Author's Note: It is highly, highly recommended that you do not scroll down to the bottom of this page before you finish the story, lest it be spoiled.

As far as a disclaimer, you know the drill.

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Obi-Wan looked around dubiously at the swamp, pausing for a second. "This is one of the worst planets I have ever seen, Master."

"Don't say that, Padawan. You know as well as I, nothing will compare to Byzantine." Qui-Gon grimaced in remembrance of that awful trip.

"Unless we both manage to get drugged, married and dropped off into the jungle, no." Obi-Wan let himself have a grin at the expression on Leia's face. It really was a funny story looking back. Not something he would wish on anyone, excepting the Emperor but it was amusing all the same.

"It's just like I remembered." Luke was reminiscing, off in his own little world. There was no sign of him paying any attention until he suddenly sprinted off into the distance to a small hut.

Obi-Wan and the others followed him at a more leisurely pace. As he understood it, Yoda was Luke's Master, they might like a little time to catch up.

Besides, Yoda enjoyed hitting Padawans with that stick with a passion. Afte twenty years without any Padawans to hit, he did not want to be the first one Yoda saw.

"Qui-Gon? I think you're too tall to enter." Leia paused, as some emotion crossed over her face. "You might be able to, Obi-Wan, but ... I'd like to speak to him alone about a few things."

"Like what?" Qui-Gon furrowed his brow, questioning her motives but Leia had already entered the little hut. He couldn't Force-check her either, Leia was -- well, he wasn't quite sure. Her feelings and thoughts were closed to him and his Master had said the same thing.

A thought drifted through his head before he could clamp down on it.
I wouldn't want to be Yoda right about now...

------------------

Sanctuary.

So she fits right there, with her head on my shoulder, and my hands fit on her hair, just so.


Anakin blinked. It was weird. Leia had been gone for over two hours now, and he could still feel her, just exactly as if he was still hugging her there on Solo's ship. She had her own spot, and she knew where it would be. Anakin had never thought of particular people fitting particular ways, but he guessed that Mom had a spot too -- bigger than he was, her chin touching his head -- and Padmé was sort of starting to get one. Padmé's was right beside him, face to face. Which he guessed was okay, considering.

He wondered where Luke would fit. He'd sometimes seen fathers and sons in Mos Espa (not often; it wasn't a place for family holidays), and sometimes the father would hook his arm around the son's neck from the side and mess up his hair, and they'd both smile and laugh. Maybe that's how Luke would fit. Anakin wanted to know.

But the business with Leia... that had been so strong it was almost scary. And when she'd stood up, he felt like something was taken away from him, and he kept catching himself looking around for her. It was confusing, and his head felt like he'd been standing beside a Hutt's water pipe and breathing the smoke for an hour or so.

Kitster had a pretty neat place here. Hutts built it, but he'd cleaned it up pretty good, and there were lots of kids around, some of them Anakin's own age. A few were closer to Padmé's. Many were younger than both of them, and it was to a group of these that Anakin had gravitated as soon as he'd come in. Little kids never wanted much, just to be played with and stuff, and he felt like he could handle that. And he liked the way they looked up at him.

"Fix-fix," a little girl said, holding up a toy sandcrawler whose cargo hold had broken open, showing its mechanical guts instead of the broken droids she'd been pretending. Anakin took it, and tried to find where the panel fit in. No place was obvious. He thought he'd need to make a wire to connect and he didn't want to ask Kitster for...

"Here."

There was a thump beside him, and Kitster was hunkering down to watch. He'd put down a beaten up old tool box.

My toolbox. He's got my toolbox. And I guess it doesn't even look that much worse than it did yesterday.

"Thanks, Kitster."

"No problem. I should have sent this to Luke, but I'd lost track of him by the time I found it."

Anakin didn't answer, because he was going to keep his promise about not letting anyone know that he was *lots* older than they were. He found a pair of micro-pincers, and started threading wires back and forth between the panel and the main part of the toy. Kitster held it steady.

"So, this is a good place."

Kitster nodded. "It is. I think you should just rest here for awhile."

"No, I need to go help with Padmé's ship soon."

"I think you should both rest here for awhile."

Anakin looked up at Kitster. Kitster looked like he was thinking of lots of things.

"Done?" the little girl asked.

Anakin glanced at the toy, and was surprised to see that it really was finished. He gave it to her, and she kissed his cheek, which made him feel about ten feet tall.

"Wish I could, Kitster," he said. "But I -- "

"You have to run off somewhere. Save the galaxy. I know." He stood. "You should stay," he said again, then left.

A moment later, a boy Anakin's age came over, introduced himself as Vertash, and then proceeded to introduce all the little kids. Anakin occupied himself with learning their names. He saw two girls his own age hovering nearby, one blonde and elf-y, the other dark. The dark one would have looked something like Padmé (though not as pretty), except for having a scar on her face. He wondered how come they didn't come over.

------------------

Amidala wasn't sure what to do with herself. Ani had gone and found a niche already, and she liked watching him there, but the older children seemed to want her to play cards with them, and were offended when she didn't, so she played a few hands, and won them quickly enough that they stopped thinking she was bragging. Amidala didn't gamble a lot... but she had the galaxy's best poker face.

After awhile, she saw Kit get up and head out the back door. She made her excuses and followed him.

She stopped when she saw what it was he was headed for. Ani's body, clad in its black armor, the suns glinting off his helmet. "You carried him back," she said.

Kit nodded. "I have to clean him up and... I should wait until you leave to have the pyre."

"Yes. I'll help you clean him."

He looked like he might argue, but in the end, he just sighed. Between them, they carried the heavy body into a small shed. She hoped Ani wouldn't take it into his head to follow her.

"I told Vertash to keep him busy," Kit said, not needing her to explain what she was thinking. "I didn't tell him why, but Vertash is good about that. The girls suspect." He started to study the way Ani's helmet was attached to the suit.

Amidala remembered watching the robots take it apart last night, and found the tiny hinges they had used. She pulled the helmet from his head, and started working on the mask.

"Please tell me what happened," she said. "You told me that you'd tell me if I asked."

Kit smiled sadly. "I want to. But when I saw him again... when I talked to him a few minutes ago... The truth is, Amidala, I never understood what happened. Everything followed logically on everything else. Until something snapped. I don't know how else you could handle things."

