Chapter Text
Rey woke with a scream, nearly falling out of the bed as she jerked upright. Her heart was hammering wildly, and sweat trickled down her chest and back.
Pressing her forehead against her knees, she struggled to bring her breath back to normal. As she sat there she heard two sets of footsteps approaching outside her door, one heavier than the other.
Swallowing, she took a deep breath.
“I'm fine,” she yelled, her voice almost steady. “It was just a dream.”
Chewie's growled comment about dreams not being that loud in his experience made her smile.
“Really, I am. Go to bed, both of you.”
There was a low discussion out in the corridor that she couldn't pick out the specifics of before the two sets of footsteps disappeared again.
Lying down with a sigh Rey stared into the dark, images from her dream flashing through her mind. After a few minutes one set of footsteps came back, followed by a soft knock on her door.
“Can I come in?” Luke asked.
Sighing again Rey rolled off the bed and switched on the lights as she draped the blanket she used as cover around her shoulders for warmth, before opening the door.
Luke was dressed in a simple, gray shirt and trousers, his hair and clothes rumpled from sleep. He was wearing a worried look on his face.
“It was just a dream,” Rey insisted.
“Was it?” His pale blue eyes scrutinized her face closely. “The same you've been having lately?”
Rey blinked.
“Yeah, how did you- Never mind. But that doesn't mean anything. Does it?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Sometimes a Jedi's dreams are just dreams. And sometimes they're something more.”
After a moment’s consideration, Rey stepped back to let Luke into her room; it felt far too strange having this conversation in the corridor. Luke perched himself on the low table, while Rey sat down on the edge of the bed.
“You mean, like a vision?” she asked.
Luke nodded. “Tell me about it?”
“It- I can't remember it clearly, it's just... disjointed images. Most of them. There is a system with a blue star at the center and a city bathed in white light, so bright it's almost blinding. Then I'm standing on a... plaza of some sort, paved with tiles in various greens. At the edge of it are rows of low benches and like, pots with plants in them. Small trees, with blue-green leaves. In the middle is a statue or monument of some sort. Everything is lit with that white light, but darkness grows from beneath the small trees and under the benches, spreading across the green, drowning out all the colors. Then the dark starts reaching for me, and that's when I wake up.”
“What was different tonight? You haven't woken screaming before.”
Rey swallowed hard.
“The dark almost reached me.”
Luke nodded at that, a pensive look on his face.
“You mentioned a monument, what did it look like?” he said slowly.
“Ships, space ships. A Star Destroyer being brought down by three frigates. They're on the top of a column and something is written on it, but I'm never close enough to read it.”
Her words sparked something in Luke's eyes and his pushed off his perch.
“I'll be right back.”
In less than a minute he returned holding a small holoviewer in his hand. Sitting down beside Rey Luke switched it on, flipping through its images so fast that they became a blur to her eyes. He stopped on a picture of himself, Leia – both of them looking much younger – and a young dark skinned woman with short cropped hair. All three of them were smiling and the short haired woman stood close enough to Luke that their shoulders touched. Behind the trio rose the statue from her dream.
Rey gasped at the sight.
“So it is a real place,” she said.
“If that is the monument you dreamed of, then I would say it very much is. It stands on the Victory Plaza on Tresaal, a Mid Rim world that orbits a blue star.”
“But why am I dreaming of it? I've never even heard of Tresaal before.”
Luke was staring at the holo with a face devoid of expression.
“Perhaps the Force is calling you there,” he answered, his voice hollow.
Rey felt her jaw tighten as she remembered the sticky darkness in her dream that constantly oozed closer to her. If that kind of darkness was on Tresaal, it was the very last place she wanted to be.
Luke switched the holoviewer off and lowered it into his lap.
“When the Force sees fit to give council, it is a wise Jedi who heeds it.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You won't be going alone.”
Clearly he had sensed her discomfort.
“But you- we are going back to the Resistance!”
