next to Dakota and gently put it on the wound. "Okay, just leave that there and it should be just fine."

"Thanks, kid," Dakota smiled at him. He rustled Milo's hair. "It feels better already."

"So, why do you have a lightsaber?" Milo asked. "Are you-"

"Not a jedi," Sara and Dakota said together.

"I've got the Force, but technically I'm not a jedi," Dakota said. "You know, your sister thought that you and your dad might have the Force too, but I don't think that's it." The Force didn't seem attracted to Milo, it almost seemed to try to avoid him, and that wouldn't be the case if Milo had the Force himself. Whatever this was, it was something completely different.

Still, it was best to be thorough. "Just in case, I think we should probably test your midichlorian count."

"Midi-what?" Milo tilted his head at him.

"Midichlorian," Dakota said. "It's basically a fancy word for the Force. The more Midichlorians you have, the stronger your connection to the Force is. For most people, it's barely noticeable, but if you're Force-sensitive it can feel like you're one with it."

Dakota reached into his pocket and pulled out a sealed packet of needles and a few small vials. He always had these with him. This wasn't the first time that he'd run into a kid who might be Force-sensitive. He carried these things with him, just in case. Not very many kids were Force-sensitive, but the parents wanted to be sure. As for the kids who were connected to the Force, even though it pained Dakota to do so, he found some Force-suppressants to use one the kids. If the Empire knew they had the Force, they would be in danger, and Dakota couldn't allow it.

He didn't like cutting kids off from the Force, but most of them were young enough to not understand what they were feeling. They would feel lost and not like themselves for a bit, but eventually they got used to the feeling and went on with their lives, without the Force to guide them or put them in danger.

Sometimes, Dakota felt bad for those kids. Sometimes, he felt jealous of them.

"If you guys can give me some blood samples, I know a place that can do a midichlorian test." Dakota said. In the past the jedi used to have tools that allowed them to conduct these tests themselves, but when the order was destroyed so were the tools. It had taken Dakota a long time to find someone who would do a midichlorian test without asking questions or alerting the Empire.

Dakota looked at Sara. "Just in case, I should get a test from you and your mom as well."

"No problem." Sara took some of the needles, more than she needed, and a half dozen vials. When Dakota gave her an odd look she just shrugged. "Around my dad, it's better to be safe than sorry." She then left the room to go find their parents. Dakota hoped that she didn't tell them that he was Force-sensitive. It was one thing to trust kids to keep his secret, and another to trust adults.

"So what's it like to have the Force?" Milo scooted closer to Dakota. The boy looked at him with wide, eager eyes. "Do you have special powers?"

"I'm not as impressive as the jedi you might have heard about," Dakota said. Many jedi stories were greatly exaggerated, but even the ones that weren't were about the more powerful jedi, not guys like Dakota. "I mostly do healing, though I can also lift objects up with just a thought, and I've been working on blending in with the shadows."

"That's so cool," Milo said. "What else can the Force do?"

"Well, people can form Force-bonds with those that they're really close to," Dakota said. "They'll then be able to do things like sense how the other is feeling, or speak into each other's minds. That kind of bond is mostly between masters and padawans, or students,"

"Why?" Milo asked. Dakota grimaced and leaned back in his seat.

"Because the bond relies on having a close connection, and the jedi discourage having attachments like that," Dakota said. "It's okay between master and padawan, because it makes it easier for young jedi to learn, but as soon as they finish their training, they're expected to just let go of that kind of thing."

"Oh," Milo no longer looked as excited at the thought of having the Force. "I don't think I like that."

"You and me both, kid," Dakota smirked. "Why do you think I left the jedi?" There were other reasons, but the attachments thing was definitely a big one. Dakota was a people person. He liked people, and he liked having the chance to connect with them. He may not have personal attachments to many people, as it was difficult to make meaningful bonds when he was constantly on the move, but Dakota valued the friendships that he did have, even if they did make him more vulnerable.

"Do you have a Force-bond with anybody?" Milo asked.

"I'm working on it," Dakota said. He could feel the beginnings of a bond between him and Cavendish. It was firm and steady, but small. Cavendish was reluctant to let him in, but Dakota was slowly wearing him down. He didn't know if they would ever be able to speak telepathically over long distances, but if they could sense when the other was in danger it might help ease both of their concerns about each other.

Milo took one of the needles and pricked his finger. He carefully drew some blood out and put some in four different empty vials. Dakota watched him with fascination. It was clear that Milo had done this kind of thing before.

"Have you had your blood tested?" Dakota asked.

"Not for midichlorians," Milo said. "But we always have accidents that a bacta patch isn't quite enough to fix, so we have to go to an actual medical facility. If we ever need more blood, they take some of ours and clone it, so yeah, I'm kinda used to this whole thing."

Dakota was shocked. He'd heard of blood cloning, but the procedure was expensive and most medical facilities didn't think that it was worth the cost. But if bad luck and accidents followed Milo and his dad everywhere, it would make sense that the medcenter wouldn't want to risk their blood supply for normal transfusions.

Milo and his dad must have the worst luck in the galaxy if blood cloning was the cheaper and safer option in the long run.

Milo handed the vials to Dakota as soon as he was finished with them, but one of them shattered for no reason as it passed between their hands. A few shards of bloody glass embedded itself in each of their hands. Milo seemed unbothered, but Dakota felt absolute agony as soon as Milo's blood came in contact with his.

It wasn't exactly physical pain, but Dakota felt his subdued Force suddenly feel violently severed. He'd thought that the suppression was horrible, but this was torture. Dakota was just relieved that the pain began to dim slightly as the few drops of Milo's blood spread out in Dakota's veins. It was still there, but weaker and spread out than agonizing and in one spot.

Dakota shook out his arm. He would have to try to heal this later, once his connection to the Force had returned. Milo was watching him with concern. "What happened?"

"Yeah...I really don't think you have the Force," Dakota said. This was terrifying, but also a little exciting. He'd never seen something like before.

"So what is it?" Milo asked.

"I don't know," Dakota looked closely at the vials and grinned. "But I'm going to figure this out."

Chapter Text

Melissa's life wasn't all that exciting, but it wasn't all that boring either. She got to see the galaxy, because her dad was a paramedic who responded to all kinds of emergencies. He helped with disasters, and when people were hurt he would bring them to the nearest or best hospital.

Since Melissa's dad was the only real family that she had, she almost always went with him. Her dad did the best that he could to keep Melissa out of danger, but she wasn't the kind of person who liked to sit back and twiddle her thumbs when there were people out there who needed help.

Melissa had listened to her dad when she was just a little kid, back when she'd still thought that everything he said had to be true, but that had changed when she'd seen a couple of kids who had been even younger than her wandering around lost and crying. A tempest had just hit their city, and these kids had been separated from their parents. Melissa hadn't felt right to just sit in her dad's ship, safe and comfortable, while the kids needed help, so she helped reunite them with their parents. Melissa's dad had grounded her for weeks after that, but she didn't regret anything. Even as a kid Melissa felt that if there was something that she could do, then it was something that she should do.

Over the years Melissa had learned how to deal with disasters fairly well. She had learned how to adapt and adjust. Most importantly Melissa had learned that sometimes she couldn't fix big problems completely. Sometimes the best she could do was find the lesser of two evils.

Melissa had only learned that lesson after her dad started providing protection for Force sensitives. He had been reluctant to do so, as people who helped force-sensitives could be in just as much danger as people who had the Force themselves, but he'd started to change his mind after he saw how unfairly children who were born with these abilities were treated.

