Act II: Part V

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god–"

"Shut up, Jenner!" Sienn'lae snapped, shaking the boy's shoulders until he stopped mumbling. Luke stared in shock at the unconscious man in front of him, his feet frozen to the spot. Damn it all, they weren't supposed to be seen. What if the man had activated an alarm before he was knocked out? What if somebody else was waiting for him up the tunnel?

"Luke," Sienn'lae said gently, placing a hand lightly on his shoulder. The boy looked up to her with glassy eyes and the Twi'lek gave him a brief shake too, to snap him out of it. Luke shook his head roughly, sandy hair falling into his eyes as he tried to get his brain to start functioning again, but to no avail. It was stuck, fixated on the stunned soldier and the scream that haunted his dreams.

"Come on, Luke," the Twi'lek girl repeated, dragging him away from his spot and back towards Jenner. "Think gear-head. You're the one who came up with this brilliant plan, and I ain't got squat right now, so we're dependingon you, y'hear? Luke."

'Depending on you'... something snapped in the young force-user's mind at those words and Luke finally met her gaze. He nodded briefly, and tried to sort out all the thoughts whizzing around in his skull. The guard...

"Drag the guard into Jenner's empty cell," Luke instructed quietly, inspiration finally striking though the dark, musty cavern. Sienn'lae gave him a strange look, but Luke barely noticed.

"We'll stick to the plan but we make it look like a bigger break in," he explained hurriedly as Sienn'lae stripped the guard of his arms and comm and tossed the body into the cell they'd just left. He sidled up beside her, keeping his voice low so that Jen wouldn't overhear.

"I know where the generator room is on this floor. Instead of just cutting off security system, I can probably set it up to hack the entire power complex and shut down, well, everything. We can manually stall the generators too, snap the handles or 'll be a bit dark but if we're careful –"

"We should be home free," Sienn'lae completed. Luke nodded, a hand restlessly brushing his sweaty hair away from his forehead.

"We have to hurry," he whispered, the softness of his voice failing to hide the fear that was now fighting to fill his limbs and immobilize him. Sienn'lae moved back to Jenner, whispering something in his ear. While the other boy was distracted, Luke carefully fixed the lock with the Force, shielding the mechanism with his body and making small gestures with his arm just in case. It wasn't that he didn't trust Jenner really, but he was upset and injured and there was no telling what Jen might think of him if he revealed his abilities at this point.

"C'mon," Luke said when he'd finished, tearing his eyes away from the thick cell door in front of him, "Let's find the power block."

They moved along the dark corridors quickly, getting further away from the point the two force-users had entered from and deeper into the bowels of the compound. Luke let his senses guide the way to the building's main control room. The lithe tendrils of the Force wisped by him, some comforting, other's echoing with the screams and torment of the Hutt's prisoners. The young force-user did his best to tune those out, but he sometimes couldn't help but flinch. A couple times a long their path they'd had to duck into small alcoves to avoid patrolling guards, but it didn't seem like anyone had realized one of their comrades' had gone missing. They still had some time left.

When they finally reached the generator room, little more than a dingy, rusted door from the outside, there weren't any guards patrolling the corridor. 'Lae moved to the far corner on lookout and Luke turned his attention to two locks that separated them from the power generators. The old iron padlock on the door handle broke easily enough with his "bare hands", but in no way would Luke be able to move the huge stainless steel bars just the Force alone. They were controlled by an electronic passcode, the data terminal just to the right of the door.

Luke would have three chances to guess the code before the alarm would sound; along with blueprints to the manor, his Dad had written down some notes on his computer about the security system, including a list of codes. There were six combinations total for the basement level, and whether through carelessness or ignorance, Anakin hadn't noted which codes were for which rooms. His son would just have to take his best shot.

Luke closed his eyes, reciting the memorized combinations in his head and letting his fingers ghost over the keys, searching for the one combo that felt right. He barely even realized when he'd started typing – "0 – 4 – 2 – 3 – 3 – 4 – 7 – 5 – 8" – the young Skywalker hesitated for just a fleeting moment before Luke surged forward pressing the final "5" of the combination.

The grating beep of failure echoed loudly in Luke's mind, and the boy had to bite his cheek to hold back a curse. He waited tensely for a few minutes, but indeed it seemed like a single wrong passcode didn't trigger an alarm of any kind. Desperately hoping his arms wouldn't shake, Luke reached up and started to enter another combination. Try to get a 'feel' for which one was right obviously wasn't getting him anywhere, so he'd just have to go for it.

