Chapter 4: Things No One Can Fix
The first thing that disturbed Anakin's blissful unconscious was the constant humming of a hyperdrive engine. This was only identified by the subconscious part of Anakin's brain that always noticed such things.
In the next moment, Anakin's sluggish mind distinguished the sounds of another person, or perhaps people moving in his vicinity. He nearly fell back in sweet oblivion when another part of his mind, the part that he had trained to alarm him of possible danger, flared to life. In a sort of a panic his eyes shot open only to find that there wasn't much of a change.
Lifting up a hand he rubbed at his eyelids then opened them slowly against his fingertips to make sure that his body was responding in a better way then his mind. He felt the flutter of his lashes against the tips of his fingers.
Horror struck him. Had he gone blind?
But just as fast as the horror hit him it dissipated at the memory of that young man who had taken him out of that...whatever that horrible sludge he had been covered in had been. He had seen fine then. Had been able to see the two meter tall box that he had been secured in... for how long, he didn't know.
Suddenly, memory caught up with Anakin Solo and he let out a frightful gasp.
He was surrounded; the fatal wound that he had been holding back with the Force throbbed in time with his blood, in time with the Force itself. Simultaneously, he was caught up in his pain but oblivious to it.
The lightsaber in his hand danced as if it were as living as the amphistaffs that it met to throw off in a parry, purple blade reflecting like a halo over his head. Fire and ice blended in him, reflecting the way he felt inside his body secure yet foreign.
Up ahead he saw his brother and sister watching helplessly as he continued his impossible assault of the Yuuzhan Vong whose number far outweighed his capabilities. Intrenched in the Force, his body barely reacted when amphistaffs, that evaded his incredible defenses, struck at him with their venomous tongues.
He gave himself totally to the Force and even as the energy field consumed him it healed him. It drew Anakin to it in a way that the young Jedi had never sensed before.
Consuming was the wrong word for it, this was more like an embrace.
He saw that Jaina was not going to leave, the fire in her eyes that reflected his own right before he had left Chewie behind on Sernpidal. He understood that pain and was sorry that Jaina had to deal with it.
"Take her, Jacen. Give Tahiri a kiss for me," Anakin called, his lightsaber like fire in his hand.
Then he felt consciousness dimming. He was losing his hold on life. And within moments his body became very much like the flame that he had compared his lightsaber to.
"I died," Anakin whispered into the darkened room. However, it did not remain darkened. There was a clicking sound that produced what felt like the light of twin suns to Anakin's poor eyes, but was in all actuality nothing more then a bank of illumination panels inside a ship.
Overhead, slightly blury, as Anakin's eyes worked to adjust to the light, stood the young man that had helped him. Anakin gauged the boy to be just a little younger then himself, but Anakin often felt older then his age.
"Are you well, Jedi Solo? I've made some broth, would you like some?" the boy asked. It struck Anakin that he hadn't asked his rescuer's name.
He nodded that he was fine and noted that he was indeed quite hungry. "I think I could eat a whole bantha," he joked softly, as he struggled to sit up in the ship's bunk. The last thing he remembered was that he had been on Tatooine. How did he get from Myrkr to Tatooine? "Where are we?"
"We're heading to Jedi headquarters, we should be there in just over an hour," his fellow young Jedi answered. He wasn't a tall or a necessarily big human, but Anakin could tell that he was Jedi by the way he carried himself. And despite the fact that Anakin was pretty sure he had never met him before, his rescuer was familiar.
Anakin leaned leisurely against the bulkhead that encased his bunk, feigning relaxation for the total exhaustion he still felt. What do you expect from coming back from the dead? he asked himself facetiously.
His rescuer walked over to a hover tray that he had left in the opening of the entryway and picked up a bowl of steaming broth and gently pressed it into Anakin's hands.
"Thank you." The warm bowl felt good in his cold hands. His rescuer sat in a chair that was nestled against his bunk and was watching him in eager anticipation. "Have we met before?" Anakin asked, not able to shake the familiarity that pricked at him.
"We have, shortly," the other Jedi answered tersely.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember your name," Anakin said, guiltily. The sense he got from the other Jedi was quite different from what he expected. People usually didn't panic when you asked their name. But he only caught but a whiff of the other Jedi before the boy's mind was encased in shields so tight that Anakin hadn't thought capable of a young Jedi student.
"My name is B....Bentill S....Suryan," his rescuer supplied in a sort of stutter.
