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"Luke, is it?" Regis said tentatively. If Artoo knew the man, then he must be involved in the secret Imperial base. He was likely a plainclothes agent. Regis wondered why the man was reluctant to divulge his rank. Did he think they were spies? Regis wondered if Artoo's absence had set the Imperials on high alert. He wondered how he should proceed.

Artoo bleated impatiently.

"Is that so?" said Luke. "A message, for me?"

Artoo beeped in acknowledgment, then turned to Regis.

"You want to show him - in private?!" said Regis. "No, Artoo, that's not fair. I understand there's a chain of command, but these are irregular times. I brought you all the way here, didn't I?" Regis bent down to look directly into Artoo's sensors. "I'm a loyal soldier. I've proven that! You know better than anyone that... that I'd do anything to help the Empire!"

Artoo slowly turned to Luke.

"Well?" said Regis. "What is it?"

Luke looked Regis up and down, then his gaze wandered to Sindo. Regis wanted to think that Luke was sizing up his loyalty to the late Emperor, but he looked more concerned than anything else. Finally he turned to Artoo and sighed, clearly exasperated with the situation.

"Look, Regis," said Luke. "I don't doubt that you're a good man. You clearly believe you're doing the right thing. But I think my old friend Artoo has... stretched the truth in order to get back to me."

"That's fine, sir," Regis said immediately. "I understand the need for disinformation in operational security."

Again Luke gave Regis a concerned look. He stood and leveled his gaze at him. "Regis, I'm sorry, but there's no secret Imperial base here. The Empire is gone. I'm certainly no Imperial. But, looking at the condition of your armor, I don't think you are, either."

"Of course I'm an Imperial!" said Regis. "And so is Artoo. He showed me a transmission about General Kenobi!"

"General Kenobi has been dead for years," said Luke, shaking his head. "And he was never in the Empire. He was a general in the Republic. Artoo... well, Artoo must have told you what you needed to hear, in order to get help, and find his way back to me. I'm sorry, Regis. Whatever you came here looking for... it isn't here."

Regis felt the ground wobbling under his feet. As he fought to steady himself, Luke grasped his elbow. Regis flung his hand aside and stumbled away. He felt sick, his pulse pounding as if his brain was being beaten. Something even worse than his hangover gripped his mind, making it difficult to think.

"Artoo," he said, turning back to them. "If that man isn't with the Empire, then you don't need to be giving him sensitive information!"

Artoo backed up behind Luke, and tilted his head toward his old master, waiting for direction.

"Regis," said Sindo, "I don't think you understand..."

"Regis, relax, and breathe," said Luke.

"I am relaxed!" Regis shouted.

"Our war ended a long time ago."

"Our war?" said Regis. "What are... what are you talking about?!"

Regis fixed his gaze on Luke. Through a haze of rising anger, he was surprised to see Luke holding his gaze. Regis had long grown used to being lied to, and being met with slimy excuses, if not outright intimidation. Luke did not seem to be adopting either tactic, but Regis was having trouble appreciating his honesty as long-buried rage charged through his veins.

"Yes, our war," said Luke. "I've been exiled from the New Republic, but years ago, I fought for the Rebellion.

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"You what?!"

"I didn't know things would turn out like this, Regis, but I did what I thought was best at the time. Just as you do."

"No, not as I do!" Regis's head shook with his own shouting. He knew he was losing control, but he did not care. "We're nothing alike, you and I! I was a soldier! You? You were a traitor! You fought to help aliens - against your own people!"

"Sergeant," said Sindo, "let's get a better reading on the situation before we fly off the handle."

Regis turned to Sindo, wanting only to scream and to be heard. But hearing the word Sergeant was like a light turning on in his mind, reminding him that he should be an example to others.

"To say it's complicated would be an understatement," said Luke. "I was a boy when I got involved. My family was killed by stormtroopers, and there was someone there who... made me believe that fighting for the Rebellion would make a difference."

"It made a difference, alright," said Regis. "You took a stand against the one man in this galaxy who fought for us. Now that he's dead, we have no one to defend us against alien filth."

"Defend you?" said Luke, furrowing his brow. "You mean Emperor Palpatine?"

"Of course!"

Luke shook his head. "He wasn't what you think he was."

Regis laughed. "How could you possibly know that?"