"0 – 4 – 2 – 7 – 5 – 5 – 5" – the young Skywalker hesitated again, trembling and barely able to hear over the pounding of his heartbeat in his veins. In his moment of panic, he suddenly couldn't remember the remaining digits; shaky breath in, shaky breath out, Luke tried to regain some measure of calm, releasing bursts of pent up anxiety into the mists of the Force. Hecould do this – he had near photographic memory and had been memorizing longer sequences than these stupid codes since he was three for Sith's sake. Blurry eyes finally refocused on the blinking blue box on the screen, and Luke punched out the final "3 – 1 – 3".

A light chime sounded and Luke nearly fell to the floor in relief. Jenner hurried into the pitch-black room and Luke followed closely behind, his hand waving reflexively over the light switch by the door. Sienn'lae bounded in just moments later and the door shut with a soft 'thud'. Luke strode over to the small computer panel set in the room's far corner and pulled out the small pad from his pack.

Luke paid the softly glowing screen with its flashing username box no mind as he hooked up a cable from the back his datapad to the old, dusty hard drive in the wall. He brought up the code on the pad's screen – it's mostly bits and pieces cobbled together with a old program his Dad never really got 100% debugged, but it should break through the security layers on this old piece of junk. A few minutes of fiddling and he'd modified it to hopefully bring up and shut down the power schematics instead of the security programs. It was a sloppy job, but he didn't have time for anything more sophisticated at the moment. He glanced over at 'Lae and seeing her nod started the program with a shaky breath. Lines of output code immediately began to fly across the screen.

It didn't take long to get access to the main desktop of the computer terminal, windows flitting by as the program accessed the power system controls. It took more than a few minutes for the password crackers to key in the right codes, but finally, after far too long, Luke had access to all the main power ports in the building.

"You ready?" Luke whispered to his sibling, and as an answer, she moved over to the cylindrical generators humming away in the corner. He gave her a minute to find the manual override switches on the main and backup machines. Quietly, she shut down access to the backup generator, tearing off the metal handle with a wobbly push of the Force, and moved over to put both hands on one of the main power sources.

"Ready."

"On my count of three then," Luke responded, "Jenner, stand by the door and be ready to run."

Still terrified, the boy complied and Luke took a deep breath.

"1 - "

"2," Luke's hands were shaking again and he sent them a firm 'No', but they didn't heed his instruction.

"3," Luke pressed the keys that would cut all the buildings computers systems off from the generators, followed by shutting down the generators themselves. The lights switched off and he efficiently uploaded a virus from the datapad and disconnected everything from the manor's system.

The whirring in the room died down quickly; once the room was silent, Sienn'lae cranked down the handle, broke off the metal and tossed it onto the floor with the other pieces. She did it three more times for the other central machines and wiped the sweat of her brow from the mental exertion.

They stood there for just a moment before Luke's brain kicked into gear.

"Run!" he hissed and they were off, out the door and turning the corner to a side stairway. The entire floor was dark, and although Luke and Sienn'lae navigated it well enough, Jenner barely made a single step without stumbling. They made it up before two flights of stairs before dragging his two compatriots into a nearby hallway. They waited with bated breath as a handful of guards came trampling down the stairs and Luke projected out gently with the Force.

Nobody here, keep moving, nobody here, keep moving...

Whether or not the Force suggestions worked or the guards just didn't notice the small party in the dark, the trio wasted little time after they'd run past to make it up to the main floor. They had to navigate through three more hallways and another set of guards before Luke finally found their escape route.

"There," he whispered fiercely, pointing even though he knew neither of his companions would be able to see it. He grabbed Jenner's hand and dragged him roughly after him. Luke didn't waste a moment after bursting out the side door of the base, before racing around back to where Tohk was waiting for them.

But she wasn't there.

Luke looked around wildly, reaching out to the Force to try and pick up her signature. He found nothing.

"Luke!" Sienn'lae said urgently, tugging at his arm. "We have to go!"

"Not without Tohk!" the boy hissed, futilely trying to wretch his arm out of the Twi'lek's hold, "She has to be around here somewhere; maybe she's hiding, maybe –"

"She's fucking gone Luke, as we should be. Unless you want all of us to be turned into bantha meat by a couple of space-crazy Hutts!"