Try as he might, Anakin couldn't remember ever meeting a Bentill Suryan but he had met many people in his short seventeen years and Bentill did look familiar. "It's nice to see you again, Bentill." Another picture flashed in his mind and he asked, "Where is the Vong warrior that was with you?" he asked.
Bentill shrugged. "Vansar said that he wished to die in the honor of battle," a smirk crossed Bentill's boyish features, "I managed to convince him that battling Tatooine's climate was honorable enough."
It seemed to Anakin that Bentill was content to just sit and watch him eat. Anakin was already on edge, something just didn't feel right yet he couldn't put his finger on it, and Bentill's avid study of him was only fueling the fire. He tried to concentrate on something else: Bentill had rescued him from the Yuuzhan Vong contraption. But with thought of the Vong the memory of what he had thought of as his death came unbidden to his mind.
"I died," he repeated without thinking.
Noticing his lapse, Anakin glanced up at Bentill to gauge the other's response. Bentill's face, however, only showed sympathy and understanding. "I know, we all thought you were dead. I asked Vansar about what had happened. Some of it I understand," the boy shrugged, "some of it, I don't."
"Explain the parts you do understand," Anakin said in a more then commanding tone then he had any right to. Bentill was nearly his age, and here he was snapping at the boy as if he were almost twice that. Bentill only nodded in obedience. "Well, after your physical death, the Vong took your body and, using an ooglith masquer, modeled another body close to your height and build to match yours. From what I know of the ordeal, during your fight, you were healed of wounds they put in you just as soon as they appeared?" Bentill paused in his narrative long enough for Anakin to confirm that part of the story. "That made it all the more easy for them to ''duplicate'' you. The Priestess Laran put you in the oombassl, which kept your body alive and active, like being encased in living carbonite, and ordered Vansar to take you off planet. Apparently, you were supposed to be some sort of lure to bring the rest of the Jedi to them. Bait for a trap. But suddenly the plans changed. A messenger intercepted Vansar and gave him new coordinates to Tatooine, right to Master Kenobi's hut, and told him to wait until someone came for the Jedi's gift."
"Who was the messenger?" Anakin asked.
"Vergere," Bentill answered, once again flashing the sense that he was nervous. But about what?
Anakin's confusion was beginning to rise in degrees. Why would an Yuuzhan Vong operative save him when she had almost made it impossible for them to destroy the Voxyn? And why had she made it impossible for them to destroy the Voxyn when she had saved his Aunt Mara? Then he realized that at the moment of his death he could feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force and not just through the lambent crystal that he had used to construct his lightsaber.
"I felt them in the Force."
"Excuse me?" Bentill asked.
"The Vong, I could feel them in the Force just before I died. It's like speaking a different language, until you know what the language is you can't communicate with it," Anakin said
Bentill shivered with excitement. "Can you do it again? Can you teach me?"
"I don't know," Anakin said, wishing that Vansar were here now so that he could test it. "If I can I'd be happy to teach you."
Smiling shyly, Bentill took to studying him again. After a moment he continued, "This is all from my point of view, but I think I know what has happened. When the Force filled you in such a way it was as if you melded with it, but when the Vong restored your body by putting you in the oombassl, the Force had to let you go. By then you were in Vong biotechnology, which in the case of the rest of the Jedi, is still a block in our Force abilities." At that moment an indicator light began to flash and an alarm rang. "Looks like we're coming up on Coruscant," Bentill said, pushing off on his knees and rising from the chair.
"Would you like to join me?" He asked gesturing towards the pilothouse.
Exhausted as he was, Anakin did not want to sleep anymore. Carefully, he rose to his feet and was immensely pleased when the surrounding area didn't start spinning like an amusement ride. "This is some ship," he remarked, as he followed Bentill to the pilothouse.
Bentill shrugged. "It was the best I could do with just a X-Wing to trade, but hey, it runs." Anakin thought this a strange answer, especially since the ship seemed as sleek as any Naboo cruiser. Bentill gestured to the co- pilots seat and Anakin took it with a wistful sigh. It was getting less taxing to move around under his own power.
The hypnotic beauty of hyperspace stretched out before them and Anakin was strangely reassured by the timelessness of lightspeed.
The hyperclock ticked down and Bentill kicked in the sublight engines. Starlines slinked to star pinpricks and stood sparkling before the velvet backdrop of space. Another timeless existence. Yet time did turn and change did commence.
