Luke remained still, shaking his head slowly, genuine threat in his voice, "Don't. If I take that gun, you'll not walk out of here."
"Take it." Han repeated, holding the gun out, willing to call Luke's bluff, "I've never pointed a blaster at a friend before in my life and I'm not gonna start now."
Still the kid stood frozen, head tilted to one side, eyes flashing a final warning in the low glow of the lightbeam, making Han chillingly aware of the fact that his blaster was now muzzle-in. He still held it at body-height and kept his finger through the trigger-guard though, awaret hat he could spin it about again in an instant. Still, he set his jaw, unable to kick the tightness in his stomach when he looked into the kid's eyes.
Luke remained coiled spring-tight, unmoved at Han's actions. "I'm not a friend - don't make me prove that."
"Really? 'Cos the guy who busted me out of that Imperial prison on Coruscant sure looked a hell of a lot like you."
"He's gone."
"See that's the thing; I don't think he is. 'Cos I've met a Sith and I know how low they go... and that's not what you are."
Luke's anger flared at the inferred defamation of his father, "Don't."
There was a raw threat in the word; Han saw the kid's chin come up and his eyes narrow. The last time he had seen Vader and Luke together, they'd practically been sparking. What had changed he had no idea... but he did know one thing-
"No- I know you," Han shook his head decisively, "And I don't believe you think they're right. You're better than that."
The kid straightened and seemed to cool a little, one side of his scarred lips turning up in dry amusement, "How very gracious of you."
"Tell me I'm wrong." Han said, letting his blaster drop to his side, "You said you wouldn't lie to me; well look me in the eye and tell me I'm wrong."
"I'll do better then that, Han." Luke whispered...
Something... something overwhelming and nauseating reached inside Han's head and made him flinch and he looked back to the kid in slow motion, consciousness slipping away as reality dimmed to a hushed whisper, a smothering wave of devastating weakness overcoming him. And Luke was just... stood, an ominously intense look on his face in the tight beam of harsh light, no trace of emotion in his uncanny, mismatched eyes.
The strange thing was that it didn't hurt, not really; he'd thought it would - like getting hit around the back of the head and knocked unconscious - but in the event Han just... collapsed down, a long sigh escaping him, his whole body sagging in one instant as if someone had hit the off-switch.
He crumpled, legs giving way, head going cold, eyes loosing focus, every single muscle loose as the floor seemed to rush up at him in the small pool of unsteady light-
The world sideways on, Han saw polished, black booted feet approach him, then Luke crouched down before him, his words fading into the ether..."I told you not to put the gun down..."
Chapter 2
In Shadows and Darkness
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"It is shadows whose edge define the light
At the brink of the dawn and the darkness."
Extract from The Son of Suns Prophesy,(Jedi Master Egorin Dovas translation; 3/ 14,159 -minus.)
Engraved into the Sunburst Throne (The Seat of Prophesy) circa 23,711 -minus.
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CHAPTER ONE
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Leia woke in the dead of night, the vaguest of ghostly shapes defining the twisted bulk of massive trees crowded in about her, stretching far above the small clearing where she stood, twisted branches blocking out the light of distant stars. When she looked down
again, Mon Mothma was stood before her, so close Leia could have reached out and taken her hands...
Dry, dead leaves rustled in the darkness close by and she knew... she knew what prowled in the night.
"Don't look." She whispered urgently to Mon, her words turning to mist in the frigid air, "Don't look it in the eye. If you don't look it won't attack."
They remained still, Leia's eyes locked on Mon's as it slipped silently across the clearing, the wiry sable of its fur brushing against her leg so close
did it stalk about them, clinging to Leia like a shadow. And yet... afraid as she was she knew- she knew that if she didn't look, it wouldn't attack.
A dry branch cracked like bone and Mon's gaze flickered...
"Don't look!" Leia whispered, more urgently now.
But Mon glanced down, eyes widening- and the growl that it loosed from the back of its throat was wild and feral, grating up Leia's spine and setting hairs on
end, her breath catching in her throat.
It lunged past her in a blur, too quick to follow, black against black in the shadows of the night, Leia's loose hair whipping forward with the violence of the
movement as she flinched...
And Mon was gone. In an instant- no struggle, no noise. She just... fell away into the dense shadows, though Leia knew what had taken her.
And Leia was left alone, the constant rustle of the wind dragging through the tall, twisted trees stealing away the sound of its presence as it
melted like a ghost into the night, a shadow in darkness, the sound of its howl sending an involuntary shiver up her spine, shocking her awake with a jolt...
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To stare wide-eyed into the darkness of her sleeping quarters, Han stirring in his sleep momentarily before settling to silence.
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Leia lay breathless in the darkness, slowly gathering her thoughts, reassuring herself that it was just a dream- just another dream. She rolled over, pulling the covers over her chilled skin, tired to the bone but unable now to drift back to sleep, knowing that it would be there if she did.
It was always there at the corners of her dreams; at the corners of her mind. Ever since Alderaan. Some... elemental link which bound them together, she and the black wolf, as deep and as compelling and as irresistible as the turning of the universe.
It would always be there, no matter what else happened. No matter what beliefs she held to and what fell away, whether she acknowledged it or denied it... it would remain forever a part of her.
It would always be there- like a shadow in darkness.
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The Lambda-class shuttle glided silently through the void between the two Super-class Star Destroyers, the Honour Guard of twelve TIE's hardly necessary this close to the Core Worlds. As it flew, it slowly rotated on its axis to correct its path in relation to the SSD Peerless, which maintained a position at a twenty-degree roll to the SSD Executor.
Generally, it was standard practice for two military ships in close quarters to maintain a synchronous axis, the lesser ship rotating to match the higher ranking one. In this case, the two ships were both Flagships, one of the Core Fleet, the other of the Rim Fleet, each carrying their relative Fleet Commander-in-Chiefs, so that neither was prepared to give way to the other. It was a subtle little game, both Fleet Admirals unwilling to concede on behalf of their own CIC, neither so impolitic as to mention this out loud, and if the relative CIC's had noted the stubbornness, they had chosen not to mention it.