Luke tried again to pull away from the older girl, but her grip was tight as a clamp as she dragged him into the alley behind Gardulla's manor, Jenner trailing limply behind them. The young Skywalker felt as if the world was spinning around him – Tohk just couldn't be gone, she was going to wait for them, she wouldn't just leave them or run away; she might've been scared, but she was no coward, she –

There!

"Luke!" Sienn'lae hissed as the boy finally bolted away, sprinting into a smaller, shadowy alley to their right. He barely went more than a dozen paces before crouching down beside the crumbling clay wall, picking up the small shining object half-buried beneath the shifting sand.

"Luke—"

"It's her communicator," the boy whispered brokenly, and Sienn'lae finally stilled, gazing at the silver object in his hand with growing horror.

"She's not dumb," Luke continued, forcing the worst out past his leaden tongue, "She wouldn't have just left it here. Someone... someone had to have –"

"Somebody took her," Sienn'lae finished softly, closing Luke's fingers gently over the device, "Luke; Luke, look at me. Look at me."

Some part of the young force user's brain must still have been operating, because he raised his heads and laid unfocused eyes on the concerned girl's face. He met her eyes for a brief second, but the wave of concern and fear that washed over him made him break the contact timidly.

"We have to go, Luke. It could be seconds before Gardulla's guards find us and then all of this is for naught. I know you're worried about her kid; I'm worried about her too, but we can't do anything right now. Once Jenner's back home and safe we can go find her, okay?"

Luke nodded, unsure of what else he could possibly do right now that wouldn't screw everything else up. He didn't protest this time as Sienn'lae led them through the winding mazes of Mos Eisley's streets and alleys, and when they finally reached Jenner's home, neither boy knew what to say.

Sienn'lae backed off to give them a moment, standing a couple houses down the street where the two boys were still easily within sight.

"If my parents see you here," Jenner broke in abruptly, snapping the awkward silence that had settled between them, "they're going to flip. You should probably... head out first."

"Yeah, I know..." Luke said softly, seeing it for the dismissal it was, but not quite ready to leave yet. Tatooine's night was wearing on, and now that the adrenaline was starting to fade, Luke couldn't quite hold back the slightly chattering of his teeth or the shivering of his arms in the cold desert darkness. It wasn't supposed to feel like this. His friend was alive and right in front of him and yet Luke wanted to forget the whole night had ever happened. Eventually the young Skywalker did take a step back though, and just as he was about to turn to leave, he caught the barest whisper from the boy he considered his best friend.

"Thanks."

Facing away from Jenner, Luke nodded stiffly, and hurried down the road to where his protector was waiting. To her credit, Sienn'lae didn't say anything as they shuffled home, and Luke was more than content to try and sort out his own foggy thoughts. He must have been tired too, because before he knew it, Sienn'lae had already opened the door to the shop and hustled them inside. She grabbed the pack from his back and slung it over her shoulder with her own.

"Get some sleep bantha-brain," Sienn'lae whispered to her little brother, ruffling his hair and resting her hand atop his head gently, "We'll look for Tohk in the morning."

She frowned when Luke just nodded and didn't even bother to brush the hand off of his head like he always did when she would treat him, in his mind at least, like a child. She pushed him towards the door gently, and somehow Luke managed to put one foot in front of the other and get himself to his bedroom without causing a disturbance. He fell onto the bed, fully clothed and with his boots still on his feet, and clenched the pillow tightly around his face.

Part of Luke that realized he was shaking, and a rough sob escaped into the confines of the pillow. He passed into unconsciousness like that, face down, arms around his head, and a feeling of hopelessness haunting him all the way into his dreams.

Breakfast the next morning was a surreal experience, making the previous day's adventure seem like nothing but a fading nightmare. Timka chattered away as he picked away sluggishly at his cereal, slapping him playfully on the back of his head to hurry him along, but otherwise behaving perfectly, insufferably normal. Without even really reaching out, Luke could feel the buzzing energy she emitted, clean and cheerful without even a trace of suspicion. He supposed he should've been happy that they'd 'gotten away with it', but a small part of him wanted Timka to know. Wanted her to yell at him, scold him with tears in the corners of her eyes and then hug him and promise that they'd make it all better.