"Maybe some of the things that were 'following logically'?"

He shook his head. "I could tell you to look out for Shmi, to keep her safe, and maybe to suggest that someone other than Obi-Wan train him... "

Amidala looked up from where she was loosening a bit of the shoulder plate. There was a complex nest of wires and flesh under it. "Obi-Wan?"

"It's not that he's a bad person, or that he and Ani didn't come to love each other a lot -- eventually anyway. But it was a bad match, just by their personalities..."

"No, Kit, that's not what I mean. Why not Qui-Gon? It's Qui-Gon whow wants him."

He touched her hand gently, then occupied himself with some of the workings of Ani's right arm. "Qui-Gon is going to die," he said softly. "I think maybe that was the first part of it. I think maybe Vader was born when Qui-Gon died."

Amidala felt strangely cold and rational. Maybe she had to be, considering what she was doing. Or maybe it was a calculating sense that was starting to put pieces together. "How did Qui-Gon die?"

"The other one, the Sith Lord, with the red and black markings... he killed him during the battle of Naboo."

Amidala stopped working entirely, an energizing, buzzing feeling in her head. "Kit," she said, as calmly as she could, "the Sith apprentice is dead. He's never coming back to Naboo. He can't kill Qui-Gon there."

------------------

The little children had to take a mid-afternoon nap, and Anakin was left to his own devices. Padmé had gone off somewhere, and every time he tried to follow her, he got sidetracked by the two girls his own age -- Kerea and Dritali -- until he figured out that they were supposed to keep him from following. He just shook his head at them.

The boy, Vertash, laughed. "They're not very good at being subtle. Girls."

Anakin returned his smile cautiously. "I always figured girls were better at that stuff."

"You don't know my girls."

Two stuffed beanbags came flying at his head, along with indignant demands for an apology. Anakin wasn't sure which side to be on -- there was a certain boy-loyalty, but he thought the girls were right -- until he realized that Vertash had just been joking and that it was a normal joke with them. He didn't fight very hard, and it wasn't too surprising when he and Vertash fell under a rain of beanbags. Vertash issued a string of apologies so exaggerated that it got the girls laughing, and Anakin almost forgot that he wasn't happy right now.

He played with them for half an hour or so, but when he caught himself starting to recite There's no harm in playing, I'm a kid in his head to alleviate the guilt that was startig to build up, he realized that it wasn't fun anymore. He thanked them for being nice to him (Vertash and Kerea looked confused; Dritali beamed and said he was welcome), and went outside to the ship.

Calrissian was sitting in the shadow of the gangplank, examining a scorch mark on the underside of the hull. "This isn't a lightsaber mark," he said when he saw Anakin.

Anakin shrugged. "I wasn't with them for the firefight. I guess they had some guys shooting at them when they left Naboo. That's how come they lost the parts in the first place."

"Sure, yeah. The Trade Federation blockade. I sort of remember it being in the news."

"Are you the same age as me?"

"Right about now, I'm thirty years older than you, and don't you forget it."

"I won't. I was just wondering."

He shrugged. "I guess I am. Maybe a year or two younger, but not much." He stood up, and Anakin could hear his bones popping. "Come on, kiddo. Padmé tells us you can fix anything."

Anakin blushed furiously -- Padmé was saying nice things about him behind his back? -- but Calrissian didn't notice, because he was already walking up the gangplank into the ship. Anakin could see a few of the others hunkered down around the spare parts.

He took a deep breath, and went back into the Nubian ship.

If Padmé thought he could fix anything, then he supposed he'd best get to fixing it.

------------------

"Maybe I was wrong," Kit said. "Maybe it wasn't Qui-Gon's death, maybe it... "

"You weren't wrong," Amidala muttered. Ideas were forming in her head at a rapid pace, ideas she didn't entirely understand -- but she had not been elected Queen at fourteen by shying away from disquieting ideas. She simply needed to sort these out, make a pattern of them, make sense of what was happening. She steadied herself by cleaning Ani's face with a cool cloth. His skin was so fragile!

"But we're still here. Nothing changed."

"I think... I think we need to go back. And I think the future we make will be different -- but you'll still be here."

"I don't understand."

Amidala tried to explain, but that idea hadn't found words for itself yet. In her mind, she saw a branch of light, suddenly forking and going in two separate and different directions. For awhile, it would seem to be the same branch, but the further the forked twigs grew from one another, the more they seemed like entirely different entities.

NO! her mind cried. I'm not going to fix this and not have it be... be the real
reality!

A strong hand closed around her wrist, pulling her own hand away from Ani's poor face. Kit led her away from the body, to a small bench in the workshop. "Amidala, I know you don't know me, not yet, but I know you. Something's coming together, and you don't like it."

She shook her head. "There's nothing I know how to do to fix it. Not for real. If I succeed, it will just... split." The cold rationality broke away from her in a torrent, and she threw her arms around Kit. "I can't do anything! It's not fair! Even if I make it right, it will never be real, because this will still be here and everything will break on knowing it and..."

Kit shushed her with the gentle touch of long experience. "Of course. You can't make the change without knowing this happened, but if you make the change, this didn't happen, you wouldn't see it here, and you wouldn't know to make any changes."

"So we just go off in totally different directions and..."

"Maybe. Maybe for awhile. Maybe until ... now." Kit shook his head. "I don't know. This is beyond me. I'm an ex-majordomo who works as a housemother these days. I'll leave metaphysics to you and the Jedi. I'd be more comfortable just leaving it to you."

She sniffed. "I don't see how..."

"I don't see how, either. But you've got thirty years or so to work on it."

"But you'll -- "

"Have a war, and have the orphans, and Vader will prowl the starways. I know."

Amidala looked over at the dark form on the table. She couldn't just leave Ani to that fate. Not forever. "I'll speak to the Jedi," she said after awhile.

"I hope you find a way."

She stood and started out of the workshop, then turned. "Kit? What do you suppose Ani meant? At the end... he said I was still here. Do you know? Leia said I killed myself, or that she was told that when she was old enough."

"That was the story I heard."

"Did you believe it?"

"No. The last time I saw you, you were sadder than I ever saw a sentient creature look, but you were still Amidala. Still rock solid."

"When was that?"

