Title: Dark Twins
Author: Liz Skywalker
My e-mail: lizskywalker@hotmail.com
Website: www.geocities.com/area51/atlantis/9010
Rating: PG, PG-13 at the most, but not really.
Setting: After RoTJ
Category: AU
Story outline: Vader found Padme and Luke and raised him. Obi-wan and Yoda died 
of old age, never training anyone else. Leia is Bail's daughter, not Vader's.
Anyway, Luke was trained in the Dark side and became second in the empire when 
Palpatine died. Now he has a couple of sons and they have a rebellion to top it 
all off!
Disclaimer: George Lucas owns this all and I'm not making any money of off this. 
You can distribute this freely provided that it's complete with this disclaimer, 
you aren't making any money off of it and you give me credit for writing it. I 
hope you enjoy. Oh yeah, ASK ME FIRST!!!


	Lord Luke Skywalker, second in the Empire, looked at the two identical 
boys standing in front of him. They looked back up at him expectably. He sighed 
and gestured with his hand. A dark object floated obediently into his 
outstretched hand. The boys' eyes widened in astonishment.

	"How did you do that sir?" the older boy asked him.

	"Concentrate on the object. Think about it coming to you; use some of your 
anger to force it to come. Now, try it." He said. The three-year-old boys closed 
their eyes and concentrated, trying to pull the object to them. Both trying, 
they succeeded.  

	"Good. Now, Denis, try on your own." Luke said, nodding to the older boy 
that had spoken before. Denis strained and Luke felt Denis' anger at not being 
able to do it. Luke pushed at Denis to use his anger. Denis obliged and the 
object flew towards him.

	"Good. Ian?" The younger boy nodded and pulled at the object. Luke smiled, 
looking at his sons and remembered. Remembered the day not so long ago...

****
	Luke had been summoned to the throne room unexpectedly. He had stood 
before his father.

	"Have you given any thought of having a child, my son?" The Emperor had 
asked him, confusing Luke. A son?

	"No, sir. I never had a need to." Luke had answered.

	"Luke, I'm not going to be around forever. When I'm gone, you are going to 
be the Emperor and you are going to need a second in command that you can trust. 
I think you should give getting married some serious thought." Emperor Vader had 
said.

	"Yes, sir." Luke had said and then was dismissed. He had thought about it 
for a few days and was not surprised to be summoned to the throne room again.

	"Well?" The Emperor had prompted.

	"I have given the matter thought, Father, and I am willing to get married, 
but I have no one to get married to." Luke had answered, giving the answer that 
he had worked on for three days.

	"I have someone in mind." The Emperor had made some sort of gesture and a 
holo appeared of a red haired woman. "Mara Jade. Age 24, a year younger than 
you. Formerly a Hand of Palpatine, resigned after his death by Rebels 7 years 
ago, now employed at Imperial Intelligence. Strong in the Force, but with a lot 
of undeveloped talent. Willing to be married. What do you think?"

	"If you want me to marry her, I will sir." Luke had answered and a few 
days later, they were married in a small, secret ceremony. So secret that the 
one who conducted it was killed quietly later. A few months later, Jade had 
reported that she was pregnant. She died during childbirth, seconds after the 
younger boy had come out. Luke raised the boys and both he and the Emperor 
trained them. They had inherited their father's face and blue eyes. Those same 
ice blue eyes that struck fear into all that saw them. They also inherited their 
maternal grandmother's dark black hair with streaks of Luke's mother's brown. 
The only thing they had gotten from their mother was her flexibility, they 
excelled at gymnastics, and they had the Skywalker sense of the Force. They were 
entirely loyal to the Empire and learned quickly...

****
	Luke shook himself out of his reminiscing just in time to see the object 
fly to Ian's hand. He sensed someone at the door. 

	"Good. Both of you go to the training room and practice this. Also try to 
see if you can move it away from you." Luke said, remembering the Emperor's 
command not to let anyone know about the twins and their abilities. The boys ran 
off to the training room as the door chimed. 

	Luke pointed with his finger and the door slid open silently. Grand 
Admiral Piter Adder, the third in command of the Empire, walked in, not 
surprised, as many were, when he saw that no one had pushed the open mechanism 
on the door. The Grand Admiral was a wizened old man and he knew better than to 
question Lord Skywalker about his Force capabilities, now or ever. He did not 
know that Skywalker was the Emperor's son, but he did know that the Emperor 
seemed to trust his second in command with anything. 

	"Ah, Grand Admiral Adder. Do come in. I take it you wish to speak with me 
about this Rebel Problem?" Luke said, mentally laughing. He didn't 'take it', he 
knew it. But by not reveling this and seeming all knowing, even without knowing, 
he encouraged fear of him in the Grand Admiral and fear fed the dark side. 

	"Yes, my lord. The Emperor wishes to see these Rebels gone." The Grand 
Admiral said as Luke ushered him into a small room where they spoke to great 
lengths about exterminating the Rebels.


Twelve years later:
	Denis and Ian Skywalker rushed into the lift to the throne room. They 
didn't know what they were being summoned for and the summons had come when they 
were dressing, causing them the need to hurry. They looked disheveled and knew 
that this was not the way one looked when one was going before the Emperor. They 
tried to straighten out their black hair and succeeded partly. They hoped they 
wouldn't be rebuked for their appearances.

	"Ian!" Denis called to his brother.

	"What?"

	"Fix that curl! It's hanging over your eye. Good. Anything on me?" Denis 
hurriedly asked and was relieved when his brother shook his head no. The 
fifteen-year-olds were both suited up entirely in black and carried black 
lightsabers at their belts. Their training had been completed only a few months 
before and they were just getting used to the feel of the dark power that 
coursed through them. They forced themselves to be calm as the lift neared the 
throne room.

	The lift opened and the twin Skywalkers walked calmly up the stairs and 
bowed before the Emperor. They both noticed the presence of Grand Admiral Adder 
and switched their mind frames to call their father and grandfather by their 
formal titles. Their relationship should not be known.

	"What is thy bidding, sire?" They asked the Emperor simultaneously.

	"You will go to the pilot's academy on Carida as students in their new 
program, and will seek out the Rebels and gain their trust. When the Rebels 
defect, you will defect with them. All other details are on these data pads," a 
servant stepped forward and handed them two data pads, "any questions?" The boys 
shook their heads. The Emperor dismissed them and they bowed and left.


	Denis and Ian rushed into the turbo-lift and went down to their quarters. 
Once there, they started reading their respective files on their cover story and 
identities. They were not surprised by the thoroughness, being that they had 
been on countless undercover missions. After all, who could suspect two young 
teenagers? Therefore, they went on missions that had to be distanced from having 
direct connections to the Empire.

	"Well, Ian K'van, how do you think we will do on our entry exams?" Denis 
asked, invoking their cover names and stories.

	"Well, Denis K'van, ever since the pilots academy started a new program to 
take in 15 and 16 year olds in their ranks provided they had a certain IQ and 
skills, teens our age have taken advantage of this and joined. But among them 
were traitors, so the academy must be careful. My idea is that we will undergo 
interrogation to validate our stories, so we are going to need to set in place 
Force mind blocks that don't look like mind blocks. But, I'm confused over how 
we get out. According to this, if we get caught as Rebels at the academy, we 
shouldn't reveal our real names, but say that we are loyal Imperials and give no 
names of the Rebels. But if we are caught as Rebels in a base attack, we should 
surrender and remove the mind blocks. If we are caught in the air we should 
surrender and get our squadron to surrender. But what if we are caught on an 
Intel mission, or in the midst of defecting?" Ian asked. Denis inwardly sighed. 
Ian was more of a follower than a leader, even though he could be a leader when 
he wanted to. Denis instinctively knew that one day, it was possible that he 
would be the Emperor, being that he was the elder. And Ian expected that and 
held no grudge. Ian seeked permission and filled details and no one told the 
Emperor what to do. 

	"We are going to a pilot's academy. Why would we be on an Intelligence 
mission? And even if we are, we are probably just going to be flying cover and 
can fly out of there. If we are caught, it's probably the same as being caught 
at base. Being caught in the middle of defecting will be no problem. We could 
just distract the guards. If they reported it to the Emperor, well, it's ONE way 
of reporting in. Anyway, all we have to do is go there. And we need to go soon. 
The new term starts in a month and it's almost the deadline. Do the 'pads say 
anything about taking the exams, brother?" Ian nodded and they poured over the 
'pads once again.


	Grand Admiral Adder looked at the place where the boys had just been. He 
knew that this was one way of infiltrating the Rebels and he WAS the one who had 
suggested it, but he still had qualms over involving innocent boys. Actually, 
now that he thought about it, they probably weren't all that innocent. They 
acted like they had been on numerous Imperial missions, and it wasn't entirely 
impossible for them to have. After all, who would suspect youths that young to 
be on espionage assignments? The Emperor shook him out of his musings.

	"You object to this plan, Grand Admiral?" The Emperor asked, quietly. 
Adder tensed. Could the Emperor know that he was doubting him?

	"No, your Majesty." Grand Admiral Piter Adder replied, not quite 
succeeding in keeping his fears out of his voice.

	"Very well, then. You are dismissed, Grand Admiral." Adder bowed and left 
the room.

	"What are your impressions of Adder?" Vader asked Luke as soon as the 
Grand Admiral had left the room.

	"He is entirely loyal to a point. He harbors no doubts except one. He 
wonders at the wisdom of sending in seemingly innocent boys to a place where 
their loyalty can and will be tested by the enemy. He absolves this in his mind 
by saying that they are probably prepared, but he is shaken by the fact that he 
doesn't know of them or of their background. He fears that they will become 
Rebels and plot to over through us. He believes that it's like walking straight 
into a Krayt Dragon's lair. An unnecessary risk." Luke replied.

	"Good. Do you have any doubts about them?"

	"No, Father, I don't. That's not coming as their Father, but as someone 
who observed them when they were growing up and lately. They are completely 
loyal and sending in both of them will reinforce the other in the worst case 
scenario. If one starts to believe Rebel propaganda, the other can fill that 
one's mind with Imperial thoughts. The perfect setup, one that cannot easily 
fail." Luke reassured Emperor Vader.

	"I wonder, will Ian fight Denis, though, over the fact of Denis' birthright?"

	"How so, sir?" Even as Luke said it he understood. Ian could turn Denis in 
to a superior officer at the academy for being part of a rebel plot. The Emperor 
nodded. "I don't believe so, sir. Their loyalty to each other is as strong as 
their loyalty to the Empire; and in some odd way they rely on each other. Ian 
relies on Denis to fill in gaps and Denis relies on Ian to be practical about 
everything and basically, it's a symbiotic system. They could live without each 
other, but I don't know how that would turn out. In a nutshell, Ian wouldn't 
betray Denis and vise versa." Luke said. The Emperor nodded and he and Luke went 
on to other business.


	As the shuttle neared the pilot's academy, Denis and Ian got nervous.