But she couldn't make this better. Nobody could; and it was all Luke's fault.

Luke didn't see Jenner at school, though he looked for him in classes and at breaks. The teacher's gave no indication of knowing he'd come home to his parents last night either, so it seemed as if they'd chosen not to inform the school of his return. The thought made a cold weight coil in the young boy's stomach.

"Luke, c'mon, look at me brat."

"Hmmmm?" Luke intoned, looking over at Sienn'lae as they drove through the dunes on the outskirts of Mos Eisley. The wind whipped through he lekku as they drove, a stark whiteness against the sea of beige sand.

A soft sigh escaped the young woman's lips, and although Luke couldn't hear it over the bluster of the wind he saw the way her face crumpled. The speeder slowly down imperceptibly, presumably so 'Lae wouldn't have to shout to be heard.

"I've put in words with people I know about your friend," she said lightly, and Luke heard her, though he gave no outward sign, "Nothing's turned up so far. It's early but... if this was a hostage situation, I would've heard some muttering from the guards at the very least. It's likely that this is something else entirely."

Luke let his head fall away from her, the words sinking in as he stared at the bleak landscape. He hadn't expected they would find her; she was gone, gone even from the Force, and there was nothing he could do about it. If he was truly honest with himself, Luke was pretty sure Tohk was already dead.

Sienn'lae made a couple more attempts to break through Luke's misery, but the boy had no intentions of engaging her in any type of conversation. He was back up in his room the moment he got home, leaving any repercussions of his behaviour for 'Lae to sort out. He drifted, trying to find peace and balance in the force, but in his despair, all he could find in the force was the tentative thread that linked him to his father.

It took all of Luke's willpower not to reach out along that bond and pour out all his troubles. But no, his dad was on a mission, and this was Luke's screw-up, not his. Anakin Skywalker had more pressing concerns to deal with than his idiot son. He tried one last time to find his center and reach out for Tohk, but the Force continued to elude him. He fell asleep soon after, feeling more alone than ever.

The next afternoon, before the twin suns had set fully below the horizon, a small stone clipped the glass of Luke's window. Luke had retreated to his room once again after school, tossing and turning as he envisioned all the horrible things that could've befallen Tohk. Growing up on Tattooine had left little illusions in the young Skywalker's mind about what kind of evils could happen to those without protection in the outer rim.

The second stone caught his attention more than the first, and by the third Luke had swung his legs over the bed and opened the small hatch. He lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun, and looked down on the small figure of Jenner, waving his arms frantically to come down. It sent a shock down Luke's spine to see him there; he hadn't really expected Jenner to say another word to him ever again.

His legs carried him down to the back of their building before Luke had even really processed what was happening. Jenner waited there nervously, pacing and jumping around the small alcove.

"Jen." Luke whispered, his voice slightly hoarse from disuse. He didn't think he'd talked to anyone these last two days.

"Hey Luke," Jenner replied, just as softly, not meeting the other boys eyes and his arms awkwardly tangled above his head. Whatever he was here to say, Luke was certain it didn't bode well.

They stood there in awkward silence, Luke too hesitant to ask and Jenner apparently to embarrassed to come out and spill whatever he'd come over to say.

"I'm, My - " Jenner finally blurted out, his eyes sliding briefly over Luke's, before returning downwards to stare at the dust. "I'm leaving, Luke."

"Leaving," Luke asked sadly, his fears crystallizing against the pounding of his heart. Jenner didn't want anything to do with him anymore and so... he was leaving.

"Yeah, I'm leaving." Jenner repeated, dejectedly, "Look, I, I don't want to leave, I mean Tatooine's a dust pit, but it's my home. Stars, I never thought I'd hate leaving here. Doubt Pakunni will be all the much better though."

"Pakunni? You're going to the Pakunni system – but that's halfway across the galaxy!"

"Well, not quite halfway, but it's a ways." Jenner looked up at Luke, something unidentifiable in his eyes before the he launched himself at the young Force-sensitive, wrapping his arms tightly around his back and next.

"Hutt-spawn I'm so sorry Luke!" Jenner cried into his shoulder, while Luke stood there bewildered, "You saved my life, and here, I'm just, just running away! I don't want to go I swear, I yelled at my parents for hours not to make me go, but they've already packed up all my things on the ship, and sith, I'm sorry Luke. I'm so sorry."