"You'd come here looking for something of Ani's. I'd guess it was for Luke, though I didn't know about him at the time. You were very determined about something, but you wouldn't tell me what. Why? What are you thinking?"

"I'm not thinking yet. Just questioning. Seeing what I have to think with." She shook it off, her mood going to a middle ground between high emotion and cold calculation. She wondered if this was the place most people spent their emotional lives. "I need to go back to my ship and contact Qui-Gon," she said. "I'll help you... finish... later."

"I'll look after his present, Amidala. You look after his past and his future."

She hesitated, not wanting to leave the job to Kit, but shamefully grateful that he would do it.

Then again, the living Ani needed her more than the dead Ani did now. She nodded her thanks, and headed back to her ship.

------------------

Vertash balanced himself on one foot slowly, reaching dusty fingers inside the bandage on his ankle and scratching the skin beneath gently. It didn't seem to be doing anything anymore; he'd thought about taking it off, but he didn't want Kit to rewrap it.

It came to him like an obscure fact suddenly remembered. Kit just was too sad to care about the stupid bandage.

That bothered Vertash more than anything. Why should Kit -- who had once, secretly, indulged Kerea's nurturing impulse by allowing her to give shelter to a stray pitten during a sandstorm -- mourn someone who had borne witness to the destruction of Kerea's planet? Of the Death Star? Why should he mourn someone who had contributed to Kit's own hardships and not allowed this fact to affect him?

But Kit always had a fondness for the stubborn ones.

Dritali stood on a built-in bench, to the side, peering out the window at the ship in the garden.

"It's him," she said, happily, to herself.

The itching had persisted.

"Who's who?"

"It's him," she repeated, glancing back at Vertash only to roll her eyes.

"I don't understand what you mean."

She jumped down onto the floor and sat smugly on the bench. "Junior Master Kit, the master of *subtlety*" -- Vertash tilted his head playfully -- "doesn't know how to listen in properly?"

He sighed impatiently. "Get to the point, Dritali."

"Anakin." She looked around, knowing full well they were alone, but unable to say it loudly. It was a grand secret. "And what did Kit call Lord Vader?"

------------------

Kerea felt a strong desire to wash her hands where she'd touched the boy Anakin during the bean bag fight. It had been one thing to help carry his body back -- that was an honorable thing to do, and no one deserved to be eaten by womp rats -- but *playing* with him?

No. Sorry, but no.

"Kree?" Vertash said, shaking her shoulders overenthusiastically. "Come on up for air. Swimming around in the muck in your head's just going to make you dizzy."

It was a Vertash-ism, and she put up with it. She'd drawn a knife on him when she found out his parents had been on the Death Star; he'd just said "Rugged knife," and been done with it. He didn't really *get* the way her temper ate at her sometimes, but he knew how to make it stop, and that was good enough for Kerea. "Vader," she said.

"Dritali," Vertash answered.

Dritali turned primly away and looked out the window again. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you see Lord Vader in the rocks in Beggars Canyon."

"Kit called him Anakin. I heard it."

"And there can only be one Anakin in the galaxy?" Vertash asked.

Kerea pursed her lips. "It doesn't seem likely that... I mean, it's not that common a name, and they *do* both know that girl." But she wanted to be convinced. "But it's more likely than the other, right? I mean, are you really talking about time travel? It's supposed to be impossible. And anyway, he's just like us. You know... just... "

"Lost," Dritali said thoughtfully. "Alone."

Kit looked to the heavens, then rolled his eyes toward the garden, where the girl was coming out of the shed. He put his hands on his heart sarcastically. "May I be as alone as he is! With such a heartless -- and ugly -- friend..."

Kerea shoved him playfully, and he grabbed her into a wrestle hold. She didn't pretend to be physically strong (Dritali sometimes did; she fancied herself a heroine, like in the shows they watched on the holoproj, though she'd never admit it), and she gave in easily. Vertash messed up her hair with his knuckles, then released her. His heart wasn't in it.

"Maybe they all were friends," she said. "And maybe we're being really crazy to talk about time travel and stuff. Maybe he's just someone's son. Maybe he was named after Vader. Maybe Anakin is Vader's first name... I think the 'Darth' part's a title or something."

"It's him," Dritali insisted. "I can feel it."

Vertash rolled his eyes. "Great. Now, she thinks she's a Jedi."

------------------

Obi-Wan drifted away from the hut. Leia was good at blocking but Luke wasn't and he really didn't want to eavesdrop on this particular conversation.

Master apparently had no such qualms. He remained right by the door, arms folded into his sleeves, heavy brow knit. Maybe he wanted to be at hand in case Yoda needed help.

Obi-Wan wandered along the shore the nearby mere, keeping a wary eye peeled. A planet like this would be crawling with voracious and dangerous lifeforms. He wondered by Yoda had chosen to hide here of all places - shrugged a little. Maybe it reminded him of home? Nobody really knew where Yoda'd come from. Maybe this was his home!

"Things have gotten very complicated." The voice, mellow with a smooth Coreworlds accent, spun him around one hand going automatically to his sabre then dropped away as he saw who'd spoken.

Another Jedi, a Master by the balanced feel of him, white haired and bearded and surrounded by a shimmering blue aura.

Obi-Wan stared in awe and disbelief. He'd heard stories of this, whispered by other acolytes and confirmed by hints in the archives. Supposedly there was a way for a Jedi to refuse union with the Force and remain active in the sphere of the Living manifesting as a blue-auraed Force apparition -- like this. He'd never really believed it was possible and even if it were why would anybody do such a thing? condemn himself to a half-life caught between states of being and forever seperate from the Force.

The apparitional Jedi was looking at him, eyebrows slightly lifted, waiting for a response. "Yes," Obi-Wan stammered, "very complicated."

"The future is always in motion," The Master continued, "but now it's in turmoil." A sigh. "What will become of us all?"

"I don't know, Master. We must return to our own time but if we do with what we know now..."


"You may change what happens, change this present." the Master agreed. "For the better I hope."

"From what I've heard it can't get much worse."

A rueful, somehow familiar smile. "No, it can't." The Apparition seated himself on a stump, gave Obi-Wan a stern look. "Confronting Palpatine was foolish, more foolish than I'd have expected even of you. You could have gotten both Luke and yourself killed."

"With both his apprentices dead Palpatine would never have been more vulnerable," Obi-Wan argued defensively.