	"Relax, brother. It's just a training center." Ian told his brother.

	"Yeah, I know. But something about it is a little... Oh I don't know..." 

	"Intimidating?" Ian filled in.

	"Yeah, that. And the fact that our mission borders on treason, never mind 
that we are ordered to do it, it violates my morals." Denis said.

	"Just remember to mind those morals, my brother. We have to infiltrate the 
Rebellion. Our morals are going to be put to the test. But we must act like 
Rebels to get the Rebellion to notice us. To do that we need to project a 
certain attitude without being reported in for insubordination. My guess is that 
we just do whatever we are supposed to do for the first couple of weeks. If we 
want to talk, we can open a Force-link. Let's play it by ear, shall we?" As 
Denis nodded, the shuttle opened.

	Denis and Ian walked out of the shuttle over to the officer there.

	"Names and home planets?" The officer asked them.	

	"Denis K'van from Imperial Center, sir."

	"Ian K'van from Imperial Center, sir." Ian finished.

	"Brothers?"

	"Yes, sir." Denis answered crisply.

	"Here are your room assignments. Be at the briefing room at 1500 hours."

	"Yes sir." They answered together and picked up their duffels. Together 
they walked to their rooms. They were pleased when they saw that their rooms 
were across the hall from one another. They walked in, Denis to his room, Ian to 
his.


	"Hello." A voice greeted Denis. Someone lay on the bottom bunk of the 
room.

	"Hello." He returned.

	"My name is Gerri K'lar. I saved you the top bunk. What's your name, 
amigo? Gerri asked.

	"My name is Denis K'van. I'm from Imperial Center. Where are you from?" 
Denis asked. Their home planet had to be Imperial Center because they had 
stubble accents that could have only come from that world.

	"I'm from Alderaan." Gerri said, wincing.

	"Alderaan?" Denis asked, suspicious. Alderaan had been known for years as 
being sympathetic to the Rebellion. In fact, Alderaan's senator, Leia Organa, 
had been a suspected Rebel for years.

	"I'm not a rebel! I promise! I know, I know. I had to undergo 
interrogation when I got here this morning to make sure I wasn't a Rebel. My 
father never voted for Organa and denounced her in public!" Gerri defended 
himself. Denis felt that Gerri wasn't telling the entire truth. Denis went into 
Gerri's mind and found that while he wasn't a Rebel, he did have Rebel 
sympathies. Perfect!

	"Calm down, friend, I believe you! Do you also have to be in the briefing 
at 1500?" He asked.

	"Yes. Want to go with me?" Denis nodded and they walked out of the room. 
He felt someone behind him just before someone tapped him on the shoulder. Ian.

	"Hey Ian. How's everything? Oh, Ian. This is my roommate Gerri K'lar, from 
Alderaan. Gerri, this is my brother Ian K'van." Denis introduced them. Ian and 
Gerri shook hands.

	"Are you twins?" Gerri asked, somewhat intimidated. They had to be at 
least brothers; they looked nearly exactly alike.

	"Yes." Ian said. He hadn't missed what Denis said. Alderaan. That had to 
mean that Gerri was a Rebel sympathizer! What luck! The Force must be with them. 
"Oh. This is my roommate, Mica K'last, Mica this is my brother Denis and his 
roommate Gerri K'lar."

	"Pleased to meet you." Gerri, Mica, and Denis all shook hands. They headed 
off for the briefing room and made it there with about ten minutes to spare. 
They met some of their new classmates and introduced themselves. As long as no 
one asked personal questions, they were fine. They had decided to tell the truth 
up to a point, but there was always a chance of a slip up. They were the only 
children; their father worked for the Empire, their father was an only child, as 
was their mother, who had died during childbirth. Their father's name was Anakin 
and their mother's was Padme, though. Their grandfather had served under Emperor 
Palpatine, but he died when he heard of Palpatine's death. Their grandfather's 
name had been Jade K'van and their grandmother's Mara. They didn't know anything 
about their mother's side of the family. 

	The commander came in and the new students took their seats.

	"Welcome, new recruits, to the Carida Pilot Academy. You are the third 
group of students under our new youth program. You'll find that this program is 
a little more lenient about some things. But we have the same curriculum as the 
normal program. One thing: If any of you are found to be Rebels, we kill you on 
the spot. No exceptions." At this Denis smiled, if they were caught as Rebels, 
they would distract or kill the guards. The commander went on. "All of you are 
to report back here tomorrow morning at 0700. Dinner is at 1900 sharp, don't 
come on time, no dinner. Any questions? No? Dismissed." The commander finished 
and walked out of the room.

	"I wonder why he added the thing about being a Rebel. Not that any of us 
are, but my brother went here and they didn't have that when he went." Gerri 
asked Denis. Denis grinned inwardly. Only a worried Rebel would wonder over 
that.

	"I don't know if I should be telling you this, but I heard that there were 
some Rebels in the other groups in this new youth program that went over to the 
Rebellion and took some of their squad mates with them. The Rebels need pilots, 
so here is a good place as any to get them." Denis answered as Ian and his 
roommate came over.

	"Yeah, friend. One of my friends back home told me about someone who 
jumped the bucket over to the Rebellion. We then went to the police station and 
gave them the kids' brother's letter home explaining why." Mica offered.

	"Darn traitor," Ian said and they all agreed with him. Mica and Gerri went 
off to talk over something and Ian and Denis were left alone.

	"Well, what do you think, brother?" Denis asked.

	"Gerri definitely. Mica, probably. They think we are, but have no evidence 
and don't want to give us in, yet. They think the commander will asked them how 
they know and how like knows like, that sort of thing. They're scared of that." 
Ian said. "For now, I say we keep up what we are dong and be the best pilots 
this academy has ever seen. Just make sure we don't shoot down the commander. 
Plan?" Ian asked.

	"Plan." Denis answered. "Don't get swayed." Ian nodded and they all walked 
back to their rooms.


	"Well, what do you think of my brother?" Ian asked Mica later that night, 
just before lights out.

	"He's nice and all. Are you close?" Mica asked.

	"Very close. Sometimes it seems that I can read his mind. He's basically 
the only family I have. My mother's dead and so are my grandparents. The only 
other family I have is my father." Ian said, trying to see if he could get Mica 
to tell him if he was a rebel or not.

	"I wish that was the same with me, sometimes. It's a whole other existence 
with siblings. I'm the oldest of eight and my mom's pregnant. My dad works at a 
shipyard and my mom basically stays home. My best friend from home taught me how 
to fly. He's the one whose brother defected. What does your dad do?" Mica asked, 
stretching out on his bunk.

	"My dad works for the Emperor in the Imperial Palace. I kind of grew up 
hearing stories of the Emperor and the old Emperor Palpatine. I'm not old enough 
to remember the day he died, but my dad tells us the story of what happened. My 
dad came home really sad and went to my grandfather's room. My father told my 
grandfather the news and then my grandfather screamed that it couldn't be true. 
You see, my grandfather worked very closely with Emperor Palpatine and when he 
died, well, my grandfather nearly went mad. He took out a blaster and shot his 
head off. The funeral for my grandfather happened right after the Emperor's. The 
Emperor noticed my father and funded lessons for my brother and I to learn how 
to fly." As Ian finished up, he mentally sent the story to Denis to use. Their 
stories had to match up.

	"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm from Correllia. I'm not a Rebel!" He said as Ian eyed 
him. "I never heard of Han Solo or Wedge Antilles until the warrants went out 
for their arrests. I'm a loyal Imperial and would never think of being a Rebel!" 
His defense only convinced Ian. He sent this to Denis.

	"Hush, I understand how you feel. No one likes to be accused of 
something." Ian then stretched out on his bed and promptly went to sleep.


	One night, Denis noticed Gerri slip into the room after curfew.

	"Huh? Who's that?" Denis asked, startling Gerri.

	"Denis! Don't do that!" Gerri exclaimed.

	"Where were you?" Denis asked, guardedly.

	"No where!" Gerri jumped.

	"Gerri!" Denis asked, on a hunch. "Were you at a Rebel meeting?" he 
accused.

	"No! Why would you think that? Do you think I'm a traitor." Gerri 
questioned.

	"I don't know. Are you?" Denis replied. 

	"No. I'm a freedom fighter," Gerri declared. "Are you going to turn me 
in?" Denis merely smiled. This was going perfectly. He sent to Ian and found him 
awake and having nearly the same conversation with Mica, good.

	"No, I'm not."

	"You're not?!" Gerri asked, surprised. Not going to turn him in?

	"I'm not. I've been looking for the Rebellion and now I've found it. Why 
would I turn you in?" Denis asked, sending the reply to Ian for him to use.

	"What do you mean 'looking for the Rebellion'?" Gerri asked, warily.

	"I'm sick of the corrupt doings of the Empire and I want out. I want to be 
part of the Rebellion. Can you get me in?" Denis asked, putting all the hope he 
could into his voice. After only three weeks, he had found the rebels! This was 
better than he expected.

	"I don't know. How do I know that this isn't a trap, that you're going to 
turn us all in?"

	"I give you my solemn word of honor that I will not turn you in to the 
Academy. Promise of an honorable citizen. Now do you believe me?" Gerri nodded. 
The promise on honor was nothing to be taken lightly and his wording didn't mean 
that he would never turn them in, just not here, but you'd have to be a lawyer 
to catch that. Ian picked up on that and swore to Mica also. He felt Mica agree. 
Good and getting better.

	"Will you let me go to the next meeting?"

	"Sure. But you'd have to swear in front of them and not be allowed to talk 
to your brother about this. And don't talk to me about it unless you're sure we 
aren't being bugged. Next meeting is in a week. Follow me and no weapons. All 
right?" Denis nodded and went to sleep.


	"For the Confederation!" The cry echoed over the entire chamber. It was 
their tenth meeting and Ian thought that their deception was working. The next 
speaker was the ringleader, Lieutenant Jaime Hawse.

	"Okay, guys. I'm as sick as the next guy over this secrecy, but it's 
necessary. I've heard a lot of you talking about defecting. I've given this some 
thought and got an idea. How many of you are graduating soon?" Most of the 
people there raised their hands. "Good. Those of you that are graduating will 
have a better chance of defecting than the rest of us. I'm gonna pull all the 
strings I have to get you paired up in groups of two or more. I'm contacting the 
Higher Council with your assignments so you can get picked up. Any objections? 
No? Anybody want to speak next? No? Then all of you should go, but be discreet. 
We can't get found out." Hawse slipped out and crept away. The rest of the 
cadets left, some staying to talk to each other. Denis and Ian walked after 
Hawse.

	"Sir?" They asked him.

	"Yes?" 

	"Can you pull strings to get us on the same assignments. Names' Cadets 
Denis and Ian K'van."

	"I'll do my best." Then he walked off. The twins went off to find their 
roommates and went back to their rooms.