Anakin caught the sight of Coruscant and his unease expanded to full blown fear and suspicion. Reaching out to the Force, Anakin sent out a burst of energy to pin Bentill to his seat, or that was what was supposed to happen and would have if Bentill's own strength in the Force hadn't emerged to block Anakin's attack.
Not even Jacen had been able to block such an attack. Ice blue eyes meet oceanic ones in a contest of wills that neither were likely to give up.
"This is not Coruscant. You lied to me," Anakin accused in a tone that matched his eye color.
"It's difficult to explain, but I assure you I have not lied about this. Stretch out, you'll feel Master Skywalker on the planet's surface," Bentill said evenly, not even perturbed by Anakin's assault.
Anakin broke off his attack and redirected his attention to Coruscant in a searching tendril for his uncle Luke. As Bentill had professed, Uncle Luke was there, along with his brother and sister, and his parents. A surge of relief flooded over Anakin and he broke off contact before he disturbed his family. He briefly wondered why Aunt Mara and Ben was not among them but figured that they were away from Coruscant hiding safely in the Maw.
"It's complicated, Jedi Solo but I promise once we land all your questions will be answered," Bentill said in a calm tone that contradicted the frantic one that Anakin felt.
Nodding, Anakin settled into the co-pilot's seat and tried to reconcile the planet in front of him as one of the places he had once called home.
................
As Ben guided the small comfort cruiser towards the new Jedi Temple, he reached out to his father's mind and sent a message to meet him in the Temple's hanger bay. Luke's mind sent a consenting reply.
He had been stupid and foolish to mention Coruscant and not expect Anakin to react. He'd just given Anakin a reason to doubt him and a clue to the fifteen years that were missing from his life. So far hiding his true identity had been a challenge at most, but he couldn't figure a way to tell his cousin the truth. He hoped that his father would be able to do a better job.
Deftly, Ben set the cruiser gently down on the new stone of the Jedi Temple. Of course he had been here before, while the rest of the Temple was being constructed, but this time Ben felt a tingle course up his spin. Just outside the hanger bay Ben could feel his father' s presence...along with the rest of his family members.
Oh no.
Frantic, Ben connected with his father again and projected the urgency to keep the rest of the family outside. Luke demonstrated confusion but nonetheless signaled that he would do as Ben had requested.
"Power down the ship," Ben ordered Anakin. "I'll be back to get you in just a moment. I have to talk to someone first."
"Bentill..." Anakin started
"Trust me Jedi Solo. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you," he said. He didn't wait for an answer but hurried out of the cruiser before he had to explain anything else to Anakin.
Quickly, Ben followed his father's signature in the Force. His father was waiting just where Ben had originally felt him, outside the main hanger bay.
"Ben?" Luke said, clearly he had been worried. "What is it? What's going on?"
Now that he was facing Luke, Ben wasn't really sure on how to broach the subject of Anakin. He knew that his father had always felt responsible for Anakin's death and had carried the burden every day for those fifteen years. "Father, I've found someone."
"Ben you're not going to tell me you fell in love on Tatooine and eloped?" Luke asked in the slightly exasperated tone that parents patented.
Under any other circumstance, Ben would have considered joking with his father but Anakin was not likely to wait much longer. "No, Father that's not it."
Catching his son's subdued and serious tone, Luke once again switched to concern. "It's alright, Ben. Relax, settle your mind. Think."
Heeding his father's advice Ben calmed his thoughts and organized them into a timeline. Always start from the beginning. "I went to Master Kenobi's hut just as you instructed, but there was an Yuuzhan Vong waiting there for me. Don't worry though, he was a friend or as close to friendly a wartime Vong warrior gets."
"Wartime?" Luke queried.
"Yes. I can't go into too great of detail, but the Vong was watching over something. Someone...It was Anakin, Father," Ben finally spurted out.
A mixture of pain and sadness fell over Luke's aging features. "Ben you know that your cousin was killed. We all felt his death."
"I know, but everyone felt Jacen's death except for Aunt Leia. Perhaps there was one person who didn't or couldn't," Ben argued.
"Couldn't what?" Anakin's voice came from behind him and Luke nearly stumbled in his surprise. Fifteen years had matured Anakin's features greatly, but Ben had no doubt that his father recognized his nephew.
Nevertheless, Luke looked at Ben for confirmation and the young Jedi nodded at his father. "It's him."
Luke scrutinized his nephew and Anakin returned the studious gaze, recognition dawned at the same time and Luke took a step to envelope his nephew, while Anakin just stood in stunned amazement. Ben could only guess at what was going through his cousin's mind.
