Juvenile Experiment

Chapter 4

You are my son; you should be with me, Luke.

Luke's eyes fluttered open. His bright blue eyes widening ever so slowly as the realization hit him like a bolt of lightning.

His father had tried to connect with him just now.

Swallowing, Luke pulled out of bed and moved towards a mirror giving himself a once-over before deciding the serum remained dormant, luckily.

Pushing the thought from his mind he stepped out of the cabin and navigated his way through the cargo ship until he found Leia and Han seated in the cockpit, arguing about something he could not quite follow yet.

"I ain't flying that way back, Princess. You heard Mon Mothma. Going back will get us all killed!"

"What's wrong?" Luke asked as he approached them from behind, placing his hand gently on Leia's shoulder, who turned to look at him with surprise on her face.

"Oh, Leia's gone crazy because she feels a sudden compulsion to get back to Montross and see if we can find any more antidotes!"

"Antidotes?" Luke repeated. "Why?"

Leia let out a tense breath, "The antidote we found were specifically made for those with tempered memories, meaning that we can only recover the memories of the victims to its normal state, but everything physical remains as it is."

Luke just nodded his head. He had hoped the antidote problem would have been solved, but he shouldn't be surprised. They had been in a rush when everything went down. If he had enough time to go look for the antidote, or at least find the leader behind all of this, he might have succeeded.

He had to ask though, "What does that mean for those suffering from the new juvenile-experiment?"

"Since all rebels of the juvenile-experiment were injected with a combination of the memory-wipe serum most have remembered who they are due to the antidote," Leia trailed off, the frustration clear in her face, "their bodies, however..."

"At least they remember!" Han cut in as he steered the cargo ship into the vast depths of space.

"Look, we can worry about their puny sizes later. It's not the end of the world!"

"But what about the rebels who have been blinded by the serum? Or those who are unable to even walk?" Leia barked at Han, crossing her hands stubbornly

"And what about the perfected juvenile-experiment!"

"What about the perfected juvenile-experiment?" Luke asked suddenly, confused by the expression that was on her face.

It was that compassionate expression she gave her comrades before they heroically perished in space, and it certainly did not add to his comfort.

"Do you remember Eden Tran?" Leia asked, removing his hand from her shoulder and leaving him distraught, "he was infected with a perfected serum."

"Y-yeah, did something happen to him?" Luke asked carefully.

Leia leaned back in her co-pilot seat, "He had a breakdown all of a sudden while you were asleep. We tried to comfort him, but he kept on screaming his lungs out and it only worsened when his body turned younger as well."

Han gave him a playful nudge and he did not seem to notice the color drain out of Luke's face, "If it weren't for Chewie taking over the pilot seat so I could see it with my own eyes I would have never believed it."

"Well, I am glad you did because your attitude about this whole ordeal would have been even worse!"

"Excuse you?"

"Wait, wait–" Luke interjected, feeling his blood turn cold. "How is Eden now? ...What age is his body? And his memories... does he still remember, or did he forget everything?"

He did not like the difficult expression showing on both Han and Leia's face.

"Eden became a teenager, about sixteen. He still remembers who he is, and he has some fragments and pieces of his time with the rebellion, but it seems he's losing them all with time," Leia stated, turning to face Luke again, "we can only hope for the best. But what worries me is his headache that doesn't seem to stop."

"And the... And the antidote didn't work?" Luke tried to collect himself, but he felt himself failing terribly.

Leia sighed and shook her head, "No, it's like an entirely different serum."

Han rolled his eyes, "Come on, perhaps we'll be able to find someone who can make the antidote themselves."

"Oh, who is going to? You?" Leia placed her hands on her waist and huffed, "You do realize we would need specific data only the facility can offer us?"

"Yeah I do, but that place should be blown up by now!"

Luke slumped his shoulders and sat back leaning against the backside of pilot's seat, startling both Han and Leia out of their stubborn streak.

Leia turned her seat around and knelt at his side, comforting him with a gentle pat on the back, "Luke, what's wrong?" she asked.

Looking at Leia, he noticed the tenderness resonate in her chocolate brown eyes. At this display of affection, he couldn't help gritting his teeth and lower his bright blue eyes, "The perfected serum does not only cause the body to shrink Leia, but it also slowly destroys the victim's neurons until their newly assigned age. I'm fairly sure that's why the antidote doesn't work on Eden, it's related to the brain instead of the memories."

He could feel her immense shock through the Force. Han as well.

"Luke, how do you know so much about the perfected juvenile-experiment?" Leia asked.

Scrunching his eyes, Luke rolled out another sigh, "There's something I haven't told you guys yet..."

Frustrated, he told them of what happened back on Montross. About how splitting from the group and trying to apprehend whoever owned the facility resulted in him getting caught and injected with the perfected serum.

"What?!" Leia exclaimed, not knowing what to be more shocked at; Han letting go of the steering wheel and risking a collision with a nearby asteroid or Luke having the same serum course through his bloodstream as rebels Eden and Charlotte.

"Is there something else we should know?" Han asked almost annoyed.

Luke scratched the back of his neck, attempting a half-smile, "Uh, well yes. They doubled the dosage - but I'm not sure what the effect of that will be."

"You cannot be kidding me! And who knows of your problem?"

"You guys are the only ones that know," Luke admitted. "Look, the scientist told me there was this chance it wouldn't even work so I never let it get to my head that much, but now..."

"Oh, Luke..." Was all Leia could say as she stroked his back in a silent gesture to not lose hope and be strong.

"I'm going back to Montross, I need to find an antidote."

"I will come with you. There's no telling what might happen."

"Thanks, Leia."

Rising from his place on the cold floor, Luke looked down at his friend and reached out a hand, helping her get back on her feet.

"Han, what are you doing?" Leia asked suddenly, seeing Han deactivate the energy field and press several buttons.

Han turned in his chair, his face serious, "I sent over some help. They should be here any second now," the corners of his mouth quirked up when the Headquarters Frigate came out of hyper speed.

"Home One–!" Luke couldn't believe his eyes as he watched Han steer the cargo ship onboard one of the most advanced ships in the Alliance Fleet.

The lopsided grin never left his face, "Once weparked this ship, we'll take the Millennium Falcon and fly back down to findthe antidote."