	The next week found Denis, Ian, Mica, and Gerri graduating and being 
promoted. The transport ship Imperial Pride came and took on 12 TIE fighter 
pilots with their ships, all Rebels. The Lieutenant was good, very good.

	"Lieutenant K'van. What is that?" The Captain asked Ian.

	"I don't know sir. Do you wish to make contact with them?" The captain 
never had a chance to answer. The com squawked:

	'Imperial transport, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded. 
Repeat, power down your weapons and prepare to be boarded." The voice came over 
the com.

	"And if I don't?" the captain challenged.

	"You won't do that, Captain." A voice behind him said. The captain turned 
and saw 5 blasters aimed right at him. "What! Mutiny! You Rebel scum!"

	"That's right." Mica said from behind the twins. He picked up the 
transmitter. "Hello, Rebel ships. This is Imperial Lieutenant Mica K'last. I 
surrender this ship to you. All of us pilots are defecting, us and our fighters, 
if you want them. Repeat, we surrender and 12 of us are defecting."

	"Hear you loud and clear Lieutenant. Prepare to be boarded."

	"Yes sir!" Mica signed off. "Well, guys. This is it!" The bridge erupted 
into cheers. The only one who wasn't cheering was the Captain who was trying to 
evade the blasters directed at him. A few minutes later some Rebel officers 
burst in.

	"Okay. Which ones of you are coming?" The first Rebel officer asked. 12 
hands went up. "Are your ships fit to fly?"

	"Yes sir." Gerri answered.

	"Good. All of you that are defecting, get into your ship and slave your 
controls over to the X-wings. Are you the captain of the vessel?" The officer 
asked.

	"Yes, scum. Shoot me now, if you are going to at all. I'm not at all 
afraid." The captain declared bravely.

	"You don't really want that, do you captain? What's your name Captain?" 
The lead rebel officer asked.

	"Imperial Captain Goth, loyal to the Emperor. You can't sway me!"

	"I'm willing to believe that. Goth, Goth, that sounds familiar. Any of you 
related to a Goth?" The rebel asked the people behind him.

	"I am, sir. I've got a Goth cousin. This isn't him so I've got no moral 
qualms with killing him."

	"I wonder. This captain didn't surrender so the law doesn't come in here. 
If he surrendered, we couldn't kill him, but he didn't. We also can't take him 
back alive. Killer, how badly do we need a transport?" He asked someone behind 
him who gave him a low answer. "Okay, pilots to your ship. Captain, I'm letting 
you go. Go back to your superiors and tell them to add at least 1,000 more 
credits to the bounty on Wedge Antilles." The Rebel said and then shot out the 
com and gunner stations on the transport, leaving only the nav-puter functional. 
"Good bye, Captain Goth. It's been nice knowing you. And, by the way, you only 
have oxygen enough for a couple of days, so I suggest you make all speed." The 
Rebel commander made a mock bow and left the Captain to his own troubles. 

	Minutes later 12 TIE fighters lifted off from the transport and blinked 
out along with half a squadron of X-wings.



	"All systems green and go, commander." Denis spoke into his comm. He had 
been an official Rebel for a few months and they were getting close enough to 
trust him with locations before they move. He had never seen anyone come and go 
so quickly. It's true what they say then, that Rebels are always on the run he 
had said to Ian the night before and he had laughed. 

	"Three flight, you are free to engage the eyeballs. Two flight, take the 
squints. Rest of you, on me, and ready your torpedoes." The squadron rushed to 
obey the orders. Denis, who was part of three flight, grouped up with Ian, Mica, 
and Gerri to take on the eyeballs. The rest of the squadron flew elsewhere in 
the simulator, trying to rack up high scores and impressive kills. Admirals 
Wedge Antilles and Han Solo were watching and the Rebel pilots knew that they 
could get promoted if they did well.

	"On me, mates. Let's show these eyeballs what flying is like," Gerri
called over the comm. Denis complied and shot down a few eyeballs in the 
process. Twenty minutes and a few comrades later, Denis emerged from the 
simulator and shook hands with his brother and friends.

	"Gerri, what'd you get?" He heard Ian asked Gerri.

	"Not that great. 2 eyeballs and shot down by one I didn't even see. How 
'bout you?"

	"Better. 4 eyeballs and about to get shot down just before sim over sign 
came on. Denis did the best, instant ace (5 kills) and about to get another. How 
'bout you Mica?"

	"Terrible. Only one eyeballs and killed by one a few seconds later. Denis, 
you got the one that had me." Mica said to him as he came over.

	"I know. Don't worry, Mica. You got highest last time so this balances 
it." Denis was about to go when he saw Admiral Wedge Antilles come over.

	"You Denis K'van?" The Admiral asked him.

	"Yes sir, Admiral." Denis answered

	"Thank was good shooting on your part. Especially the Imperial Twist. 
Where'd you learn that trick? It wasn't taught at the Academy when I was there."

	"Sir, I learned it at home." Denis answered, awed by the presence of a 
veteran of over 300 battles and one of the Empire's archenemies. Wedge Antilles 
was very intimidating, Denis decided.

	"Ah," The Admiral said and Denis wondered for a minute if the game was 
blown. He was very relieved to see the Admiral take an envelope out of his 
pocket.

	"Lieutenant K'van you are hereby awarded the rank of Captain. 
Congratulations." With that the Admiral turned and left, leaving Denis in the 
middle of all of his friends.


	Ian looked at his brother and nodded. They lifted off from the base and 
joined the squadron forming around a large transport. Together, they escorted 
the transport back to the surface of their secret base. As the transport touched 
down, Admirals Han Solo and Wedge Antilles came out to greet the transport. Out 
came Senator Leia Organa and some of her aides. Following them, was two 
teenagers who immediately ran up to Han Solo and started hugging him.

	"Pilots, may I present to you our greatest supporter, Senator Leia Organa 
Solo. She married the Admiral about sixteen years ago and these are their 
children. Senator, this is Pride Squadron, named after the transport all these 
pilots defected in." The commander presented. 

	"Thank you, Commander. Might I present my children Alia and Paul Solo. 
Paul is on another squadron, Hope Squadron, so I leave you all to talk about 
whatever pilots talk about on such occasions." Leia walked on with the 
commander, her husband, and Wedge Antilles. All the pilots crowded around Paul 
and Alia but Ian and Denis slipped away.

	"What's wrong, Denis?" Ian asked, worried.

	"What do you mean? Nothings wrong." Denis defended.

	"You can't lie to me. You have doubts about our mission. You think the 
Rebels are right, don't you? That's treacherous, Denis."

	"So I think they're nice. Is that a crime?" With out waiting for an 
answer, Denis went on, "When Antilles gave me the rank of Captain and some of 
the other pilots called me 'sir' it made a dent in me, I think. You remember 
when we went with Father on the destroyer and they all called us 'sir'? That was 
something we were born with. But this is something that I earned on my own. My 
own. I'm not just a name, someone related to someone important. I'm Denis! I'm 
me!" Denis stated.

	"You want to yell your last name, too, Denis Skywalker?" Ian whispered. 
"Seriously, Denis. We spent our entire lives training and you say you didn't 
earn anything! We're Sith. I don't know if that means anything to you, but it 
does to me. Me, I am a person. I have loyalties, unlike you. Loyalties you can 
have and still be a person. That's not enough to convince me that this Rebellion 
is for the good of the universe. Look at me, Denis, look at me! I don't think 
you understand what I'm saying." Ian pleaded.

	"You're right, I don't. Why don't you show me?" Denis asked and Ian 
followed him into an empty hanger. Denis then pulled out his lightsaber, hidden 
as a blaster. "I challenge you to a duel of will, Ian." Ian jumped back in 
surprise.

	"Denis, what has happened to you? Fine. I accept. But I wish you would see 
the error of your ways." Ian pulled out his lightsaber and turned it on. Denis' 
red blade crossed Ian's black. (author's note: Yes, I know that a black 
lightsaber is impossible, being that black is the absence of light, and a 
lightsaber is a beam of pure light, but bear with me. It's mostly symbolic, and 
they can't have exactly the same lightsaber, could they? Then they'd get them 
mixed up!)

	It was not a battle full of suspense. It was very much like the battles 
they had had in practice, except this one could turn to be fatal with one wrong 
move. Obeying an unwritten and unspoken rule, neither slashed as to kill. Round 
after round, they fought, neither getting the upper hand, neither backing down. 
Rebel and Imperial circled and parried the others blows. All the while, Ian 
fought to get into Denis' mind but to no avail. He was as unpenetrable as 
duracrete. Finally, fatigue overtook them. Without speaking a word, they both 
hooked their lightsabers back on and checked to see if anyone had seen their 
battle. They didn't sense anyone around them. Then suddenly someone came out of 
the shadows.

	"Who are you?" Ian asked, carefully, the first words that had been spoken 
in nearly an hour.

	"Alia Solo. What kind of weapon is..." She trailed off as Ian took hold of 
her mind.

	"You didn't see that. You weren't here, you were asleep outside the door. 
You didn't see us. You didn't see anything. Understand? Now take a little nap." 
She lay down and went to sleep. "What, brother! I thought that you were going to 
object."

	"I don't object to the necessary." 

	"Yet you do. Here's some brain candy for you. If this Rebellion ever 
prevails, they will reinstate the Jedi Knights, the light side users. I hope you 
have fun, Jedi Denis." With that spoken, Ian turned and went, leaving Denis to 
his own thoughts on that. Being Sith, their natural enemy was the Jedi and they 
had been brought up to hate them. 


	Denis tossed and turned all night. He believed in the Rebel cause, or at 
least he thought he did. But what Ian had said burned deeply into his brain. He 
wasn't a Jedi that was the worst insult anyone could have given him. He was a 
Sith and proud of it. And the Sith served the Empire, period. The Rebellion 
wanted a New Republic and that meant Jedi. But weren't the conditions in the 
Empire terrible? They were better before the Rebels, but that doesn't mean the 
Rebels are the cause of the economic damages. Were they? With the Empire and the  
Rebel Confederation warring, some planets were reduced to ashes, but the 
Confederation were the provoked, weren't they? Denis didn't know and was too 
tired to notice Ian digging through his mind placing doubts in the young Rebel's 
head. He was shaken totally out of the idea of sleep by the speaker saying that 
they were under Imperial attack and they needed to get to their fighters to 
escort the transports out of there. 

	Denis raced out of his bed and pulled his flight suit on quickly. Jumping 
over camping blankets, he made his way to the hanger. He saw all of Pride 
Squadron running towards their X-wings and joined them. Pride Squadron was 
assigned escort duty of the senator's large transport. He saw Han Solo carrying 
a still sleeping Alia onto the transport. He jumped into his X-wing and 
established a Force-link with his brother. 'Is this what the instructions say 
being caught in the air is?' he sent.


