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After talking to Ben, Luke had decided to go to the Jedi Temple and practice some of his lightsaber forms, working off some of the energy that had built up with a full night of sleep and a healing trance besides. As well as to calm his mind, keep it focused; he had the sense that they were standing on the brink, watching the storm come swiftly in, and knew that he and the other Jedi would need to get together and work things out, checking in with all of them.

Focus. Feel the Force, let it flow through you.

His green blade sliced through the air, leaving glowing trails behind, concentrating on those first teachings Obi-Wan had given to him on the Falcon, many years ago. And gradually, Luke slipped into a sort of trance, the Force wrapping around him and supporting every simulated parry, every practiced strike.

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"Okay, so why did I get a whole rant about how evil you are?" he asked, wondering where that came from.

"That's kind of a long story," Luke said slowly. "My father was actually once a Jedi himself, known as Anakin Skywalker. He was a hero in the Clone Wars, and a good man, from what Obi-Wan said of him. But he was manipulated by a man named Palpatine, who eventually named himself Emperor... and he fell to the Dark Side, and became Darth Vader."

Luke was quiet for a bit. "Palpatine got him to fall because of my mother--they'd married in secret, because back in the days of the Old Republic Jedi weren't allowed to marry and form attachments like that. My father was terrified of losing her and my sister and I, and Palpatine had promised to save her. She died when we were born, though. I don't remember my mother," and Luke's voice had become faraway. The only way he'd ever known his mother had been through historical records about the Old Republic's Senate, and those had been sparse.

"All this has made him very bitter and angry toward the Jedi," Luke continued at last. "He blames them for what he's become, for not being able to save my mother. That's probably why you got the rant."

"Ah, lost loved ones. That'd do it."

He goes on, "That's how all the tragic sagas go. Someone dies, someone blames the wrong person, war, war, maiming, death, and so on."

He added, "On a positive note, I've found out you're not evil. Good to know."

He gave Luke a smile, one that clearly conveyed newfound trust. Hiccup liked him already--he just had a very calm way about him. To someone who'd grown up around loud and rowdy people, calm was refreshing.

"This Force, it sounds...amazing, the more and more I hear about it. It must feel great to be that connected to everything, to be...special."

Luke grinned too. "Not crazy, and not evil. Definitely good to know."

Hiccup's statement turned the grin into something else; Luke had been a practicing Jedi, truly devoted to his birthright, for most of his adult life. Bringing the Jedi back into the galaxy had been something that he'd given himself over to, and their training and advancement had brought him great joy. Being a Jedi wasn't all there was to Luke Skywalker, but it was a big, important part, and it made him happy to think about despite all the trials and tribulations it had put him through over the years.

"It is amazing," Luke said. "It's like knowing you'll never be alone--no matter what, there's always something, someone else to reach out to. If you have life itself on your side... you can do great things. But the Force brings great responsibility to those who heed its call and do its will. We have to be mindful of that."

Hiccup was jealous. Supremely jealous. Yeah, yeah, responsibility, he got it, but at the same time, he was the son of the Chief, and he'd had to keep a huge dragon in check (and well-fed). Responsibility wasn't an alien concept.

The feeling like they're never alone part, that was the part he liked the sound of. But just the idea of being special in general, of having a connection to something greater...

For a moment, he was silent, moody, as he thought about that, and then he said, "Why do you think only some people get that connection? If everyone that lived, ever, felt connected that way, felt like they were part of something, imagine how hard it would be for anyone to hurt anyone else."

"Random chance? Fate? Whatever you want to call it. But I disagree." Luke shook his head. "Having these abilities and being a part of the Force, or something like the Force, doesn't keep us from hurting each other," he said softly. "Look at my father."

He smiled a bit though, eyes taking on an earnest look. "And everyone here on this ship is part of something. There's something special about each and every one of us that got us on board and awake and helping in this cause. If we're all bound together by nothing else, we're bound by the reason we're here."

That really got him thinking. Even after being the village hero, it wasn't as if he'd found his place here. And he wanted to.

Maybe wanting was enough.

"Do you think we can stop them? There were so many of them, and so many of us couldn't even really help with the fighting..."

Luke had given this considerable thought himself; the images of the burned and broken planet, the ships of refugees streaming away from a home they might never see again were all too familiar to him. The Yuuzhan Vong had caused the same thing, and in the Ohm, he saw many things that were similar.

People had thought that the Vong couldn't be beaten. Not when they were marching from planet to planet on an inexorable track toward the Core, not when they'd taken over Coruscant itself and remade it into Yuuzhan'tar, not when they were hunting down and killing any Jedi they could find. People had said they were unstoppable.

But they'd been stopped.

"Size matters not," he said, smiling as Yoda's voice echoed through his mind repeating the words. "They might have a grand army and greater numbers, but we've got things they don't have--we're creative. We can out-think them, out-maneuver them. And most of all, we have hope we can beat them. We have the drive to. Keeping that hope alive is the greatest defense of all."

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