Mai-Mai's Secret

Chikako stopped on a landing and peered over the balcony to watch the wealthiest patrons file into their seats. Aiko stood on tip-toes to see over. "Wow! We're so high up!" she exclaimed with a gasp. Chikako smiled to herself; the six-year-old had once again found the smallest things in life infinitely thrilling.

Annika rushed up the steps to where they were standing. "Oh, we're so high up!" she squealed, looking down over the edge. Chikako giggled.

"Annika, will you sit by me?" Aiko asked. Annika had been among the senshi present when Aiko arrived from the future, along with Yuki, Kirana, and Chouko. Those four remained her favorites, though she preferred Aisu, Hisako, Niji and Kagerou to any grown-up, with the possible exception of Kalei.

"Sure, Aiko-hime," Annika said. "Where did they say our seats were, anyway? I think I lost my ticket stub already."

"I think I might have it," Chikako mumbled, checking her purse. Before she found anything, though, Kairiku joined them, studying one of the elusive ticket stubs.

She put it away and blinked up at Chikako and Annika, who were watching her expectantly. "Oh! Row G," she said, blushing. "I guess I think you can hear my thoughts." She glanced over the balcony as she continued up the steps. "Ooh, look how high we are!"

Their full party of seven made it to their row just as the house lights went down, and they hurriedly ducked into whichever seat happened to be closest to them, squeezing past the patrons who were already there. When her eyes adjusted to the dark, Chikako found herself with Ippin on her right and Yuki on the left. Aiko had gone to precautionary measures to make sure she was right between Yuki and Annika, while Xanthus was on Annika's left and Kairiku had ended up on the end.

The audience started applauding for someone hidden from those on the highest balcony – the orchestra director maybe. From the corner of her eye, Chikako could see Aiko looking around excitedly, clutching her program with ardor rather than clapping, despite the fact that it was written in a language she couldn't read. Between them, Yuki leafed through her own program, quietly answering every time Aiko pointed to some intriguing line of text and asked what it said.

The opening overture began as the tall white curtains covering the stage finally parted, and the auditorium was flooded with the soft light reflected by the brightly colored props of the first scene. Chikako stole a sideways look down the row at Xanthus, who was, like everyone else in the theater, watching the first dancers bounce onto the stage.

She watched him until she was afraid he'd sense it, then turned her attention to the performance. To be honest, she was surprised Xanthus had come. Lately, he couldn't even make time to meet her for lunch.

"Not that I'm bitter or anything," she'd sighed to Ippin earlier, during a venting session in the cockpit of the Crystal Prism. "But seriously, I have no idea why he would be avoiding me."

Ippin shrugged and gave her a sympathetic half-smile. "When did this start?"

"About the same time Aiko-hime got here. I wonder if it has anything to do with her?"

"Does Xanthus know she's your future daughter?"

Chikako laughed softly at how normal the phrase "future daughter" was to her and Ippin, and at the fact that half the people they knew hadn't been born yet. She'd never bothered enlightening Xanthus on that matter. "No," she said. "I don't think he knows she's related to me at all."

"And you don't even know who her father is, so that wouldn't make any sense. It has to be something else."

"It was so sudden though -" Chikako broke off as Aiko came to the cockpit to find out if they could see Alderaan yet. "Actually," she continued when the little girl left, "he was acting really strange right before I went to Naboo with Annika. I went to say good-bye to him, and he seemed really nervous. And ever since we got back, he practically runs away every time he sees me. Almost like he's... afraid or something."

Ippin shook her head. "I have no idea, Chika-chan. Maybe you should sic Koumi on him when you get back. She'll read his mind like Yoshiko reads Bantha Beat Magazine."

Chikako grinned. "I hate doing that," she said. "But I just might!"

The applause offered to an impressive soloist jolted Chikako out of her flashback. She looked at Ippin next to her in the half light. Her long red hair was swept back in a Chouko-style braid, and she was smiling faintly as she watched the soloist twirl on and on. The dancer's peasant-style dress rippled like a flag on a windy day, and her long burgundy braids followed her like streamers.

Chikako stole another glance to her left. Yuki was clapping politely; "Impressive," she whispered. Aiko, her eyes twice their size, clutched her armrests and swung her feet excitedly. Annika had her elegant hands clasped at her chin, covering her delighted smile. Xanthus watched the dancer with guarded interest, and Kairi-chan was fumbling through her program, trying to find the soloist's name. "Most impressive," Yuki finished, smiling to herself.