	Ian paused at little before answering. 'I think so. Since our entire 
squadron is assigned to the senator's transport it's an ideal opportunity. If 
you are willing to be an Imperial for a few minutes, you can surrender our 12 
fighters and the transport and I'll keep them unaware and pliable to the 
surrender order. Plan, brother?' Ian held his breath, there was still time from 
Denis to prove that he was a Rebel through and through and tell all. 'Plan. I 
surrender, you confuse them. Removing my mind block now, suggest you do the same 
with yours' Denis sent back. 'Done', Ian replied and grinned inside. Everything 
was back to normal. They lifted off in a tight formation around the senator's 
transport and started making a run for it. 'Now!' Ian heard in his mind. He 
stretched out and grasped hold of the pilots in Pride Squadron and the people in 
the transport. 'My part done, now do yours!' Ian thought.

	"Imperial ship, this is Captain Denis K'van. I surrender myself, my 
squadron, and the transport we are defending." Denis declared over a wide range 
of bands to the Imperial ship. "We await your orders. Repeat: we surrender and 
await your orders." Ian started sweating. He hoped the Imps would hurry it up. 
It was hard holding all these minds in check, especially the senator's. Her's 
was so complex it kept sliding out from under his mental 'fingertips'. 

	"Fly straight and power down your weapons. Any attempt at escape with be 
answered with a death shot. Do not resist the tractor beam." Came the reply.

	"We understand. Complying with your orders now." Denis answered and 
switched off his comm. Ian strained to tell all the pilots to do so and was 
surprised when it got lighter. He touched the other presence and saw that Denis 
was helping him. 'Thank you' he sent quickly while ordering the transport people 
to step away from the steering and guns. A few minutes later, the ships were 
sitting in a docking bay on the Imperial Class Star Destroyer Rebel-slayer. A 
few dozen stormtroopers were their welcoming committee.

	"All right, all of you. Come out with your hands up!" The Commander of the 
'troopers said. Ian and Denis grabbed hold of the Rebel's minds once again and 
told them to come out with their hands up high in the air. Denis and Ian jumped 
out first, followed by Pride Squadron and the occupants of the senatorial 
transport.

	"State your names." The Commander said to Han Solo and Wedge Antilles. 
They looked up blankly at him.

	"Tell him your names." Denis commanded them.

	"I never gave you permission to speak!" He thundered at Denis who looked 
to Ian. Ian shrugged 'so what are we supposed to do about it?' and Denis agreed. 
Denis and Ian released their holds on Han and Wedge.

	"Admiral Wedge Antilles and this is Admiral Han Solo. Where are we?" Wedge 
said, confused. What was going on?

	"Take them to individual cells. All of them. This is a great 
accomplishment. Lord Skywalker will be pleased." The commander ordered his 
troops. The last caught Denis and Ian. Lord Skywalker? Their father was here? 
Well, nothing they could do but follow the stormtroopers to their cells and 
hoped that their mind blocks were truly gone. It was their ticket to freedom and 
they didn't want to squander it. Their father might not be so pleased with the 
fact that Denis was half a rebel. What if they weren't supposed to surrender 
now, but later? Denis and Ian were taken to neighboring cells and thrown in. The 
Imperials had taken their blasters and their lightsabers, leaving them without a 
weapon. 'No, we are unarmed but the Force is our ally, we are never without a 
weapon.' Denis said in Ian's head. 'Too true, but if Father is mad at us, 
nothing will help us.' Ian replied. Ian went through his mind looking for any 
traces of a mind block and found none. Denis underwent the same process and also 
found nothing. Feeling satisfied, they both went to sleep.


	The stormtrooper who had relieved Denis and Ian of their weapons reported 
back to his commander.

	"Sir, two of them were armed with these." 

	"What's your service number, trooper?" The commander asked, suspicious. 
Was this a Rebel plot?

	"SW 1456, sir."

	"What were these two's names?"

	"They said they were Denis and Ian K'van, sir." The trooper reported. The 
commander took the odd weapons from SW 1456 and went to see Lord Skywalker.

	"What is it Commander?" Lord Skywalker asked as former walked into the 
latter's quarters.

	"My lord, a squadron of Rebel pilots surrendered to us along with a 
transport." 

	"I was not unaware of this, Commander. State your point."

	"Two of the pilots were armed with these, my lord." At this, the twin 
lightsabers flew into Luke's hand. 

	"I see. What were the names of these rebels?"

	"They said they're names were Denis and Ian K'van, my lord." Lord 
Skywalker's face remained expressionless, sending jolts of fear through the 
commander. Was he not supposed to report this?

	Inwardly Luke was smiling approvingly. Good. Denis and Ian had kept up 
their deception and had kept their lightsabers with them. And an extra bonus, 
the proof that Leia Organa was a Rebel. The Emperor would be pleased. "Very well 
then, commander. Interrogate the senator. Bring the owners of these weapons to 
me." Luke ordered and the commander bowed and left.


	Ian was awoken by the sound of stormtroopers marching down the halls. He 
felt to Denis and saw he was awake already. One stormtrooper opened the door.

	"Follow me." He commanded. Ian rose but didn't move.

	"Where are you taking me?" Ian asked and saw the trooper shudder. 'Denis, 
where are we going?' Ian sent. 'I think we are being taken to father. The 
'troopers are scared stiff, so it's either him or the Emperor.' 'Come on, Denis. 
Do you know the probability that the Emperor is here?' 'Yeah, brother. But you 
wanted an answer.' Denis sent, laughing but they soon sobered up. They rounded a 
corner and walked into a dark room, which sent fear coursing through Denis and 
Ian.

	"Leave us." A shadowy figure said to the troopers, who bowed and left. The 
shadowy figure turned away from the view-screen and looked at the boys, who 
gulped.

	"Report, Denis K'van," Lord Skywalker said, stretching the surname K'van.

	"Sir, we infiltrated the Rebels as ordered and waited until the 
appropriate time which happened to be today. We followed orders and surrendered 
ourselves and our squad mates. We happened to be on escort duty, so we 
surrendered the transport with us." Denis replied.

	"Where are the Rebels supposed to regroup?"

	"We don't know, sir. The senator knows, she was supposed to send us the 
coordinates once we were passed the ships." Ian answered.

	"Why did you surrender your lightsabers? Do you know how foolish that 
was?" Luke asked them.

	"Sir, they wanted our weapons and the orders said to cooperate with them. 
We apologize if we made a mistake," Denis said.

	"How many of your squad mates were close friends with you?"

	"We were close with 2 of them more than all the others, sir, but we were 
friends with all of them." Denis answered, wondering where this was all going.

	"These pilot friends of yours aren't giving us any information, both of 
you go to your closest 'friends' and get the information out of them."

	"Yes sir." Denis and Ian replied and left.


	Mica sat in his cell and stared at the blank walls for want of anything 
better to do. He straightened as he heard some footsteps come towards his cell. 
As the door slid open, he saw an amazing sight. His 'best friends' suited up 
completely in black with some sort of weapon hanging at their belts. They hadn't 
been wearing this that morning and they hadn't packed anything like that in 
their X-wings. The implications of it sunk in very quickly and Mica backed away 
from the door. 

	"Hello, Mica. How are you doing today?" Ian asked, mockingly.

	"Traitor! You spilled everything! You told! How could you cooperate with 
these Imps? Traitor to all you ever held dear!" Mica accused. Ian and Denis 
didn't even flinch.

	"Traitor? That's an interesting title. Yes, I'm a traitor to the Rebel 
cause, but you're a traitor to the Imperial cause. You are a rebel and caused 
others to rebel. That's a serious crime in the Empire. By telling the Imps 
everything, you can lighten your sentence." Denis added.

	"And by doing that, cause my compatriots to die? No thanks. I'd rather die 
than betray them." Mica declared. How could his friends do this? He didn't 
remember surrendering, which was odd. He only remembered flying then he was in 
this room. Only a Jedi could do that to him, or a ..." Suddenly it all clicked 
for Mica. "You were with the Empire from the beginning, weren't you? You 
probably work for the Emperor himself! And you did your job, did it so well that 
we didn't have a clue. Well, congratulations. I hope you made the Emperor happy. 
The senator won't tell you the rendezvous point and I won't say anything at all. 
Pick through my mind at your discretion, but you wouldn't get anything of value 
from me." Mica declared valiantly.

	"Very well, then. You're going to wish you never said that, Mica." Ian 
said, and then plunged into Mica's mind. 'Confess,' he told it, 'confess and 
they won't kill you. You don't want to die, Mica. You want to live. No cause is 
worth giving your life for except the Imperial cause. Rebels are making the 
galaxy worse. By making the Empire concentrate on warfare, we can't work on 
improving conditions. You can change that. Tell all and the galaxy will change 
for the better. Confess. Confess.' At first Mica resisted to the chant in his 
brain, but it didn't last long. After a few minutes of hearing that, he 
confessed everything he knew about the Rebel Confederation and begged to become 
an Imperial. Ian and Denis caught his entire confession on tape, just like they 
had gotten Gerri's a few hours before. At the end of his confession, Mica fell 
down on the cot in his cell, he had barely enough energy left to move.

	"Ian? Can I ask you something?" Mica asked meekly.

	"What?"

	"Who's your father? Provided that you weren't lying, you said that your 
father worked for the Emperor. Only now do I understand what that means. But at 
least tell me, who is your father?" Mica asked, catching Ian by surprise. He 
didn't know how to answer, Father had never given them permission to tell anyone 
and it wouldn't get a confession out of Mica if they told, they already had a 
confession from him. It might be horror enough to get the senator or one of the 
Admirals to talk, but not for a pilot. Without answering, Ian and Denis turned 
and walked out of Mica's cell, locking the door behind them.


	Senator Leia Organa, daughter of Viceroy Bail Organa of Alderaan, had no 
way to clock the passage of time, yet she was sure that at least a standard week 
had gone by while she was shut up in this tiny cell, cut off from her husband 
and children. The Imps had been trying for a long time to get a confession out 
of her, but they hadn't succeeded yet. She wouldn't betray her brainchild, the 
thing she had worked for all these years. She heard some footsteps near her cell 
and drew up her courage, expecting anything, but the sight that caught her as 
the door opened took her entirely by surprise. In the doorway stood two boys 
that looked vaguely familiar. As they came closer, she recognized them. These 
were two pilots in Pride Squadron. But how did they escape their cells? And were 
they here to free her or not? As she looked into their eyes, she got her 
answers. They were here to get answers from her. And something about their eyes 
reminded her of something. What was that? Oh, well, she was sure it would come 
to her sooner or later, provided there was a later.

	"Hello, Senator. How are you today?" One of the boys said.

	"Let me see my children, and then I'll answer your questions." She lied. 
The boy that had spoken waved his hand and a projection came of her twins eating 
at a fine table under no guard supervision.

	"Your children cooperated, this is what they are doing right now. If you 
answer all of our questions truthfully, you can also go free." Denis lied to 
her. Can't she see that they were Imperials and she was a Rebel traitor?