Melissa had been ecstatic when her dad started to do midichlorian testing. She'd always been fascinated with the powers of the Force, and she loved studying the midichlorians themselves. The idea that there were microscopic beings that could influence the world in such interesting ways, and that these microscopic beings lived inside plants and people, it was exciting.

Because Melissa had been so intrigued at the thought of midichlorians, she'd been furious and a little insulted when her dad had started to work with a not-jedi named Vinnie Dakota to block their connection to the Force. Melissa hadn't understood why it would ever be okay to cut someone off from something that was part of who they are. It had taken Melissa a long time to come to terms with the fact that yes, it was horrible, but it was better than the alternative.

Melissa still saw Force-repressors as a necessary evil, but she no longer glared at Dakota everytime he so much as mentioned it.

Melissa usually travelled with her dad, but there were times when he was called away to deal with an emergency when there was a potential Force-sensitive that needed help. It had taken a lot of convincing, assurances, and promises on Melissa's part, but she'd eventually convinced her dad to let her take care of the Force-sensitives when he couldn't. She knew how to do the test, and she knew how to keep the information away from the Empire.

Melissa had been on the planet Gorse with her dad when she'd gotten a call on her com-link. She didn't know that many people who had her frequency, she mostly just had her own com-link because her dad wanted to be able to contact her when they were separated. Melissa had cautiously answered the call, and she wasn't surprised to see that it was Dakota. He was the only recurring person who came by for midichlorian tests.

What surprised Melissa about this call was that Dakota didn't have just one blood sample that he wanted tested, but four of them, as well as a warning that things might go wrong during the testing. Melissa was also surprised when Dakota told her that he wouldn't be the one stopping by, but a Caamasi named Sara. Dakota never trusted anybody else with these tests. Melissa didn't know what was different about this particular test, but she was very interested in figuring it out.

As soon as Dakota told Melissa where she could find Sara he ended the call. He seemed to be in a hurry, but it didn't sound like he was in danger so Melissa wasn't too worried. She would be demanding a proper explanation from him later though.

"Was that Dakota?" Melissa's dad asked as she put her comlink away.

"Yeah," Melissa said. "I've gotta go." Her dad frowned, clearly not happy about her going off on her own. He'd started to loosen up these past few years, but he was still extremely protective. Melissa gave her dad a small smile and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry, Dad, I'll be careful."

"Make sure you call when you get there, and when you leave, and if there's any problems," Her dad said.

"I will," Melissa promised. She knew he would probably be working when she called, but it was the thought that mattered. "I'll be back soon," Melissa embraced her dad and made her way to their medical ship. She had only recently convinced her dad that she could pilot their ship, and he had very specific rules that she needed to follow. No hyperspace travel, no racing, no flying in places with high traffic, and most importantly if she saw fighter ships, whether they belonged to the Empire, the rebellion, or someone else completely, she would turn the other way.

Melissa was just glad that she would be meeting Sara on Birren, another planet in the inner rim. It would take her time to get there, but nothing too ridiculous since she couldn't go into hyperspace. After getting into space and setting the ship onto autopilot, Melissa made sure that all of the midichlorian testing equipment was ready to go. After that, Melissa had quite a bit of time to spare for reading before she had to put the ship back onto manual so she could bring it into orbit and land.

Melissa had never been to Birren before, but she didn't have to worry about she and Sara finding each other. There weren't very many Caamasis on this planet, and Melissa had one of the only medical ships on the planet. Just a few minutes after Melissa landed a Caamasi came up to her.

"Are you Melissa?" The Caamasi asked.

"Melissa Chase," She held out her hand, which the Caamasi accepted with a small smile. "You must be Sara Murphy."

"I have to admit, I was a little confused when Dakota told me how young you were," Sara said as she followed Melissa into her ship.

"My dad was the one who started this work," Melissa said. "I'm taking over for him today." She smirked slightly at Sara. "Don't worry, I know exactly what I'm doing.

"You definitely know more than I do," Sara said. "I didn't even know what midichlorians were before I found Dakota."

"You found him?" Melissa frowned slightly. Dakota was usually the one who sought after those who might have the Force. For people to ask Dakota for help they would have to know that he had the Force, and nobody was supposed to know about that. Dakota had to be more careful if he didn't want to get discovered by the Empire.

"Yeah," Sara either hadn't noticed Melissa's unease or just didn't acknowledge it. "So how does this work?"

"It's just like any other blood test," Melissa said. "We're just looking for something really specific." Melissa pulled out the machine that would do this job. "So, Dakota said I'd be doing four different tests? What, did he just come across a whole family of jedi?"

"We think it would just be my brother and dad who would have the Force," Sara took her shoulder bag and pulled out way more than four vials of blood. "Technically, I don't think Dakota's even convinced that they have the Force, but he wanted to do this test anyways. I'm not sure why we're testing my blood or my mom's."

"Maybe he wanted to be extra thorough?" Melissa suggested, though she wasn't convinced. Dakota was a lot of things, but needlessly thorough just for the sake of it was not one of them. That was much more up Melissa's alley. Melissa took one of the vials from Sara, only to almost drop it. The outside of the vial was covered in blood. Apparently one of the vials had broken while in Sara's bag. Melissa was just glad that all of the vials had been carefully sealed, because otherwise she would have to worry about contamination. As it was, she thought that they were safe.

The test was a fairly quick one and within a few moments she got the results. She didn't take a close look at them right away, since she had three other tests to get through. Melissa took the vial ou, quickly cleaned the machine, and started the next test. It only took a few minutes to get through all of the tests, even when one of the duplicate vials refused to work for no reason whatsoever and she had to try it again with one of the other vials. It was only when Melissa was done did she look at the results, and she wondered for a moment if she had done something wrong.

Melissa could very quickly look up what the average midichlorian count for Caamasi were, and only one of the the four results had a number anywhere near that average. Brigette Murphy, the mother. Sara's midichlorian count was lower than her mother's, but still within the expected range for a Caamasi. It was the results of the father and brother that made Melissa second-guess the test.

Their midichlorian count was unbelievably low. Melissa hadn't even thought that it was possible for a person to have a result as low as this. When Melissa was bored and extremely curious she would take local plants and test what their midichlorian counts were, and almost all of those flower and tree samples had more Force than Milo and Martin. What was going on here?"

Melissa pulled out her comlink and brought up Dakota's frequency. He had told her that she shouldn't call him unless it was an emergency, because he never knew what kind of situation he might be in. He had called her just a short time ago, and he had seemed fine then, so Melissa thought it should be okay. Besides, she needed some answers.

"Hey, Mel," Dakota said as his image flickered onto the ship's holoprojector. He looked out of breath and his breath was more frazzled than Melissa had ever seen it before. He looked like he was having some fun.

"Don't call me that, jedi," Melissa crossed her arms. "Where in the galaxy did you find these guys?"

Dakota brightened. "Did you get the results back?"

"Yeah, I got them," Melissa crossed her arms. "Milo and Martin's midichlorian counts are low, like, really low. I've seen plants with higher counts."

"So...not a jedi," A Caamasi boy who looked about Melissa's age showed up next to Dakota on the holoprojector. The boy smiled and gave them a wave. "Oh, hey Sara."

"Hey, Milo," Sara smiled at her brother. "Have you gotten Dakota's arm broken yet?" Melissa stared at Sara in alarm. Caamasi were usually a very peaceful species, so Melissa hadn't thought that Sara's family would be a threat to Dakota. Had she put Dakota in danger by calling him jedi?

"Not yet," Dakota said far too cheerfully for somebody whose life might be in trouble. "Not for lack of trying though. I did, however, get a concussion when we slipped down a cliff."

