golden eyes with a wolf-like muzzle.

“W-what?! Who is this?” Balto reached toward the man and found himself pulled helplessly forward, drawn into the body Lord Vader held in his arms. Balto was suddenly falling, falling. He landed with a jolt and sat up in his bunk, breathing hard, his body clammy with sweat and his paws clutching the sheets. “A dream?” It took several minutes for his heartbeat to return to normal. “I guess it was a dream.”

“It is not uncommon to have visions of the future or the past.” Anakin Skywalker moved easily through the wall to sit down in the one chair in the room. “It is a manifestation of the Force.”

“The Force.” Balto sighed, drew his legs up to his chin and wrapped his arms around them. “There’s no escaping it, is there? Yesterday I grabbed for a cup and lifted it without touching it.”

Anakin nodded. “It’s only to be expected. Now that you are out of the grip of the Empire, you are progressing rapidly.” Anakin smiled at Balto. “Training will teach you how to fully use your abilities. My son will be a good teacher – he was instructed by the best Obi-Wan Kenobi, after all.”

“Couldn’t you teach me, my Lord?”

Anakin looked startled by Balto’s request. “Certainly I can help, but believe me, I haven’t exactly been the best model for the use of Force abilities.” Anakin’s smile was self-depreciating. “Better to learn from Luke, who is not burdened by the past.”

“But…he is with the New Republic.”

“It doesn’t matter. Luke is a Jedi, and that transcends political affiliation.”

Balto grunted. “You’re sure of that? The Mon Calamari woman called me ‘Imperial Jedi’.” Balto felt himself blush again at the memory.

Anakin chuckled. “That isn’t so bad, as titles go. Don’t worry. Luke will teach you, and he will not force you to join the New Republic.”

“Thank goodness for small mercies.” Balto looked at Anakin, still finding it hard to believe this healthy man had once been trapped in the armor of Lord Vader. “I don’t understand why I suddenly have the Force.”

“As I said, now that the Emperor’s influence is waning, your abilities are beginning to awaken. My helping you escape from the wreck of the Executor probably didn’t hurt, either. You let me into your mind, and that may have opened some of the lesser-used pathways.”

Balto dug his fingers into his knees. “But I wasn’t born this way!?”

“No, of course not.” Anakin rose and paced the narrow room as he spoke. “You were a Force-sensitive to start, but not strong enough to be a Jedi. Not strong enough to be noticed by the Emperor and killed by him or worse yet, corrupted by him.”

“Well, then, what happened? You don’t just wake up one morning stronger in the Force, do you?” Balto flung out his arms. “It’s not as if someone could make me stronger on a whim, right? I mean… wait a minute…” Balto paused and stared at Anakin, who suddenly seemed to be studying the toes of his boots intently. He spoke slowly, as if thinking out loud. “I had the strangest dream tonight – it reminded me of a dream I had years ago. You were calling to me, and I came to you through whatever obstacles were in the way. This time, it was similar, except when I reached your side, I saw you doing something to an officer who looked a lot like me. He seemed to be ill, and at the end, you picked him up and took him away.”

“Yes, that’s something I needed to talk to you about. Those dreams you had – they weren’t simply dreams, not entirely.” Anakin moved his fingers as if making some sort of delicate adjustment. “The first time you had those dreams, I was working, you see, and you couldn’t help but notice, asleep, or even unconscious.”

Balto felt his mouth go dry. “Working? On what?” He knew before Anakin replied he would not like the answer.

“On you.”

“Me? That was me?” Balto rubbed his forearms, trying to get his fur to lie back down. “What were you doing?”

“Increasing your Force abilities.” Anakin’s boots appeared to be infinitely fascinating.

The fur on the back of Balto’s neck stood up as well. “What? You… you didn’t really, did you?”

“’Fraid I did, sorry.” Anakin raised his head and looked at Balto, his face embarrassed. Taking a deep breath he continued. “I honestly did. Nearly four years ago, over the course of two days, I greatly increased your Force-using capability. You went from being a Force-sensitive, to someone with the potential to be a Jedi.”

“How? Surely I would’ve remembered?!” Balto frowned as he racked his memories for any clues. “I don’t remember being asked.”

“That’s because I never asked, I just did as I wanted.”