	"What do you want to know?"

	"What are the rendezvous coordinates?"

	"We're rendezvousing above Kessel." She said and suddenly yelled out in 
pain.

	"Careful, senator. For every lie, we double the pain. For every truth, the 
pain decreases. I'm sure you don't want to see how much pain you can withstand 
before you black out." Denis stated unemotionally. "Now tell us. Where is the 
rendezvous with your Rebel fleet?"

	"Dantooine. Aaah! Stop the pain and I'll tell you everything!"

	"Stop lying, we reduce the pain. I'm only going to ask you this once 
more," Denis increased the pain and the senator's screams grew in volume. "Where 
is the rendezvous?"

	"Over Sullust." Leia said weakly, almost blacking out from the sheer pain.

	"What were you going to do with this fleet you were assembling?"

	"Use it to bring aid to a starving population on Tatooine... AAH! We were 
going to attack the Bilbringi shipyards where we hear the Empire is building a 
Star Destroyer with more firepower than the Super Star Destroyers." Leia yelled. 
She couldn't help it. These boys were more menacing than Skywalker... That was 
it! They reminded her of the Lord Luke Skywalker. They had his eyes, those icy 
eyes that never failed to make her feel uncomfortable. She had seen them often 
enough in Senate meetings and here they were on twin boys who had betrayed the 
Confederation! "You," at this her voice caught, "You are Lord Skywalker's 
children?" The older one nodded and Leia felt lost. These children were 
Skywalker's sons! The idea shook her all over and she nearly fainted from the 
weight of it all. She was over come with an irrational fear. "I'll tell you 
anything, sons of Skywalker, I give up." She said weakly. Who could blame her? 
The sons of Skywalker were both famous and infamous. They had been a myth until 
now, rumored to have shown up in places that were thought to be unpenetrable, 
done things thought to be impossible, just been plain and simple spies. They 
were held in much fear and now that she had met the infamous sons of Skywalker, 
she shuddered and submitted to whatever they would do to her. She gave up and 
told them everything they wanted to know.


	Denis Skywalker looked over at his brother then out the view-port again at 
Sullust, where the Senator and the Admirals said the rendezvous point was. It 
was a tricky operation and both Denis and Ian were to fly in it. This time, 
though, they were flying TIE Advanced, not X-wings. From the Admirals, the 
Empire had gotten the codes to unlock the defenses of the major ships, but there 
were no codes for the snub fighters, so they had to be eliminated one by one. 
The boys had been busy in the past few days brainwashing the Rebels they had 
forced to surrender. Those Rebels now took orders from Denis and Ian only and 
were figured into Imperial Squadron of Truth Wing. Denis and Ian were in charge 
of Imperial Squadron and being part of Truth Squadron was just window dressing, 
really they were going to take out the leaders by giving them false information. 
Since Pride Squadron had been pretty well known among the Rebels, the squadron 
leaders would listen to their advice. Truth Wing didn't order them around, if 
Truth Wing knew, they might feel compelled to take down these double-crossers, 
no matter they were double crossing the enemies, double crossing sets up a 
triple cross quite easily. Ian nodded to him once, as if listening on his 
thoughts, actually, knowing Ian, he might be. On an unspoken signal, Denis and 
Ian turned around and walked to the hanger bays where their ships were 
stationed. Their TIE Advanced had shields and high-powered lasers; the rest of 
the squadron would have to make-do with TIE Interceptors. They had elected to 
use the Advanced even though it showed that they were pretty high up on the 
social latter because of the shields, they didn't like the feeling of being 
unprotected in the vacuum of space. 

	"Imperial Leader to squadron. Sound off." Denis ordered. He had been 
chosen to be Leader because he was older than Ian was. Imperial Squadron sounded 
of, all present and accounted for.

	"Okay, squadron. Let's show these traitors what a kill ratio is. Get in 
your assigned groups and take on as many hostilities as possible. The more 
downed, the greater reward." Actually, that was a lie. No matter how many 
someone killed, they got the same reward, that is, to live. He and Ian were one 
pair, Gerri and Mica were one pair, and so on and so forth.

	"Imperial 2, on me." Denis said to Ian.

	"Sure, Leader." Was his reply.

	"3 and 4, you have the flight over starboard." That was Mica and Gerri. "5 
and 6, the flight hard port. 7 and 8, straight. 9 through 12, hard starboard. 
Go!" Denis commanded. In response, 10 TIE Interceptor lifted off and went to 
engage their former compatriots. Denis and Ian went off to fight the X-wings.


	Luke Skywalker watched the TIEs launch and felt defeated. His sons were 
out there, against his better judgement, about to get themselves killed. Well, 
maybe he was over reacting. They were in the best ships the Empire could offer, 
shielded and deadly lasers, but part of him wished he had been given permission 
to keep them back. Bored, he twisted his finger and watched as 2 X-wings 
collided with each other, unable to stop the power of the Force. He knew he was 
acting like an overprotective father, but he was an overprotective father, so 
why not act like it? He compelled two more X-wings to collide and sighed. It was 
going to be a long day.


	"Careful, Ian! They don't believe us any more! 2 Xs on your tail!" Denis 
yelled over the comlink and was rewarded a second later as Ian rolled hard port 
and swung around, dealing the X-wings a death blow each. Denis watched as a 
couple more X-wings ganged up on Ian and started a collision course with him.

	"Ian! Shoot! I'm not in range!" A few minutes earlier, Denis had been hit 
and careened out of range. His shields and lasers were working, but not his 
propulsion systems. He wasn't a sitting duck, but he was sitting. He watched in 
horror as Ian's shots missed. The X-wing was coming, coming. Just before it was 
about to hit, two pilots went extra-vehicular. As the Rebel pilot drifted over 
to him, Denis lined up a shot and disabled the pilot. He heard the pilot 
surrender to him and Denis tractored him on board and then knocked him out. He 
watched as Ian drifted around, not able to help him at all. The Imps wouldn't 
pick him up in the middle of a battle so Ian had as much time as his suit oxygen 
could hold out. 'Ian, hibernate!' He sent quickly and his reply was the dead 
feeling of a hibernation trance. Good, Ian had a chance. Anger at almost loosing 
his brother caused Denis to allow the dark side to sweep over his instruments. 
Within seconds, Denis was able to fly. He flew right into the fray and shot down 
about half a squadron before they even knew someone was coming. He made a run 
through the rest of the fight, shooting if he had to. He never got to Ian, a 
full squadron, one of the last ones left, blocked his way. He spent nearly an 
hour on them, they were Elite Squadron, the best squadron in the Confederation. 
Finally, the fight was over, the remaining Rebels having surrendered.

	"Imperial Squadron, sound off." Denis heard about half of his squadron 
report in, including Mica and Gerri. For all his tough words and appearances, he 
still considered them his friends, even though the feeling might not be mutual.

	"Rebel-slayer, Imperial Squadron coming in. Have one pilot extra-
vehicular. Request pickup." Denis led his squadron in and hoped the Imps would 
listen to him. They were known to think that a pilot EV meant he screwed up, 
meaning there was no point in picking him up.


	Luke Skywalker looked at the nervous man standing before him, well stared 
at is a better term. The man shifted uncomfortably under the dark lord's glare.

	"Do you question my orders, Commander?" The commander in question shifted 
in his green uniform once more and stared at the floor. He knew that that was 
one of the things that Lord Skywalker hated the most, so he quickly looked up.

	"No, my lord. It's..." The commander trailed off, aware of his sudden 
breach of etiquette.

	"It's what, Commander?" Luke asked softly, dangerously.

	"It's just that the medics see no reason to fix up a pilot who didn't do 
his part in the battle. They believe that the medical ward would be better to be 
filled with people who did their part in the battle, instead of getting shot 
down." The commander answered, clearly expecting for his throat to constrict.

	"Inform these medics of yours that this downed pilot is useful to the 
Empire, and the Emperor himself wants this pilot fixed up, as you would say. 
Now, I'm sure you don't want to disobey a direct order from the Emperor, 
Commander." Luke said pointedly. The commander attempted to say something, but 
his throat started to collapse on him. Instead, he merely nodded and left. Luke 
hoped he had convinced the Commander. Ian's survival depended on him getting 
swift medical attention. Involving the Emperor's name had been a good idea. Of 
course, the Emperor wouldn't want his grandson to die, so in essence it had been 
a direct command. He only hoped it would be enough.


	Denis looked down at the drink that had been placed in front of him. He 
was sitting in the pilot's lounge alone. Denis was worried about Ian. There was 
a distinct possibility that he wouldn't make it that Ian would...die. Be gone 
forever. He looked up at the sound of some footsteps coming towards him. He saw 
that it was a few pilots from his squadron and from the way they were walking, 
they weren't happy with him. Their names came to him a second before they 
reached him.

	"Mario, Tommy, Brad, what brings you here?" Denis asked as politely as he 
could manage.

	"You do, K'van or whatever your real name is. We don't remember 
surrendering, none of us do. We don't remember why we give you our stories. And 
we don't know why today we only felt loyalty to you in a fight. What were you 
doing to me, to us, your friends?" Brad asked, putting emphasis on the word 
friends as if Denis didn't know what it meant.

	"Hey, leave him alone guys. Can't you see he's been through a lot? I don't 
like him very much now, but can't you give him a little break? His brother's 
sick, probably dying. Does it matter what he did? It was for our own good." Mica 
said as he and Gerri came around to where Denis was sitting.

	"Yeah, turning us traitors was for our own good!" Tommy scoffed.

	"If you hadn't, you'd be dead." Gerri pointed out.

	"Thanks guys. I know you probably hate me, but thanks for sticking up for 
me. It's hard now that Ian's gone." Denis said as soon as the trio sulked off.

	"Nah, we don't hate you. We just don't trust you anymore. Can you take us 
to see Ian? You Imps won't let me in to see him." Mica asked and the three of 
them were soon off to the medical wing. At the guard station, a guard tried to 
stop them.

	"Hey, you kids can't go back there! It's full of medical cases. Besides, 
you need clearance to get through. So why don't you run along, before I stick a 
court-martial on your records?" The guard threatened.

	"Clearance from Lord Skywalker himself for myself and my friends. Good 
enough for you?" Denis shoved the paper under the guard's nose, who had no 
choice but the let them pass. Mica and Gerri were impressed. They hadn't 
realized that their friend was a high enough spy to have Lord Skywalker get him 
clearance. When they got to the medical wing, they had to shove the paper under 
a few more noses until they could see Ian. They walked in the room prepared for 
the worst and they got just about that. Ian was hanging vertical in a bacta 
tank, looking totally lifeless. The readings coming from various instruments 
seemed to be grim.

	"Will he be alright?" Mica whispered to Denis.