That had been the agreement. Finally, after weeks of arguing with him, Luke had finally relented two days before. Now Rey wondered if it had been a ruse.
“We are,” he assured her. “But I would suggest making a detour.”
“To Tresaal?”
“Yes.” A sad smile formed on his face. “We may even be able to bring an extra ally with us if we're lucky.”
“I thought Jedi didn't believe in luck.” She'd heard him say that one often enough by now.
“It was a figure of speech.”
Rey sighed. She knew that tone of voice all too well by now. She could argue, but chances were that Luke would get his way and right now she felt too tired to argue… and oddly curious as well. She got an odd sense of... something off the Jedi, like he didn't want to go at all. That Tresaal was possibly the last place in the galaxy he wanted to be too. Asking him would get her nowhere, but going there might reveal something.
That just left one problem.
“You know, Chewie won't like it.”
oOoOo
Chewie didn't like it one bit. He liked it even less when he learned that he wasn't coming. The Falcon was inconveniently familiar, if he flew it to Tresaal there was far too great a risk that someone who wanted to curry favor with the First Order might recognize it and report the sighting, so Luke suggested he make his way back to the Resistance ahead of them. The only alternative would be to leave the Falcon behind on Ahch-To, something Chewie flat out refused.
It still took considerable back and forth arguments, but in the end the Wookie relented. So two days later Rey found herself tearily hugging him goodbye.
After giving her a bone crushing squeeze and ruffling her short hair he lumbered up the ramp. She stood back and watched as the Falcon's engines cut in, and as the ship rose off the ground and angled upwards towards the sky, her heart clenched and she could feel her body begin to shake.
A hand dropped onto her shoulder, making her jump, and she turned to find Luke behind her.
“You'll see him again in a week or two. I doubt it will take us more than that.” His hand squeezed her shoulder slightly. “Come, it's time for us to go as well.”
The shuttle Luke had originally arrived on Ahch-To in was almost as old as the Falcon, but in much worse shape. Chewie had after all maintained the freighter well over the years, while the shuttle had been stuck in a cave under cover for who knew how long; but it was space worthy and right now that was the only important thing.
Everything was packed, checked and locked down there was nothing left to do but leave, but going up the ramp to the shuttle and hitting the button that closed it was maybe the hardest thing Rey had ever done in her life, and the whooshing whine of the ship sealing itself against the vacuum made her heart pound.
She headed to the cockpit to find Luke sitting in the co-pilot's chair and she frowned.
“You don't want to pilot? I thought you used to be a great one?”
“That was... a lot of years ago. I think we're safer with you behind the controls.”
Rey settled down in the pilot's seat and studied the controls closely. They were ancient, but as a former Jakku resident ancient was what she was used to, and she got them off the ground in short order.
A storm was beginning to draw in and the winds buffeted the ship so she had to keep all of her attention on keeping the old ship on a stable course as they rose through the atmosphere.
When she and Finn had left Jakku she hadn't had time to enjoy the view, and when they lifted off Starkiller Base she'd been sitting by her friend's bed, even when leaving D'Qar her mind had been on other things. But this time she saw the grey clouds and blue sky give way to black, and then the star speckled void of space. For long moments she let the ship drift through space just staring, before mentally shaking herself and setting their course straight for Tresaal and whatever it might hold.
oOoOo
Quintoo was a blue star placed in the Mid Rim, right on the Rimma Trade Route, making the system a prime candidate for colonization. The high level of radiation from its sun was set off by the thick atmosphere of its main habitable planet Tresaal, which made it not only habitable, but comfortable to a number of sapient species.
Rey recognized it all the moment they entered the system.
They landed in a spaceport on the edge of Tresaal City.
“Leave your blaster here,” Luke said after she had fully closed down the ship's systems and they were getting ready to leave. “The weapons laws are fairly strict and rigidly enforced. Lightsaber too. The last thing we need is to get arrested.”