"Uncle Luke?" Anakin asked, his words hitching emotionally in his throat.
Releasing his hold on Anakin, Luke raised his wrinkled hands to the mature face of his nephew. "Anakin, my boy, how much I hoped to see you once again."
"I don't understand, Master. How long have I been gone?" Anakin raised a hand to touch Luke's much more aged face. "You've grown so old."
"Ben?" Luke asked, just as Anakin said, "Bentill?"
Downcast, Ben came closer to his father and cousin. "I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to explain it," he answered both of their accusations.
"How long?" Anakin asked, his voice hard and cold.
"Fifteen years," Ben answered quietly.
Anakin's eyes threatened to enlarge to the size of Mon Calamarian's. "Fifteen years! Ben? Then that means....."
Luke put a comforting hand around Anakin and Ben. "Anakin Solo meet Ben Skywalker, your cousin."
Backing slowly away, Anakin suddenly turned and ran in the direction that Ben could feel that rest of his family waiting. A concerned look crossed between father and son and soon Luke and Ben were chasing after Anakin.
"Wait, Anakin," Ben called. But they were too late and the three of them nearly bowled over Aunt Leia.
Uncle Han, ever the fastest draw, grabbed Anakin and held his blaster to the head of his son. "Hold it there, junior."
Tears, that Anakin was struggling to hold at bay, streamed down the stubble roughened cheeks. "Dad?"
Ben wanted to die when he saw that Jacen's pregnant wife, Tahiri, stood next to him. If this situation couldn't get any worse. Rashly, Ben waved a hand in the area of his uncle and Han's blaster went flying from his hand. Luke shot his son a disapproving thought but did not reprimand him verbally as he usually did.
"Let him go, Han," Luke said softly, but with just as much command to his voice that it might as well have been an order.
Leia hadn't taken her gaze from Anakin sense he had bumped into her. She knows, Ben thought, the first thing to feel grateful about in this meeting.
Guardedly, Han removed his vice-like hold from his youngest son and Anakin bolted like a skittish Taun-taun.
"Father?" Ben asked, his eyes and mind tracing Anakin's path.
"Go, Ben. I'll explain everything," Luke assured him.
That was all the motivation that Ben needed to tear off after his cousin. Anakin was much taller then him and physically more dominating, but he was also warn and tired and didn't know his way around the Temple as Ben did. Once Anakin stopped it was easy for Ben to find him.
He found his cousin at the highest point of the Jedi Temple, sitting cross- legged gazing at the mixture of Vong biotechnology and intragalactic flora that had been combined on Coruscant.
Ben stopped from his running when he caught sight of Anakin's frame against the sun. Slowly, he came to sit next to his cousin and dangled his feet over the edge of the Temple.
"I don't recognize any of this. I nearly didn't recognize my family. And Tahiri pregnant? That was Tahiri wasn't it?" Anakin said, this time emotionlessly.
"It was," Ben answered.
"Who?"
"Jacen... If it's any consolation, it was a little over a year ago. They felt like it was a betrayal to you when they fell in love, but....," what could he possibly say that would make Anakin feel better? For the rest of the galaxy fifteen years had past but for Anakin it seemed only a few days.
Anakin closed his eyes and drew in deep, shuttering breaths. "Are they happy?"
"Very much," Ben answered.
"What about Jaina? Did she ever...find somebody? Is she happy?" Ben could tell that Anakin was burying his pain. As young as he was, Ben had always been very observant and understanding of those around him.
"Jaina and Jagged Fel were married shortly after the war. They are happy, but it did take the family awhile to get used to your death."
"When I first saw you, you were a squished nose, ruddy faced, slippery little thing that I couldn't believe was really a baby. I called you ugly or something like that and Aunt Mara made some sort of threatening comment." A smile touched the corners of Anakin's full lips at the mention of Mara Jade, but never reached his eyes. "But when I reached out to you with the Force, I could see how beautiful you were." Another shock shook Anakin's features. "Aunt Mara?"
Ben rested a consoling hand on Anakin's shoulder and thought it odd that he would have to comfort someone else in his mother's death. "She died a little while ago, Anakin. She told me so many stories about you though. She was truly proud of you."
"I'm sorry, Ben," Anakin said sincerely.
"Time passes, wounds heal," Ben said sagely.
Anakin tensed. "For some of us anyway."
Ben squeezed Anakin's shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wish there was someway to fix all of this."
Anakin's gaze returned to the forest. "There are things no one can fix."