Again Luke looked Regis up and down, gauging what he could handle. "I didn't kill him, but I was there when he died. Both him, and Vader."

"You're lying," said Regis, the words like ice sliding through clenched teeth.

"No, I'm not. The Emperor wasn't a good man, Regis. I know that's difficult to accept."

"Why... why in the world would you be there? When they died? I saw the Death Star when it was destroyed!"

"I was there because everyone wanted me to kill the Emperor. And Vader, too. But Vader killed Palpatine, and I helped Vader escape. But Vader died, and he..." Luke swallowed, struggling with something. "Vader died regretting what he had become. Vader never wanted the Empire that you believed in, and Palpatine never meant to make it real. We were both used, Regis. That's why-"

"That's enough," said Regis, his alarm rising. "I've heard enough out of you. If you're telling the truth, then... then you were sent to kill the Emperor. You... that means, you..."

Regis could no longer speak as his anger took hold once again.

"Don't do it, Regis," said Luke.

Luke slowly lifted his dead right hand, as if capable of warding away a blaster bolt. Enraged by the arrogance of the Rebel assassin, Regis lifted his rifle. Sindo shouted a warning - but it proved unnecessary. Regis fought to force his finger into the trigger guard, but was having difficulty. As if in some kind of nightmare, his finger was simply too big to get inside the guard where he could press the trigger. He turned away from Luke and peered down at his gun in confusion, but saw nothing blocking the trigger. He looked at Luke, but the assassin only returned his gaze, his face calm.

"Damn you!" Regis hissed. Tossing his rifle aside, he raced toward Sindo. Before she could react, he jerked her blaster from her grasp, aimed at Luke, and then - again he could not fire. It was like an invisible force was wrapped around the trigger, preventing him from firing.

"You're doing this!" Regis shouted. "Somehow! This is why they sent you to kill the Emperor!"

"Will you calm down?" said Luke. His voice was steady, his words like a weight pushing down on Regis's resolve. He felt it was more than a question, but a statement of finality. He considered that calming down was his only option... then his rage woke him up once again.

"No," said Regis. "No, assassin - I will not."

With that, he raced toward Luke. Luke sidestepped away from Artoo, who beeped in alarm and bounced from one foot to the other. Regis swung the blaster at Luke, hoping to shatter his jaw and knock him out with a single blow - but the strange man simply flowed around the attack, his black cloak whipping as he stepped around Regis. Undeterred, Regis lifted the pistol overhead and brought it down, but Luke lightly touched Regis's arm with his dead hand and somehow pushed his blow aside.

In the heightened awareness of combat, Regis glanced at Luke's face, trying to sense where his attention was going in order to figure out any possible counterattack. He was greeted only with an enraging expression of relaxation, as if Luke was meditating rather than fighting. Regis began to wonder if Luke was mostly robotic, a cybernetic monster made by the Rebellion in order to kill the rightful ruler of mankind. The idea that the Rebels had dumped their weapon in this backwater was somehow doubly enraging.

"Bastard," Regis muttered. Dropping the blaster, he gripped Luke on either side. "Sindo! You have to-"

In a flash, Luke twisted, and Regis found himself flying as if caught in an automated junk grinder. He smacked into mud and rolled end over end. He came to rest against hard stalks of swampgrass, completely disoriented.

"Sindo, watch out!" he shouted. "He's going to-"

"I'm not going to do anything, Regis," said Luke. "I told you! My days of fighting are over."

Regis caught sight of Luke standing in the middle of the clearing before dizziness forced him to shut his eyes. He was afraid that if he spoke, he would throw up.

"And if you want my advice," Luke continued, "you'll put your days of fighting behind you, too. I'm sorry Artoo dragged you into this, but there's nothing here. Dagobah is a trash sorting penal colony. There are no ships but yours, and yours doesn't look like it's going anywhere. We don't have any option but to put our differences aside. Can you do that?"

Like a beaten animal, Regis forced open his red eyes. He saw Sindo looking back at him, her look of pity like a blade forced into his chest. Gritting his teeth, he turned back to Luke.

"Trash sorting... penal colony?" he said.

"That's right," said Luke. "You know anything about sorting and recycling scrap?"

Regis laughed without humor. "Yeah. A little bit."