A/N: Sorry if this chapter seems childish. But I've just been in that kind of mood lately.
Luke was grateful when Leia decided that she had done enough swimming and that their father was in agreement. He hoped that they wouldn't go back to the pool for a while. He didn't know how long he could keep passing it up. He didn't know how many excuses he could come up with. However as he was about to enter the room that he was sharing with Leia, he felt a hand on his arm.
"A word," his father said.
Leia paused and looked at her brother who just nodded at her to go ahead, which she did, feeling that nothing nefarious would happen.
Luke turned to his father. "What do you want to discuss?" he asked.
"You don't know how to swim, do you?" his father asked.
"Why do you ask?" Luke asked.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a person raised on Tatooine wouldn't know how to swim. Particularity someone who's been to Tatooine," his father said. "And for some reason you don't want Leia to know about this or else you would have said so instead of listing off reasonable excuses," he added, reading him easily.
"For Leia, not knowing how to swim is not normal," Luke said reasonably.
"But it is normal for you, yet, you are acting as though it is shameful," his father countered.
"More embarrassed," Luke countered.
His father nodded, formulating something in his mind. "Go to bed and get some rest," he said.
Luke turned around and went into the bedroom to join Leia, knowing that the conversation was over and he was relieved.
--
Luke was having a reasonably good nights rest when he was awoken by a presence in his room and a hand covered his mouth. Snapping his eyes open, he could make out the form of his father through the city's artificial light seeping through the window.
"Get dressed and come with me," his father instructed quietly.
"And Leia?" Luke asked, keeping his voice low.
"Let her sleep," his father said and left the room.
Luke glanced over at the crono seeing the Coruscant time measurement to be two in the morning. Closing his eyes, he calculated what time it could be on Tatooine, realizing that he would be getting up at this hour anyway. Quietly, he got dressed before entering the common room where his father was standing. "Is there a reason why you have woken me up in only the second hour," he asked.
"I'm going to teach you a lesson," his father said walking to the door.
Luke looked at him wondering what this lesson was and followed his father out the door. "What about Leia?" he asked.
"Leia doesn't need this kind of lesson," his father told him and didn't say anything further.
Luke followed him, his mind going a mile a minute and grew cautious when his father lead him to the pool. "Is this really necessary?" he asked.
"Knowing how to swim is a valuable skill for a jedi. You will never know when you'll need it," his father told him.
"And this is important enough to do this in the second hour?" Luke asked doubtfully.
"I was under the impression that you didn't want Leia to know," his father explained.
"Why are you doing this?" Luke asked.
"Would you rather drown when you would be forced into a situation that includes water?" his father asked.
"Not particularly," Luke answered.
"Then get changed," his father commanded.
Luke wasn't particularly thrilled with this but he didn't argue. He could see the reason to learning how to swim. So he left the main pool deck to change, taking his time as he did so in his way of delaying the inevitable. When he entered the pool deck again, his father was already in the pool, waiting. "On a scale of one to ten, how important is this really?" he asked.
His father gave him an exasperated look. "Are you always this difficult?" he asked.
"Only when I'm about to do something that I don't want to do," Luke answered. "Uncle Owen used to lecture me about it. Even Master Yoda tried to drill it out of me," he commented, taking a seat at the edge of the pool to ease himself in.
"Careful," his father warned a second before Luke managed to ease himself into the deeper part of the pool, however, before Luke could go under his father caught him and pulled him over to a shallower area. "We'll work on the different strokes first," he said and Luke nodded.
--
Leia awoke, finding herself alone. After getting dressed, she not only found that Luke wasn't here but neither was her father. She didn't take a minute to wonder where they had gone. She knew where they were at this time, she just didn't know why they didn't wake her or wait for her before leaving.
When she found her way to the cafeteria, she saw the same table set for three and heard voices from the kitchen. Upon inspection she found Luke cooking with their father. Leia was unable to squash the feelings of betrayal at seeing this or the hurt feelings of being left out. That was when Luke laughed at something that their father had said.