The first thing that disturbed Anakin's blissful unconscious was the constant humming of a hyperdrive engine. This was only identified by the subconscious part of Anakin's brain that always noticed such things.
In the next moment, Anakin's sluggish mind distinguished the sounds of another person, or perhaps people moving in his vicinity. He nearly fell back in sweet oblivion when another part of his mind, the part that he had trained to alarm him of possible danger, flared to life. In a sort of a panic his eyes shot open only to find that there wasn't much of a change.
Lifting up a hand he rubbed at his eyelids then opened them slowly against his fingertips to make sure that his body was responding in a better way then his mind. He felt the flutter of his lashes against the tips of his fingers.
Horror struck him. Had he gone blind?
But just as fast as the horror hit him it dissipated at the memory of that young man who had taken him out of that...whatever that horrible sludge he had been covered in had been. He had seen fine then. Had been able to see the two meter tall box that he had been secured in... for how long, he didn't know.
Suddenly, memory caught up with Anakin Solo and he let out a frightful gasp.
He was surrounded; the fatal wound that he had been holding back with the Force throbbed in time with his blood, in time with the Force itself. Simultaneously, he was caught up in his pain but oblivious to it.
The lightsaber in his hand danced as if it were as living as the amphistaffs that it met to throw off in a parry, purple blade reflecting like a halo over his head. Fire and ice blended in him, reflecting the way he felt inside his body secure yet foreign.
Up ahead he saw his brother and sister watching helplessly as he continued his impossible assault of the Yuuzhan Vong whose number far outweighed his capabilities. Intrenched in the Force, his body barely reacted when amphistaffs, that evaded his incredible defenses, struck at him with their venomous tongues.
He gave himself totally to the Force and even as the energy field consumed him it healed him. It drew Anakin to it in a way that the young Jedi had never sensed before.
Consuming was the wrong word for it, this was more like an embrace.
He saw that Jaina was not going to leave, the fire in her eyes that reflected his own right before he had left Chewie behind on Sernpidal. He understood that pain and was sorry that Jaina had to deal with it.
"Take her, Jacen. Give Tahiri a kiss for me," Anakin called, his lightsaber like fire in his hand.
Then he felt consciousness dimming. He was losing his hold on life. And within moments his body became very much like the flame that he had compared his lightsaber to.
"I died," Anakin whispered into the darkened room. However, it did not remain darkened. There was a clicking sound that produced what felt like the light of twin suns to Anakin's poor eyes, but was in all actuality nothing more then a bank of illumination panels inside a ship.
Overhead, slightly blury, as Anakin's eyes worked to adjust to the light, stood the young man that had helped him. Anakin gauged the boy to be just a little younger then himself, but Anakin often felt older then his age.
"Are you well, Jedi Solo? I've made some broth, would you like some?" the boy asked. It struck Anakin that he hadn't asked his rescuer's name.
He nodded that he was fine and noted that he was indeed quite hungry. "I think I could eat a whole bantha," he joked softly, as he struggled to sit up in the ship's bunk. The last thing he remembered was that he had been on Tatooine. How did he get from Myrkr to Tatooine? "Where are we?"
"We're heading to Jedi headquarters, we should be there in just over an hour," his fellow young Jedi answered. He wasn't a tall or a necessarily big human, but Anakin could tell that he was Jedi by the way he carried himself. And despite the fact that Anakin was pretty sure he had never met him before, his rescuer was familiar.
Anakin leaned leisurely against the bulkhead that encased his bunk, feigning relaxation for the total exhaustion he still felt. What do you expect from coming back from the dead? he asked himself facetiously.
His rescuer walked over to a hover tray that he had left in the opening of the entryway and picked up a bowl of steaming broth and gently pressed it into Anakin's hands.
"Thank you." The warm bowl felt good in his cold hands. His rescuer sat in a chair that was nestled against his bunk and was watching him in eager anticipation. "Have we met before?" Anakin asked, not able to shake the familiarity that pricked at him.
"We have, shortly," the other Jedi answered tersely.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember your name," Anakin said, guiltily. The sense he got from the other Jedi was quite different from what he expected. People usually didn't panic when you asked their name. But he only caught but a whiff of the other Jedi before the boy's mind was encased in shields so tight that Anakin hadn't thought capable of a young Jedi student.
"My name is B....Bentill S....Suryan," his rescuer supplied in a sort of stutter.