“Yeah, that wouldn't look good.” She could almost hear the headlines if Luke Skywalker got himself arrested for illegal arms possession.
So the only thing Rey grabbed from her cabin before exiting down the ramp after the Jedi was her heavy, brown cloak.
“So where do we go?” she asked.
“Since it was the Victory Plaza that you saw, that would be the obvious place to start wouldn't you say?”
Stepping off the shuttle bus that had taken them from the space port to the Victory Plaza, Rey found it looking exactly like it had in her dream, bathed in light even brighter than that of Jakku's sun, the monument rising in the midst of the green-tiled expanse.
Her eyes trailed over the clean open space that with its well-trimmed trees and well maintained benches looked brand new to her. How anything could be in use for any length of time and still look so pristine was a mystery to her.
The one thing that was different from her dream was the darkness. There wasn't any apart from the sharp shadows beneath the trees and the benches, and they dutifully stayed where they were supposed to be, like good shadows should.
Even with their slightly dilapidated cloaks, neither her nor Luke stood out in any way in the milling crowd of people on the plaza. Rey had always thought that Jakku had a lot of different aliens, but it was nothing compared to the variety here. And the style of dress was just as diverse.
“I’m sorry, I don't sense anything,” Rey said the second time they circled the plaza. “Maybe the Force was wrong. Or maybe it was just a dream after all.”
“Patience, Rey. We have only just arrived.” Luke's voice sounded distant as he spoke and when she looked at him Rey saw that his gaze was drawn to the monument.
“Do you sense something?” she asked.
The Jedi pulled himself out of whatever spell held him.
“Only the shadows of the past and I don't think my ghosts are powerful enough to draw you here.”
He forced a smile as he spoke.
“Perhaps we should get lunch?” he asked, nodding towards a pair of booths at the edge of the plaza that were selling food.
She shrugged. She could sense that he was deliberately changing the subject, but she was getting hungry. “Even Jedi need to eat.”
For some reason that made Luke stop and stare at her for several seconds, an unreadable expression on his face, and she was just about to ask if she'd said something wrong when Luke broke into laughter. The sound startled her; she had never heard him laugh before. Luke would smile, but never laugh.
It sounded a little bit hysterical and Rey wasn't sure how to respond so she simply stood there until he stopped.
Finally sobering Luke nodded.
“Yes, we do don't we? Come on.”
He bought them both a chiri stick from the booth and as he stayed and spoke with the vendor, Rey wandered to a nearby bench and sat down.
The sun was hot, but no hotter than Jakku's and she found it nice to feel properly warm for once. The sauce that the meat on the stick had been marinated in was the spiciest thing she'd ever tasted, and it made her tongue burn. As she thought about finding something to drink, there was a pull on her attention from somewhere across the plaza. It drew her attention to one of the pale yellow stone arches that framed the entries to the streets, and the slim figure of a woman with pale reddish blonde hair that stood beneath it.
The figure seemed to call to her – the way the woman moved, the tilt of her head – pulling Rey closer. Rey rose from her seat, the chiri stick hanging loosely from her numb fingers.
Weaving through the throng of people, Rey walked at an ever increasing pace towards the woman. The figure appeared and disappeared in the crowd and more than once Rey thought she had lost her, which made her heart pound in her chest. Her mouth was dry and tasted of metal.
If only she could see her properly, catch a glimpse of her face.
A particularly large crowd had gathered on the other side of archway and by the time Rey finally passed through it she had completely lost sight of the woman. Muscling her way through, she found no trace of the dark clad woman on the other side. Frantically she scanned the milling people down the street, but the figure was gone.
Someone grabbed her shoulder and she whirled, poised to strike, only to find Luke looking worriedly at her.
“What happened?” he asked
“I saw- thought I saw...” Rey shook her head. Ever since she had retrieved that memory of her mother, the woman had never been far from her mind.
