Chapter 3

Old Scars

A/N- Er…. What to say? I guess I should begin by apologizing for taking forever to update this story. It was mostly due to writer's block (I kind of started this story without knowing what the conflict was really, so that was a major problem). The other issue was that I had several other stories running at the exact same time as this one. I'm working to try to keep up with all of them, but my brain doesn't always give me ideas evenly, so sometimes it ends up that one story finishes before another because I have more ideas for that.

As some of you may already know, I recently finished my Namesake trilogy (of which I am very proud and I hope you all will check it out at some point). That series on its own has taken much of my time and energy (and admittedly I skipped out on homework most of my first year of college to write most of it). So… yeah, I'm not planning (or able for that matter) to pull off that stunt again.

My reason for mentioning this of course is that I will most likely only be updating my stories on weekends (unless I get some free time away from work during the week, which will only happen once my other work is done). I want to let all of you know now that I haven't forgotten this story and that I do plan to finish this story at some point. The timing rests solely on when I get homework and when finish it.

I appreciate your patience as I know there are authors out there who start awesome stories and then never get around to finishing them (which is sad because there are many out there that I'd like to see the end of myself). Basically I understand the feeling of anxiety when there's a story you want to see finished but you can't for whatever reason. My promise is that this story WILL be finished. The only question is when.

I also promise that it won't be too long since I will take the time to update it whenever possible.

That said, I apologize to any of you who suffered from a fan fiction condition known as "Suspense Anxiety Disorder" (where you suffer from constantly needing stories to be updated for whatever reason), I have that with a few stories I'm reading, so I understand completely.

Anyways, I hope all of you enjoy this update and I'm pleased to say I finally figured out the conflict (after much internal debate and eventually deciding to combine another one of my story idea's conflicts with this one).

As always, a pleasure writing for you all,

-Don ^_^


Figuring out a plan that had been laid out over three decades ago was probably one of the more aggravating tasks for the man seated at the table with hundreds of documents and maps splayed out in front of him. He hadn't really thought that it would be hard. After all, the original maps and orders were fabricated by his grand uncle, how hard could it be?

The truth turned out that the task was not only difficult, but incredibly intricate. It would involve being able to foresee all the problems and flaws that his grand uncle overlooked. It would involve tricking some of the sharpest people in the galaxy into thinking they were safe. He cupped his chin, his eyes glowing with a new light. He had to predict what his intended targets would do before they did it. He would have to anticipate the improbable and he would have to outwit himself in order to know where his own loopholes were.

He would finish what his grand uncle began and this time, he grinned as the shadows of the room masked his eyes in darkness. This time, he would succeed where his uncle failed.

This time there was no room for failures.

"Okay, try running it again."

Tahiri reached over and pulled the lever to the machine and immediately the gears on the open panel began to turn and the machine gave a growl and lurched to a stop. She winced as she heard the curses coming from underneath the machine's belly.

"Hand me the toolkit," Anakin poked his head out and she handed him the small red box where Anakin kept all his tinkering tools. The reason why he'd decided to spend the afternoon working on this machine, that she wasn't even sure had a purpose, instead of attending one of the classes Tahiri could only guess. But after knowing Anakin for two years now she had gotten used to his mood swings or his need to be alone. The only difference was that he now wasn't completely alone when he decided to shut the rest of the galaxy out. Tahiri was rarely away from her friend and as far as either of them could tell, he didn't mind one bit.

She held on to the handle of the toolkit until Anakin had a firm grip on it. He then pulled it under the machine and after a few chinks and clanking noise he pulled out again and gave Tahiri the signal, his pointer finger angled upwards. She pulled the lever again and this time the machine roared to life. Anakin gave a satisfied smile as he stood up and wiped his grime covered face with a rag.

"Are you sure you don't want to go with me to the training session?" Tahiri asked, causing him to start and then turn his blue eyes onto her. He didn't say anything for a few minutes and then he nodded, turning his head and body away.

"I'm sure," The response was far too quiet to be truthful, but she wasn't about to argue when him when she could sense he wasn't ready to have this conversation. If anything, she'd begun to notice, as her force strength increased, just how little personal space there was to be had between Jedi, especially around Anakin. It was rare that she didn't sense his thoughts before he spoke them or if he was upset, angry, happy or just contemplative before he himself realized these feelings. The frightening part of it all was that he himself wasn't always aware of how many emotions had roiling around inside of him. She wasn't sure how much she should be concerned about and how much she should write off as "normal," Though time had taught her that Anakin Solo was anything but.

He powered down the machine and shifted the lever back to its original position before picking up the toolkit and walking down the clean floor of the docking bay. It was hard to believe that two years had already gone by since they arrived at the Academy and that all of them had grown more or less accustomed to it.

"What do you think Master Skywalker is going to teach us today?" She ventured when she got the distinct feeling that he wasn't going to broach any topics. He never did as far as she could tell.

"Probably the same thing as always," Anakin said, his expression remained stoic for a moment, the creases on his forehead showed he was troubled by something. Had she said something wrong?

"Same thing?" Tahiri questioned, frowning a little herself now.

"He always tells us to mind our anger and to watch what we use the force for, but how are we supposed to know what's right and wrong if we're not out there in the galaxy using it right now?"

Another trouble with Anakin Solo is that he always liked to ask the big questions, the ones that adults and senior Jedi tackled. Tahiri, of course, as a young trainee, had no idea how to answer these and she doubted Anakin did either which was why he was saying it out loud.