Try as he might, Anakin couldn't remember ever meeting a Bentill Suryan but he had met many people in his short seventeen years and Bentill did look familiar. "It's nice to see you again, Bentill." Another picture flashed in his mind and he asked, "Where is the Vong warrior that was with you?" he asked.
Bentill shrugged. "Vansar said that he wished to die in the honor of battle," a smirk crossed Bentill's boyish features, "I managed to convince him that battling Tatooine's climate was honorable enough."
It seemed to Anakin that Bentill was content to just sit and watch him eat. Anakin was already on edge, something just didn't feel right yet he couldn't put his finger on it, and Bentill's avid study of him was only fueling the fire. He tried to concentrate on something else: Bentill had rescued him from the Yuuzhan Vong contraption. But with thought of the Vong the memory of what he had thought of as his death came unbidden to his mind.
"I died," he repeated without thinking.
Noticing his lapse, Anakin glanced up at Bentill to gauge the other's response. Bentill's face, however, only showed sympathy and understanding. "I know, we all thought you were dead. I asked Vansar about what had happened. Some of it I understand," the boy shrugged, "some of it, I don't."
"Explain the parts you do understand," Anakin said in a more then commanding tone then he had any right to. Bentill was nearly his age, and here he was snapping at the boy as if he were almost twice that. Bentill only nodded in obedience. "Well, after your physical death, the Vong took your body and, using an ooglith masquer, modeled another body close to your height and build to match yours. From what I know of the ordeal, during your fight, you were healed of wounds they put in you just as soon as they appeared?" Bentill paused in his narrative long enough for Anakin to confirm that part of the story. "That made it all the more easy for them to ''duplicate'' you. The Priestess Laran put you in the oombassl, which kept your body alive and active, like being encased in living carbonite, and ordered Vansar to take you off planet. Apparently, you were supposed to be some sort of lure to bring the rest of the Jedi to them. Bait for a trap. But suddenly the plans changed. A messenger intercepted Vansar and gave him new coordinates to Tatooine, right to Master Kenobi's hut, and told him to wait until someone came for the Jedi's gift."
"Who was the messenger?" Anakin asked.
"Vergere," Bentill answered, once again flashing the sense that he was nervous. But about what?
Anakin's confusion was beginning to rise in degrees. Why would an Yuuzhan Vong operative save him when she had almost made it impossible for them to destroy the Voxyn? And why had she made it impossible for them to destroy the Voxyn when she had saved his Aunt Mara? Then he realized that at the moment of his death he could feel the Yuuzhan Vong in the Force and not just through the lambent crystal that he had used to construct his lightsaber.
"I felt them in the Force."
"Excuse me?" Bentill asked.
"The Vong, I could feel them in the Force just before I died. It's like speaking a different language, until you know what the language is you can't communicate with it," Anakin said
Bentill shivered with excitement. "Can you do it again? Can you teach me?"
"I don't know," Anakin said, wishing that Vansar were here now so that he could test it. "If I can I'd be happy to teach you."
Smiling shyly, Bentill took to studying him again. After a moment he continued, "This is all from my point of view, but I think I know what has happened. When the Force filled you in such a way it was as if you melded with it, but when the Vong restored your body by putting you in the oombassl, the Force had to let you go. By then you were in Vong biotechnology, which in the case of the rest of the Jedi, is still a block in our Force abilities." At that moment an indicator light began to flash and an alarm rang. "Looks like we're coming up on Coruscant," Bentill said, pushing off on his knees and rising from the chair.
"Would you like to join me?" He asked gesturing towards the pilothouse.
Exhausted as he was, Anakin did not want to sleep anymore. Carefully, he rose to his feet and was immensely pleased when the surrounding area didn't start spinning like an amusement ride. "This is some ship," he remarked, as he followed Bentill to the pilothouse.
Bentill shrugged. "It was the best I could do with just a X-Wing to trade, but hey, it runs." Anakin thought this a strange answer, especially since the ship seemed as sleek as any Naboo cruiser. Bentill gestured to the co- pilots seat and Anakin took it with a wistful sigh. It was getting less taxing to move around under his own power.
The hypnotic beauty of hyperspace stretched out before them and Anakin was strangely reassured by the timelessness of lightspeed.
The hyperclock ticked down and Bentill kicked in the sublight engines. Starlines slinked to star pinpricks and stood sparkling before the velvet backdrop of space. Another timeless existence. Yet time did turn and change did commence.
Anakin caught the sight of Coruscant and his unease expanded to full blown fear and suspicion. Reaching out to the Force, Anakin sent out a burst of energy to pin Bentill to his seat, or that was what was supposed to happen and would have if Bentill's own strength in the Force hadn't emerged to block Anakin's attack.