Why had she left her? Where was she and was she even alive?
As much as she tried not to think of it, the questions preyed on her mind.
And how often had she stopped herself from scanning the faces of newcomers on Jakku for any trace of familiarity? Now that she knew what her mother looked like, or had all those years ago, of course her mind kept looking for that face in any crowd.
She sighed. It was ridiculous she was ridiculous, chasing ghosts on a whim just because a person happened to halfway look like her from behind.
Who even said her mother looked remotely the same today?
Rey nodded firmly.
“It was nothing. A trick of my mind.”
Luke kept studying her.
“Are you certain? If this place called to you, it did so for a reason.”
“Yes, I'm-” She cut herself off as a feeling of something cold, something dark, stole over her, bringing with it memories of Starkiller Base. From the subtle change on Luke's face she could tell he felt it too.
“Don't,” he whispered as he used the hand he still had on her shoulder to steer her away from the archway they were standing in and the street behind it. “Don't try to reach for it.”
Rey clamped down hard on her instinct to lash out after the unpleasant thing she sensed.
“What is it?”
“A Knight of Ren. Close by. If you reach out you'll alert them to our presence, if they're not aware of us already.”
She felt panic rise in her chest, wishing she had any weapon to hand.
“Calm yourself. Don't speculate on what might happen, focus on what is.”
Rey swallowed and nodded.
“And Rey, as long as a Jedi can touch the Force they're never unarmed.”
“Okay, but what do we do?”
“For now, we wait. Whether the Knight has sensed us or not, they might reveal themselves if we are patient. If they do, it is possible we could follow them without being seen.”
“But can't we find them?”
“Not without revealing ourselves. We're at a disadvantage and I'm not willing to do that unless the situation becomes dire.”
“So we do nothing? What if they leave without revealing themselves?”
“Then we have learned that the Knights and their master are active deep in what is still Republic territory. That alone is valuable.”
Luke continued to walk along the edge of the plaza, keeping one hand on her shoulder, making them look for all the world like a father and daughter out for a walk. Rey did her best to relax and support the charade.
The cold feeling increased until Rey was sure her teeth would clatter if she tried to speak, but still she could not pinpoint its origin and she didn't want to disobey Luke's order, tempting though it was to do so – if only to get that menacing feeling away from her.
“Do you think that it's.... him? Kylo Ren?” she whispered.
“No, he... feels differently. In time you'll be able to tell people apart in the Force as easily as by looking at them. I know the sense of him well and this is not him.”
Though it felt like years to Rey it had likely not been more than a few minutes when the feeling retreated as suddenly as it had come, leaving behind only the warm, sunny afternoon that everyone else on the plaza had been experiencing.
“Do you think they found us?” Rey asked.
Luke shook his head.
“I'm not sure, but I think it is best if we don't linger here.”
“So, back to the ship?”
After a hesitance almost too short for Rey to notice, Luke said: “No, I have somewhere else in mind.”
oOoOo
If Rey had found the Victory Plaza posh, she had no words for the part of the city Luke had taken them to.
Clean, wide streets of polished white stone ran in straight lines and tall spirelike buildings in pale blues reached a dozen stories into the sky, glittering in the light of the setting sun. Rey couldn't stop gawking and it left her feeling shabby and drab for the first time in her life.
Luke took them to a small park in front of a spire complex and sat down on one of the benches near the street. Dropping down next to him, Rey studied his profile. His eyes were distant and though the beard still covered the lower half of his face she could see that his lips were pinched. He hadn't uttered a single word since they got off the hoverbus and no amount of prompting prior to that had got out of him what they were doing here.
After several minutes of silence Rey decided to try again.
“What are we doing here?”
“Waiting.” Luke's voice sounded impossibly heavy.
“For?”
“An old... friend. Let us hope he doesn't work late.”
Exasperated, Rey huffed before settling back with her arms folded. Sometimes Luke could be annoyingly sparse with information and this was clearly proving to be one of those times.