Chikako's eyes went back to Xanthus, whose expression hadn't changed. They'd never talked about it, but she doubted he was a big fan of the fine arts. She watched him watch the dance, imagining how far his thoughts were from this theater. For a moment, she wished she could read minds like Koumi. As unpleasant as it probably was at times, it was no doubt quite convenient at others.

She jumped, realizing he was returning her gaze. They kept eye contact for a moment, then smiled shyly as they turned back to the stage. She wondered suddenly how well he could read her through the Force. He could probably sense her emotions, at least... Maybe. If he even wanted to.

As the second scene began, Chikako finally turned her attention to the performance. She wasn't watching the primary dancers, though, so much as the very back row of "village maidens." "Third from the left," she counted, remembering Maiko's detailed descriptions of each scene she was in. From their seats, the dancers were tiny, but Chikako recognized the way Maiko moved, and her sleek black ponytail swinging behind her as she spun. "That's her!" she whispered loudly to her friends. "Third from the left!"

Annika produced a pair of opera glasses and leaned forward in her seat. "I see her!" she announced. "Aiko-hime, do you want to look through these?"

Aiko nodded eagerly and stared through the binoculars for some time. She didn't know Maiko, but the magnifying effect was fascinating all the same. When she finished, Annika passed the glasses down the row so everyone could get a closer look at Maiko. Xanthus accepted them with hesitation, but watched Maiko for a while before passing them to Kairiku.

Soon after Maiko's debut, Chikako's thoughts wandered away again, back to Coruscant. She saw herself taking a deep breath outside her boyfriend's room, then timidly sliding the door open.

"Xanthus?" she called into the dimly-lit room as her eyes adjusted.

"I'm here," he said, using the Force to turn up the glowpanels. "Come in."

"I'm sorry I interrupted you."

"That's okay," he said, grinning warmly. "I've had enough meditation for today. Do you want some coffee?"

"Sure. Xanthus, do you remember my friend Maiko, from Myrkr?"

"Yes," he said, fumbling with a tin coffee cup and dropping it noisily into the sink.

Chikako flinched at the sudden clatter and continued after both cups were safely on the counter. "She got into the Alderaan United Royal Dance Company. She wants me to come to Alderaan to see her first performance with them. Thanks." She took the coffee Xanthus handed to her and watched as he poured himself a cup of juice. "Do you want to come with me?"

Xanthus swallowed his first drink of juice with a quick gulp. "To Alderaan?"

Chikako nodded. "Going professional is a really big deal for her, especially with such an important company."

"But... are you sure she'd want me there?"

"Yeah, why would she mind?"

"Well, I don't want to intrude or anything."

"No, she told me to bring friends. Kairi-chan, Yuki and Ippin are coming too. And Annika, if she wants to. I haven't gotten a chance to ask her yet."

"Oh, okay. Well, I guess... sure. When are we leaving?"

Chikako stared at him for a second before answering, a bit stunned by a positive answer. "Uh, Wednesday."

"All right." Xanthus sipped his juice and Chikako drank her coffee till it was gone. "I guess I better get back to meditating," he said suddenly, almost sharply, and stood up to see her out.

"Oh, right," she said, furrowing her brow. She held her cup out to him. "Thanks for the coffee."

"You're welcome." He took the cup.

She backed towards the door. "Um, if you get bored later, I'll be around."

"Okay. See you, Chikako."

"Yeah." She slipped back into the hallway, blinking in the brighter lighting.

As the house lights came up in the theater, Aiko looked around as if everything had been made new. Chikako didn't break her gaze with the stage until the curtains sealed the fantasy village behind them. "Ten minutes for intermission," Ippin said. "Just enough time to wait in line for the bathroom!"

"I'll come with you!" Annika said, jumping out of her seat like a rocket.

"Me too!" Aiko said immediately, imitating Annika's jump.

"I'm going to find some water to drink," Yuki said after the others had gone. "Want to come?"

"No thank you," Chikako said. As soon as Yuki left, she slid down three seats to put herself next to Xanthus. "Hi."

"Hey," he said. "Having fun?"

"Sure," she said. "You?"

"Yeah."

"Um... so... how have you been?"

"Good," he said.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Kairiku announced.

"Okay." Chikako smiled sheepishly, realizing Kairi-chan probably felt like she should let them be alone. That didn't help though, and when the lights dimmed for the second act ten minutes later, very few more words had been exchanged.