"You faced him in a spirit of anger and vengeance." the Master retorted. "You should have known better, Obi-Wan!"

"Luke's supposed to be a Jedi Knight," he shot back, stung, "He should have known better."

"Luke has had only a few months training with me and with Yoda. You on the other hand have had twenty years of Temple discipline," the other replied crisply.

"A few months?" Obi-Wan gasped, disbelieving.

"It was all the time we were given," the Apparition sounded suddenly weary. "Luke is the last of the Jedi, our last hope."

Obi-Wan felt sick. "You mean it's just the three of you?"

The Master nodded.

"There were ten thousand of us," Obi-Wan whispered.

"All dead," was the quiet answer. Again that eerily familiar smile. "Including me."

Obi-Wan studied him uncertainly. This strange Master reminded him a little of Qui-Gon. Another maverick! but then he'd have had to be to do what he's done. "Do I know you, Master, in my time I mean?"

The look he got in return was openly amused. "I remember being reckless, and impudent, but not slow on the uptake!"

Obi-Wan stared. Old, so much older but those were his own eyes looking back. He could barely believe it. That he of all people would have the power and the knowledge to avoid union with the Force, much less the will!

He swallowed. "I saw how I died. Leia leaked the image to me. I - you - just gave up, surrendered. Why?"

------------------

"Poodoo!" Anakin Skywalker exclaimed, suddenly standing up beside the hyperdrive. He amplified it to "Bantha poodoo!" then looked guiltily over his shoulder at Sabé, and winced when he saw that the queen was coming up the gangplank behind her.

Lando Calrissian suppressed a grin. He liked this kid. "What's the language about, Skywalker?" he asked. "Looks to me like it's going in fine."

Anakin shook his head. "We almost forgot the biggest thing. We're not just taking off. When we did it last time, there was a lightsaber frying everything. We have to get it back in there, and even if it does work, it'll all be fried again, and we have to buy another hyperdrive."

"Bantha poodoo," Sabé said primly.

Anakin gaped a her, and Lando gave her a smile. He definitely needed to hook up with her later. As soon as this ship was in orbit, he thought he had a call to make.

Amidala just rubbed her temples. She looked so tired that it took most of Lando's playful mood away. "All right," she said. "We can find other things to trade, perhaps. Lando, is there anything left of Jabba's palace to scavenge for trade-goods?"

"I did some trading for Jabba," Lando said. "I have some ointments and silks in a hut not too far from here. I'll get them for you, just in case. But we probably have some time before the others get back. Maybe we can figure out how to do this without wrecking your engines again. What say, Ani? Want to get serious about this hunk of junk?"

The boy bit his lip, but as Lando suspected, he could no more resist the temptation of that kind of invitation than Han Solo could. He nodded, and unscrewed the cover plates on the hyperdrive.

After awhile, Lando Calrissian, who had never thought of himself as a rookie mechanic, just stood back and watched.

------------------

"It was my final lesson. Light is stronger then dark, if only because those of light have more to lose and must fight harder. I begun to drive it through his head with my death, Anakin never could realize light was stronger.

"As you can see, I am very much still here to help my cause win. Darth Vader is very much not," he paused. "Though he sacrificed himself for Amidala at the end and for that I am grateful."

He looked at his younger self with a blank face, wondering what to call him to keep things less confused in his mind. Hmm... He's just Obi-Wan. No doubt about that. Well, I suppose I can be Ben.

"Final lesson? What is that--- We taught Anakin didn't we?" Obi-Wan's voice was panicked and his hands were running through his hair nervously. "I taught the thing that helped kill ten thousand Jedi? I taught the thing that destroyed Alderaan? By the Force, why was stupid enough to let me teach a nine-year-old child when I haven't even become a Jedi yet?"

Obi-Wan slumped down onto a patch of land and promptly put his head in his hands. Ben had had no idea this was coming, he was never very good at feelings. He just waited patiently for Obi-Wan to stop cursing the Jedi Council under his breath and talk.

"This sucks. This just sucks." Obi-Wan briefly took his head out of his hands so he could nod emphatically.

"Excuse me?"

"Not only do I know my future, the future of everyone I know but now I know it's my fault. Very fun thing to know at twenty-two. Sith, I'm sure everyone wants to hear it. 'Hey you, 'cause of a mistake you made, everyone's going to die and an evil Empire will rise! Well, thanks for your time.' Right." Obi-Wan stood up and started to pace around the area in a fit of nervous energy.

"Well, now you can change it. You have a warning I wish I had every day. By the time I knew anything was wrong, my padawan was in a lava pit and had declared himself the Emperor's second. The boy I had raised since he was nine did that. And then he killed me, years later. How do you think I felt about that?" Ben stopped when he felt himself get increasingly bitter.

It's just that I miss the Anakin I knew. If I am bitter, it's only because he is dead. He was like my younger brother…

"I am sorry for that. It's different for you though, it has happened. You can think of a billion ways to change it and maybe they'll help, maybe they won't. I have to use them. If I do and he turns, it's still on my head only this time, I'll have had more then adequate warning." Obi-Wan stopped pacing and turned to look Ben straight in the eyes.

It was a brief moment but it was anything but brief. It was the meeting of the same two souls, trying to figure out where things took a turn for the worse. Obi-Wan looked away first, blowing out a breath softly.

"Well, if I could do it over, I'd get Master Qui-Gon to teach him, just don't be hurt if he does it. It's for the good of the galaxy. Support his relationship with Amidala. Get a girlfriend. Okay, that one's just for you but… Female role model?" Ben paused, considering something. "Actually, I overheard Luke's conversation with Yoda. That you wouldn't kill Palpatine while he was unconscious should definitely be considered a trial. Maybe--"

"Overheard?" Obi-Wan smirked slightly and the tension started easing from his frame.

"Jedi Masters do not eavesdrop, Padawan. Also, do not interrupt me." He grinned. "If I were you, I'd go see if Yoda would make you a Knight for that. Or maybe you should get the old Yoda to make you that. The one from the past I mean. Oh, this is too confusing."

"It is. Thank you very much for the advice, Master. I must go talk to my Master now and try to sort this all out. I hope to talk to you again before we leave." With that, Obi-Wan gave a half bow and left, holding his head higher then he had been.