Not even Jacen had been able to block such an attack. Ice blue eyes meet oceanic ones in a contest of wills that neither were likely to give up.
"This is not Coruscant. You lied to me," Anakin accused in a tone that matched his eye color.
"It's difficult to explain, but I assure you I have not lied about this. Stretch out, you'll feel Master Skywalker on the planet's surface," Bentill said evenly, not even perturbed by Anakin's assault.
Anakin broke off his attack and redirected his attention to Coruscant in a searching tendril for his uncle Luke. As Bentill had professed, Uncle Luke was there, along with his brother and sister, and his parents. A surge of relief flooded over Anakin and he broke off contact before he disturbed his family. He briefly wondered why Aunt Mara and Ben was not among them but figured that they were away from Coruscant hiding safely in the Maw.
"It's complicated, Jedi Solo but I promise once we land all your questions will be answered," Bentill said in a calm tone that contradicted the frantic one that Anakin felt.
Nodding, Anakin settled into the co-pilot's seat and tried to reconcile the planet in front of him as one of the places he had once called home.
................
As Ben guided the small comfort cruiser towards the new Jedi Temple, he reached out to his father's mind and sent a message to meet him in the Temple's hanger bay. Luke's mind sent a consenting reply.
He had been stupid and foolish to mention Coruscant and not expect Anakin to react. He'd just given Anakin a reason to doubt him and a clue to the fifteen years that were missing from his life. So far hiding his true identity had been a challenge at most, but he couldn't figure a way to tell his cousin the truth. He hoped that his father would be able to do a better job.
Deftly, Ben set the cruiser gently down on the new stone of the Jedi Temple. Of course he had been here before, while the rest of the Temple was being constructed, but this time Ben felt a tingle course up his spin. Just outside the hanger bay Ben could feel his father' s presence...along with the rest of his family members.
Oh no.
Frantic, Ben connected with his father again and projected the urgency to keep the rest of the family outside. Luke demonstrated confusion but nonetheless signaled that he would do as Ben had requested.
"Power down the ship," Ben ordered Anakin. "I'll be back to get you in just a moment. I have to talk to someone first."
"Bentill..." Anakin started
"Trust me Jedi Solo. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you," he said. He didn't wait for an answer but hurried out of the cruiser before he had to explain anything else to Anakin.
Quickly, Ben followed his father's signature in the Force. His father was waiting just where Ben had originally felt him, outside the main hanger bay.
"Ben?" Luke said, clearly he had been worried. "What is it? What's going on?"
Now that he was facing Luke, Ben wasn't really sure on how to broach the subject of Anakin. He knew that his father had always felt responsible for Anakin's death and had carried the burden every day for those fifteen years. "Father, I've found someone."
"Ben you're not going to tell me you fell in love on Tatooine and eloped?" Luke asked in the slightly exasperated tone that parents patented.
Under any other circumstance, Ben would have considered joking with his father but Anakin was not likely to wait much longer. "No, Father that's not it."
Catching his son's subdued and serious tone, Luke once again switched to concern. "It's alright, Ben. Relax, settle your mind. Think."
Heeding his father's advice Ben calmed his thoughts and organized them into a timeline. Always start from the beginning. "I went to Master Kenobi's hut just as you instructed, but there was an Yuuzhan Vong waiting there for me. Don't worry though, he was a friend or as close to friendly a wartime Vong warrior gets."
"Wartime?" Luke queried.
"Yes. I can't go into too great of detail, but the Vong was watching over something. Someone...It was Anakin, Father," Ben finally spurted out.
A mixture of pain and sadness fell over Luke's aging features. "Ben you know that your cousin was killed. We all felt his death."
"I know, but everyone felt Jacen's death except for Aunt Leia. Perhaps there was one person who didn't or couldn't," Ben argued.
"Couldn't what?" Anakin's voice came from behind him and Luke nearly stumbled in his surprise. Fifteen years had matured Anakin's features greatly, but Ben had no doubt that his father recognized his nephew.
Nevertheless, Luke looked at Ben for confirmation and the young Jedi nodded at his father. "It's him."
Luke scrutinized his nephew and Anakin returned the studious gaze, recognition dawned at the same time and Luke took a step to envelope his nephew, while Anakin just stood in stunned amazement. Ben could only guess at what was going through his cousin's mind.
