Haha, WIN! My goal was to get this out before I had to work today, and as of when I am typing this author's note, I have done so by 45 minutes. Yay for me! Anyways. This one was certainly easier than the last one. Finally, the plot's starting to move. Good feeling. With any luck it'll keep flowing easily and I'll be able to keep the chapters coming decently quickly. Thanks for all the reviews on the last chapter! I feel a bit better about how it turned out now. XD Please keep the reviews coming; I love knowing what you guys are thinking. Special thanks to Darth Comrade – at this rate, we're gonna become review buddies! – and of course MyDelerium – gotta get maintenance to fix the coffee ground issue, dear, 'cause if it happens while I'm there this holiday I'm going to laugh at you. Coffee grounds and garbage disposals do not mix. And now onto the chapter, with one last reminder that I love reviews! Enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Ahsoka lowered herself stiffly to sit on the edge of the bed, biting back a hiss of pain as she shifted to stretch her leg a bit. It might have been an excuse to get back inside, but it hadn't been a lie – the injured leg was still rather sore. She leaned down to rub it as Anakin closed the door behind him and began to pace, leaving Artoo to settle himself by the edge of the room's small desk, situated so that both of them were easily in view. For a long moment there was silence but for Anakin's footsteps on the wooden floor.

"I wish we could lock the door," he finally muttered, sounding as if it were half to himself. The door was notably sans lock, an issue he had mentioned a time or three before.

"Well, it's not our house," she reasoned in response; the same thing she always said. "Besides, this is Manny's study when it's not being used as a spare room… I guess studies don't usually need to be locked." She was a bit surprised to find that she had to force a smile. "Besides, everyone knocks before they come in… everyone except you, that is." It was a slight attempt at teasing, but he didn't seem to be in the mood for banter.

"That's not the point. There's no privacy. We're always in this house, usually in this room, and we can't even lock the door for a little privacy to talk. For all we know they're always listening to us."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes, they've got the room bugged, I'm sure. Probably security cameras, too, while they're at it. You'd better scan the room, Artooie, make sure we aren't being spied on." Artoo picked up on the sarcasm in her tone and gave an amused whistle, but Anakin frowned at her.

"I'm serious, Ahsoka. There's something going on here, and we have no idea how much they know. Or which of them is lying."

She frowned as well. He was right, she had to admit it. Now she finally had a reason for her continued feeling that something very wrong was going on – but she wished she didn't. Someone was lying, it was the only explanation, and she didn't want to think that. She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a soft patting sound at the door. They both turned to look at it, then Ahsoka smirked slightly. "See, even Cerano knocks."

Anakin rolled his eyes slightly as she got to her feet and moved to crack the door open so that the creature could slink in. He meowed up at her, then hopped up on the bed, waiting for her to close the door and sit down beside him before curling up in her lap, purring; she scratched behind his ears down to his collar, making him purr louder. At Anakin's look, she shrugged one shoulder. "If I leave him out there knocking he'll draw attention – Keida will wonder why I'm not letting him in." She found it a bit upsetting how easily this came to her – the thought that they had to act, be normal, not arouse suspicion; this feeling of distrust. "I always let him in." Anakin resumed his pacing, and Cerano's blue eyes followed him back and forth.

"What if they're telling the truth?" Ahsoka finally blurted. "They haven't done anything to make it so we shouldn't trust them." Had they? Even as she said it, her mind questioned it; little inconsistencies, that feeling of wrongness that she couldn't explain. Did she trust them? Hadn't she been lying to them practically from the start, changing and withholding information? Why would she do that if she really did trust them? "Maybe we're just being… paranoid or something."

Anakin gave her a look between hesitance and exasperation. "It's pretty obvious that someone's hiding something, Ahsoka. It's not paranoia, it's facts. Artoo got there somehow." She frowned. That was true. She'd been in that barn four days ago, and she was almost certain that Artoo hadn't been there then. "Can you tell us what happened, Artoo?"

The droid's whistle sounded noticeably apologetic. He had very little information for them, and it took a while of questions and answers to work it all out and piece together the beeps and whistles into a full story. The droid recalled the pod crash, and hadn't been able to get out of the pod and had been stuck there for about a day, he estimated – "Aww, Artooie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to leave you there." He'd heard the noises of someone coming, but it had been night, and he hadn't seen who it was who got into the pod before he'd been zapped – some sort of electric jolt, effectively shutting him down. Next thing he knew he was on that table in the barn.

Anakin frowned. He'd never stopped pacing; it was making Ahsoka nervous, watching him go back and forth. "Well, that confirms it. Something's going on here, and we're being lied to." He finally paused, crossing his arms. "Takes better technology than I've seen in this house to zap a droid like that, but from what they've got in that barn… and that gives us over a week where we don't know where he was, and then tonight he shows up in there."

Ahsoka shook her head slowly. "But, Master… why would they lie? What would they be hiding?"

"I don't know, Ahsoka, that's what we're going to have to find out." He finally ceased the relentless pacing – much to her relief – and leaned back against the desk beside Artoo. "Between this and those ships that shot us down in the first place, I'd say whatever's going on here's probably not good, as far as we're concerned."