Xanthus breathed a hushed sigh of relief when Chikako slid back down to her seat. He wished he didn't like her at all; that would make everything easier. He didn't like seeing her so confused and hurt. But every time he saw her, he thought of the promise he had made to Cyrus, and because of the way he'd grown to care for Chikako, running away was the only thing he could think to do. He could never get his conversations with Cyrus out of his head; even now, at a dance theater on Alderaan, the most recent one dovetailed itself inside his head.

He'd just agreed to go to Alderaan with Chikako when his Master spoke to him through the Force. Xanthus locked the door after all but pushing Chikako out of it, and closed his eyes. "What is it, Master?"

"What were you doing?" Cyrus said through the Force. "Why didn't you answer me right away?"

"I was talking to someone."

"Chikako?"

"No," he lied.

"Do you remember what I said, Xanthus?"

"Yes, Master. You said to kill her the first chance I got."

"And you haven't had any chances?"

"No. She's been very busy. But," he hesitated, "she's asked me to go to Alderaan with her, perhaps I'll have a chance there."

"Let's hope so," Cyrus said. "It may be easier there, away from all of these Jedi. But remember, I'll know if she's alive, even if she's on another planet."

"I know, Master. I'll do as you said."

Maiko followed a petite blonde, Yuristia, in a trail of leaps as the backup dancers exited the stage for the romantic dance-for-two scene. She tried to put everything she had into letting her body do what it was trained to do with as much precision as possible. As soon as she was out of the audience's sight, she forced her muscles to relax as she prepared for the next scene. The slender brunette sighed deeply; she had never in her life been as tired as she had been the past few weeks. And never so stressed.

Maiko's first performance with the most prestigious dance company on the planet was one stressor; Chikako and her friends coming to visit was another, even though she very much wanted them there. But it was turning out to be a lot more draining than she thought it would be. She hadn't wanted Xanthus to come, but there was no way to tell Chikako that, so she'd decided to be strong and deal with it. She had no choice, really.

After a quick change of costume, she took her place in the queue for her next entrance onto the stage, still several minutes away. The other dancers silently stretched nearby. Maiko followed their example in body, but in mind she found herself far away, on her home world – home in the loosest sense of the word, anyway.

She saw herself sitting on her mother's back step, her knees drawn up to her chin. No one was inside; her mother lived there only technically, and the cats were chasing insects along the back fence. Maiko absentmindedly tickled her toes with the ends of her long hair. "She's going to hate me," she whispered to the cement between her feet. "I can't believe I... she'll never forgive me. And she shouldn't." She watched blankly as clouds gathered at the horizon. She could tell they were going to make a nice sunset.

A soft knock on the front door carried through the lonely house to Maiko's crouched figure on the back step. She made no motion to stand or answer the door; curiosity wasn't there to motivate her, since she already knew who it was. And though there was no Force on Myrkr, she could sense him standing at the door long after the knocking had stopped. And when she heard soft footsteps coming around to the back of the house, she stood to meet him.

"Mai-Maiiii!" Chikako squealed, nearly barreling the little dancer over with a big hug. "That was incredible! You did so good!"

"Thanks," Maiko giggled when Chikako released her. She wiped off her sweat and the top layer of stage makeup with a small white towel.

"We're so proud of you!" Yuki grinned as Kairiku thrust a big bouquet into Maiko's arms.

"It seems like just yesterday we rescued you from being stuck on Myrkr your whole life," Ippin sighed with mock nostalgia. "And now you've graduated from dance school, you've gone professional... my, how you've grown!"

"Coru, cut it out," Yuki laughed. She looked down at the little girl holding both her hand and one of Annika's. "Aiko-chan, did you like the dance?"

Aiko nodded, having suddenly grown shy in the presence of one of the dancers she'd been admiring from afar only minutes earlier. Maiko laughed.

"She'll get over the shyness bit," Kairiku told her. "I promise."

"Hi, Aiko," Maiko said, kneeling so they'd be face to face. "My name is Maiko. You can call me Mai-Mai if you want."

"I'm very pleased to meet you," Aiko whispered.

Chikako grabbed Xanthus's hand. "You all right?" she asked.

"Mm-hmm," he nodded quickly. "It's just hot in here."

"It is!" Annika agreed, jumping into the conversation. "Mai-Mai, do you want to come back to the hotel with us?"

Maiko hesitated. "I would love to hang out with you guys, but... I'm so tired! Maybe I could stop by in the morning?"

"Sure!" Chikako said.

Ippin nodded. "We're gonna be here all week, remember?"