"I didn't find that to be too funny," their father stated dryly.
Luke was about to make a reply when he spotted Leia and walked over to her, uncertain of what to make of the expression on her face. "Are you alright?" he asked quietly as the only thing really separating them being the service counter.
Leia caught the brief look that their father threw in the direction before he went back to cooking. She looked Luke in the eye. "I'm fine," she told him.
Luke didn't seem to believe her, reading a little more into her demeanor than she would have liked. "Then what was that lost look about?" he asked in a whisper so that only she could hear.
"It's nothing," Leia told him dismissively and Luke didn't seem to believe this either because he looked at her with concern.
"You know that you can tell me anything," Luke told her.
"Can I?" Leia challenged.
Luke caught the way that her eyes glanced in the direction of their father and he knew what this was about. "Since when has that changed?" he challenged back.
Leia cast her eyes downward but didn't say anything.
Luke briefly glanced behind him, feeling reassured that their father didn't seem to be paying attention before moving out from behind the counter and put his hand on Leia's arm, steering her all the way to the other side of the cafeteria. "What is this about?" he asked.
"What are you doing, Luke?" Leia asked.
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"Why are you so chummy with him?" Leia asked.
Luke looked at her for a moment, trying to judge on what had brought this on, however knowing Leia it could be anything. "Would you rather we spend our entire time here in a fight or would you rather do something productive?" he challenged.
"Luke, you know what he has done. How can you trust his motives?" Leia asked.
"The force is telling me to, Leia," Luke told her.
"Luke, think about everything he has put us through, please just think about that," Leia begged.
"He isn't like that anymore," Luke told her.
"How can you be so sure?" Leia asked.
"Because I can feel it. I know the difference between both sides, Leia," Luke told her. "Lets sit down and talk about this," he said, ushering her into a sat before taking a seat himself. "I know what you're going through," he told her.
"No you don't," Leia told him.
"Leia, do you remember how I was when we escaped Bespin?" Luke asked.
"What does this have to do with anything?" Leia asked.
"Think about it," Luke told her.
Leia looked him in the eye and remembered the haunted look in them as they escaped. "What did he do to you?" she asked.
"We fought, he taunted me, he tried to freeze me in carbonate, we fought again, he cut off my hand and told me who he was before he attempted to lure me to the dark side. From where I was and the point I was at, it was either join him or die. I chose death and I made sure that he knew it before I jumped. But at that moment, everything that I knew had been twisted and turned upside down. I went through a moment of not really knowing who I was and I had doubts before I was ready to move on from it," Luke told her. "And you are going through the same thing," he added.
"It's not so easy to be in the same room with a man who has tortured me twice and act like it didn't happen," Leia told him.
"And I'm sure that we're not the only ones who has some sort of scars inflicted on us by Vader," Luke told her.
"No, but who he is to us makes it that much harder to accept," Leia told him.
Luke didn't say anything to counter that, knowing the truth in her words. He just looked over his shoulder towards the kitchen where their father was still cooking.
--
Obi-Wan Kenobi sighed deeply, content to be just floating through hyperspace. He took this brief time of peace to commune with the force, however his peaceful moment was interrupted by the voice of his padawan through the intercom.
"I'm bored, Master."
Obi-Wan mentally sighed. "I am not going to break from hyperspace to race with you, Anakin," he said sternly.
"Why do you hate flying so much, Master?" Anakin asked.
"I do not hate flying," Obi-Wan told him, not answering the question.
"Yes you do, you just don't want to admit it to me," Anakin countered.
"You knew that we would be in hyperspace for a full day, Anakin, why didn't you bring something to occupy yourself with?" Obi-Wan asked sternly, changing the topic slightly.
"Because I don't like anything that is unnecessary in the cockpit when I'm flying," Anakin answered.