	"I don't know. Let me check." Denis answered. He took a deep breath and 
closed his eyes. He seemed to be falling into himself. Actually, he was feeling 
for Ian's presence. He felt at Ian's hibernation trance and carefully broke him 
out of it. 'Brother?' a word surfaced in Denis' mind. 'Yes Ian. Careful, you're 
not well. You're in a bacta tank on the Rebel-slayer. Gerri and Mica are with 
me. Be calm. You'll be okay soon.' Denis soothed. 'Did we get them?' 'Yeah, 
little bro. Got them dead. They won't be hurting anyone for awhile.' 'What about 
the guy who got me?' 'He's in a max security cell. He thinks that all his bones 
in his body are broken in the most painful way possible. He feels exposed and 
naked. I went a little overboard but I've been worried. He's all yours when you 
get out. Father hasn't told me to stop yet and I am positive he knows that I'm 
taking out my anger and frustration on that Rebel.' 'Give him a break. Let him 
feel relieved about the lack of pain. Let him remember how bad the pain was and 
how he doesn't want it anymore. Then let me lay my hands on him when I get out. 
Let's remind him why the sons of Skywalker are feared throughout the galaxy!' 
'You and me, Ian. You don't know what that dead feeling is, the feeling that 
something that's been in your mind since before birth is gone. And the worst 
part was knowing that I'd never thanked you for pulling me out of the Rebel 
influence and bad into normal life.' 'So you're doing that now?' Ian asked 
amused. 'Yeah, Ian Skywalker, I hereby thank you for being the best brother ever 
and pulling me out of a serious jam. Uh oh, Father's coming. Better get out of 
here before he gets here. Get unconscious and be well, okay Ian?' An affirmative 
answered him.

	"He's going to be just fine, now we'd better get out of here before... 
Lord Skywalker gets here." Denis said to his friends and they escaped the 
medical wing seconds before Ian's father came to check on his sick son.

	
	Ian Skywalker, just one week out of a bacta tank, slid into a chair in the 
pilot's lounge next to his friends. 

	"Ian, did you..." Denis started.

	"Yes." Ian replied simply.

	"What'd you do to him?" Denis asked intrigued.

	"He isn't dead, but he wishes he was. Both his legs are broken and 
infected. He had a splitting headache and is going mad. He's also conscious 
enough to understand what's going to happen to him later and what's going on 
now." Ian answered, referring to a recent visit of his to a certain maximum-
security cell.

	"How long does he have left?" 

	"As long as I want, Denis." Ian said smiling wickedly.

	"You guys are cruel." Gerri said shaking his head.

	"Famous for it." Denis said smiling.

	"That how you got the princess to spill the beans?" Gerri said, showing no 
emotion at the mention of his former role model. Ian stared at him.

	"Gerri, I think we might actually be able to make you into a real Imperial 
yet." He said proudly. "Yep, that's how. Don't ask her though, she'll go into 
convulsions. We showed her Alia and Paul and she told all." Actually, that was a 
stretch of the truth, but not that much.

	"Uh, Ian? Paul's sitting over there." Mica pointed to a table at the far 
end.

	"We showed her Paul cooperating among other things." Denis said.

	"Oh," Mica said, not wanting to push it. He had seen some of the things 
the twins were capable of and he was sure there were more gruesome things than 
that which Denis and Ian could do. All conversation stopped as a couple of 
stormtroopers walked into the lounge. By custom, they were never admitted, but 
they seemed to be here for a purpose. The stormtroopers made their way to the 
small table where the group of friends sat talking.

	"Can we help you?" Denis asked them nonchalantly. He knew that they could 
be dead in a second if they tried anything.

	"Yes. Lord Skywalker wants to see you and your brother. Now." The 
stormtrooper's voice offered no chance of an argument.

	"We'd better go see what Lord Skywalker wants, eh, brother?" Ian asked. He 
talks as if he's not aware that his life could depend on what he said to Lord 
Skywalker, Gerri thought. He voiced his concerns but they were paid no heed. 
Denis and Ian rose, downed the last of their drinks and left with the 
stormtroopers, aware that all eyes were apon them. The walked out casually as if 
not aware of their stormtrooper guards. After they left, conversation returned 
to normal in the pilot's lounge.

	"They're pretty brave, saying that about Lord Skywalker." Mica noted to 
Gerri.

	"Yeah, they could get killed on account of insubordination. The Empire 
could do that. From what I hear, they never wouldn't do it. They act, though, as 
if they had nothing to fear from even the Emperor himself!" Gerri exclaimed.

	"Lord Skywalker did give Denis permission to see Ian. The Lord had seemed 
genuinely concerned over him when he was in a bacta tank. I wonder what that 
means?" Mica wondered.

	"They act like Skywalker also. His protégés maybe?"

	"No, too close, more like Father to a son and vise versa..." Mica trailed 
of as he found out what he was saying.

	"Did we just hit the nail on the head, friend?" Gerri whispered, scared. 
If it was true, then they weren't Denis and Ian K'van, they were Denis and Ian 
Skywalker. The Skywalker name was much feared throughout the galaxy, sometimes 
even more than the name Vader. If they were the sons of Skywalker, they were 
feared in their own right across the galaxy.

	"Maybe that's what they told the princess." Mica suggested softly. He 
wondered what it all meant.


	Luke Skywalker turned around to face his twins for the second time that 
evening. The meeting with them had gone simply enough, there hadn't been much 
they needed to know. But this was something new, that holo-net communication he 
had just received. He signaled for the boys to move out of sight as he called 
for a stormtrooper to come in.

	"Inform Admiral Gyps that I wish to see him immediately." The stormtrooper 
bowed and left the room. Denis and Ian looked at each other in confusion. They 
hadn't heard what was on that holo that their father had just received and it 
had been top-priority, Lord Skywalker's eyes only. They wished they knew what 
had been on it, doubtless they were about to find out. The Admiral walked into 
Luke's private quarters, eyes never seeing the two fifteen year olds standing in 
the shadows.

	"Yes, Lord Skywalker?" 

	"Inform the captain to make all speed for Imperial Center, Admiral. 
Something big is happening there and if we don't make it there within 2 standard 
days, I will be very disappointed." The Admiral knew that no one lived long 
after disappointing Lord Skywalker.

	"Yes, my lord." The Admiral bowed and left. Luke turned to the twins 
standing just to the right of where the Admiral had just been, their eyes 
screamed for an explanation of what was going on.

	"You're free to go." Luke said pointedly. It wasn't a comment, it was an 
order and the twins knew it. They also knew that with their father in his 
present mood, they shouldn't argue. "And, confirm what your friends know." Denis 
and Ian turned and saw a smile crossing their father's face for the briefest of 
a moment. They left the room.

	"I wonder what he meant by that?" Denis wondered.

	"We'll soon find out." Ian pointed out. They walked back into the pilot's 
lounge and conversation stopped, clearly half the people hadn't expected to see 
them again alive. They managed weak smiles as they walked back to their table.

	"So, what'd we miss?" Denis asked Mica and Gerri.

	"Not much. Some crazy Rebel pilot ran in, well, crawled in. His legs were 
broken. He yelled that if he ever got his hands on those who did this to him 
they wouldn't see the light of day again. Then some stormies came and dragged 
him away. Seems he escaped from a max security cell without doing anything. 
Whatever." Mica shook his head, but not after he caught a glance being passed 
between his friends. "What?" He demanded.

	"I think that was Lord Skywalker's idea of a joke." Ian said, why not?

	"Huh? That reminds me, there's something else we want to ask you." Mica 
said softly. Denis threw Ian a glance. Was this what Father had meant?

	"What?" Denis said cautiously.

	"Are you Skywalker's sons?" Mica asked very quietly, lest anyone should 
hear.

	"Are we allowed to answer that?" Ian asked Denis.

	"Let's go outside, shall we?" Denis led Mica and Gerri outside the lounge 
into an unused room across the hall. "Sheesh! Someone could have overheard in 
there! I think we are at liberty to answer, Ian. One thing, you guys have to 
promise this doesn't get out, okay?" They both nodded.

	"Yes. Denis and I are Lord Skywalker's sons." The twins watched their 
friends' faces carefully. Mica's showed nothing until a few seconds later, when 
it exploded into emotion. Hate, anger, friendship, betrayal, all were there. 
Gerri's was more refined; he merely showed shock and betrayal. After all, Gerri 
and Mica weren't official Imperials, they still considered themselves Rebels, it 
was natural they should feel betrayed. Awe surfaced on Mica's face as he finally 
figured out what it all meant. It didn't take Gerri much longer to understand 
the weight of the information that he had just learned.

	"If the Emperor dies, Lord Skywalker takes over, and if Lord Skywalker 
dies, the position goes to his sons, you." Gerri whispered, trying to puzzle it 
all out. "So in the future, you will be the Emperor? I don't believe it, I just 
don't believe it. I can't believe it. So Emperor Denis, what are you going to do 
to us now that we know who you are?" Gerri asked, laughing madly. Denis and Ian 
exchanged glances. Gerri didn't check out as being mad, but this wasn't like 
him.

	"Are you alright, Gerri?" Ian asked, concerned.

	"As fine as anyone would be if they found out that the twins they had been 
friends with were the notorious sons of Skywalker."

	"Has everyone heard of us?" Denis asked Ian exasperated. It had been good 
that the senator had been scared, it had made her confess. On a friend though, 
Denis found himself feeling revolted at the fact that Gerri was this close to 
bowing on the ground to the fact that they were 3rd in line for the throne. 
"Gerri, shake out of it. We're going to do nothing. Just don't tell anyone. 
Father only gave us permission to tell you." It shook Gerri all over again to 
hear Lord Skywalker directly referred to as someone's father. Denis and Ian 
exchanged worried glances, which Mica thought meant they were going to do 
something drastic. 

	"Snap out of it, Gerri! They aren't going to hurt you, if they were, they 
would have done so already!" And I need to make sure they don't hurt him like 
they did that poor pilot who tried to kill Ian, Mica added to himself.

	"Calm down, Mica. What did you think we were going to do to him?" Ian 
asked.

	"Just some crazy notion I had about royalty." Mica said, hitting the nail 
on the head for the second time that night. Denis and Ian paled. "What, what'd I 
say?"

	"Do you know Mica? Swear to me, tell me you don't know!" Denis pleaded. He 
couldn't know. No one knew that Vader was a Skywalker, it was a closely kept 
secret. Only four people in the galaxy knew, and they intended to keep it that 
way. Some guessed, thinking it might be the way Lord Skywalker had escaped 
Imperial wrath time and time again, but no one else KNEW, knew for a fact, 
beyond all reason of doubt. Mica was puzzled.

	"All I said was that you were royalty. Aren't you? Your father's going to 
be Emperor, that makes you almost princes, doesn't it?" Mica was just as 
confused as before when he saw the twins visibly relax. "What did I say?"

	"You let on that you knew a dark secret. A secret that half the people in 
the galaxy who know it are in this room. If you had known, I would have been 
obligated to kill you." Mica shivered at the thought. Kill me for knowing 
something?