"Yeah," Maiko smiled gratefully. "Thanks for understanding. Then... I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Mm-hm!" Chikako agreed. "Night, Mai-Mai."

Maiko slipped off to grab her bag and walked home with a few other dancers. "Shall we go?" Yukiko asked her friends.

"Oh, yeah!" Annika exclaimed dramatically. "I'm so exhausted from watching those dancers jump around the stage all night!"

"Me too!" Aiko exclaimed with equal drama, mirroring Annika's every facial expression.

Ippin snickered. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready too."

"Yeah, we can go," Chikako said, then looked at Xanthus for his opinion. She was startled to find him staring at her with an odd, intense gaze. She raised an eyebrow, answering his stare with a quizzical expression. The other girls began working their way out of the theater, Yukiko and Annika occasionally swinging Aiko – who was still clutching their hands – a few steps forward as they walked. Xanthus finally broke his mysterious gaze and put his arm around Chikako's shoulders as they followed their friends.

Much later that night, Xanthus again gazed into Chikako's face, being careful not to stare so intensely that it might wake her up. She stirred, slipping slightly out of the white sheet she was tangled in, then was still again. He reached down to softly push a tendril of hair away from her face, but caught himself just before his fingertips reached her forehead, and pulled away. He set his jaw, imagining she was a stranger, an evil woman, a thief. He tried to feel all the pain she'd caused his master, and he thought of how Cyrus had always cared for him when he was young.

Xanthus unhooked his lightsaber and held it above her chest, watching it steadily rise and fall in the milky Alderaanian moonlight that flooded her room. He ignited his weapon with a snap he feared would wake her; an emerald green radiation overpowered the moon's delicate glow, and a low buzz silenced her soft breathing.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed noiselessly, slicing the bright green blade cleanly through the sheets bunched under her shoulders.

Chikako's lips rounded into a faint smile, freezing his arms as they moved the lightsaber close to her skin. Her soul was soaring through a dream, ten million light years away.

The room was silent again, but the buzz of his lightsaber still echoed in his ears. Xanthus sat on the floor, his back against the bed, thoughtlessly toying with the deactivated handle of his elegant weapon. He turned his head at a subtle rustling behind him; Chikako slipped one foot out of her covers and sighed in her sleep before falling back into her pacific rhythm of breathing. Xanthus climbed up next to her, darkening her pillow with a few of his tears, pressing his hand against her chest and feeling her heartbeat in his fingers.

He was on his feet again a few minutes later, weapon once again drawn and ignited. He still stared at Chikako: the tranquility on her face, the shape of her body beneath the linen, glowing in the green effulgence. The blade of his lightsaber trembled in his hand as he held it close to his own chest now, so close his skin could feel the little heat the weapon radiated. He swung the blade away from himself, over Chikako, so that he could pull it back, through his body in one swift motion. And as he took one last deep breath, he sensed someone outside. He realized with a start that he'd have heard footsteps had she not been wearing dance slippers.

He flipped his lightsaber off and belted it, acting more on reflex than either desperate emotion or logic. Still trembling severely, he turned to face the door just as it slid open.

The dark-haired dancer, wearing a thin nightgown with her dance shoes and carrying a small bundle over her shoulder, noted him with mild surprise. "Maiko," he whispered gruffly. Instead of continuing into the room, she backed into the hallway, locking her brown eyes on his face. He followed her through the door and slid it closed behind him.

"My mother, my brothers..." Maiko said, shaking her head. "They weren't..." She broke off and nodded at Chikako's door. "She is the only true family I've ever had. There is no one more precious to me in this entire galaxy. I can't live with what I did to her."

"Maiko, please don't –"

"I've hardly slept since she's arrived. You don't make things any easier. I don't know; maybe you've been able to forget me, forgive yourself, pretend nothing's happened. I haven't been so lucky," she said, adjusting the bundle she carried.

"I haven't forgotten you," Xanthus said. "But I can't hurt Chikako by telling her what happened on Myrkr."

"Do you think I want to hurt her?" Maiko blustered. "Chikako would never dream of doing what I did to her! This will kill her!" She looked down at her feet and spoke more softly. "I didn't plan this when I invited her here. I thought I'd be okay, and I really believed she wouldn't even want to know, and that everything between us would be like it always was. But it's not. She's too much. She deserves to know that I'm not worth her love."

"You deserve all the love in the world, Maiko," Xanthus said.

Maiko just stared at him. "I'm going to tell her."