After a good ten minutes of waiting without any change or any more conversation from Luke, Rey decided she might as well use the wait to practice and settled into a light meditation.
A stark, white corridor stretched ahead of her and the sound of heavy boots hitting the ground in a precise march rhythm filled her ears.
A huge open room filled with Stormtroopes opened in front of her, none of them noticing her presence. On the other side of the room stood a slender, female figure, dressed in black and with pale reddish blonde hair, with her back towards her.
She wanted her to turn around, she wanted to never see her face. Her heart was racing in her chest.
Rey blinked and found herself back on the park bench again. She turned her head to look at Luke to see if he had noticed anything, but the Jedi's eyes were trained intently on the street. Following his gaze she saw an expensive landspeeder pull up at the curve of the building opposite.
A dark skinned man dressed in a pale blue cape a few shades darker than the building behind him stepped out, turned and said something to the driver, and he saluted the chauffeur who immediately drove off.
Luke stood the moment the man appeared and was already on his way across the street. Rey jumped to her feet and hurried after him.
The man hadn't noticed them, but was heading towards the large sliding doors to the spire complex. They caught up with him just before he reached them.
“Lando?” Luke called.
Lando? As in Lando Calrissian?
The man froze mid-stride, then slowly turned to face them. This close Rey could see that his face was lined with age, his hair and moustache shot through with gray.
Emotions passed too quickly across his face for her to identify them, but he finally settled on anger.
Calrissian stepped forward until his chest was almost pressed against Luke's and he held the Jedi Master's gaze with his own furious stare.
“Give me one good reason not to deck you right now,” he snapped.
“I can't,” Luke answered, looking away.
After staring at Luke for several long seconds, Lando finally stepped back.
“Whatever it is you want, you can take it somewhere else. Just disappear, you're good at that,” the man said as he turned back towards the door and started walking again.
“It's about Leia.”
Lando stopped, his shoulders going rigid.
“And Han.”
Calrissian snapped about on his heel.
“You have some nerve-”
This time it was Luke who stepped up to Lando.
“And your sector may be in greater danger than you realise,” Luke said in a low voice.
Calrissian blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“Do you want to do this in public?”
After a moment’s deliberation Calrissian shook his head.
“You better come in then. Is the girl with you?”
So Calrissian had noticed her.
“Yes. This is Rey, my padawan.”
Calrissian looked at Luke and raised an eyebrow as if to say 'really'.
“She'd better come too then.”
Calrissian’s flat was spacious and tastefully, if sparsely, decorated.
Rey self-consciously sat down on the cream colored couch next to Luke, looking about.
Calrissian removed his cape, revealing a jade green uniform beneath it, and tossed the garment over the back of an armchair.
“Drink?”
Luke shook his head.
“Rey?”
“Lando, she's nineteen.”
“Which makes her old enough to drink in this system.”
Rey shook her head. “No, thank you.”
Calrissian shrugged and poured himself a drink.
“Right, let's start with this supposed danger. What is it?”
The man lounged on the armchair, propping one leg over one armrest.
“You have a Knight of Ren on the loose on Tresaal.”
Calrissian choked on the drink, bolting upright.
“What! Who?”
“I don't know. But Rey and I sensed one earlier today at the Victory Plaza.”
“And you didn't do anything?”
“We were unarmed. And engaging in open battle seemed unwise considering the number of civilians there. The Knights are not exactly renowned for caring about collateral.”
“So there was a Knight here, but you don't know who it is or if they're even still here. What do you expect me to do with this information?”
“Take note, be wary. If Snoke has sent one of the Knights here, it means he's taken particular interest in this system. And if the Quintoo system falls, so may all of this sector and that would be a hard blow to the Republic.”
“What Republic? Luke, I don't know where you've been buried all this time, but after the First Order blew up the Senate along with the all of the Hosnian system, there is for all practical purposes no Republic any more. Just tattered remnants held together by people who care too much to quit.”