I just hope he listens. Force knows that I never listened…

------------------

Coruscant, twilight of the Old Republic.

She should be here by now.

Senator Palpatine paced his quarters like an opee sea killer navigating the Core Spires. Something had gone wrong. This should be the hour of his victory, but instead, there was only a gnawing unease.

Maul had found her, along with the missing Jedi. They were preparing to leave whatever wretched Outer Rim depot they'd hidden in, and she should have arrived here, or at least contacted him, by now. The wheels of his plan should be spinning nicely.

And they were, they were.

That was the most frustrating part of this unbearable situation. He felt it like a flicker in his peripheral vision. She arrived, she behaved as he had anticipated, and she would leave him positioned for the galaxy to fall into his lap. It was happening, except that it wasn't.

Maul.

It had begun when Maul had vanished from the Force. Palpatine toyed with the idea that his apprentice had betrayed him, but discarded it. Maul was loyal, Maul was devoted to the idea of increasing his power, and Maul simply would not dare. He hadn't died -- at least not at the time he disappeared -- nor had he consciously blocked himself. He'd simply ceased being part of the fabric of the Force.

That was when the anxiety began, the elusive, sideways visions.

Something had gone very wrong. Something about the Queen.

Amidala was young and naive, as he'd told Nute Gunray, and she was easy to control... under most circumstances. At fourteen, she was only beginning to expand her view -- from her family to Theed, now from Theed to all Naboo... but Naboo was a small place, in the scheme of things, and the fact that she had not yet realized this in a meaningful way was what made her easy to manipulate.

But Queen Amidala was not Nute Gunray, or the mindless bureaucrats of Coruscant. She was intelligent, and if her gaze should widen, if she should ever stumble across the right questions... she would find the way to answer them.

She's a mere child. A girl, at that.

Of course, of course. Why worry over such an insignificant creature? This was a mere setback. He had been among the over-pampered dandies of Coruscant too long.

He smiled, and it was gentle, almost beautiful.

All of this would be his. It was just a matter of time.

But it wouldn't hurt to create a contingency plan.

Just in case.

------------------

Tatooine, the last days of the Empire.

Lando and Ani were working on the hyperdrive, or rather Ani was working on it, and Lando was watching with rapt interest and asking questions about what he was doing.

Amidala decided that she needed to learn more about ships and mechanics -- it seemed to please Ani vastly to talk about it -- but for now, she didn't know enough to follow. She supposed he would feel the same if she was talking politics.

She closed her eyes, and concentrated on the image that had come to her, the image of a forked thread. It was tied, then split, and the new ends spun in different directions. (She supposed that to anyone else, it would look like a tree branch, but she was the granddaughter of a weaver, and had learned spinning at an early age. Her personal stock of metaphors tended to have a textile base.)

She imagined herself, sitting here in the Nubian, poised far beyond the point where the branches split. The opposite branch was nebulous and unformed, a swirling mass of light -- it was unreal, because she hadn't spun it yet. It could become anything.

Maybe I can go back before the split.

No. She knew better. The split had occurred with the time disruption, and any other disruption would just cause another split. Better to get back to this one and travel the new path.

Maybe, when they were still close, she would be able to speak to her other self, or make contact somehow. Maybe she could --

The thread of the new line twisted. Nothing tight or useful, but the beginning of a shape. She imagined herself as one of the unformed light fibers, and moved it in her mind. Good. And Ani... the bright one beside it. She could almost hear Winama telling her to keep them together, to not let the fibers wander and thin as she spun.

Oh, but it was all imaginary. This thread wouldn't really be spun until someone was living on it. That was the only way to spin time. She would have to travel that thread now, and create time, and...

And wait.

Wait for now. For the time when the children could make her aware of what had happened, for the time when she could grab both strands, and begin to spin them together again.

You're still here.

Her eyes opened. Yes, she *was*. Ani hadn't known it before, but he'd sensed it at the end. She was here, and the thread could be re-spun, if she just had the patience to wait for thirty long years to do it -- and if the *she* who was here would have any inclination to.

Well, she'd believe it. She had to believe it, because there was nothing she could do otherwise.

------------------

Leia rubbed her neck, holding in a sigh. When she had entered, she'd been prepared to scream at Yoda, until her voice was sore.

Someone could have told me Yoda was about to die.

"Jedi you are, young Skywalker." Leia was sure Luke's face was going to bust from the grin that had erupted on his face. She hugged Luke and was about to congratulate him when Yoda continued, "Confront fears you did."

"Master, are you sure I'm ready?" Luke was shaking his head in disbelief, completly ignoring common sense that must have been telling him 'Don't change his mind!'.

"Skywalker--" Yoda's face was weary but full of compassion as he looked at the twins.

"Master, I want to be a Jedi because I've earned it not just because you're about to die!" Luke's dark hair was falling all over his face and she had a sudden pang that she had never had a chance to muss it up. Or do anything that twins do with him.

"Would not say you were if you had not earned it." Yoda's eyes closed but he talked on. "Datacards, there are to help you teach. Old system worked well, that you need to remember."

"Yes, Master. I'll make you proud, I'll teach Padawans. I'll do everything I can to live up to your memory." Luke's voice cracked and Leia grabbed his hand.

After a second, Leia decided to ask her own question. It could be her last chance, after all. "Our Mother, Yoda?"

"Alive she is. Prison camp, somewhere... Say goodbye to Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan you will?" With that Yoda faded away, leaving only robes and an black darkness for those who had known the Jedi Master.

With that, Leia and Luke slowly got up and left the hut, wondering what was next.

------------------

Dagobah. It was the final resting-place for Jedi Master Yoda. It was--

"Are we leaving any time soon?" Obi-Wan's voice broke into his thoughts with a slam and Luke looked up. "I know this hit you hard, Knight Skywalker. If it were the Yoda of my time... Master Yoda was the Master everyone played with when I was small, he… Still, we need to go."

"Yeah. I just have a few things I want to look at, I'll be up in a minute." Luke gave a sheepish grin and jogged off to Yoda's hut without waiting for any responses.

As soon as he reached the hut, he couldn't help shivering a little. It was where Yoda's presence could be felt most strongly, especially to those who had known him.

"I'll miss you, Master Yoda."

Miss you too I will, young Skywalker. Leave you should. Get them home you need. Take my stick, for luck you will?