"No," he told her, equally determined. "If you tell her, I will deny it."

"You'd force her to choose between us?"

"If she finds out, she'll never see me again. I can't lose her," Xanthus said so severely, Maiko didn't respond. "She's all I have," he added.

"I'm sorry," Maiko said after a heavy pause. "I'm going to tell Chikako what we did, and you won't be able to deny the proof I have."

"Proof?"

"I wasn't going to... but, I suppose you ought to know, too..." she mumbled, carefully unwrapping the bundle she carried. Xanthus stepped cautiously closer to see what it was. One glimpse of mottled black hair and a tiny pink hand, and he crashed to the floor in a faint.

Using the little Force technique she knew, Maiko quickly brought Xanthus back to consciousness, kneeling beside him with the child in her arms. "I didn't give birth to him," she said softly as Xanthus stared incredulously at his son's sleeping face. "Childbearing is not a popular career move for young dancers. But I couldn't make myself end the pregnancy, so the medical droids moved the baby to a synthetic development tank before I started to show. He was "born" two weeks ago."

"He's too small," Xanthus finally said, venturing to touch the child.

"He's normal," Maiko smiled, stroking his dark hair. "He's actually a little tall. Wonder where he got that from?"

Xanthus and Maiko shared a timid smile for the first time that week. "What's his name?" Xanthus whispered.

"Rory."

As if on cue, the sleeping baby suddenly opened his eyes and looked around without a sound. "Oh my," Xanthus muttered, looking into a pair of emerald green eyes that could have been his own, had his own been filled with anything like innocence.

"I can't raise him," Maiko whispered while Xanthus cradled their tiny son for the first time. He looked at her, wondering where she was going. "I have the Force," she continued. "You're practically a Jedi Knight. Rory could be very strong in the Force."

"He could be."

"I want him to go to the Jedi Temple until he's old enough to be tested. If the Force is with him, he can be trained to be Jedi. If it's not... maybe I'll be able to take care of him by then."

"Cyrus will kill this child if I take him to Coruscant," Xanthus said point blank, though he really had no idea how Cyrus would react.

"Your Jedi Master, Cyrus?!"

"He's not exactly my Jedi Master anymore."

Maiko frowned down at her baby. "He has to go. What if Chikako takes him?"

"No!" he said. "Chikako can't take him; none of the Sensh- I mean, none of her friends can take him. Chikako can't ever even see him!"

"Chikako has a right to know you had a child with me while you were dating her," Maiko said harshly.

"No!" Xanthus said, thinking hard for a solution that would keep Chikako from knowing one of the ways he'd betrayed her. "I know," he said suddenly. "Do you remember Kalei?"

"Of course."

"He lives on Coruscant, nearly an hour from the Temple. That's pretty close, but far enough from Cyrus. Kalei likes kids; Aiko always hangs around him." Xanthus stopped short upon remembering Aiko. He thought Kalei could keep Rory for a while without Chikako finding out, but if Aiko ever saw the baby, it'd be all over the Republic in five standard minutes. But it could be a temporary solution, and the look in Maiko's eyes told him she'd settle for no solution that didn't involve Rory near the Jedi Temple. He had a feeling she wanted him close to Chikako, too, but Xanthus would do what he could to get around that part. Right now he could think of nothing better.

"You... think Kalei can?"

"It's worth a try," Xanthus said, "unless you can keep him here for a while longer."

Maiko lowered her eyes and shrugged helplessly. "I'll be getting some money now that I'm with the Company," she said weakly, "but not enough to pay for child care, and I can't take a baby on tour," she broke off. Xanthus squeezed her hand.

"I'll take him to Coruscant. Today," he vowed. "But I want you to promise not to tell Chikako."

Maiko wiped away tears with her free hand. "Okay," she sniffled. "As long as Rory is safe and close to the Jedi, I won't tell."

Xanthus leaned over and kissed her cheek, then put Rory in her arms. Her tears turned to sobs as she realized she was saying good-bye. Xanthus stood up; he let her hold the baby and cry until the sky began to brighten at the horizon. Then he kissed her again, taking his son this time as he pulled away. He disappeared down the hallway, leaving Maiko alone on the floor, shaking with tears, shivering in her flimsy nightgown.

Nestled in her cocoon of white linen, Chikako blinked at the first morning light. She was entirely oblivious to the agreement that had just taken place outside her door, oblivious to the fact that she very nearly woke up to find Xanthus Sloane's lifeless body on her bedroom floor, and oblivious to the fact that she very nearly never woke up at all.