"Make sure you take care of that," Sara said. "And no more wandering around cliffs."

"You got it," Dakota said, though Melissa knew him well enough to know that while he would keep his word he would just find another way to put himself in danger. "So, Melissa, you want to do a small experiment for me?"

"Always," Melissa said. "What's up?"

"You still have a blood sample of mine, right?" Dakota asked. Melissa nodded. "I need you to take some of my blood and combine it with some of Milo's blood, see exactly what happens when they mix. Keep a close eye on how my midichlorians react."

"That's an awfully specific request," Melissa narrowed her eyes at Dakota. "Please don't tell me that you already tested this."

"Not on purpose," Dakota smirked. He held up a slightly bandaged hand. "Good news though, the agony has numbed a bit."

"Well, that's reassuring." Melissa crossed her arms. "I swear, Dakota, if you-" The image on the holoprojector flickered before the image went out completely. "Dakota!"

"Don't worry, I'm sure they're fine," Sara said. "My family and technology don't really get along. I'm surprised the call lasted this long."

"Hang on," Melissa said. "This is normal?"

"Bad things happen all the time around my dad and brother," Sara said simply. Melissa remembered how Dakota had once said that good luck could be an early sign of Force-sensitivity. If the Force could be connected to good luck, what was its connection to bad luck?

"Let's see if we can figure out what's going on here," Melissa went to find Dakota's blood sample. "Can you get your brother's blood and take it to that microscope over there?" Sara immediately did as she had asked.

With the samples in hand, Melissa got to work. She put a few drops of Milo's blood onto a microscope slide and waited a few long moments, just in case those few drops were enough to cause some of that bad luck to happen. When nothing happened Melissa took some of Dakota's blood and carefully added it to the slide, next to but not right on top of Milo's blood. Melissa quickly looked into the microscope and waited for the blood to mingle.

Melissa hadn't known exactly what she had expected to happen, but she'd thought that the result would be subtle or gradual. She was surprised and slightly alarmed when, as soon as Milo's blood came in contact with Dakota's, the midichlorians in Dakota's blood flared up.

Melissa watched in alarm as the midichlorians seemed to flee from Milo's blood. If she looked at the slide with her blind eye, she wouldn't be able to see a difference between Dakota and Milo's blood, as the drops were decently combined, but under the microscope she could see exactly where Milo's blood ended and Dakota's began, because the midichlorians were doing their best to stay away from this intruding blood. It was almost like there was a barrier around their blood.

One day when she was bored Melissa had done something similar to this with Dakota's blood and some of her own. She'd wanted to know if there would be any issue if there was a blood transfusion between someone who had the Force and someone who didn't. From what she'd observed the midichlorians had adapted well to the new blood, integrating itself in.

Whatever was happening here, it wasn't just because Milo didn't have the Force. This was something else completely.

Curious and a little concerned, Melissa gently nudged the midichlorians towards Milo's blood, and the result was a little scary. The midichlorians almost seemed to jump away from the strange blood. If Dakota had accidentally mingled his blood with Milo's, it was no wonder his arm had hurt. It was unnerving to see this happen under just a microscope, but the thought that this was actually happening inside of Dakota's body was terrifying.

Midichlorians weren't just found in the blood of Force-sensitives. Dakota said they were everywhere. If what Dakota said was true, that Midichlorians were everywhere in the galaxy, and all of those midichlorians were just as desperate to stay away from Milo's blood, and probably Milo himself, it was no wonder he seemed to have so much bad luck.

"That face doesn't look good," Sara watched Melissa somewhat nervously. "What'd you find?"

"Well, you brother definitely doesn't have the Force," Melissa said. "It's almost like he has an anti-Force or something."

"I didn't know there was such a thing," Sara said.

"Neither did I," Melissa said. "But it's a large Galaxy. There's no way we know everything there is to know." Especially about the jedi and Force, which the Empire had been doing its best to erase any evidence of. This new discovery was a little terrifying, but only because Dakota was so close to it and Melissa was concerned about her friend. If Dakota wasn't involved at all Melissa would be ecstatic. This may be unchartered territory, but that just meant that she had the chance to chart it out for herself, and that wasn't something she could pass up. Melissa desperately wanted to see this anti-midichlorian blood in action, and she wanted Dakota as far away from it as possible when it happened.

Melissa was determined to join Milo and figure out more about what exactly was going on. She knew her dad wouldn't be very happy with this sudden plan of hers, but Melissa was sure she could wear him down. She had to. She wasn't going to just let an opportunity like this go. She was going to hold onto it with both hands and never let go.

Melissa smirked slightly and looked at Sara. "You got enough room on your ship for one more?"

Chapter Text

Dakota spent the majority of the next couple of weeks hanging around Milo. At first it had been because he'd been curious about the kid's anti-midichlorian nature. Even before Melissa had conducted the test Dakota had an idea of what was going on with the boy. He'd never met anybody who drove off midichlorians, but if there were people that the Force favored, it would just make sense that there were people that it wasn't fond of.

It had been a little bit painful to be around Milo, because his own midichlorians really didn't appreciate it, but Dakota just ignored it. He'd wanted to figure out exactly how this thing worked, but it wasn't long before Dakota decided that he really liked Milo. He loved being around him. The boy was resourceful, kind, and extremely optimistic and cheerful, considering the kinds of things he had to deal with on a regular basis.

Dakota didn't care if it was a little uncomfortable for him to be around Milo. It wouldn't be the first time that Dakota had started a relationship that he probably shouldn't, because of his Force abilities. If Dakota was friends with Cavendish, despite the trouble it could get him in with the Empire, then he could handle some of the bad luck that came with being around Milo.

Dakota didn't really mind the trouble that came around the boy, but the others certainly did. As soon as Melissa and Sara had got to Povenmarsh Dakota had received a scolding from Melissa. Her test had proven exactly what Dakota had thought, that Milo's midichlorian count contrasted almost dangerously with his. She had not been impressed with Dakota's decision. She said he was being reckless. He'd just chuckled and said that was his thing, and she really should know that by now.

Dakota had thought that since he was used to being on the run from the empire, he really couldn't be intimidated by a teenager. He was wrong. Melissa's disappointed and slightly angry glare almost made Dakota feel like a padawan again. His master had been a nice woman, and Dakota had gotten along with her okay, but she had been really good at making him feel like he was doing something wrong.

But Dakota wasn't a padawan anymore, he didn't feel the need to jump through hoops to seek approval. Melissa could glare and scold to her heart's content, Dakota wasn't going to leave just because there was some risk to him. It took several days of pointed comments and suggestions before Melissa realized it. She eventually backed off, and everything felt nice for a few days.

Every morning Dakota would meditate, which was something he hadn't done since he had left the Jedi. Dakota wasn't the kind of person who could sit around and just think quietly and contemplate the universe around him, but it felt like a bit of a relief to do it here. Dakota had been connected to the Force his whole life, so it was weird to not have it around, and it wasn't an easy feeling to get used to. Meditating away from the Murphy residence allowed Dakota to get at least some of the Force back near him, enough that he didn't feel completely lost and abandoned.

Sara soon started to join him, wanting to have the chance to escape from the chaos that followed her family everywhere. Melissa tried to join them once, but she'd been disappointed at how uneventful it was. Melissa had heard a lot about jedi from Dakota, and meditation just didn't fit in her image of the magical, lazer-sword wielding warriors.

Milo had shown some interest in joining them, but he never did. He seemed to know as much as Dakota did that if he joined them it would completely defeat the purpose of meditation. Milo waited patiently for Dakota to finish and return to the Murphy home.