"Why don't you meditate," Obi-Wan suggested and he could almost see the scowl on Anakin's face at the suggestion. He heard Anakin grumble something and he smiled to himself knowing that he was about to win this round. "In fact that was what I was doing when you rudely interrupted me," he added.
"I won't interrupt you again, Master," Anakin said and Obi-Wan could hear the carefully hidden annoyed tone in his voice.
"See that you don't," Obi-Wan told him, closing his eyes in quiet meditation.
--
Leia tilted her head to the side, just as Luck scratched his head. Both trying to be as quiet as they could despite the awful sound in the room. Leia turned to Luke and raised an eyebrow. "How long do you think we've got?" she whispered softly, hoping that her brother had heard her over the noise.
Luke looked back to the sight before him. "Judging by the sound of his snores and his even breathing, I assume that he'll be out for a while," he whispered back.
Leia nodded before looking back at where their father was passed out on the couch and snoring bad enough and loud enough to wake the dead. "Then lets make the best of our time," she decided and Luke grinned.
"I have an idea," he said in a conspiratorial tone.
Half an hour later, both twins were chuckling at the picture of their father waking up to find himself covered in various things ranging from shaving cream to marked drawings as they made their way through the temple.
"I can't believe that I did something so childish," Leia told him.
"Neither can I," Luke agreed. "But I really couldn't pass up that opportunity," he added.
"No, neither could I," Leia agreed. "I almost feel sorry that we'll miss his reaction," she said.
"That would be priceless," Luke said, "However it might be wise if we stayed away for a while to let him cool down," he added. He then smiled. "Can you picture Han's reaction if someone did that to him?" he asked and Leia burst out laughing, causing several jedi to look at them funny. Luke smiled to himself, pleased that he had gotten her into a good mood. "So where to?" he asked looking around.
"I've heard from my father that the jedi temple had an impressive room of a thousand fountains," Leia told him.
Luke ignored her reference, hoping that she would have enough sense not to use it around their father before replying. "Does it really have a thousand fountains?" he asked, interested.
"I don't know. Do you want to check it out?" Leia replied.
"I've never seen a fountain," Luke told her in way of agreeing.
Leia smiled before frowning. "I don't think that it would be wise to ask for directions then," she said.
Luke noticed this too and shared her concern. He then reached into his belt before smiling. "No, but we do have blueprints," he said and Leia smiled.
--
Luke gaped once they found the room of a thousand fountains. It really did look like it held a thousand fountains and each one of them sprouted sparkling water.
"Close your moth, you look like a fish," Leia hissed, seeing the other jedi present in the room.
"Sorry," Luke replied. "I just never seen anything so..."
"Impressive," Leia put in.
"Yeah, that," Luke agreed as they moved through the room, looking for a secluded fountain, finding one that suited them fine and liking how it was a little closed off. They each took a seat by it, on the soft grass. Luke closed his eyes blissfully as he could feel just how calming this room was. "How could something so peaceful be justified in being destroyed?" he asked.
"I don't know," Leia said looking at the water in the fountain. "Just think that this would all be gone in three years," she commented softly.
Luke nodded solemnly. "We have to stop it," he said determinedly.
"Even if we have to..." Leia couldn't finish her sentience, continuing to stare into the fountain, seeing a fish appearer in the water, staring at them expectantly.
"Troubled, your thoughts are," a voice said from behind them.
Luke and Leia turned to see Master Yoda standing behind them, leaning heavily on his gimer stick. Luke was about to stand when Master Yoda put a hand out to stop him.
"Need for formalities there is not," Master Yoda said. "Speak to you I will. Understand I do, that know what you are doing you do not," he said.
"Yes Master," Luke said, staying where he was.
"Like sweets do you?" Master Yoda asked.
Luke and Leia looked at each other before looking back at Master Yoda, nodding.
Master Yoda reached into a pocket and pulled out two candies and handed them to them.
"Thank you," Leia said, speaking for both her and Luke as they took the candies.