“Like you?”
Calrissian didn't reply.
“Lando, this isn't a fight you can win alone. Even fighting a holding action here will get you killed in a very short time if the First Order commits its forces.”
“And you would know that how?”
Luke smiled wryly.
“I haven't been nearly as buried as you think, or for as long. But that's neither here nor there right now. Lando, there's more at stake in this than just ordinary troops.”
“Unless Leader Snoke has more Knights than even the most rabid doomsayers think possible, I doubt they'll be a problem on the battlefield.”
“The Force affects us all and in ways not always apparent. And a single Force user can have a monumental impact on the enemy. Don't underestimate them Lando, don't underestimate the influence they can wield.”
Calrissian shook his head, but Luke forged ahead without giving the man a chance to reply.
“And that is only on the battlefield. What they will be able to do off it? You witnessed Leia yourself and she's untrained and nowhere near as ruthless. Someone who has full control over their abilities, has no scruples and is willing to push themselves to the limit? Imagine that.”
Calrissian slammed his glass down at the couch table so hard the liquid spilled onto the surface. “And us poor mundane people have no chance, is that what you're saying?”
“What I'm saying,” Luke continued mildly, “is don't make the same mistake you made on Bespin.”
Calrissian jumped out of his chair, glaring vibro blades at Luke.
“You know I had no choice then,” he hissed. “Not if I wanted to protect the people who were looking to me for protection.”
“And I never blamed you, you know that. But don't put yourself in a position where you will have no choice again,” Luke said softly. “They won't go away and this is not a fight you can win alone. The Resistance could use you. So could Leia.”
“How do you know what she needs, you haven't talked to her in years.”
“I know she's been alone in this fight up till now and I know she just lost Han.”
Rey saw a muscle in Calrissian's cheek twitch at the mention of Han's name.
“That doesn't mean she wants me around. In fact, I might be the last person she wants.” Calrissian's voice had gone hoarse and he turned away as he spoke. After a moment he straightened up and continued in a firmer voice.
“When was the last time you had contact with Republic space, Luke? Do you know how much her reputation has been tarnished? What has been said about her?”
“What have they said?” It sounded to Rey as if Luke already knew the answer, but for some reason he was still asking Calrissian about it.
“That she's overly aggressive. That losing Ben back then made her unhinged and hysterical, blaming innocent parties for his death.”
Rey started at those words, looked at Luke and almost began to speak, but was immediately silenced by a look and a shake of the head from the Jedi Master.
“It was subtle at first, but it escalated quickly. And then she started to retreat, first from political life, then from the few friends she had left.”
“Including you?”
Lando nodded.
“I never figured out if she just didn't want me to get tarred with the same brush, or if she thought I believed the same as everyone else. Han was already gone by then and... I kept meaning to speak to her, but something always seemed to get in the way.”
Luke rose from his seat and went to Lando's side.
“You never stopped loving her, did you? You never stopped loving either of them.” Lando looked at him.
“Did you ever stop loving Mayim?”
Luke's back was towards Rey so she couldn't see his face, but she did see him shake his head and when he spoke his voice was heavy.
“But neither of us can change the past, no matter how much we want to. We can only affect the present and the future. You have the training and experience the Resistance desperately needs and with your influence, not just as a Republic General but as you, you could help rally a lot of the military. But what Leia needs more than troops and ships right now, is people she can trust. People like you.”
Lando sighed.
“I can't just up and leave.” Calrissian's voice had changed. He no longer sounded angry, recalcitrant or sad, instead there was a note of hesitant acceptance there. “No, hear me out. I've had my hands full since the Hosnian disaster, this place is only held together with string and stubbornness at the moment. If I just up and leave it would be noticed. And if the Knights are here...” The end of his sentence hung unspoken in the room. “I need at least a few days to make a convincing excuse to disappear for a little while, hand things over to people I trust. There are far too many here who would use my absence to further themselves no matter who will pay the price.”
