Lady Obscura: Vader's Shadow [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker]

Chapter 23

Qui-gon had been cautioning patience; why hadn't she listened to him. If it had felt like her world had been turned upside down before, it was crashing down around her now.

Though their initial excitement and curiosity at the mysterious hidden crate hadn't dimmed, Luke and Athara had quickly found themselves caught up and distracted by other things, the construction of their lightsabers most of all. Athara soon completed hers, having already done it a couple times before, and Luke was only another week or so behind her in completing his as well.

Plus, Luke, Artoo and N3 had, through a great deal of collaboration, managed to get the long-range communication transmitter up and running; no easy feat. Shortly after, contact with their friends had begun again, Luke spending a great deal of time musing and planning with the Princess, Chewie and Lando about how to rescue Han. It had taken some time, but he had finally managed to get Leia to accept that he was not going to turn Athara over to the Alliance. Also, according to Chewie, it had taken a great deal of work on Leia's part to get High Command to forget ideas of bringing Luke in or suspending him from his prominent place within the Alliance since he had declared responsibility for her. It was something for which Athara was immensely grateful.

Athara, on the other hand, had managed to establish contact with Bek Reem. That had been a tense conversation the first time they'd made contact.

"I imagine you've heard, then, what the Alliance is saying about me; who I really am," she had said with a great deal of trepidation. It had been ages before he'd responded, the device humming to fill the silence.

"Yeah. I have." She couldn't help but cringe at the carefully neutral tone he had used.

"I'm sorry, Reem. I wish I could say I wanted to tell you, but—" she couldn't manage to finish the thought, not quite sure what she had even wanted to say.

"I get why you never said anything, you know." She had been stunned into silence, so much so that he'd had to ask if she was still there.

"You have no idea how much that means to me. You're one of the first real friends I ever had." It had taken a lot of effort to say, but Athara felt that she'd had to say it. After all, he had accepted the truth of her identity with almost no reaction at all, as though she had told him her natural hair colour was blonde, or some such other trivial revelation.

"You do know mushy doesn't really suit you, right?" His voice had been even gruffer than usual. Athara knew what that meant; he was moved but, like her, wasn't used to sharing feelings like that.

"It wasn't really that much of a surprise, to be honest." He continued, leaving the sentimental interlude behind. Athara frowned in bewilderment.

"Really?" She heard a faint rustle and figured he was shrugging absently.

"Knew you were something. Just didn't know exactly what. I think Madal knew all along, though. Just looked at me with a look that said 'obviously' when it came out." Athara withheld a groan, though she couldn't stop the way her lips curled in chagrin.

"The ship...it had to be because of the ship." She muttered, still a little flustered that the Duro had seen through her from the beginning.

"And the hood, and the timing, and the credits...your reactions to mention of the Empire. Apparently he figured it out pretty quickly." This time Athara did groan.

"I should have known. I should have known he knew," she muttered. Madal was clever, she had to grant him that. It was also impressive that he had kept his knowledge of her identity from her; no easy task for most beings. Her already considerable respect for the Duro went up a notch further. Again, she heard a faint sound that told her Reem had shrugged.