Besides meditation, every single day was completely different. Sometimes unexpected things happened one right after another, leaving barely any room for a break. Sometimes everything seemed relatively normal until a massive storm or something else along those lines came out of nowhere. One time the day had been completely uneventful, and all of them had been on edge and just waiting, only for nothing to happen. That had probably been the most nerve-racking day.

Even though Dakota was lacking his connection to the Force, he had started to rely more on his training than he ever had. He'd never gotten the hang of using the Force to enhance his instincts and physical capabilities, but like he'd told Cavendish, instincts were more than just the Force. As a padawan Dakota's master had tried to teach him how to tap into the Force in that way, but he'd never managed it. The training wasn't completely useless though. It taught Dakota how to be more aware of his surroundings and how to react quickly, and that skill was finally coming in handy.

Upon Melissa's insistence, Dakota had started teaching the kids some other jedi techniques. After what had happened the last time Dakota had brought out his lightsabers, he didn't dare bring them anywhere near the kids. Despite it having been drilled into him by the jedi masters that his lightsaber was his life and an extension of himself, Dakota knew that it was too risky to have them around Milo. While he was around the kid, the blades stayed locked away safely on Sara's ship.

But there was no law against teaching jedi fighting styles with normal sticks. The kids had a blast with it, happily playing pretend for hours on end. Apparently Sara had grown up on stories about the jedi warriors, and she was ecstatic to try to play through some of those stories. Melissa loved learning the fighting forms that had been reserved just for the jedi. She took it very seriously. With her new skills, and her electrostaff that her dad insisted she have for self-defence, Melissa could be a truly formidable force.

Milo just seemed to be ecstatic to have company. He never acted like he was a lonely boy, but Dakota knew what it was like to be mostly secluded from everybody. It wasn't too bad, but once he was around people who liked his company, it was hard to return to the isolation.

Dakota might have considered just staying on Povenmarsh. Having some friends and a home to actually call his own would make being on the run from the Empire more bearable. The planet was isolated enough that Dakota might never be found there. He wouldn't have to be alone anymore.

Dakota hadn't mentioned his idea to anybody, but Melissa still seemed to know what was on his mind. A few weeks in, when Dakota was starting to believe that Melissa had gotten over her disapproval of him being there, she confronted him.

"Dakota, you can't stay here anymore." Melissa crossed her arms and tried to look stern, but Dakota had been raised by Jedi, who were masters of hiding their feelings. Melissa was nowhere near as good at hiding the sympathetic, pained look in her eyes.

"You've already tried to lecture me about how being around Milo is hurting me, and I've already told you-" Dakota began, but Melissa held up a hand and cut him off.

"Yeah, I know, your self-preservation stinks," Melissa said. "But you being here, it's not just putting you in danger."

Dakota had been ready to brush her off, but Melissa's final words made him pause. "What are you talking about?"

Melissa sighed and shifted her arms. Now instead of looking like she was crossing her arms, it looked more like she was hugging herself. "Look, this is just a hypothesis, and it's still way too early to tell for sure, but you know how weird things happen around Milo because his lack of midichlorians make the Force go nuts?" Dakota nodded. "Don't you think that bad things will happen more often if Milo's around something, or someone, where a lot of midichlorians are? Someone like a jedi?"

"I'm not a jedi," Dakota said automatically, but for Melissa's argument it didn't really matter. He still had a higher than average midichlorian count. He still had the Force. "Why do you think that?"

"It just makes sense." Melissa shrugged. "And I've noticed that of all of us who are around Milo, you're always the one who ends up getting cut or bruised or sprained. Bad stuff may happen around Milo, but it happens to you."

"That doesn't necessarily mean that me being around makes things happen more often." Dakota said. It was a fair argument, but it wasn't one he wanted to listen to. He didn't want to leave.

"I know," Melissa tightened her grip around herself. "But I was also wondering, well…" She took a deep breath. "Look, is there any chance that the Empire could track you?"

"Yeah, that's why I always had to be on the run." Dakota said slowly. He had an idea of where Melissa was going with this. "I don't think that they know where I am right now though."

"But what if they find you?" Melissa asked. "This is a small planet, you wouldn't be able to get away quickly or lose them in a crowd. If they find out you're here, that's it."

Dakota hadn't actually thought about that, but he found he wasn't all that concerned. The only close calls he'd had was because somebody had ratted him out, and the Murphy family wouldn't do that. "They won't find me."

"But what if they do?" Melissa said almost desperately. "What if the Murphy's get into trouble and the Empire finds out about Milo and his dad?" Dakota thought there was just a small chance that he was found at all, and he would do everything in his power to keep the Murphy's out of it, especially Milo.

Dakota imagined that the Empire would be too focused on him if they found him, they wouldn't waste the time or resources on investigating a random Caamasi child. The chances of Milo or his dad being brought in by the Empire were miniscule, but the chance was still there, and Dakota couldn't risk it. He couldn't be responsible for his new friends getting hurt or worse.

Dakota sighed. "...You're right, I know you're right." He really couldn't stay here. It was too risky for him and everybody around him. When you're being hunted down by such a powerful Empire, everybody around you was in danger too. "I'll go."

"Just...take care of yourself," Melissa said. "I've got Milo's back here, so you need to make sure you use your magic jedi powers to keep yourself safe, or else I'm going to hunt you down and whip your butt into next week."

"Oh, I don't doubt that." Dakota chuckled and nudged Melissa with his elbow. She let out a short giggle. "You'll be hearing back from me soon, kid. Don't think you'll get rid of me this easily."

"I'm looking forward to it, and I'm sure Milo would too." Melissa said. Her small smile dimmed slightly. "Speaking of Milo-"

"-I'm expecting you to explain everything to him." Dakota said. This was for the best. If he said goodbye to Milo himself, he might just chicken out and stay here. Besides, Dakota was getting ready to go back on the run, and it wasn't the best time to get a concussion or sprained wrist. He had to be aware and ready, which meant he needed the Force to be with him.

Melissa's mouth twitched ever so slightly as she seemed to be trying to keep herself calm and collected. Dakota gave Melissa a small smile and pulled her in for a quick but tight hug. "Hey, don't worry kid, I'll be just fine."

"I feel terrible," Melissa said tightly. "I know you like to be around people, but I'm forcing you to leave."

"You're not forcing me to do anything." Dakota said. He may not have made this decision without Melissa's input, but it was still his choice. "And I've got a friend that I've been meaning to call soon anyways." Dakota usually let Cavendish be the one to instigate all of their calls, but he was already feeling desperate for a friendly face to talk to, and he hadn't even left yet. Maybe he could meet up with Cavendish and see if the inquisitor would be willing to teach him some dark side Force tricks.

Dakota knew that his old jedi masters would be appalled that he would even consider learning something from the dark side, but he had long since decided that he wasn't going to live up to their expectations anyways, so he shouldn't even try. Dakota had never been Jedi material, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

Chapter Text

Cavendish told himself he was completely loyal to the Empire, but he knew he wasn't. He was dedicated to his work as an inquisitor, but not because he believed in their cause. His Force abilities had always fascinated him, and he'd wanted to do something with them. He had tried to teach himself, but it hadn't worked out very well. There was only so much he could learn with the limited resources he had found, and the Empire was really possessive of Force abilities. The only people who were allowed to use the Force were those who used it for the sake of the Empire, so that was what Cavendish did.

Cavendish didn't mind his work as an inquisitor. It could be frustrating sometimes to not be taken seriously, but he tried not to let it bother him. Cavendish was hard working, and sooner or later he would prove himself. Everybody who doubted him would be forced to see that he was to be taken seriously.