Balto’s eyebrows knotted in puzzlement. “But, I should’ve noticed something!”

Anakin produced a guilty grin. “Would have done, if you’d been awake to notice. It turned out the process was painful, so you wouldn’t sit still as I tried to alter you while you stood late watch one night. The solution was to have you sleep through it. You wouldn’t stay asleep when I tried the first time, so the next night I er, drugged your water. Once you were out, I had a medical droid assist me. It kept you anesthetized while I worked. By the time you woke up, it was all over.” Anakin’s smile vanished. “You were sick, too, when I got done. I didn’t have a good understanding of what I was doing, and ended up changing too much, too fast. I was afraid you were going to die of fever, so I took you down to sick bay as quickly as I could. You woke up when we were almost there.”

Balto blinked. “What, you mean that time when I had the alien flu and fainted while on duty?”

“That wasn’t flu.”

“But…! It had to be!” Balto shook his head. “It wasn’t just me that got sick, Praji got it and Belkan and…” he wound down as he looked at Anakin’s unhappy expression.

“You were the first I ‘improved’, but not the last,” Anakin admitted. “Everyone reacted to having their Force ability increased by running a fever and experiencing some level of illness. You were the first – and were the sickest as a result of my inexperience. I took my time with the others, ‘improving’ them over several days, and so they while they felt ill, they were much less sick than you were.”

“But, but, why?” Balto found himself torn between horror at having been altered and reluctant admiration at Vader’s sheer daring. “If it was risky for us, surely it was even more dangerous for you – if the Emperor had found out!” Balto shuddered over the magnitude of the risk Vader had run.

“Pride.” The word was short and harsh with self-knowledge. “I wanted to do something the Emperor could not. I was triumphant when I mastered the process.” Anakin’s tone became softer. “Pride and… loneliness.” Watching Balto’s confused face, he continued. “This is something I can admit only now. Please understand, what I did was unforgivable, an abuse of my power over those who trusted me with their lives. But… you’ve no idea how very lonely it was to be the last Force-user in the galaxy, or so it seemed at the time.”

Anakin rose and paced the room restlessly, walking through the chair and desk during his peregrinations. “I’d been used to hearing the voices, the presence, of friends and other fellow-Jedi in the Force for much of my life. But once I had so eagerly done the Emperor’s work for him, the voices all fell silent. I was utterly alone with my thoughts, and believe me, that was no good place to be.” He stopped; his face haggard. “It was dark and cold or dark and burning – a bitter desert night with no sunrise, a fire that consumed without warming.”

“Surely the Emperor was there?” Balto offered. “So you were not entirely alone.”

Anakin made a face as if he’d suddenly smelled something noxious. “Palpatine was not a presence as much as a void in the fabric of the Force. Bleak as my life had become, echoes of his thoughts were not something I wished to hear. He was hunger and hatred. He had nothing of substance to share, with me, or with anyone.”

Anakin stopped and looked at Balto. It seemed to the young officer as if the Jedi was barely older than himself. The lines of worry and pain were gone. “As soon as I changed you, I was no longer alone. Your voice, your thoughts, were in the Force, not only assured me that I had been successful, but let shine that first ray of light into my darkness. Your steady presence kept me from falling into madness and despair. For that I cannot thank you and your fellow-officers enough.” 

“Some of my most personal thoughts you heard! About Jenna! About my crew!” Balto argued.

“You do, however, have every right to be angry,” said Anakin soberly. “My acknowledging the harm I caused to you does little to remedy the situation.”

Balto thought about it as Anakin waited for his response. His head buzzed with astonishment and wonder. After a long minute he found his voice. “Can these changes be undone?”

“No.”

Anakin held his hands out toward Balto, who felt an odd sensation, as if something were touching all his nerves at once, a delicate stroke of brightness. He sucked in his breath quickly.

“You felt that?” Anakin watched him closely.

“Yes,” said Balto.

Rising from his bed he took up his shirt and pulled it on, hoping it would offer some protection from the chill of the room.

“That feeling shows you something of the extent of the changes I worked into your body. In the course of the years, your system has adjusted to a new level of energy. To try and remove the extra midichlorians now would kill you.” Anakin shook his head. “I can’t do it, nor could even the most powerful Jedi Master.”

“Midich- what?” Balto scowled as he pulled on his breeches then sat on the