Luke crinkled his nose in surprise but nodded all the same. You would think I was used to ghosts taking to me by now, he thought with a tinge of humor.

He entered the hut and carefully picked up the worn stick. More then anything, the gimmer stick was a relic of the old Jedi Master. It was an honor to have it. Quietly, he wasn't sure if Yoda was there or not, "Thanks."

Walking out, he took a quick last look around Dagobah, taking in the trees, the few visible animals, the muck and just the serenity of the place. He had been trained here, it had been home at a time when he had needed one.

After a few seconds of reflecting of time spent, he ran up to the Millennium Falcon. He just went on automatic, letting his mind try and shuffle through recent events until he reached the Falcon's common room. He smiled a little when he saw Leia was sitting with a smirk on her face and a stack of cards next to her.

"Up for a game, little brother?"

"Not with a smirk that big, Leia. Are you secretly a card shark?" He paused. "What's up with little brother? For all you know, I could be older."

He ignored the little voice saying, You're younger. Admit it and move on, choosing to sit across from Leia instead. After doing a quick check to see if they were marked, a force of habit from playing on Tatooine, he dealt. "With you, we're playing something easy. Gin rummy good?"

"It's fine. And I'm just older. It's why I did everything first. I became a Senator first, joined the Rebellion first, it's why I'm just so much better looking. See, I'm just oh-so-talented!" Leia struck a pose, grinning wildly. Luke wasn't exactly sure, but he thought they were bonding.

It was kind of nice.

------------------

The circuits and wires flowed under his hands as if the Nubian's hyperdrive were just an overgrown podracing engine. It felt like something else, or someone else, was doing it, except that as Calrissian asked his questions, Anakin always found that he could answer them. This is what I'm doing, and this is why I'm doing it.

He'd always been confident as a mechanic, but it felt good to really find out how good he was. He was making up a whole new part for this engine, and it was going to work.

Well, probably it was, anyway. No reason it shouldn't.

He strung a piece of wire down the middle of a tube, and looped it, so that the suspended magnet would help it form a small but powerful generator when the heat of the hyperdrive began to spin all the parts. "It'll make the energy, but the sheath around it's going to keep it from frying out all the parts on the way in."

"Are you sure it's the right amount?"

"Sure I am."

"How?"

Anakin frowned. That part, he didn't know. He just knew, in some unexplored part of his mind, that he was feeding the hyperdrive what it would need to make the time jump.

It's the same voltage as a lightsaber, with the amperage of the red frequency.

He blinked, and sat back, disappointed. He'd been cheating. His bad older self was doing something. He knew the voice, even though he hadn't heard it before.

He had a feeling that he could get mightily sick of it.

I explained. You already knew. Mind your pride, but trust your abilities. They will not fail you.

(when will you stop talking?)


There was no answer, which Anakin profoundly hoped was an answer.

"You okay?" Calrissian asked.

"Fine. Sure, yeah. Just talking to myself in my head."

Calrissian smiled. "Well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

"No." Anakin blinked. "I mean, I think it's done. I think we're set. I... I know it. Now, we just need to wait for the others to come back."

"Well, if you know it... " The older man grinned, then grew serious. "What are you going do, if it works? What do you think you should do?"

"I don't know. I'm nine." But the denial felt wrong in Anakin's mouth, and he waved it away before Calrissian could ask a question. "I guess I just... you know, stick with Amidala and Qui-Gon, and try to figure everything out. Maybe it's that simple." He looked toward Sanctuary. "And I think maybe I'll ask about helping look after the little kids on Coruscant, in the Temple, if they'll let me." He nodded to himself, and didn't bother trying to explain to Calrissian. He'd just felt really good playing with the little ones in Sanctuary, and he figured if there were some of those around and looking up to him, he'd be too ashamed to do anything really bad.

"Whatever you say. Just try not to make any more bum deals with city administrators, okay?"

Anakin smiled wickedly and held out his hand. "Deal."

Calrissian laughed, getting the joke -- Anakin didn't know why he felt like he could make a joke about it to Calrissian, but it seemed to have turned out all right -- then shook his hand. "Deal." Then the man grabbed at his throat and made a gagging sound, rolling his eyes as he did it.

"Very funny," Anakin told him.

"Hey, you started it."

------------------

Leia walked up to the cockpit, trying to look the calm she didn't feel. With a nervous smile, she tiptoed to the door, watching as Han worked at some datacard. "Hey."

He spun around, a cocky look in place. "Hey Princess. This was getting a little boring, I'm glad you showed up... What's wrong?"

"Who says anything's wrong?" She flashed him a smile, trying to project some serenity and peace. Hey, it worked for Qui-Gon.

Han motioned her over and she sat in the copilot seat, secretly pleased he wanted her to sit here. She shifted as he looked at her, trying to ignore the intensity of his gaze. "Something's up. C'mon Leia, it'll make you feel better if you talk about. Or do I have to bribe you?"

"Bribe me. You'll be amazed what a girl will do for chocolate." She let him take her hands in his, wondering why he always seemed to get romantic while they were on the Falcon.

"I'll remember that, Leia. Now come on, I'm your no-good smuggler boyfriend that both of your dads would have loved to hate. You can talk to me." Han grinned when she laughed, imagining both the Viceroy of Alderaan and Darth Vader looming in on Han.

"Do you believe in destiny, Han?" she paused. "I don't, that's what scares me. I always thought we made our own destiny, but now--"

He blew out a breath as a look of understanding came over his face. Han might be a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. The reformed smuggler stood up and gathered her up in his arms, holding her tightly.

"What if I'm not born, Han? Now that they know ... things will change! Mother might decide having us isn't worth it, Anakin might find someone else, one of them could die, she could get pregnant with other children ... or what if it's just me and not Luke? The possibilities are scary, Han." Leia tried but found she couldn't stop her voice from trembling.

"You just have to have faith, sweetheart. We all do," he lifted her chin, putting on a fake grin. "Maybe it'll even turn out better. Think of it, no Empire. Alderaan there, a Corellia that actually lets people visit. We just need hope."

Leia kissed him, trying to turn off her brain. She just wanted to stand here all day, and listen to Han tell her it would all be all right, and let herself believe him. U

Unfortunately, they entered orbit into Tatooine, blowing that plan into smithereens.