The occupant of the room across the hall, however, was not so oblivious. Kairiku sat on the floor against the door, hugging her pillow. Unless she was very mistaken – and she doubted that – she had just overheard that Xanthus had cheated on Chikako. With her best friend. Had Kairiku not been so close to the parties involved, she might have made a clever remark about daytime television on Earth.

As it was, though, she was deeply distressed. Should she tell Chikako about Xanthus and Maiko? Chikako had a right to know about Xanthus's unfaithfulness, but was that her place? There was the baby, though. Babies were hard to hide; perhaps Chikako would find out sooner than later.

All of the sudden, Kairiku went cold. Xanthus had told Maiko he was going to take the baby to Kalei. But could Xanthus be trusted? At the moment, Kairiku was not giving him the benefit of the doubt. She jumped to her feet and spun in a little circle, not sure what to do but definitely wanting to do something.

Finally, she slit her door open, making sure Maiko was gone. When she saw the empty hallway, the Gungan-haired blonde slid out of her room and tiptoed to the one next door.

"Yuki!" she whispered, knocking softly. "Are you awake?"

She heard a groan, two heavy footsteps, and the swingy click of the old-fashioned door unlocking. "I guess I am now," the blue-haired Senshi muttered as she opened the door.

"This is important!" Kairiku insisted, squeezing herself into the room. She blurted out the entire situation to the sleepy-eyed princess. When she'd finished, Yuki was wide awake. "I'm sure Xanthus is gone by now," Kairiku added with a sigh.

"Probably," Yuki agreed.

"But if Xanthus is afraid of Cyrus," Kairiku realized, "and Cyrus is on Coruscant, Xanthus isn't going to take that baby to Coruscant, even if he did intend to give him to Kalei!"

"So what are you thinking?" Yuki asked, watching the younger girl reason.

Kairiku tapped her chin with her finger as she thought. "I'm thinking he's going to try to get Kalei to meet him offworld. But I don't think he'd try and take Ippin's ship; he'd have to take a commuter transport or something. So he'd have to know where he was going before he left Alderaan."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he'd have to contact Kalei while he was still here to find out where to meet him. If he had no intention of giving that baby to Kalei, he wouldn't have bothered contacting him. At least, I don't think he would."

"Your logic is amazing, Kairi-chan."

"Thanks!" Kairiku smiled.

"Now how do we found out if he called Kalei?"

"That's the easy part!" Kairiku walked over to the com device in Yuki's room.

"Hello?" Kalei's pleasantly-accented voice echoed in the lightly furnished hotel room, sounding a little out of breath.

Kairiku nodded at Yukiko. "Hi Kalei, this is Yukiko," she said into the com receiver.

"What's up?"

"I was wondering if you've heard from Xanthus lately."

"Yeah, actually I just talked to him a little bit ago. He asked me to meet him on Ralltiir as soon as I could."

Kairiku cheered silently and then flopped onto Yuki's bed, sighing with relief. Yuki grinned and turned back to the com system. "Did he say what it was about?"

"Well... he asked me not to tell anyone."

"Was it about a baby?" Yuki asked bluntly.

"Uh... yeah," Kalei laughed.

"Good."

"So... it's okay to meet him?"

"Yes, though you're welcome to slap him upside the head a few times for me."

"And you can kick him for me," Kairiku yelled from the bed.

"Right," Kalei said over Kairiku's directions about where exactly to kick Xanthus. "I'll see you girls later."

"Xanthus is right about one thing," Yuki said after she'd turned off the com system, her face darkening slightly.

"What's that?" Kairiku said, sitting up.

"He may have the wrong reasons for thinking so, but Rory should not go to the Jedi Temple."

The odango atama tilted her head. "Why not?"

"Kairi-chan, we both know what's going to happen to the Jedi in a few years. Rory will be an easy victim for the Emporor's purges."

"Right," Kairiku breathed. Her blue eyes remained fixed for a moment on one of Yuki's boots in the corner of the room.

Yuki looked down at her hands. "We'll talk to Kalei and decide what to do when we get back to Coruscant," she said softly, though she knew both of their minds had moved far from Rory in that last quiet moment.

"Okay," Kairiku said, standing up. "I'm gonna try and get some sleep. Thanks, Yuki." Yukiko nodded and slipped the lock into place as Kairiku left. She slid back under her covers and closed her eyes, knowing sleep wouldn't come this time.