Though Cavendish was determined to move up in the Empire, he understood that not everybody was like him. Many people saw the Empire as an oppressive dictatorship. Even among the Empire employees, there was a surprising number of people who just saw their work as a way to get by, rather than a career that they had a passion for.

Cavendish was sympathetic towards these people. Before becoming an inquisitor Cavendish had jumped from job to job, trying to find the career that satisfied his needs. He was satisfied working for the Empire, but when he came across somebody who was so unhappy with their work that they wanted help getting out, Cavendish was willing to help them.

Most of his help involved providing a listening ear, or loaning a few credits. He often didn't have the confidence or daring to go so far as to smuggle someone away from a bad situation, but sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures. When Cavendish met a young Stormtrooper in training who was looking for a way out of his current situation, he couldn't help but want to help him.

Zack was just a boy, barely more than a child, but he was already the leader of his training squadron. From what Cavendish could tell, Zack had a lot of potential to really go places as a Stormtrooper if he wanted to, but he didn't, and that was what really mattered here.

Because Zack was so young and looked at with so much potential, it would be difficult for him to just sneak off and disappear into obscurity. Zack needed real help, and Cavendish didn't know if he could provide it all himself. He wasn't used to this kind of thing. However, Cavendish just so happened to know somebody who knew a thing or two about keeping out of the Empire's spotlight, and he doubted that he would ever leave a child to his own devices.

"Hey, Cav," Dakota said just a little too loudly as he approached him in front of an Imperial academy. Cavendish couldn't help but be worried to see him. Dakota looked strangely tired, almost like he was ill. He also had far more cuts and bruises than Cavendish was completely comfortable with seeing. Most alarming though was that even though Dakota was smiling, it looked slightly strained and forced.

Cavendish didn't know what had happened to his friend since he'd last seen him, but he intended to find out...later, once they were in a safer place.

"Please, just be quiet for a few moments," Cavendish pleaded desperately. He was always just a little paranoid about Dakota being discovered. He wasn't always as careful as he should be, which was concerning on a normal day, but even more so when they were so close to an imperial base.

Dakota shrugged and just leaned against the wall. Cavendish saw a glimpse of his lightsabers, but Dakota quickly adjusted his cloak to hide them again. He didn't look nearly as anxious or nervous as Cavendish thought he should be, but Cavendish wasn't about to scold him for it, because that would just draw more attention to them. The smartest thing for them to do right now was not draw attention their way, which meant that Cavendish had to pretend that nothing was wrong.

Fortunately it was only a few minutes before Zack came out. He was clearly wearing the academy uniform, but Cavendish was surprised to see that it wasn't the traditional stormtrooper armor that he was so used to. Zack had a backpack slung over his shoulder. He looked a little nervous, but as soon as he saw Cavendish he relaxed. Zack quickly said goodbye to four other students before he hurried to join Cavendish and Dakota.

"Is this the guy?" Zack asked urgently. He looked anxious but also incredibly hopeful. "Can he actually help me?"

Cavendish shushed him harshly. He looked around nervously, but nobody was paying attention to them. Cavendish grabbed Dakota's arm and Zack's. He pulled them towards the docking bay where his ship was. It was still imperial property, but one advantage to being an inquisitor was that he was technically ranked higher than many of the imps and stormtroopers on this small planet. And because he had the Force, most people wouldn't want to risk messing with him. All Cavendish had to do was request privacy and he would surely be given it, at least for a few minutes.

Once they had nobody there to listen to them, Cavendish was finally able to discuss things with the two of them. "Dakota, thank you for coming so quickly."

"Hey, I'm always up for doing you a favor," Dakota said. "Besides, after the past few weeks I've had I could really use some company." Cavendish gave him a concerned look, but Dakota didn't say more about it. "So, who's the kid?"

"Zack Underwood, leader of the Lumber Flight Squadron." Zack stood up straight at attention. It took him a moment to realize what he had said. He smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, force of habit."

"Hey, I get it." Dakota said. "I still sometimes call kids younglings." Cavendish coughed and gave Dakota a sharp look. Dakota spread his hands out in a 'what do you want from me?' way. "Hey, tons of species use that term."

"Need I remind you that we are currently standing in an Imperial docking bay?" Cavendish hissed.

"Okay, okay, I get it," Dakota sighed. "Sorry." He sounded truly sincere, and Cavendish didn't know why that bothered him so much. He should be pleased that Dakota was so willing to back down and fix his behavior, but his friend normally put up some resistance. Dakota liked to push his buttons, just to see how far he could take him. It wasn't like him to have so much on his mind that he didn't even bother trying to mess with Cavendish.

"So, why did you drag me out here?" Dakota asked. "I didn't think there would ever be a day where you suggest that I go anywhere near a place where the Empire has a foothold."

"The situation is rather delicate." Cavendish said. "I needed you to come here because Zack needs some help to get off planet and off the Empire's radar."

"Oh?" Dakota gave Zack a concerned but not pitying look. "I would wonder if you were a little young to be wanted by the Empire, but we all know that they don't really care how old someone is."

"I wouldn't say that I'm wanted by them," Zack said. "I mean, not like that. Right now I'm the leader of our training squadron, and it's fine, but I've realized it's not really what I want, but you know how the Empire is. They don't exactly let people just walk away."

"Yeah, I get that," Dakota said. "What is it about the Empire you don't like anyways?"

"With my squadron, I'm not Zack, I'm just one of the guys, and it's exhausting. I don't want to be the leader of the Lumber Flight Squadron, I just want to be Zack." The boy said. Dakota smiled, though there was a pained look in his eyes. Cavendish gave him an odd look. Dakota closed his eyes and a moment later Cavendish heard Dakota's voice in his head.

'The Jedi weren't big on individuality." Dakota's voice was muffled and almost sounded like he was talking to him underwater.

Cavendish wasn't used to communicating through the Force, and he had been reluctant to open himself up to a bond with Dakota, but he wasn't about to push him away now. Dakota had seemed so desperate to meet up with Cavendish, and he didn't want to make him feel like the fondness wasn't returned. "Neither are the inquisitors." Cavendish said in his mind. Dakota smiled, looking so pleased that even though Cavendish's head was hurting and he was a little uncomfortable with using the Force in this way, he was glad he had done it.

"One would think that two groups that hated each other so much would be just a little more different from each other." Dakota said through the Force. He then turned his attention back to Zack, who hadn't noticed that they'd been having a silent conversation without him. "So, kid, you have anywhere you want to go, or just anywhere other than here?"

"Honestly, I didn't think that far ahead," Zack said. "I just need to get away from here."

Dakota thought for a moment before a small smile came to his face. "You know, I might have somewhere in mind. I've recently made some new friends who need to lie low from the Empire too. Someone with your experience could really help them out."

"New friends?" Cavendish frowned. From what he had seen of Dakota, though he was incredibly friendly, he didn't settle anywhere and was careful to not get too close to anybody. Cavendish was sure that Dakota's new friends had something to do with why his mood was a little strange right now.

Cavendish couldn't imagine why Dakota would be so distressed by someone that he called a friend, unless he felt conflicted about them. Cavendish knew this wasn't likely, but he couldn't help but wonder if Dakota had run into a Jedi or another trained Force-sensitive. Cavendish desperately wanted to ask his friend about it, but he knew he would have to be patient. If he didn't want Dakota to mention younglings, then he couldn't ask about the Jedi. That would just be asking for trouble.

"Hey, whatever you have in mind, it'll be better than anything I would do on my own." Zack said. "I'll give it a shot."