Han looked up briefly from the calculations he was entering . "We should go out, as soon as this is all finished."

"I'd like that." Leia grinned unable to keep a little voice from going,
I have a date, I have a date. Yay!

"Sith! I'm guessing there's a problem, Leia." Han's voice and several beeping sonds broke into her inner cheer and she looked up, trying to see what the problem was.

The Nubian ship was hovering about ten feet above the ground. From the way the pilot was sending hails to the Falcon, they hadn't wanted it to do that. "Great."

------------------

When the Nubian suddenly lifted, Amidala was thrown across the conference room, slamming her shoulder into the curve of the far wall. Sabé fell to the floor and skidded toward the door, catching herself with an effort before she was tossed into the maintenance pit. The engine hummed loudly, then the ship righted itself, and Amidala scrambled to get her balance, then ran back toward the engine room.

Lando Calrissian and Ani were holding on to pipes near the engine, and the small device Ani had made from spare parts (including the hinges of two of her wardrobe containers) was lit by a pulsing green glow. He was shaking when he turned and gave her a sheepish smile. "It works," he said.

"Barely," Calrissian muttered. "Let's get back down."

"Okay." Ani waved toward the cockpit, where Rick Olie was apparently waiting for the signal. Amidala sighed with relief, and waited for the comforting sounds of the landing cycle to begin.

That was when the alarm went off.

"Damn!" Calrissian shouted. "Ani, what happens if you unhook that thing?"

Ani ran to the engines and reached out, but a spark flew at his hand. "No go," he called over his shoulder. "If this thing's going to get us back in time, we better not land 'til we get where we're going."

"I'm not going where you're going. And your buddies -- "

Another light flashed, and Amidala ran to the cockpit. "Who is hailing us, Captain Olie?"

"It's the Falcon. She's coming down into orbit."

"Tell her to fly low."

"What?"

"We can't land, I think. Something about the modification in the engine."

Olie started the hail, and Amidala went back to the engine room. "Ani, you're sure we can't land."

He turned to her, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry, I -- "

She put a hand on his arm, and gave him the most peaceful smile she could muster, which wasn't saying much at that very moment. "You did fine, Ani. But we need to work around it if we can't land."

"Okay, yeah. We... well, I wasn't expecting it, and I don't think it's going to hurt anything except this. The part just kind of, I don't know, integrated or something. So if we shut it down with the energy going through, it might fry, which is what we don't want. So we just keep flying, and we're fine. We land wherever you want to. Then maybe I can fix it again, but... I don't know if I can build the other thing without -- " He shuddered. "Without help, and I won't have it back home."

Amidala didn't ask for an explanation. She knew how their interests were being protected. "Okay," she said. "You stay here and make sure nothing goes wrong. I'll set it up."

Calrissian cleared his throat. "Your Majesty?"

"You're going to have to jump or come with us."

He raised his eyebrows. "Quite a choice there. If you can go low, I'll jump."

Amidala glanced at Ani who shrugged and nodded. Flying low was apparently okay. "I'll tell Captain Olie to drop to a hovering height. Jump when I yell."

"No problems giving orders in your family." He grinned.

Amidala, who couldn't remember a time when she hadn't felt comfortable in authority, didn't bother responding to his joke. "Then we're clear?"

Calrissian saluted, and went toward the hatch. He was lowering the gangplank when Amidala went back to the cockpit. She flipped on the security camera in the engine room to watch what was happening, then leaned over the comm-station, where the Falcon was answering the hail.

"Captain Solo!" she called.

"Yeah, here. What's going on?"

"No time to explain. We'll need to make the switch in midair. We're dropping low enough for Baron Calrissian to jump, but Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan need to come here. Can you get close enough for them to make the jump?"

She heard him shout something toward wherever the Jedi were, then grumble and stand. A second later, Leia's voice came across. "Mother, I... "

"We'll see each other Leia."

"I know, but I'd hoped... "

Amidala thought for a moment, searching for the serenity to say something wise and maternal, but she she couldn't find it.

Then Han was back, and Amidala could hear other feet shuffling along. Qui-Gon Jinn grabbed the microphone. "Your Majesty, the transfer shouldn't be a problem for us, but the proximity will make it difficult for the pilots. We should move quickly."

"Yes, of course." Amidala glanced at Ric Olie. "Let's move, Captain. Now."

As soon as Olie responded, Amidala fell silent, to allow him full concentration. She watched the engine room on the small screen, a soundless and grainy unreality. Lando Calrissian was crouched beside the open hatch, poised like a feline hunter. The altitude dropped to seven meters. They couldn't dare any further in the dune-strewn terrain. "Now, Calrissian!" she yelled back.

Calrissian didn't hesitate. He drop-rolled down the gangplank, and another monitor caught him falling into the sand far behind the ship. Amidala felt a curious and detached regret to lose the last piece of the future, but she still had to finish restoring the present.

The proximity lights began to flash as the Nubian and the Falcon drew close to one another. A third monitor -- set to automatically display objects that were too close, Amidala supposed -- showed the Correllian ship. A hatch on the Falcon opened, and she recognized the silhouettes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Behind them was a formless shadow that she knew was Luke without needing to recognize the shape. She traced the vague outline with her eyes, hungry to remember all she could, even in her hurry.

The ships drew to their closest point, and a signal flashed on the control board. "They're coming," Olie said. "They're going to jump."

A second later, Obi-Wan dropped to the base of the Falcon's gangplank, then assumed the same crouch Lando had used. He waited, eyes closed, for something Amidala couldn't identify, then made a graceful, controlled leap. Amidala felt the shock of his landing, then heard footsteps thundering toward the cockpit. "Your Majesty, the Empire is out there. In orbit. They're on the other side of the planet, but we dare not go into lightspeed here. It will lead them to the Falcon and your children."

"Very well."

She looked back at the monitor. Qui-Gon was preparing for his leap. He looked up at the sky, troubled, then shouted something back. The shadow that was Luke disappeared into the ship. Amidala felt him wrenched away from her. Then Qui-Gon was in the air, and another impact pulled him on board. "Shut the hatch!" she heard him call, then there was the whine of the gangplank receding and the hatch closing.

I am forgetting something.

Obi-Wan took her arm. "Your Majesty, we should leave the system before we leave a hyperspace trail."