Jenner finally pulled himself away, wiping at his eyes roughly with his sleeves, before fixing a determined look on the other boys face.

"My parents would've let me die y'know. No," Jenner raised a hand to stop Luke's interruption, "It's true. They would've. They didn't have the money or the brains, and the sure as hell do have even half as much courage as you do. Let me finish," Jenner said again, as Luke made another move to interrupt. Luke shut his mouth with an audible 'clack', still not entirely sure of what he'd been about to say.

"You're my best friend, Luke. The best friend I could ever imagine. But, honestly, I don't even know if I would've done what you did. To go up against the Hutts... just for me..."

"No!" Luke snarled, angry and frustration exploding from some pit inside of him, and ebbing as quickly as it had come, "Dont – don't say it like that."

Jenner nodded shortly, any surprise at the interruption quickly forgotten. "Either way, I... I'm just trying to say thank you. And I'm sorry, for leaving like this after all you did. And here."

Jenner shoved a tiny silver box into Luke's hands, covering it up with the younger boy's fingers.

"It's had all my new holo-information on it. My parents will probably be checking it tons, but I'll try and get some messages back to you once it calms down. I have your IDs on a piece of flimsiplast tucked away in a couple places too, just in case."

Luke nodded shortly, still having trouble processing the Jenner still thought Luke was his best friend, but... but he was still leaving him. He couldn't think of what to say.

Whether unnerved by Luke's silence, or suddenly realizing how much trouble he was already in, Jenner's eyes slipped back down to the sand beneath his feet.

"Well, then, uh, this is goodbye Luke. For now at least," the older boy muttered, giving Luke once last brief hug before turning away.

"I promise I'll find a way to repay you one day. I promise. Kay?"

Luke nodded, even though he knew Jenner couldn't see him, and the other boy was gone, whisked out of Luke's life like a loose tarp on a windy day. Luke plodded back up to his room, clutching the little silver datastick so tightly that it left marks on his palms.

Jenner... didn't hate him. He'd called him his best friend. Why did he have to leave then? Best friends didn't just leave each other.

Luke wanted to scream his frustrations to the heavens. It wasn't fair! Luke had – Luke had saved his life from the Hutts! He'd gone down into the dark, mucky dungeons and saved his life and brought him home. They, they were supposed to go back to normal now and laugh at each other's jokes about girls and their stupid teachers and their stupid planet and how they were going to be starship pilots one day (or at Luke was going to be a pilot, and he was going to bring Jen along with him on all his awesome adventures). They were supposed to be able to grumble together when Tohk kicked their asses as boloball, and, and – sithspawn, it wasn't fair! Jenner couldn't leave, he couldn't... They were supposed to be best friends.

A sob wrenched its way out of Luke's chest, but the young boy buried any others in the blankets and pillows of his bed. His eyes were dry though. He didn't have any more tears to shed these days it seemed.

Luke's reunion with Tohk was no less heart wrenching, though perhaps the more shocking of the two.

After a week, Sienn'lae's grapevine still hadn't picked up any word of the girl, so Luke went over to her house, just in case. He could play the friend card, worrying over her absence from school without any other knowledge. There was always the chance her parents would know something.

He didn't expect for Tohkiji to open the door herself.

The girls face was gaunt and shadowed, red rimming her swollen eyes and hair hanging limply in ragged tangles around her jaw.

"Tohk..."

She stared at him for a moment, vacant eyes glassing over his features. A female voice called her from inside, asking who was at the door, and Tohk turned halfway back around, shouting that it was a friend of hers. As she stepped out to Luke, she pulled the door shut behind her with a bang.

"Tohk," Luke repeated, stunned, "You're... okay."

"Okay," the girl hissed, her vehemence causing the younger boy to take a step back, "Okay?! I – I'm not OKAY, Luke."

"Tohk –"

"No," the girl cut him off, "No, don't you dare Lucian. You just left me there, you –" her voiced cracked over the words, "I was captured by slavers Luke, they, they..."

She started sobbing right in front of him as the horror of her words sank in. Slavers. No – that was impossible, she couldn't have –

"My parents had to buy me back like a, like a piece of furniture! They spent all their savings just to buy their own daughter back. They hit me, and put me in chains in this tiny gross prison, and there was this other girl in there, Luke and she was barely moving, just lying in the corner – and they were going to sell me, Luke. As a slave. Because of you!"