"Great," Dakota grinned. "I'm sure that Milo would love to have a new friend." Dakota reached into his pocket and pulled out a small disk. "This has their information on it. You should probably know exactly what you're getting into before you make this decision. Sara will tell you everything you need to know."

"Uh, okay," Zack raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, hang on a second," Dakota said. "Cavendish is going to shoot me for this, but I really gotta ask. Are you Force-sensitive?"

"Dakota!" Cavendish said. He was both angry and terrified. "You can't just-"

"I have to," Dakota talked over him. "Trust me, it's really important."

"Uh, no, I don't have the Force," Zack looked around slightly nervously, as though he expected stormtroopers to run in and shoot them with their blasters just by mentioning the Force. Cavendish couldn't blame him for his slight paranoia, because he was afraid of the exact same thing. Just by being here they were standing on thin ice, and Dakota was attacking it with his lightsaber.

"Then you should be just fine," Dakota said. Cavendish thought that they should probably talk to Zack about this more, make sure that they had a solid plan in mind before they jumped into anything. However, his concern and curiosity had reached a breaking point. He needed to speak with Dakota. Alone.

"Dakota, would you mind lending Zack your communicator so he can talk to, er, Sara?" Cavendish tried to keep his tone calm and casual, but both Dakota and Zack gave him odd looks, so he must not have been very successful.

"Sure," Dakota reached into his pocket and pulled out his comlink. In doing so he moved his cloak just enough that the two lightsabers that he had were visible for just a moment. Cavendish didn't know if Zack had seen them or not. The boy just took the comlink and quickly retreated out of the docking bay to have some privacy.

Cavendish would normally be worried about the boy going to report Dakota to somebody, but he had other worries on his mind at the moment. "Why did you ask if Zack was Force-sensitive?"

"I-" Dakota looked conflicted for a moment before he shrugged and gave Cavendish an easy It's just...look, being around Milo can be a little dangerous sometimes, but it gets worse if someone has the Force."

Cavendish paled slightly. "Your friend was a threat to you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Dakota said. "None of this was his fault. Milo just…" Dakota trailer off and looked uneasy about something. Cavendish didn't know why Dakota was so reluctant to tell him about this friend of his. "Look, it's nothing he can help, but the Force kinda does some weird things around Milo. It doesn't really like him."

Cavendish didn't know what Dakota was talking about, and he didn't like not knowing. Dakota was obviously reluctant to talk about Milo, so even though Cavendish wanted to know exactly what was going on, he let it go. At least for the moment.

He wasn't just going to forget about it though. He wanted to know just what Dakota meant when he said that the Force did weird things around Milo. He wanted to know just how much danger Dakota had been in around Milo. He wanted to know why exactly Dakota was so distracted and upset.

Cavendish had an idea of how he could get Dakota to open up with him, and it was simply to give him time. Dakota frequently let things slip, all Cavendish had to do was wait. Besides, Cavendish and Dakota had never spent any proper time with each other. Cavendish always had his work that he had to focus on, and Dakota had his own worries.

Cavendish didn't currently have an official assignment, but he was always on the look out for old Jedi artifacts. Cavendish had always avoided getting into specifics of what he did with Dakota, since he didn't know how attached to the Jedi ways Dakota was, and he didn't want to do anything to start a fight between them.

Now though, Cavendish thought that they knew each other well enough that they could do this without causing too much of a rift. Cavendish would know to not attack Dakota's personal beliefs, and Dakota would know that Cavendish would have to report anything of particular interest to the inquisitors.

"After we've figured out everything for Zack, I was going to return to the Great Jedi Library," Cavendish said. "Would you care to join me? I could use some insight from someone who knows what the Jedi were like."

"You're not trying to recruit me, are you?" Dakota smiled and actually started to look a little more like himself. Cavendish felt a little bad that the motivation behind his invitation was that he wanted to get more information from Dakota, but he pushed the guilt down. He truly did want to spend more time around his friend and help him to feel better.

"Of course not," Cavendish said, and it was only a little bit of a falsehood. "I just thought you could provide some assistance, and I thought you would like some company."

"You know, company actually sounds great." Dakota gave him an appreciative smile. "Sure, I'll join you."

"Fantastic," Cavendish said, and he found himself returning the smile. "Let us join Zack and be on our way." The sooner they got off this planet and away from the Empire's influence, the better it would be for all of them.

Chapter Text

Even when Dakota had thought that he had wanted to be a Jedi he'd never been very interested in the deep history or culture of the Jedi. There was just a lot of information, and Dakota had found himself falling asleep any time someone tried to tell him about the beginnings of the Jedi. For a long time Dakota had just thought that the topic itself was what bored him, but it turned out that it was just who was telling the stories. Jedi's were a lot of things, but riveting story tellers weren't one of them.

One would think that people who wanted children that they took from their families to be interested in joining them would know how to tell a good bedtime story.

Dakota hadn't decided to join Cavendish at the Jedi library because he had wanted to learn more about the people who had raised him. He'd just wanted to spend time around Cavendish. If the choice was his he would suggest that they go have an adventure, but almost as soon as they got to the library Dakota realized that maybe this would be fun and interesting after all.

Though Cavendish definitely wasn't a Jedi, he was extremely fascinated by every little bit of information he could find about them. Cavendish jumped from old broken artifact to old broken artifact like a child at a toy store. When Cavendish was able to find an old, glitchy holorecorder under some rubble, Dakota was pretty sure he had heard him squeal. His enthusiasm was absolutely adorable.

"Why do you like this stuff so much?" Dakota asked with a bright smile. "I thought you guys hated the Jedi?"

"They were a flawed group that had far too much power and influence," Cavendish said. Dakota shrugged, because he wasn't about to argue about that. "But their traditions, their beginnings, it's all so fascinating to see where they came from and think about how they got to where they were."

"Yeah, I guess it is kinda cool," Dakota had never really thought about it before.

Every once and awhile Cavendish would ask Dakota clarifying questions about an artifact that he had found, and it was a lot nicer than Dakota had thought it would be. A true Jedi would probably be disappointed or angry with his answers, whether because he was talking to an inquisitor and the enemy, or because he wasn't portraying the Jedi in a good enough light. He didn't really care though. His answers were good enough for Cavendish, and that was good enough for Dakota.

He enjoyed helping Cavendish, but he didn't have as much of an attention span as the inquisitor did. After several hours Dakota's attention started to wane, but Cavendish was still going strong. Dakota decided to pull out his indigo lightsaber and go through some of his forms. Since meeting Milo he'd barely touched his lightsaber. It had been too dangerous to use it around the kid, and since leaving Povenmarsh he hadn't really been in the mood for using his lightsaber or the Force at all.

It sucked. Dakota hadn't tried to push away his powers and training since he had first left the Jedi. He'd been feeling so lost and depressed. He'd thought that he couldn't use the Force or any of his training unless he was a Jedi himself, and it had taken him a long time to stop thinking that way. After having to leave Milo, just because of something neither of them could help, Dakota hadn't felt very good about his Force-sensitivity.

It was a good thing he didn't have access to Force repressors, because he may have just been desperate enough to use one, which wouldn't have helped anybody.

Dakota still missed Milo, but he was in a slightly better mindset now. He was still a little lonely, but time and Cavendish's company was helping him to adjust and recover.

Dakota swung his lightsaber around as he went through his forms. He got so into it that he stopped paying attention to Cavendish completely. It took him several minutes to realize that Cavendish was watching him. He had a fascinated and slightly concerned look in his eyes. Dakota lowered his lightsaber.

He'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop since they got here. They were friends, but Cavendish had never wanted to just hang out with Dakota. He had to have an ulterior motive of some kind, and Dakota was sure it was going to come to a head sooner than later. Maybe it would be better to just get it over with, but Dakota wasn't ready to let go of this amiable company. He planned on putting it off for as long as he could.