"Yes, we should." Qui-Gon entered, looking as calm as if he'd been meditating for an hour. "Han suggested heading out at sublight to the next system. I told him I would relay the idea."

"Yes, of course." What is it, what am I... She realized, and she felt her eyes open wide. "Captain Olie, is the hail still open?"

"Yes -- "

She didn't bother with formalities, just leaned over and called "Leia! Leia, are you there?"

"Yes, Mother! We're here."

"Good. There's no time. Find me. You have to find me here. I hope I'll know what to do -- "

"Mother, you're... "

"Find me. Get to me. I am still here. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

Done. It's done. There's nothing else to say.


"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"I'll see you soon."

Amidala smiled. The connection was getting spotter as the ships moved away from one another. "Yes. Soon. I love you both."

"I love them too!" Ani shouted from the engine room. "But we have to get out of here!"

Amidala smiled slightly, and said, "You heard your father."

Leia laughed at the sound of it, then the connection faded completely as they broke out of the atmosphere. There was a burst of loud static, then the hum of an open communication. Amidala reached to turn it off, but just as her hand touched the control, another voice came through.

"Mother?" Luke said. His voice was firm and low, like Ani's had been... or would be...

"Yes?"

"You need to bring him back to us. We can't win without him."

Amidala heard a sharply indrawn breath and guessed that Leia had her reservations, but nothing else was said on board the _Falcon._ Amidala leaned forward and said, "I will. I promise." Then a solar flare cut the communication again, and Olie punched in a course to lead the encroaching Empire away from the desert world.

The link was broken.

No one spoke.

Amidala looked at the monitors that had been set to the outside. They were black and nearly starless.

The ship lurched violently, trying to go into hyperspace, and she heard Ani curse.

"We'd best assist him," Qui-Gon said.

"No," Amidala told him. "Let me."

She went back and knelt beside the engine. Ani directed her hands to the proper controls without speaking or looking at her. She could feel the conduits trembling like live things.

"Don't let go," Ani whispered. Then he looked at her, and his eyes were deep rivers of fear. "I think they're a little loose."

She tightened her grip, and said, "It's time."

He nodded.

A moment later, the Nubian made the jump to lightspeed, and disappeared from among the stars.

------------------

EPILOGUE

Kit Jarai did not want to let go of the torches. They sat solidly in each weathered hand, very real and tangible.

On Tatooine, the only certainty was death, and as the situation faded into his memory, he hungered for the certainty of the torches.

But he knew they belonged in the hands of Anakin's son and daughter. It was tradition; worldly goods be damned, every effort possible was made for the next-of-kin of Tatooine's deceased to light the pyre, no matter how poor the family. After all that had been denied them, he could not deny them this. Luke took the torch into his hands firmly, very familiar with the tradition. Leia hesitated, absently pulling on her shoulder as if to stretch her neck, then pausing with realization -- realizing what, Kit had no idea -- and smiling.

In a moment, Kit's hands were empty, and he thought they just might have always been that way.

"They need to be lit," he said. His voice was low and quiet, but it wasn't done purposely. The assembled group was too quiet for anything else. It occurred to him that he'd just said the first spoken word since they'd all gathered, but it wasn't worth mulling over.

"Here," Luke said, and carefully lifted his lightsaber to his eye-level, igniting the very top of the torch. Then -- again, silently; silence dominated -- he tilted his sister's torch toward him, and lit hers from his. Kit stepped between them, behind them a bit, and the group began to walk outside.

It was early, very early. The first sun was not due to rise for a standard hour, and the first etchings of orange were beginning to frame the dome of the darkest-blue sky. Kit found himself fighting back a smile -- there was an effort to be made in attending this particular pyre, beyond the psychological barriers they had. It was an inconvenience to attend, and they did so anyway. Vertash was up and about, dressed as closely as possible to the Imperial schoolboy uniform he'd have worn. He stayed close to Dritali, and the two of them followed Kit at a fair distance. (Kerea -- who slept late as a habit -- had made a point not to attend, but was wide awake anyway, Dritali had told Kit before the others arrived.)

Solo and Calrissian hung back behind the children, and that was it.

The garden, and the clear view of the body, were only seconds away, and Kit felt this was not something to be kept secret.

"Your father's respirator was very much integrated with his body," Kit whispered to Luke. "Much more so than I'd imagined. It was some sort of electrical disturbance and the circuits were fried."

"I understand," Luke replied solemnly, his eyes fixed ahead.

"No, I'm afraid you don't. It was very visible, and --"

It was too late.

The twins hesitated at the sight. They weren't at such a distance as to show all detail, but what they could see was a man dressed as a simple Tatooinian farmer, the only tell-tale sign that this man was in fact Darth Vader being the black boots and the gloved hands.

A childlike smile crossed Luke's face, and -- after taking Leia's hand to get her moving -- he began to walk forward again. They walked around their father (an action called the Last Considering, Kit would have to explain to Vertash later), memorizing the visible injuries, the serene expression, the eyes that Kit didn't know how to shut. Didn't want to shut.

They came around to his feet again and set their torches to the same spot. The flames grew, consuming, sending up tendrils of smoke into the earliest light, and they stepped back. Kit took the torches from them and put them out in the sand, thankful for something real to do again.

As he stood back up through a dull pain, he noticed that Leia's head had rested on her brother's shoulder, and he was close enough to hear her ask, "What will happen to us now?"

The smoke -- a dark wave, a stormcloud -- drifted up higher and higher into the darkest blue-black of the sky, where the stars still broke through. Kit thought that, perhaps, the biggest question was, what had already happened?

TO BE CONTINUED ... ;)

Note from Vee: Some people were more than willing to give me credit for this story back when it was in progress on the forums. That's not fair. I hardly wrote at all! In fact, the only parts I can think of that I wrote, just off-hand, are the prologue, epilogue, and Vader's death from his perspective. (If you hadn't read this story, and that's a surprise to you, that's what you get for cheating. Nyaah!) JediGaladriel and SithAbigail wrote so much of this story it's unbelievable, and Moriah Organa and Mr. P brought such interesting angles to the tale. I'm really lucky to have worked with all of them.

This story took three months and seventeen days to write. With any luck, the sequel -- titled "That You Might Live" -- will be done before 2001.