"I'm sorry –" Luke tried to reach out to her, but she slapped away his hand, recoiling back against the door.

"I hate you," she spat at him, "I hate you, I hate you, I – I - "

She clutched her arms tightly and leaned back against the door frame.

"You should leave, Luke," she whispered, "And stay away."

She swung back around, opening the door and disappearing into the house.

Luke wasn't sure how long he stood there, but he went home and something must've showed on his face. Timka took one look at him, and her arms went around him, holding him close and murmuring soothing sounds in his ear. She picked him up and brought him to the living room, cradling him in her lap like a baby. For once, he didn't protest. He clutched her shirt like a lifeline, not saying anything, not crying or sobbing. He just held on and tried his hardest to ignore the scream – Tohk's scream, the screamed she'd uttered when she was being beaten by slavers, he now knew – that haunted his every thought. He wasn't very successful.

Luke woke up to a large hand brushing through his hair, the motion soothing and nearly lulling him back to sleep.

"Mrrrfgh," he managed to get out from behind his pillow, and a man's voice chuckled in the darkness.

"Go back to sleep brat," the man whispered, and as tempting as it was, Luke swore he knew that –

"Dad!" the boy exclaimed, throwing aside his comforter and wrapping his arms around his father's next. "You're back!"

"Mmmmm," his dad agreed, burrowing his face in the crook of Luke's neck. They stayed like that for a moment, before the memories from two weeks ago came crashing down and Luke drew back.

"Dad, I'm, I did – " the boy stammered, but Anakin just shook his head.

"I know Luke, I know," he whispered, his hands still brushing back the boy's hair, "You're really something kid."

"I'm so sorry –"

"I'm so proud of you Luke," Anakin said, drawing the boy back into his arms, "You're stupid and reckless and for sithsake I don't know what to do with you. What you did was beyond idiotic, and I'm honestly surprised to you didn't get yourself killed," Anakin's hands moved down to his shoulders and squeezed them tightly, "But it was so brave, so selfless and amazing. And as much as I hate to admit it, it was the right thing to do."

His father pressed a feather light kiss to Luke's forehead, and dropped his arms back to the bed. It was too dark in the room to see his father's face well, so the younger Skywalker had no idea what Anakin was thinking.

"Your - Sometimes I see too much of myself in you, Luke, of who I used to be as a boy and it terrifiesme. One of these days you won't be so lucky."

Luke nodded solemnly; he knew that by all odds, he shouldn't have come back from Gardulla's mansion. But, despite everything, even if he could go back and do it all over again, he wouldn't be able to leave Jenner in the Hutt's hands. He never would have been able to live with himself.

"Timka grounded me for four weeks," Luke muttered, startling another laugh out of Anakin.

"You kind of deserve it," the older man said, and Luke could hear the grin in his voice, "If you're interested, I do have something that might pass the time more quickly."

"Oh," Luke responded, sitting up a little straighter. Anakin flicked on the light with a wave of his hand and reached down by the foot of the bed, pulling up a lumpy, black package about the size of the older man's forearm.

"I did promise you a present," he said, handing the package over to the squirming boy. Luke tore into it with no hesitation, sending shreds of paper flying every which way. When the item was finally revealed, Luke couldn't hold in his gasp as he held it up to the light. Scrambling, he put it aside and flung himself off the bed at his dad's back.

"YOU'RE THE BEST!"

They were both laughing this time, and Anakin swung Luke around in his arms, shifting until he held the giddy boy upside down by his ankles. It didn't take long for the boy to break his dad's grip and soon he'd tackled the older man to the ground. They wrestled playfully, bantering and laughing, and for just a few minutes, Luke felt as if everything would be just fine.

AN: I'm super, duper, DUPER sorry for how long this update was. I had zero motivation to write after my move in the spring but my muse finally decided to pay me a visit when I came down with the flu earlier this week. I wrote this entire chapter in about four days so please overlook any spelling or grammatical errors. I did my best with proofreading, but the flu might've addled my brains a bit.

Thank you all for all your reviews and favs! Every one of those notifications in my inbox is a little pebble of motivation! The next chapter won't be out particularly soon, but I've started outlining it so it shouldn't be as long as this update was. This is the end of this arc, so there will be another interlude before we see a slight skip ahead in Luke's childhood.

Until next time! ^^