	"You Skywalkers sure are careful, I can say that. Couldn't you just make 
me forget something like you did in that X-wing?"

	"Mica!" Ian warned. Denis' eyes furrowed for a second. "What, brother?"

	"Someone is coming."

	"Who?"

	"Stormtrooper from the feel of it. Could be an officer. He's over 
confidant, definitely an officer. Just got promoted." Ian and Denis grinned at 
this. Mica and Gerri didn't have a clue.

	"Why's that funny? So the guy just got promoted. What about it? What are 
you going to do, go out and spoil his fun?"

	"Nope, he just got promoted through 'mysterious circumstances'." They 
still didn't get it. "Father just killed his superior officer, probably for 
incompetence. None of these high-ranking Imps are good for anything. They serve 
their purpose then usually make one mistake too many. They get choked to death, 
but you didn't hear that from me. It's officially called a mysterious accident 
that happened on their way out of Lord Skywalker's quarters. He's not worried 
like they mostly are when they don't know why their superior officer just bit 
the dust, but they don't want to know incase it happens to him. You still don't 
get it. Probably got to be an Imperial to understand." Denis explained.

	"Is there anyway I can get you to stop with your Imperial jokes?" Denis 
shook his head. "How 'bout I become an Imperial, will that stop you?" Mica 
asked.

	"Mica, you've been an Imperial all your life, you just never knew it. 
'Sides, if you officially became an Imperial, you'd be the one making the 
Imperial jokes." Denis reasoned.

	"Whatever. I was serious though. I figure, if I know some Imp secret, I 
might as well me an Imp myself. Gerri can be an imp; I'll be an Imp. So, 
Skywalker, can I join?"

	"I don't know. Why don't you see the recruiting officer down the hall?" 
Denis grinned while he ducked the punch. "Seriously? Sure, why not? Want it 
official?"

	"As official as you can get. I'm in too." Gerri proclaimed.

	"Alright. In my capacity as a fearsome espionage guy I proclaim, you Gerri 
and you Mica, old Lieutenants in the Empire and the Rebellion, blah blah blah, 
yackety-yackety-yack, and all that, an official Imperial, what ever that means, 
in all official capacities of the said. Just don't make a Force-user mad and 
you'll have a long career."

	"Denis! That's not in the official formula! The official formula is you've 
got to wait on us hand and foot before we even consider!"

	"Sure. While we're at it, why give them the easy one? How about you guys 
have to feed my dad's pet Rancor until it either eats you or the keepers do? Or 
telling the Emperor some bad news? Or sneak up on a Royal Guard?" It took Gerri 
and Mica a minute to realize they were being kidded.

	"Your father has a pet Rancor?" Gerri asked, amused.

	"Yeah, he keeps it right next to his harem." Denis said with a dead 
serious face.

	"Harem?" 

	"I was joking! You Rebs sure have no sense of humor."

	"That's Imp to you, sir prince. You can tell the Emperor some bad news and 
Ian can jump the Guard, who, incase you didn't know, carries a Force Pike, 
pretty deadly, even to your Sith hide."

	"Let's backtrack that. How'd you know we were Sith?"

	"Kind of obvious, Ian! You're Sith spawn, must be Sith yourselves. My 
reasoning. What kind of Imps are we anyway?" Gerri asked.

	"I don't know. You didn't specify. If you want to know, you've got to 
clean your fighter with a toothbrush, first. Hey, don't kill me! I really don't, 
probably a pilot if you want. Let's not worry about that now. Let's toast the 
amazed expressions on our 'colleges' faces after we came back alive." They all 
agreed and the foursome walked back to the bar for a few rounds.

	
	Luke looked out over the field of hyperspace, anxious to get home. The 
message he had received had been cryptic but Luke knew what was going on. The 
message had been from his father about his approaching death. Vader had 
predicted the day of his death down to the last minute, but Luke didn't know the 
specifics, just the date. Denis and Ian didn't know about this prediction and 
Luke wasn't sure of the correct time to tell them. The date was approaching 
quickly and the Emperor was setting up the circumstances of his death at that 
very second. Luke had been summoned because he needed to be there to take the 
throne as soon as his father's death was official. The Emperor had things to 
tell him, they needed to map out the new government that Luke would need to set 
up. The anarchy that caused the Rebellion had to be stopped at once and that 
would be one of Luke's first official acts as Emperor. His first, however, had 
to be to remove Grand Admiral Adder from the chain of command. This thought 
saddened Luke as he remembered himself as a young boy being bounced on the Grand 
Admiral's knee. He had a soft spot for old Adder, a weak spot, he allowed. He 
would much rather Adder spent the last days of his life as the 3rd in the 
Empire, but Ian was to take over that office. Oh well, he was sure the Emperor 
would think of something. 

	Luke pushed the page button that was on the armrest of the chair/throne he 
was standing near. A stormtrooper, responding to his call, walked in and 
saluted. The trooper stood at attention for the long moment that Luke spent 
evaluating him and his thoughts.

	"Inform Denis and Ian K'van that I wish to see them immediately." The 
stormtrooper bowed and left. He returned a few minutes later with identical boys 
following him. Luke knew the trooper wondered at these boys. They had been 
called to Lord Skywalker often and, impossible as it seemed, walked away 
unscathed every time. In fact, they didn't feel any fear at going to see 
Skywalker, which was another impossible feat for the trooper to think about. As 
impossible as having black hair and light blue eyes, Luke mused. He knew that 
none of the officers or troopers who came in contact with the twins noticed 
their eyes, and if they did, it didn't effect them because they were used to 
blond hair accompanying those eyes. 

	"Yes sir?" They asked.

	"Thank you trooper, dismissed." The trooper bowed and left to stand guard 
outside his Lord's quarters. "There is something that you need to know. So hear 
me out, no questions until I have finished." The boys nodded at him and Luke 
told the tale about Vader's death and the new Emperor with his second and third 
in command, just brushing over those really. Denis and Ian were thoroughly 
impressed with their grandfather and understood the reasons for getting home as 
quickly as the Destroyer could. They nodded to their grandfather's plan and 
agreed to the steps that had to be taken. It was a well-formulated plan and was 
sure to work.


	Gerri and Mica sat in the pilot's lounge, barely talking, as they had for 
the last few days. They had arrived at Imperial Center a few days before and Ian 
and Denis had left as soon as they had reverted to real space. None of the 
officers or pilots knew anything about what was going on below them on the 
surface, but the pilots had failed to notice that the shuttle carrying down Lord 
Skywalker had had two extra passengers. They finished their drinks and were 
about to leave when Ian walked into the lounge casually and ordered a large 
drink. He walked over to their table and sat down.

	"Hey guys. What's been going on lately?" Looking at him, Mica decided, you 
couldn't tell he was one of the most dangerous people in the Imperium.

	"Not much. Where've you been?" Gerri countered.

	"If you really want to know, you've got to wait. Can't say here. Denis is 
still on the surface. I just got a chance to get back up here and I jumped at 
that chance. I can't get a decent pilot's drink down there." Ian downed his 
drink in a few gulps, much to Mica and Gerri's amazement.

	"How'd you do that?"

	"The Force. If you know how to, you can hold off the potencies on these 
little babies. Handy trick." Ian said non-perturbed in the slightest. "Shall we 
leave, gentlemen?" They got up and walked to Ian's quarters. The elegance of it 
was astonishing. From the outside, you would have thought it was just a regular 
pilot's quarters, from the inside it looked like a VIP suite. Well, he was a 
VIP, Gerri thought to himself.

	"So anything new happening on Coruscant?"

	"It hasn't been Coruscant in over 40 years, Mica," Ian chided gently. 
"It's Imperial Center now. And to answer your question, yes. This can't leave 
this room, though. Okay?"

	"Sure Ian," was the answer.

	"Well, the Emperor is going to die soon, but you didn't hear that from me. 
G...the Emperor has been going over the new plan of government with us for the 
last few days, right now they're smoothing out the details. It's crazy, a real 
madhouse. The command structure took us a full day, and we're still working on 
it. can you believe that?" Ian shook his head in wonderment.

	"So, what you're saying is that the Emperor is dying, so he's gathering 
his heir and his heir's heirs to discuss the state of the Empire. I was always 
under the impression that the Emperor was, as a rule, always suspicious of his 
second in command, and any proteges, and/or heirs, and/or any apprentices of 
that second in command. But you're saying the Emperor invited you to a will 
signing, so to say! The Emperor likes you? I find that hard to believe."

	"Believe it." Ian said dryly. "The Emperor was my master along with my 
father. The Emperor was my father's master, Palpatine really didn't do much with 
our family." Ian suddenly looked up as he realized what he had just let on. His 
friends, though, didn't seem to notice that he had included Vader into his 
family. Maybe one day the secret would be spread over the Empire, it really 
wasn't that terrible of a secret. In fact, it would make the Skywalker line more 
feared, that a collosal Apollo had been the father of a royal dynasty, a 
majestic figure of darkness, without a doubt the most feared man in the Empire, 
fathered the coldest one in the galaxy, who in turn, fathered the slyest and 
most dangerous spy team ever. It was fitting, Ian decided. He made a mental note 
to suggest it next time he saw his father.

	"So what's in this chain of command of yours?"

	"Well, the agreed on one right now is Father being the Emperor, Denis is 
the second in command and I'm third."

	"Any titles?"

	"That's the big problem! Father said that the Sith's dark lord was usually 
older than 15, but the Sith's laws could be changed if there was a need. AND who 
in the fleet would take orders from a 15 year old, no matter how much we 
threatened and killed? But we can't keep the Grand Admiral in the command 
structure, he's set to die soon and we can't change the command of the fleet 
that easily. So we've got one prospective title for Denis, Dark Lord of the 
Sith."

	"How 'bout you?"

	"I'm easy. I've got the title Prince of the Empire."

	"I've got an idea. How 'bout Denis gets the title Prince and you get 
Second Prince?" Mica fully expected Ian to get really mad over this idea. It was 
a blow to his ego and his ideas, but instead he merely nodded.

	"That's a good idea. I'll send it back down planet-side." Ian opened a 
mind link with his brother. 'Denis?' 'Yeah, Ian?' 'Mica got an idea up here 
about titles. Any luck down there?' 'No, Father's got a page going through the 
library on titles, but the Emperor thinks we're going to have to invent 
something. What's this idea?' 'Mica's got the idea that you get the title Prince 
of the Imperium, Empire, what ever, and I get the title Second Prince. What do 
you think?' 'Good idea. I'll propose it. Hang on. Telling... yeah. 
Debating...agree! Well, we've got ourselves some titles, all we need now is some 
jobs. Ask those guys up there for me, will ya?' Denis closed the mind link and 
Ian blink in the room to revert himself.

	"Well?"

	"We've got ourselves some titles. Got any jobs though?"

	"For both of you?"

	"Why not?" Ian shrugged.

	"I thought the second in command got to control the fleet."

