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.Han followed Leia, wiping coolant-stained hands on his pants, and couldn't get Jaina's comment out of his mind.Are you in trouble?Yeah, what was all that about?JACEN SOLO'S APARTMENT, ROTUNDA ZONE, CORUSCANT.Luke knew Ben would come back here sooner or later.He paced around the lobby of the apartment building, pausing occasionally to stare through the transparisteel doors.Something had happened to Ben, although all of Luke's Force-senses told him his son was alive and unharmed.But he wouldn't answer his link.And Jacen had disappeared from the Force.Luke picked up echoes of him sporadically and then lost him again.He looked at Mara, wondering if she was able to detect their nephew any better than he could."Nothing," she said, and shook her head, apparently knowing exactly what was on his mind.It wasn't that difficult: he'd agonized about little else today."Look, it's chaos out there.Ben's smart enough to avoid trouble.Let's take it easy."Take it easy.What had he come to when Mara was the one urging him to calm down? He wondered how much of his own anxiety was caused by having nothing concrete to do yet in the coming war.War.He'd thought it again.Somewhere along the line in the last few days it had changed from a threat to a certainty.Luke tried to separate it in his mind from the Force dreams of the man in the hooded cloak that still plagued him.He turned back to the turbolift and watched the cascade of lights on the floor indicator panel for a while until he heard Mara say, "Now, let's not be hasty, honey, okay-ah! Oh, no."Luke spun around to see Ben.The boy's eyes were swollen and streaming, and he wiped his nose as if he'd been sobbing his heart out.Mara stood frozen for a second and then went to wrap him in her arms.While he didn't push her away, he certainly didn't yield."What happened, sweetheart? Tell me what's wrong."Ben coughed hard."I got a whiff of riot gas.""Oh, no." Mara put her fingertips under his chin and turned his face to one side to examine him."You look like you've been burned.Can you breathe okay?""It's wearing off, Mom." He submitted to a hug."I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.""Let's get you to the medcenter for a checkup," said Luke quietly."I said I'm fine, Dad.It wears off." Ben sounded annoyed."Aren't you doing something about the water situation?"Mara intervened."The city authorities are looking after that.""Is it the Corellians? Is it terrorism? They said so on HNE and everyone believes that.""Why don't we go up to the apartment and get you cleaned up?" Mara steered Ben toward the turbolift."Where's Jacen?"Ben stopped at the lift doors."I don't know.I was coming back from Fleet ComCen.Look, this is Jacen's apartment.I ought to ask him if it's okay to just go in.""It's your home, too," said Luke carefully.So Jacen really did control Ben now.This was a boy who didn't even obey his mother when his life was at risk.It scared Luke, and then he found himself tearing his heart apart to be sure that he was genuinely afraid of Jacen's influence, tinged with darkness, or if he was just hurt that his nephew had more of a paternal relationship with his kid than he did."Come on.Ben usually sighed and showed dissent.But now he just nodded, resigned, as if he'd suddenly grown a lot older in a matter of days.They rode the turbolift in an uncomfortable silence punctuated only by Ben's sniffs and coughs.His robe was dirty, as if he'd been rolling on the ground.When they got to the apartment, his first reaction was to head for the refresher.He stopped a few paces back from the doors and turned on his heel."Bottled water in the conservator," he said.The water supply to most of the center of the city was still cut off.Luke turned on the taps in the kitchen to drain off any water still standing in the pipes and header tanks.There was no point taking any chances."I can feel that you're angry, Dad," said Ben hoarsely.He slopped a bottle of water into a bowl and soaked a washcloth to wipe his face.He flinched when the cloth touched his skin, but he didn't make a sound."But it's not Jacen's fault.It's mine.I decided not to go with him when he had his meeting." He seemed about to expand on that but checked himself visibly."I've learned my lesson.""It's okay." Mara caught Luke's eye as Ben covered his face with the washcloth for a moment.Her expression said it all: Is this the rebellious son we know? "Let me get you something to drink.You sound awful."They ended up in the living room, the three of them sitting as far apart from one another as the room would allow.Ben sipped a glass of juice and occasionally broke into a hacking, uncontrollable cough that left him wheezing with tears streaming down his face.His sobriety stunned Luke.Maybe Mara was right.Perhaps Luke was too mired in his own anxieties about where he had lost Ben along the way that he was mistaking Jacen's motives.Apart from his terrible dreams and the darkness that trailed Jacen, he had nothing concrete to lay against his nephew, only evidence that Ben was settling down far better in his care than he ever had at home.But they could sit in silence for a while.They didn't have to talk.Almost out of habit, Luke let himself drift to pick up impressions from the apartment and felt nothing beyond a sense of unease, as if Jacen was having problems.A man having a difficult love affair.Maybe that's all it is.But something told him that wasn't true.What he did begin to feel, though, was his sister, somewhere near-and Jacen.The doors opened and Jacen walked in with Han and Leia.It should have been a family reunion of sorts, and a relieved one at that, but the expression on Han's face said otherwise.Luke decided to take the lead."It's okay, Jacen," he said."We made Ben let us in.He got caught up in the rioting.Dispersal gas.""I'm fine," Ben sighed."It's wearing off.""Well, we've all had a little drama in our day, then." Jacen ushered Leia and Han into the room.He radiated only concern and sympathy, nothing dark at all."Mom and Dad nearly crash-landed, and Dad was nearly assassinated."Mara got up to plump cushions around Leia
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