"Your story, I wish to hear," Master Yoda pronounced as he took a seat on a rock.
"I don't think that this is just our story to tell," Luke said.
"Protecting your father are you?" Master Yoda asked and both Luke and Leia gave him a stunned look. "Blind I am not, see the resemblance between you and he I do. Sense in you his power level I do," Master Yoda chastised them.
"Yes Master," Luke said while Leia looked stunned.
"I don't..."
Master Yoda interrupted her. "Strong in the force you are. Impossible not to be and be the child of Anakin Skywalker at the same time it is," he said.
"What do you want to know, Master?" Luke asked, prepared to tell what he knew of the story.
"What you know I wish to hear," Master Yoda said.
--
At another part in the temple the man formally known as both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader woke up from what he would describe as a restful nap. However he felt that something was off. Lifting one hand, he found it covered in some sort of food while his other felt like it was in water. Reaching that hand up, he touched his face and the top of his head before letting out a vial oath at finding himself covering in not only food but shaving cream. Just when he thought that he could take a peaceful nap, he wakes up to this. Grumbling to himself, he moved off of the couch carefully so that he didn't make a mess but that was unavoidable and he cursed again. "One would think that they would know who they were messing with already," he grumbled as he dripped all the way to the refresher, planning his revenge along the way.
--
When Luke and Leia returned to the quarters that they were sharing with their father, they found it as dark as it was outside the temple. The artificial city light pouring through the blinds covering the window. Enough light showed itself for them to see the trail of mess from the couch and into the refresher. Shrugging to each other, they made their way quietly to the room that they were sharing. However the moment that the door closed, they each jumped at hearing the steal like voice.
"I hope that the two of you enjoyed that little stunt," their father said from somewhere in the room. "Because what comes around goes around and you each know just how creative I can be," he added darkly.
"If you are trying to intimidate us, it isn't working," Leia told him as Luke flipped on the light switch, revealing where their father had been sitting, propped up on one of the bunks.
"I'm not trying anything. I'm just giving you a fair warning this time," their father said, standing up. "Be prepared for anything," he warned before leaving.
Luke shook his head. "Not so menacing without the suit," he commented.
"Whatever he has planned, we'll need to find a way to fight it off," Leia commented.
Luke smiled grimly. "Two against one doesn't seem fair," he commented.
Leia looked at him. "Since when do we have to be fair?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Luke just grinned.
--
Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and looked over at his padawan tiredly. "Anakin, forget about fixing that for the night and get some sleep. We have to report to the council first thing in the morning," he commanded.
"I can't leave this navi-computer in this condition, Master," Anakin told him stubbornly.
"That is your fault for adjusting your lightsaber inside of a cockpit. How many times have I told you to bring something useful to occupy yourself with when you know that you will be in hyperspace for a while? You are lucky that you even made it here safely with that navi-computer in the state that it's in" Obi-Wan lectured.
"Not another lecture, Master," Anakin groaned.
"You wouldn't need a lecture if you actually payed attention and learned something rather than being irresponsible and reckless," Obi-Wan told him and he knew that Anakin was rolling his eyes and mocking him while he was immersed in the cockpit. How he had gotten stuck with the most difficult padawan in history was just a cruel trick of the force. "If you do not get out of that cockpit and get some rest then I will be forced to tell Master Windu how exactly he ended up tripping and falling down a flight of stairs," he threatened, resorting to the time old strategy when dealing with a stubborn padawan.
"You wouldn't," Anakin said, looking straight at him.
"I'm sure that he would figure out a suitable punishment for that one," Obi-Wan told him, crossing his arms over his chest.
Anakin glowered at him but knew better than to think that this was an idle threat and left the cockpit. "That was eight years ago, I'm sure he's forgotten about that," he said.
"Not if I remind him," Obi-Wan told him. "I will be waking you up at 0700 hours," he said, knowing very well that Anakin would try to sleep in.
