A Shadow and a Threat

[restoresbalance]

Luke sat  crosslegged on a couch on the observation deck, staring out into the Bleed, lost in thought.  Things had quieted down on the ship and for that he was glad.  Laater, Luke had resolved to go find Tycho later on and make sure he was doing okay (he'd heard of the other's injury), but until he did that, Luke had come up here to think

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[goodofthetribe]

Vestara was very, very thankful to find Luke without Ben around for the time being. Interacting with both Skywalkers at once was entirely too irritating for this hour of the day.

"Master Skywalker," she bowed. "I'm delighted to find you undamaged."

[restoresbalance]

He looked over to this new person. Master Skywalker? She didn't look like a student at the Temple, and despite how much the Order had grown Luke still made it a point to try to learn the names of the apprentices. So somehow, she knew him, and he didn't know her, which meant she was probably from his future.

"I might be old but I still know how to dodge a blaster bolt," he said amiably. "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

As he spoke, Luke was gathering the Force around him, sending out a probe to try and figure out just who this girl was.

[goodofthetribe]

Oh.

"I suppose not for a while," she answered sweetly. "I'm Vestara Khai. We'll work together some day."

There weren't as many lines around his face. His step was lighter; far less tired.

Perfect.

[restoresbalance]

The moment his mental probe touched her presence, Luke sensed the slick, oily feeling of the Dark Side brush against his mind, and recoiled. That sensation--one too familiar to him, all too familiar--could only mean one thing. This Vestara Khai, this girl who said she was going to be working with him in his future, was the source of the shadow that had been growing in his mind since the latest group of arrivals. And that meant she was a Sith.

A Sith? But she's only a girl! She can't be older than Ben.

"I find that hard to believe," he said, a little more cautious now. Luke hadn't sensed a lie when she said they'd work together, but she was a Sith.

[jedimacguyver]

Obi-Wan's presence was unobtrusive as always. He hovered politely at the edge of Luke's perception until he felt it had been long enough to be noticed and moved slowly into the room. After all, the view was, as always, breathtaking.

"Credit for your thoughts?"

[restoresbalance]

Luke shook himself out of his thoughts, turning to give Obi-Wan a smile. "If I had one for all of them, I'd be able to buy myself a planet," he said.

Luke now understood why Obi-Wan had asked him before not to reveal much of his future. Learning that, in two short years, he'd apparently forged an alliance with a group--a group!--of Sith was disorienting enough. To know that their liaison was a girl who couldn't be older than Ben was even more so. And the fact that she was Ben's age opened up a whole separate set of worries that Luke had hoped to avoid until Ben was at least thirty.

"I think I learned more from Ben than I wanted to," he said, gesturing with his head at one of the empty couches around him. It felt odd for Luke to be sitting while the man he looked up to was standing, as though Luke was of higher status. Technically he was, but Luke would never be able to see it that way.

[jedimacguyver]

"Maybe I can help?" Obi-Wan offered quietly, unable to stop his concern at the roiling discomfort on Luke's face- force be damned, he still had eyes, didn't he?

[restoresbalance]

Luke shook his head, looking bashful. "Mostly, it's a father instinct, I think," he explained. "Ben's had these two years to grow up more and I don't know so much of what's happened to him--to both of us. And it seems just yesterday that he was born, too."