“Hmmm. Rey and I will need to leave as soon as possible, if the Knight is still here our continued presence can't help but draw attention, which none of us needs right now.”
Lando rubbed his chin.
“Where have the Resistance gone to ground?”
“I don't know. I can find Leia herself, but not in a way that I would be able to supply you with exact coordinates.”
“The Force thing doesn't approve of providing exact information?” Lando said acerbically.
“The Force thing provides very exact information, it just doesn't translate very well into a mechanical universe,” Luke retaliated in a dry tone.
“We need a rendezvous then.”
Rey huffed and Calrissian looked at her for the first time since he offered her a drink.
“You disapprove, young lady?”
“Rey,” she reminded him. “It's just that I was supposed to bring him.” She hitched her thumb at Luke. “Back to Leia weeks ago, but he insisted on starting my training without interruption. We're late as it is.”
“Then a few more days will make little difference to that and might make a good deal of difference.” Luke said mildly.
Rey met his gaze and she rolled her eyes. Luke was doing his 'cryptic Jedi' thing again and she decided to not even try and figure out what he was getting at. She'd figured out that he did it when he for some reason didn't want to tell her something, but didn't want to lie outright either. Why he simply didn't say that it wasn't any of her business she'd yet to understand.
“Cularin?” Lando asked. “You could show her the sea monsters while you wait. And no one draws attention in that system.”
“Cularin,” Luke confirmed after a moment’s consideration. “Is a week enough?”
Lando nodded. “If it isn't, nothing will be.”
“We will see you then.” Luke's voice held a note of finality.
“So you're not staying for dinner then?”
Out of nowhere a playful smile appeared on Luke's lips as he looked at Rey out of the corner of his eyes.
“Was that a legitimate offer?”
oOoOo
Luke sat alone in the shuttle's cockpit, watching in silence as hyperspace whirled around the ship.
Dinner had been entertaining, and not just because of the look on Lando's face when he saw how much Rey could eat. The man had always been a genial host and he had set aside whatever rightful anger he felt to entertain them, which he had done with great success and to Rey's great pleasure. Luke had not seen the girl laugh that much before and even he been chuckling now and again.
But now that he was alone again, Rey having long since gone to bed, his dark thoughts had returned.
Sensing the Knight so close had been unsettling, it had been clear that the person cared little about hiding their presence and the lack of caution was worrisome. If one of the Dark Siders would move about so openly in Republic territory they clearly had more influence in the system than was readily apparent. Lando could easily find himself betrayed or worse if he stayed; yet another reason Luke had wanted to get his friend away from the planet as soon as possible. He knew better than to tell Lando outright though, the man was stubborn enough to want to stay and fight which would only get him killed.
Luke sighed softly. Seeing not just Lando but Tresaal again had been even harder than he thought it would be: every street held memories he had tried very hard to forget for twenty years. But he could hide no longer. The time had come to face those ghosts no matter how painful it was.
He pulled the holoviewer out of the pocket of his robe and turned it on.
The holo showed a much younger version of himself with his arm around Mayim. They were both smiling and her head was resting on his shoulder, her dark, tightly woven braids spilling over it.
It was Lando who had taken it just after she resigned her commission and rank as a New Republic colonel, to fully join with his efforts to rebuild the Jedi Order. They had got married not long after that and had been very happy for a time, despite the controversy their union had caused with her family. The memory of their happiness made his chest ache.
Luke flipped forward, finding a holo where she was cradling their infant son in her arms, the boy's dark cheeks chubby like that of any baby and his tiny hands curled into fists. Mayim's smile as she looked down at him was utterly serene.
Reaching out with his organic hand Luke touched his fingers to the spot where they would have touched the baby's.
In the flickering blue light of hyperspace Luke sat like that for a long time.