"Well, he's right, you know," She said calmly, "If he didn't say that or if he did and nobody was listening, well, that'd just miss the point, right? Or if he didn't say it clearly enough we'd all push it aside or something. What makes you think he's going to let us go out there right now, we're hardly ready for it and…"

Anakin let out a long sigh, "I know I'm not, okay?" The hostility and anger in his tone cut her off more than the words themselves. She blinked at him as he averted his gaze, his hands were shaking slightly and she couldn't figure out for the life of her why he was getting so upset. What had she missed or said to him? Silence fell between them and Tahiri couldn't find any words of consolation or argument because she had no idea what he was thinking for once. "I'm going back to my room." He stated and without waiting for a response he strode off back to the main building. Tahiri stood rooted on the spot, not sure what to do or say now that he'd just up and walked away.

He seemed to have a lot on his mind these days, even for him. It was a difficulty of being friends with such an introverted person to deal with his constant internal battles. She suspected that a lot of his mood changes had something to do with his heritage. Honestly she couldn't understand why he was so concerned with being related to Darth Vader, whoever he was. No matter how many times she asked Anakin to explain what it was that scared him, he always changed the subject or told her, "Later." It had gotten to the point where she decided to ask Anakin's siblings about it, but neither of them seemed to want to discuss it either.

Jaina at least gave a more thorough explanation than the rest, "Anakin should be the one to tell you when he's ready. But just so you know, Darth Vader was one of the most feared leaders of the Empire and he was the closest person to the Emperor himself." Jacen had simply laughed and told Tahiri not to worry about it too much. The male twin was hardly ever serious so Tahiri wasn't all that surprised. There were few things he ever didn't smile about or laugh about and when he did it was probably not a good sign. Tahiri had noticed when she mentioned Anakin's dark moods to his older brother that he seemed to have a pained smile on his face and the way his eyes looked off to the side when she asked about Darth Vader indicated there were more layers to this than anyone was willing to let on.

The mystery of it rested with Anakin and she about as much of a chance of breaking the code as she had with winning in a wrestling match against a bantha. She sighed and relented in her brain wracking. It wasn't very becoming of her to think about things as much as Anakin did. After all, one of them had to be the one to let go of life and let loose every now and again.

She looked up see the dark haired form of Zekk walking down the hallway. His eyes lifted slightly to look at her and for a second he seemed like he was going to walk right by her, but then he stopped, causing her to stop as he was blocking her path to her room.

"Anakin came by here a little while ago, is everything okay?" The older boy often came across as aggressive and unapproachable, but Tahiri had quickly noticed that this was mostly a front he put up.

"Well, I don't know, he was fine this morning, but then he started saying something about Master Skywalker repeating himself too much and I think he might be upset, but I don't know if he's doing okay, I haven't talked to him too much about it…" Zekk nodded, indicating that she didn't need to explain anymore.

"I'll see if I can't talk to him," Zekk said and clapped a hand on Tahiri's shoulder before heading away, most likely in the direction of Jaina's room. She continued walking, forcing her legs to move as they were still stiff from standing and holding the tools for Anakin while he worked on his latest project. Maybe Master Skywalker knew something. It was strange that she had never thought to ask him about it since Anakin was Luke's nephew and that Luke Skywalker had been, from what Tahiri had heard, the last person to see Darth Vader before his death. She had done some research and asked Tionne, the Jedi historian at the Academy, many questions on the subject. The answers were thorough enough but they still didn't explain why Anakin was so wrapped up in the idea of going to the dark side when it was plain as day, to her at least, that he wasn't anywhere near reaching that possibility.

If only he could see what she saw.


"Are you sure this is the right way?" Jacen asked and glanced warily around him. They were walking through the deep undergrowths of the jungle of Yavin 4 and so far he wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for or what they had gone into the jungle for in the first place. She had simply asked him to come with her that morning after class and Jacen, being the trustful and obliviously upbeat guy he was most of the time, readily agreed.

"I am sure, Friend Jacen," Tenel Ka replied in her usual calm and seemingly nonchalant demeanor. Jacen knew better than to think of her as indifferent and cold, but it was so hard to tell what she was thinking sometimes. They reached a clearly and Tenel Ka set down her bag and closed her eyes. For a second Jacen wondered if she had lost her mind, as unlikely as that seemed it happened to everyone at some point. Jaina was convinced, as she often informed Jacen, that he never had a mind to begin with. In those moments he couldn't be sure what had made her so abnormally punchy.

"Tenel Ka?" He said. She opened her eyes and then nodded. Maybe now he'd get an explanation.

"Something is coming," She stated. He blinked and then stared at her.

"What?"

"I thought I felt something this morning and I wanted to confirm it before I said anything to Master Skywalker," Tenel Ka and Jacen were silent for a moment before he spoke.

"What should we tell him?" Jacen asked. He wasn't sure what to say to his uncle about one of them sensing something. Tenel Ka was clearly very in touch with her force senses and it often seemed like he missed out on most of the things she felt. He reached out and something seemed to knock up against that little "stub" in his mind that triggered his force senses and responses. It was a faint rap but still very much there. "I feel it too."

"The truth," Tenel Ka said plainly, "If it is serious then we are responsible for informing the elders here." She often resorted to the strangest jargon when referring to the other Jedi, but Jacen knew better than to question why that was. He knew as little as anyone about who Tenel Ka was. He honestly couldn't tell if she was as modestly humble as she let on. But that question would have to wait. "Let us go." She stated and the two made their way back to the Academy as a large silhouette briefly hovered just in front of the sunlight and cast the entire jungle in darkness.

A/N- More to come. I go on Winter Break next week, so I'll be updating more often then. =) Thanks for reading and for your patience! Please, please, please read the author's notes when I write them. I know they're long sometimes, but I write them for a reason and any information about the story that is crucial is included in them. This is ironic to put in an author's note, but I don't know what else to do. Thanks!