	"He does, but they wouldn't take orders from a 15 year old, no matter what 
his lineage might be. If you were an Admiral, spent all your life to get to that 
office, would you take orders from some nobody? Father had a hard time and he 
was 18, the galactic official age, when he did. 15 is the official age on only a 
handful of planets throughout the Imperium. So we are still underage according 
to nearly everybody."

	"Do you really want to know if I would? Never mind." Gerri shrugged. "So 
why don't you do a Force thing, or whatever, and make yourselves appear older? 
Why not?"

	"You have a point there, Gerri. We actually considered that ourselves, but 
there are problems. If Denis was on a view-phone, let's say, and he was talking 
to an Admiral, it would be impossible for someone of our training to maintain 
the allusion. We did think of an imprint, but it would be permanent, so no 
matter how we looked, they would always see us a certain way. That's just plain 
dangerous. Also, we'd have to do that to every Imperial, that's hard, tough, and 
almost impossible. With Father's help, it could be done, but it's not likely. 
Denis is just going to have to struggle with it. Father's been getting men 
undeniably loyal to him in high places, they would accept his chosen successor 
without question, so it shouldn't be that hard. And we could always make some 
examples of disobedience." Ian said indifferently.

	"How could you speak of human lives like that? Don't they mean anything to 
you?" Mica was outraged at this. His friend wasn't human, he decided. He was 
aware that he was trying the prince's patience and that if he wasn't Ian's 
friend, he'd be long gone dead by now. This just outraged him more. How could he 
kill without a qualm on his conscious? What gave him the right of indifference?

	"Peace, friend." Ian said calmly, slowly. "Wasn't it you that said that 
Imperials aren't human, have no hearts? What's wrong with killing something that 
isn't human? They are just tools that serve a purpose, as we all are."

	"And that includes us?" Gerri asked bitterly.

	"From a certain point of view, yes. Even Father is a tool, I didn't say 
that though."

	"And who would dare control the great Skywalker?" Mica asked, equally 
bitter.

	"The Force." Ian said simply. They were all pawns to the will of the 
Force. But the Skywalkers were controlled by the dark side of the Force, the 
stronger side, enough to give them the power to rule.

	"You have an odd view on things, friend." Mica deliberately revived the 
title that Ian had just recently used.

	"A cultivated view. The correct Imperial view. It was drilled into us with 
our training." Ian shrugged. "Most likely the Imperial view was fabricated by 
Palpatine and had been taught everywhere since."

	"What about your father?"

	"What about him?" Ian asked cautiously.

	"Where does he figure into this? Where did the great Skywalker come from?" 
Mica asked, making conversation.

	"You don't know the official story?" The official story, Ian knew, had 
been drilled into them at the pilot's academy. The official story went that when 
Vader was doing his judicious purges, he came upon a Jedi baby. Having pity on 
him, he brought the young Skywalker to Palpatine and the baby grew up to become 
Lord Skywalker, protector of the Empire.

	"I know the official story," Mica confirmed. "But I have learned that the 
official version and the real version can be very different. So what's the real 
version?"

	"I can't answer that." Ian said and Mica's face fell.

	"Why? I thought you trusted us!"

	"I do! I'm not allowed to. I swear that one day I will tell you. One day 
the entire galaxy will know, on my honor. And yes, I do have honor." Ian smiled.

	"I got an idea, Ian. Listen up..." Gerri started. Ian listened to the 
entire thing and agreed.


	The door opened and a woman stepped out. She took one look at the dark 
haired boys standing in front of her and took a step backwards.

	"Who...who are you? What do you want?" She asked.

	"Mom! It's me!" One of the boys said, hurt. "It me, Mica! Mica K'last! 
This is my friend Gerri K'lar. We met at the academy. Mom, don't you recognize 
me?" The woman squinted and nodded.

	"Welcome home, Mica. It's been too long. How long can you stay?"

	"Only for today, we need to be back to Imperial Center tomorrow."

	"Come in, come in! Everyone's home, Mica, Gerri. The Dicktat had 
discharged your father from the Repair Corps so he's home all the time now. What 
did you do to your hair?"

	"It's a long story, Mom. I think you should sit down first. If course, we 
can't tell you everything, some things are classified, but we won't lie." They 
came into the small Correllian house and sat down at the table. A few minutes 
later a man and a couple of small children sat down. 2 older girls stood by the 
wall, having no place to sit down.

	"I guess I should start from where my last letter left off." Mica started. 
"I told you that I had joined the Rebellion with my friends Gerri and Ian and 
Denis K'van." At the words Ian and Denis, the man sat up straighter in his 
chair. "Well, everything was great for the first few months, you know, getting 
used to X-wings and all that. Well, we were at a base over Dantani Prime when 
the Imperial's caught us there. Denis was in charge of our squadron, he had just 
been promoted. Anyway, we had escort duty of the two admirals and the princess. 
Denis surrendered the transport and us and we were helpless for some reason we 
couldn't understand at that time. I know, Dad, I should have done something, but 
I found myself immobile. I 'woke up' as you might say it, in a detention cell on 
the star destroyer Rebel-slayer. A few moments later, I had no way of tracking 
time, Denis and Ian came in and got a confession from me. I'm not exactly sure 
how they did it, all I know is I looked at them and knew them to be traitors. I 
accused them and then they did some weird thing and I told them all I knew about 
the Confederation. Well, I got relocated to a pilot's room a few days later and 
couple days after that, we fought in a battle against the Confederation. We were 
in Imperial Squadron. Denis was Leader and Ian was Deuce. They both managed to 
get disabled. Denis was stranded for a few minutes and Ian got shot down. He 
ejected and was picked up later. I understand that Denis had to pull some 
strings to get Ian towed in, and that Lord Skywalker himself had to order the 
medics to put him in a bacta tank! Gerri and I hung around the pilot's lounge 
for a few days after, talking about what happened. We tried to get in to see 
Ian, we still considered him one of our friends, and were kicked out. So we got 
Denis to take us down there and saw Ian. A few days later he came out. After he 
was a week out, we figured out that they were the sons of Skywalker, don't ask 
how. It's too long to explain. Anyway, we figured that out and Denis and Ian 
told us a lot of stuff. Well, that's basically everything." Mica finished and 
waited for the outburst that he was sure was going to come. It didn't.

	"So what are you doing now?" One of the standing girls asked them 
carefully.

	"Officially we're part of double I. We call it the blind eyes, though. 
Imperial Intelligence only sees what they want to see."

	"Unofficially?" Mica and Gerri grinned.

	"Unofficially, we're SINners."

	"Sinners?"

	"Yeah. Skywalker Intelligence Network. Its name is pretty prestigious 
isn't it? It was our idea, actually. We report directly to the twins, no Emperor 
for us, thank you. We're kind of a gang, you could say. Our initiation ritual is 
to make ourselves look like the twin Skywalkers, note the black hair. We even 
got an Admiral to call us 'sir' once. That was cool. Then Denis had to spoil it. 
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. There are about thirty of us, a nice gang 
number don't you think? Loyalty only to your comrades and leader, well, leaders, 
and all that. We got a few stormtrooper uniforms with some pilot's too. There 
are a couple of us that stand in for the Skywalker's during some things. They 
have natural black hair, though." Gerri shrugged. "You'd be surprised how much 
dyed hair and blue contacts can make some one respect you." He was referring to 
the time with the Admiral, Admiral Gyps it had been. The Admiral had been found 
collaborating with Rebels, so Denis had to kill him. However, he decided to make 
it an object lesson. All of them, there were 20 at the time, had gotten hold of 
blue contacts and black uniforms from somewhere. Denis had invited all the high-
ranking officers to the room. The SINners had surrounded the Admiral and he, 
then, had called them sir. He had kept turning around and seeing a new prince. 
The other officers, of course, hadn't seen any of this. All they saw was their 
Admiral standing still, staring ahead. The SINners then went into the shadows 
and Denis came out. The Admiral, confused, had started calling Denis by every 
dirty name possible, including colorful descriptions of his ancestry and 
personal habits. Well, Denis had to protect his and his Father's honor, didn't 
he? The Admiral suddenly started turning blue and fell down, left for dead. He 
wasn't though. Then his body burst. Mica had felt sick but pushed down the 
feeling as Ian had shown him. Officially, they hadn't even been on the ship.

	"What are you doing here?" The youngest boy asked cheerfully, not 
comprehending the weight of the information that had just been passed over his 
head.

	"We're on leave for a few days so I figured I'd visit home first. I wanted 
to see how everything was going. We went to see Gerri's family on Alderaan first 
'cause it was closer. So we're here, now."

	"Is it fun there?" The youngest boy asked again. To him, anything that 
wasn't fun wasn't worth it.

	"It can be fun at times. The twins' surprise party was really wild. We 
found out their birth date and figured 'why not?' You have no idea how hard it 
is keeping a secret like that from a couple of princes. But it was worth it. We 
were laughing for a week after."

	"But don't you ever feel threatened by working for a couple of mind 
readers?" Mica's mother asked. 

	"Sure. All of our reports start off 'Provided that no one had been messing 
with my mind, then...'. Besides, we're on first name basis with everyone. We 
only call them by titles when we've messed up real bad, or when we crack a joke. 
Like I said, we're more of a gang than an organization. Sir Prince isn't that 
bad once you get to know him..." Mica started.

	"He's worse." Gerri finished the joke. They both smiled.


	"So as I was saying, Denis, is that there is no more Rebellion on Alderaan 
and Correllia." Mica finished. Their trip home HAD been a leave, but Denis had 
made it into a job.

	"That you know of." Denis added. He did have a point, Mica thought. We did 
go around with our Imperial Uniforms and all that.

	"That we know of." Gerri confirmed. He was surprised to see that Denis 
wasn't concerned by the fact that they didn't really find anything out, just 
confirmed that if there was an underground resistance, they weren't showing 
themselves. "What's going on that I don't know about?"

	"Gerri, Gerri, Gerri." Denis shook his head. "Think about it this way. If 
you want to find something out, what's the first thing you do?"

	"Distract someone. Oh!" Gerri got it. He'd been the decoy, the one 
everyone focused on while another team went in to find out what was really going 
on. "Did it work, sir prince?" He asked casually.

	"Yes it... Oh stars!" Denis looked at his chronometer. "Just what I need! 
Father is going to kill me!" He rushed out of the room.

	"You think he is?" Mica asked Gerri, amused.

	"Nay, no way." Gerri laughed.


	"Sorry I'm late, Father." Denis rushed in late to the Emperor's throne 
room.

	"Why were you late?"

	"I was getting reports on the status of the Rebellion on Alderaan and 
Correllia."

	"And?"

	"There is none."

	"Good. Have all your teams reported in from the different sectors?"

	"Yes."

	"And?"

	"The Rebellion is dead." Denis said proudly.


THE END. TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. I WELCOME ANY AND ALL COMMENTS ON MY STORY.