"You want to spar?" Dakota asked. "You can work on those Jedi techniques you've been so interested in."

Cavendish gave him a small smile. "You know what? I would love to." Dakota took Cavendish's orange lightsaber and tossed it over. Like every time that Cavendish was able to hold the orange lightsaber in his hands, he looked so excited and in awe when he saw the orange glow. Dakota doubted that Cavendish would ever get tired of holding his lightsaber, and Dakota would never get tired of seeing his excitement.

Cavendish may not have been raised by people who encouraged his Force-sensitivity, but he was the most passionate person about his Force abilities that Dakota had ever seen.

Normally when they sparred Cavendish would experiment with different old Jedi fighting styles. Dakota had never seen Cavendish fight with his own, natural style, the way that he would if he had to fight for the inquisitors, so he was immediately able to see the difference.

"Hey, you're taking it seriously," Dakota grinned and he blocked Cavendish's quick lunge and returned it with a strike of his own. "What's the occasion?"

"I've been curious about how the double-bladed spinning lightsaber translates to just a single blade," Cavendish said.

"Well, you're doing pretty good," Dakota said. Cavendish's brow furrowed, as he might think that Dakota was patronizing him, but he was being completely sincere. Cavendish might not do very well against a master jedi, but any outsider who didn't know the Jedi all that well would likely be intimidated by him and consider him a force to be reckoned with, and that was impressive in and of itself.

"Hey, I'm serious," Dakota assured his friend. "I'm sure if we ever spar with you using your inquisitor lightsaber, I wouldn't stand a chance at all." Dakota had never had very good lightsaber skills, especially when he was sparring with somebody he cared about. He may be pretty good at healing people, but that didn't mean that he wanted anybody he cared about to get hurt..

Cavendish grinned and moved in for another strike. Dakota had always enjoyed sparring with Cavendish, but it was a lot more fun this time. Even Cavendish seemed to be enjoying himself. He tried to act like he was completely serious, but Dakota saw the grin on his face, he heard the little cheer when Cavendish got a particularly good hit in.

They spared for about half an hour before Dakota began to feel really tired. The Jedi would probably be ashamed of him. Jedi were supposed to be in top physical shape, and Dakota had been slacking off quite a bit these past couple of years. He tried to push through the exhaustion, but when his sloppiness nearly resulted in Cavendish cutting his whole arm off, they both decided that it would be best to take a break.

Between sparring with Cavendish and watching him go around and look at all the artifacts, Dakota was exhausted. It had been a long day. He sat on one of the slightly torn chairs lying around and made himself comfortable.

Cavendish looked eager to get back to exploring the library, so Dakota was confused when his friend lingered in the room. There weren't a whole lot of artifacts left in this room that Cavendish hadn't explored already.

"What are you doing?" Dakota asked.

"I thought I would keep you company for a bit," Cavendish said.

"You don't have to," Dakota said.

"I know, but I want to," Cavendish said. He claimed a seat for himself. "The artifacts aren't going anywhere."

Dakota shrugged, closed his eyes, and tilted his head back. "Hey, do what you like." He couldn't really tell Cavendish what to do, and he had no interest in trying. Once Dakota started resting he started to doze off really quickly. Every few minutes he would squint his eyes open to see if Cavendish was still hanging around, and he was confused to see that not only was Cavendish there, but he seemed to be watching Dakota curiously. It almost seemed like he was waiting for something.

Dakota eventually slipped into a restless sleep, though it was more of a nap than anything. He woke up feeling like he hadn't slept at all, but his body was stiff, so he knew that he had to have been in one position for a long time.

Dakota hummed slightly as he sat up and stretched. He saw Cavendish sitting in the same spot as earlier. He had a portable computer in his hands and was frowning intensely at the holographic screen.

"What've you got there?" Dakota asked. Cavendish yelped and hurried to cover the screen, but not before Dakota saw a familiar looking planet and system on it. "Why are you looking into Povenmarsh?"

"No reason!" Cavendish said a little too quickly. Dakota hadn't necessarily thought that Cavendish's behavior had been suspicious, but not he did.

"Really?" Dakota frowned slightly. "Come on, Cav, we both know that's ridiculous. What are you hiding?"

Cavendish stiffened and looked incredibly defensive. "Me? What about you? You're the one who was being frustratingly vague about your new friend that apparently isn't liked about the Force."

"Milo?" Dakota narrowed his eyes slightly. "What's the kid got to do with this?"

"You wouldn't tell me anything about him." Cavendish said, and his tone made Dakota start to feel on edge and slightly defensive. He wasn't trying to go out of his way to keep secrets from Cavendish, he was just a little cautious about what information he shared. Cavendish could get obsessed sometimes with proving himself to the other inquisitors, and Dakota felt for him, and he wanted to help him, but Milo had to be left out of it.

Dakota didn't know about the inquisitors, but if the Jedi had ever found somebody who acted as a natural deterrent for the Force they wouldn't just sit back and let it be. Dakota had no doubt in his mind that the Jedi would see Milo and his father as either a threat that needed to be neutralized, or a weapon to be used.

Dakota couldn't imagine the inquisitors being any different. The Empire wasn't exactly afraid of using people to accomplish their goals, and Dakota didn't want that to happen to Milo. He liked to think that Cavendish wouldn't do anything to hurt a kid, but his friend could be incredibly oblivious sometimes. Dakota wouldn't be surprised at all if Cavendish did something that he thought would let him advance with the inquisitors without thinking properly about what the consequences could be.

"So, what, because I don't tell you something you thought it was okay to go behind my back?" Dakota asked. "Why don't you just ask me?"

"You were so vague earlier. What reason did I have to believe that you would be honest with me?" Cavendish crossed his arms. Dakota flinched and drew back slightly. He didn't want to fight with Cavendish about this. He didn't even know why they were fighting in the first place, and yet he couldn't make himself stop.

"Cav, I just..." Dakota began, but he trailed off. He didn't know what he wanted to say. He didn't know if Cavendish would accept anything he said, even the complete truth.

"How can the Force dislike anybody?" Cavendish said. "And why would it put you in danger?" Dakota was still cautious about opening up to Cavendish about this, but he couldn't help but relax slightly. He knew there was something weird about all of this, but at least for a moment he could tell himself that Cavendish was just worried about him.

"Well, the Force can like people, can't it?" Dakota raised an eyebrow at his friend. "That's what Force-sensitives are." He tried to push back the nervousness he was feeling about telling an inquisitor about Milo. He could trust his friend to not hurt Milo, at least not on purpose.

"Well, it's like that, except, you know, completely different." Dakota took a deep breath. He could do this. "While we can influence the Force by pulling it in, Milo kinda pushes the Force away. He doesn't even try to do anything, it just kinda happens. Weird things happen around Milo, and when he's around someone who has the Force, it gets even weirder."

"When you say weird, do you mean-" Cavendish looked cautious.

"The first thing that happened when I met Milo was my lightsaber went nuts and activated itself," Dakota pushed his sleeve up to show Cavendish the small burn scar he got. Cavendish had been frustrated and concerned earlier, but now he looked scared, but also a little intrigued. Dakota didn't like that look of intrigue.

"Why would you be friends with somebody that was a threat to you?" Cavendish asked. Dakota raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm friends with you, aren't I?" Dakota asked. Cavendish stiffened and looked like he'd been struck.

"That's different." Cavendish said quickly.

