"Checking up on you is not wasting time," Luke retorted dryly, and ran his fingers along one of the cuts on his face. "I've had worse than this. I lost a hand once, you know. This one." He wiggled the fingers of his right hand at Steve, grinning for a moment before it faded with exhaustion.

"I'm just tired," he murmured. "Finally getting a face-to-face with our enemy--seeing the kind of destruction the Ohm can bring, feeling that loss of life in the Force... it reminds me only of some of the really bad times when the Vong were invading, around the time Ben was born. And I've drawn on the Force a lot. It gets to you."