SUMMARY: [ABY 18] A Force-injured Twi’lek brings charges against Padawan Ben Solo and brings child psychologist Dr. Amanda Snoke rushing to the village of Tuanul on Jakku.
“Nothing’s broken, but she took a hard knock to the head. She’ll need to be monitored all night.” Luke removed his hand from the unconscious Twi’lek’s forehead. He could feel the Living Force flowing through her and knew she would awaken and recover. But the scream that had brought him and the Tuanul villagers running still had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. Finding her crumpled at the foot of the well, they’d all feared the worst.
He could also sense the intense fear that clutched at his nephew’s heart. The boy had tried to run, but at a shout from the Jedi Master, Ben had come to a halt and remained watchful from the shadows while the Twi’lek girl was examined and carried inside to a pallet. Luke got to his feet and came to stand over his padawan, hands on hips. “What happened?” he said evenly.
Ben looked up and then dropped his gaze again. The night had taken on a chill and he’d taken off his his boots to feel the warm sand between his toes. It was somehow soothing. Hugging his arms close to his chest, he mumbled, “She was going to eat me.” It sounded absurd now. He’d never heard of Twi’leks eating people, not like the Ewoks did.
Luke blinked. “What?”
Ben bit is lower lip, recalling the hungry look in her eyes, how she’d touched his hair and then how her hand had dropped to his belt. His voice wavered and his ears turned red. “She wanted to eat me.”
A couple of the younger villagers heard the remark and snickered.
Elder Josira’s hand flew to her mouth. Taking a moment to decide how to respond to the delicate situation, she finally said, “The girl has not fully escaped her former life, I’m afraid. It will take time.”
Luke nodded, understanding, saddened for the exploitative life the girl had endured in the sex trade and sympathetic to his nephew’s innocence. Yet deep inside the Jedi Master, annoyance bubbled to the surface. Hadn’t Han taught his son anything about women? Han Solo — the biggest swaggering ladies’ man he knew. But in the past few years, Han Solo hadn’t been around enough to be a father.
“You and I are going to have to have a talk.” Luke told Ben, gently gripping the boy’s sleeve, pity welling up in his eyes. “And not just about using the Force to push people away.”
One of the villagers chuckled lightly as he headed with the others back into the assembly hut. He remembered all too well the awkward conversation he’d had with his own father about the happabores and bloggins at that age.
# # #
Luke rubbed sleepy eyes. He’d been up all night watching the Twi’lek girl Ukij’ruhay for signs of serious head injury and talking with her after she was awake. He looked at the holo image before him now in the quiet alcove where he and Ben had tried to get a little sleep. “Ukij’s pretty bruised and she’s lost the feeling in one of her lekku. She may lose the tip, and she’s pressing charges against Ben.” He glanced at his nephew, curled on his pallet, finally asleep and breathing softly.
“I’m coming,” the holo image of a tall blonde human female answered at once. “I can be on Jakku in twenty standard hours.”
Sighing, Luke nodded in thanks. In the corner, Ben Solo stirred as the image of Dr. Amanda Snoke winked out.
At the Galactic Institute of Behavioral Neuroscience on Hosnian Prime, Amanda rose from her desk and remarked to her assistant, Kotha Ranee, a Togruta female, “Well, it seems my little man has gotten himself into trouble again.”
“Never a dull moment with the Solos,” Kotha acknowledge with a smirk. She tapped on her datapad. “There’s a flight leaving for Jakku at oh-four-hundred hours.”
“Excellent. Put me on it.”
Amanda didn’t care that she wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. Things were going just the way she’d planned. At thirteen, Ben was tapping into the Force almost as second nature, and, despite outward appearances, he was gaining more control of his powers, more focus.
And, what was equally exiting was that another Force-sensitive youngling had been discovered on Jakku. She’d done the right thing, she told herself, by allowing Luke Skywalker to live. Dark eyes — alien eyes — smoldered like embers in deep shadow as she considered her ambition and desire. Skywalker would never turn to the dark side, but he’d quickly lead her to Force-sensitives who would, like Ben. If they didn’t, well, that could be remedied.
Amanda Snoke smiled a satisfied smile as she stowed her datapad and commlink in her briefcase and closed the door to her office. Yes, everything is going swimmingly, she thought, except these infernal cycles human women have! Her high heels clicked on the marble floor as she headed for the refresher, screwing her eyes shut as a cramp wracked her abdomen.
No, what bothered Snoke the most was the frailty of the human body she occupied. Next time, she’d select another species…and something male.
@MyKyloRen 4 March 2018
Forced Awake 
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