"Uncle Luke?" Anakin asked, his words hitching emotionally in his throat.
Releasing his hold on Anakin, Luke raised his wrinkled hands to the mature face of his nephew. "Anakin, my boy, how much I hoped to see you once again."
"I don't understand, Master. How long have I been gone?" Anakin raised a hand to touch Luke's much more aged face. "You've grown so old."
"Ben?" Luke asked, just as Anakin said, "Bentill?"
Downcast, Ben came closer to his father and cousin. "I'm sorry, I just didn't know how to explain it," he answered both of their accusations.
"How long?" Anakin asked, his voice hard and cold.
"Fifteen years," Ben answered quietly.
Anakin's eyes threatened to enlarge to the size of Mon Calamarian's. "Fifteen years! Ben? Then that means....."
Luke put a comforting hand around Anakin and Ben. "Anakin Solo meet Ben Skywalker, your cousin."
Backing slowly away, Anakin suddenly turned and ran in the direction that Ben could feel that rest of his family waiting. A concerned look crossed between father and son and soon Luke and Ben were chasing after Anakin.
"Wait, Anakin," Ben called. But they were too late and the three of them nearly bowled over Aunt Leia.
Uncle Han, ever the fastest draw, grabbed Anakin and held his blaster to the head of his son. "Hold it there, junior."
Tears, that Anakin was struggling to hold at bay, streamed down the stubble roughened cheeks. "Dad?"
Ben wanted to die when he saw that Jacen's pregnant wife, Tahiri, stood next to him. If this situation couldn't get any worse. Rashly, Ben waved a hand in the area of his uncle and Han's blaster went flying from his hand. Luke shot his son a disapproving thought but did not reprimand him verbally as he usually did.
"Let him go, Han," Luke said softly, but with just as much command to his voice that it might as well have been an order.
Leia hadn't taken her gaze from Anakin sense he had bumped into her. She knows, Ben thought, the first thing to feel grateful about in this meeting.
Guardedly, Han removed his vice-like hold from his youngest son and Anakin bolted like a skittish Taun-taun.
"Father?" Ben asked, his eyes and mind tracing Anakin's path.
"Go, Ben. I'll explain everything," Luke assured him.
That was all the motivation that Ben needed to tear off after his cousin. Anakin was much taller then him and physically more dominating, but he was also warn and tired and didn't know his way around the Temple as Ben did. Once Anakin stopped it was easy for Ben to find him.
He found his cousin at the highest point of the Jedi Temple, sitting cross- legged gazing at the mixture of Vong biotechnology and intragalactic flora that had been combined on Coruscant.
Ben stopped from his running when he caught sight of Anakin's frame against the sun. Slowly, he came to sit next to his cousin and dangled his feet over the edge of the Temple.
"I don't recognize any of this. I nearly didn't recognize my family. And Tahiri pregnant? That was Tahiri wasn't it?" Anakin said, this time emotionlessly.
"It was," Ben answered.
"Who?"
"Jacen... If it's any consolation, it was a little over a year ago. They felt like it was a betrayal to you when they fell in love, but....," what could he possibly say that would make Anakin feel better? For the rest of the galaxy fifteen years had past but for Anakin it seemed only a few days.
Anakin closed his eyes and drew in deep, shuttering breaths. "Are they happy?"
"Very much," Ben answered.
"What about Jaina? Did she ever...find somebody? Is she happy?" Ben could tell that Anakin was burying his pain. As young as he was, Ben had always been very observant and understanding of those around him.
"Jaina and Jagged Fel were married shortly after the war. They are happy, but it did take the family awhile to get used to your death."
"When I first saw you, you were a squished nose, ruddy faced, slippery little thing that I couldn't believe was really a baby. I called you ugly or something like that and Aunt Mara made some sort of threatening comment." A smile touched the corners of Anakin's full lips at the mention of Mara Jade, but never reached his eyes. "But when I reached out to you with the Force, I could see how beautiful you were." Another shock shook Anakin's features. "Aunt Mara?"
Ben rested a consoling hand on Anakin's shoulder and thought it odd that he would have to comfort someone else in his mother's death. "She died a little while ago, Anakin. She told me so many stories about you though. She was truly proud of you."
"I'm sorry, Ben," Anakin said sincerely.
"Time passes, wounds heal," Ben said sagely.
Anakin tensed. "For some of us anyway."
Ben squeezed Anakin's shoulder. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wish there was someway to fix all of this."
Anakin's gaze returned to the forest. "There are things no one can fix."