She still didn't want to believe it; her heart argued the supposed logic in her mind. "Well… maybe one of the farmhands got Artoo! And Manny and Keida didn't know about it. So they're not lying, and it's one of the workers who's being not good… it'd be really easy for Garvan to be lying, wouldn't it? He's the one who had Artoo in the first place." But, as much as she hated to admit it, she thought he'd been sincere – at least, it hadn't felt like he was lying. But with the Force as messed up as it was here, it hadn't felt like either of them had been lying, and she had no way of knowing if the feeling was accurate.

"Maybe. But we can't make assumptions based solely on what we'd like to think." He smirked dryly. "Don't get me wrong, he's definitely a prime suspect. But it doesn't all add up to just be him."

"Why not?"

"His reaction to you – and to me." She shot him a questioning look. "Either he was genuinely surprised to see you that day and really had no clue what you were, or he's an amazing actor. Fuzzy or not, I could still tell he was shocked. Plus, there's no way they could have known I was going to show up that day at that time, but the general reactions made sense; if he was the only one in on whatever this secret is, I'd expect that all to have gone a bit differently." His eyes met hers, and she knew that he understood exactly what it was about this that she didn't want to believe. "If he's involved, we have to consider that Manny and Keida are too."

Ahsoka sighed. "But… why? What would they be hiding? And… well, how? I mean…" Now it was her turn to set Cerano aside, stand, and start pacing the length of the room. "If they've got technology like ours, then where are they hiding it? I've practically lived in this house for over a week now and the most advanced thing I've seen is that Teevee droid. Even giving the time they had while I was out of it, I'd expect it would take a long time to set something like this up. That's a pretty elaborate act, if we assume they're just pretending to be this… technologically backwards. And they're good at it; they've done nothing to make me think that they're used to more advanced technology than we're seeing. I mean, Manny thought half of what I told him about the stuff we've got was made up or impossible or something. And Garvan thought Artooie was a 'record player', whatever that is. Yeah, the stuff they've got in the barn is more advanced, but even then it's all farm equipment; nothing really weird or suspicious." She turned on her heel and paced back the other way.

"And why would they lie to me? They saved my life. Keida spent days making sure I was okay, and Manny hid me from the Agents when they showed up the day before you got here – he lied to them for me, to make sure they wouldn't find me. Why would they do all that if they had some… evil plot going on? I don't know about Garvan, but Keida and Manny… it doesn't make sense." She spun again, now facing him. "None of this makes sense. How do they not know about… about anything? And even if we presume they do know and they're lying, why would they, and how'd they pull it off so… convincingly? I just… ugh!" She threw up her hands, reaching the end of her rant. "This is so irritating! Nothing makes sense without the Force." Anakin had been gazing thoughtfully to one side as she talked, listening but thinking too, but when she said this he snapped his head up, looking at her wide-eyed as if she'd just said something incredibly insightful. "…What?"

"That's it, that's the question."

"'What' is the question?" she asked with a slight grin.

He shot her a look, something between 'stop kidding around' and 'do I really have to explain this?', but she knew he was going to explain his thoughts either way. "No, Snips. The Force. We're cut off from it, somehow. Why? How? You're right – things don't make sense without it. It's throwing us off, confusing us. Making us think differently, act differently; making us unsure of ourselves and our instincts. Without the Force to rely on, we're more likely to miss things, question ourselves… that's the main issue here."

"So… you're saying that it's… intentional? Like, something is deliberately blocking our Force sense in order to throw us off?" She wasn't sure what to think about that. "Master… what could do that?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I've heard that some creatures are able to disrupt the flow of the Force, and some powerful Force-users can turn it on others to confuse or manipulate them… but to do it constantly like this…"

"I doubt Manny or Keida qualify in that category, honestly… I'd think we'd be able to sense that, at least. Same for Garvan." Anakin nodded.

"Yeah, maybe." He sighed. "I don't know what's causing it, but I'd be willing to bet that that's the key to this whole thing. We figure that out, we'll solve it."

"Or at least have another piece to the puzzle," she agreed, sitting back down on the bed and stroking Cerano's back. "But what can we do about it?"

"Start investigating. We don't know enough of what's going on here. It's time to start asking questions, getting answers… tomorrow I'm going to take a closer look around that barn, I think. I want to see exactly what sort of technology they do have access to here."

Ahsoka nodded. "I can start asking Keida and Manny questions," she offered, "see what I can get them to tell me." As much as she didn't want to think that they could find anything incriminating out about the couple, she had to admit it felt somehow good to have a goal, to be doing something. Anakin seemed to agree; he was smiling as he sat down beside her.

"It's a start, at least." She nodded.

"We'll figure this out, Master. We're Jedi, it's what we do." Anakin looked over at her, and she grinned. "Besides, now we're all together again. Bad guys don't have a chance." Anakin chuckled and returned her grin, and Artoo gave an affirmative beep, and for the first time since finding the droid in the barn she began to feel confident again. One way or another, this was going to turn out alright – she could feel it.