"Except it's not," Dakota said. "You're the one who's always reminding me how big a threat the Empire is to me, and you work for them." Cavendish squared his shoulders and looked on edge. "I'm not going to ask you to leave the Empire, I would never do that. I know how much your work matters to you."

"But I wouldn't hurt you!" Cavendish said. "You know that. Whether it's intentional or not, this boy put you in danger. For all I know, your life could have been in danger just because you were in the company of your friend, and that's not okay. That boy is dangerous."

"Wha-hang on," Dakota felt a chill go down his spine. "Cav don't be ridiculous."

"I don't think I'm being ridiculous," Cavendish said coldly. "How much time did you spend around the boy, and how many times did you get hurt?"

Dakota hunched his shoulders slightly. "A few weeks, and...I lost count."

"That's not healthy, Dakota!" Cavendish said loudly. "What if that boy came across somebody else who is Force-sensitive?"

"He won't," Dakota said. The reason why the Murphy's lived at Povenmarsh was because it was out of the way and nobody was around.

"He came across him," Cavendish pointed out.

"That's 'cause his sister dragged me in." Dakota said.

"So they intentionally endangered you." Cavendish said.

"No!" Dakota was frustrated. He was starting to get a pit in his stomach. "Cav, they're good people,"

"Many people said the same thing about the Jedi, and the galaxy is a better place without them," Cavendish said.

Dakota stiffened and automatically reached for his lightsaber. Before either of them understood what had happened Dakota had activated his lightsaber and was aiming it at Cavendish. They both stared at each other in shock for a few long, tense moments.

"What are you doing?" Cavendish asked. His voice was mostly even, but he was still slightly nervous. It took all of Dakota's self-restraint to keep his hand steady.

"The world wouldn't be a better place without Milo," Dakota said quietly. His voice shook.

"That wasn't what I meant," Cavendish said. "I'm just saying that it might be best for everybody if a threat like this is properly taken care of."

"And you seriously think the Empire is the best group to do that?" Dakota asked. Cavendish grimaced but didn't answer. "Cav, they'll make a weapon out of him, and I can't let that happen."

"And you would honestly fight me for it?" Cavendish said. Dakota tried to stand firm, but his resolve was wavering. He couldn't fight Cavendish like this, but he couldn't let the Empire get their hands on Milo. Cavendish was incredibly stubborn, and it would take a lot to get him to change his mind.

Dakota knew that part of the reason why Cavendish was so cautious about Milo's relationship with the Force was because he was worried about Dakota. However, he couldn't forget the intrigue in Cavendish's eyes. This was more than just Cavendish being worried about him. Dakota was positive that at least part of Cavendish's motivation was ambition based. He wanted to be respected, and Dakota couldn't ignore that if Cavendish brought someone like Milo in to the Empire it could make his career.

Dakota was worried that the only thing that could convince Cavendish to not take in Milo was to convince him that there was a better opportunity for him. There weren't many things that the Empire would want more than a potential weapon to use against any remaining Jedi, but it just so happened that Dakota had one of those.

Dakota deactivated his lightsaber and tossed it aside. Cavendish looked even more alarmed than he did when he'd had the weapon aimed right at him. "What are you doing?"

"Giving us both what we want," Dakota held his hands up slightly. He gave Cavendish a small smile. "I want Milo to stay out of this, and you want to be acknowledged by the other inquisitors. Well, there's nothing that the Empire wants more than Jedi, and, hey, I'm right here."

Cavendish looked frozen with shock. After a long moment his shock wore off to a look of absolute terror. Cavendish wasn't the kind of guy who wore his emotions on his sleeves, so it was odd to see him so expressive at any given moment.

"No," Cavendish said breathlessly. He closed his eyes tight and furrowed his brow. "No, Dakota, absolutely not!"

"Cav, it's fine-" Dakota tried to say, but Cavendish cut him off.

"No, it's not," Cavendish snapped. "You're trying to turn yourself in to the Empire because you think it's the only way that I would leave your friend alone. Nothing about that is okay." Cavendish started pacing around anxiously and Dakota just watched him quietly. He felt like he had seriously screwed up.

"Cav-" Dakota began, but Cavendish wouldn't listen to him.

"I thought I'd made it clear that you matter to me," Cavendish said. "I haven't turned you in to the Empire yet. What could possess you to think that I would suddenly change my mind?"

"I don't know," Dakota sighed. He was so tired. "I just...I don't know." Dakota saw Cavendish as a close friend, but they barely knew each other. In some ways, they trusted each other with their lives, but in other ways they barely felt comfortable talking to each other.

Cavendish groaned and put his hands over his eyes. He looked as exhausted as Dakota felt. "I won't turn you in...and I won't do anything to the boy either."

"You...you won't?" Dakota asked. He knew he shouldn't be surprised, but he really was.

Cavendish pulled his hands away from his face and gave Dakota a wounded look. "If I were to turn the boy in, it would be because I know you wouldn't stay away from him, even though it would be for your own good. I would do it because it's the only way I can think of to keep you safe from him. If what I want is to keep you safe, why would you think that I would hurt you by turning you in?"

"You want to be successful and acknowledged." Dakota said. "We both know that turning me in would do that."

"There are many ways for me to gain the respect I deserve," Cavendish huffed. "I don't need to betray my only friend to accomplish that."

"It's the easiest way," Dakota pointed out. He didn't know why he was still arguing. It wasn't like he wanted to be captured and killed by the empire. He just wanted to understand what was going through Cavendish's mind. He wanted to understand his friend.

"I don't mind hard work," Cavendish puffed his chest out ever so slightly. He was proud.

"Yeah, I know," Dakota let out a short laugh. "You know, I wasn't trying to put you between a rock and a hard place, I was just trying to help."

"Normally I appreciate your help," cavendish sighed. "But not when it comes from a place of self-sacrifice. You deserve to be safe and happy as much as the boy and I do."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Dakota said. He didn't exactly have low self-esteem or anything, but he would put his friends above himself every time. It had taken him some time to get past the Jedi's teachings about avoiding attachment, but he hadn't even thought about reconsidering what the Jedi had taught about putting the needs of the group ahead of the needs of the individual.

Dakota thought that there should be balance in everything, but he hadn't done too much to find balance for himself. That was something he would have to figure out. Maybe Cavendish could benefit from some balance too. They could help each other.

"You're really okay with not taking Milo in?" Dakota asked.

"I told you I don't want you to be hurt, and clearly doing anything to Milo would do just that." Cavendish said. "So he'll be left alone, but I also expect you to stay away from him until we find a way for you to be safe."

Dakota sighed. "You drive a hard bargain, Cav. Fine, we'll be careful about this."

"We'd better be," Cavendish said. "Now, I don't know about you, but I've had enough of the Jedi library for now."

"Yeah, I'm done being around Jedi stuff." Dakota said. It brought out the weirdest parts of both Dakota and Cavendish. "You got any inquisitor work going on right now?"

"Not right now," Cavendish said. He was usually really disappointed and discouraged when he didn't have work, but he sounded surprisingly okay with all of it. Cavendish seemed just as ready for some true personal time as Dakota was.

"You know, there's some mid rim planets that I've been thinking of visiting," Dakota said. He rarely went to core planets, as that was where the Empire was, and since going on the run he'd spent most of his time on outer rim planets. It would be nice to see the rest of the galaxy, especially if he could travel with a friend.

"It would be interesting to see the state of the Empire on planets further out of the empire's control." Cavendish smiled. "You know what, let's do it. Let's explore the galaxy!" Dakota punched the air excitedly. He knew that sooner or later Cavendish would be called in by his inquisitor superiors, but until then he was all Dakota's, and he was going to take advantage of every second.

This was going to be fun.