And I did it again… I posted a chapter the night of the Castle season finale. I'm on a caffeine overdose, I'm a wreck, it's the middle of the night and… I don't think I'd be so agitated if I was the one to get married. Problem is… Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And Fuck. Not gonna spoil it but this is the friggin' nightmare fuel for every Caskett shipper out there… Fuck. Amd with that… I leave you to your new chapter. Didn't even took me too long to write it.

Chapter 11 - Right From The Start You Can't Predict The End

Jane turned around, eyes wild and hair swishing like a damn shampoo commercial. "You need… me?" she asked, nearly panicking. "For what?"

"To pilot our ship. We're going to Raxxus Prime, one of the most hostile environements of the Galaxy. We need a good pilot in case we need a quick pick up, if things don't go as smoothly as we want."

"You finally learned that right from the start you can't predict the end?"

Obi-Wan was leaning on the doorstep, arms crossed at his chest, a weird smile half hidden behind his thick beard.

I had to chuckle, as his statement reminded me of a much less pleasant circumstances when I heard those words. I had learned it the hard way, that things can't be always predicted from the beginning to the end and that many things can change in time. Better be prepared for everything. A second pilot could only do us good.

"Yeah Master, all too well." I replied, still looking, slightly amused, at Jane's fear creeping out of her. As Red Squadron we had worked pretty much only as drop and pickup operatives in small guerrilla-like operations, she had never been recruited for a fully Jedi operation. I thought she was scared to be in a full-Jedi operation. "Really, Jane, we need you. I still don't know who I'm going to take with me, except for Obi-Wan here of course, but I need you. I can't pilot a ship and capture a Sith all in the same time."

She still looked scared as hell. "Fair point but…"

"No buts, no ifs and no althoughs. You come with us. It's an order."

Lysveet looked up at Jane and chuckled. "You can't really say no, now. He's your boss after all."

The pilot/former cop swallowed hard and nodded. "Definitely. Alright then, I'll just need to go back to Yavin and pack some things. I didn't bring much with me, when Ferus asked me to get him here."

"No problem. We'll have to go there for a while before we leave, actually. Padmè's already putting the gears into motions, but setting and prepping two ships for the kind of mission we're going on will take a while."

She nodded again and turned back to the board hanging on the wall and sighed. "When are we leaving?"

I threw a quick glance at Obi-Wan. "As soon as we get the all-clear from upstairs. It could be one hour or one day, I don't know, but Anakin and I will better get to work to form the squad. It's gonna take time and careful thinking though, since we're running out of people here, to take care of the younglings."

"As long as you don't take too many adults…" interjected Lysveet, "we'll be just fine."

"I was thinking about taking Luke and Leia." I replied. "What do you think?"

"I think we need to discuss it in private and leave our girls here to their investigations. Come Anakin, let's leave them to their task."

He practically dragged me out of Lysveet's study, downstairs to the tiny alcove he had taken for himself years before and that he used as a base for his operations. Or sometimes, just to escape the madness of living with so many children and young adolescents. "Call Ferus. He's the head of this operation, we need him if we want to decide anything."

"I'm not leaving Jane behind though." I snapped as I sended him a quick text through the internal network of the mansion and called him downstairs ASAP.

"I'm not saying you'll have to leave her behind, I understand why you want her on the team, but he was the one keeping contacts with Rahm, and he will be part of the inception of the operation. We can't leave him in the dark."

I groaned an irrepeatable curse in Toydaran as I sat on one of the chairs that made the spartan furnishment of his office. He sat, slightly more gracefully, on his chair behind the small desk and took a datapad out of one of the closets. Searching again through the internal network, he connected to Lysveet's mainframe and downloaded all the data she had collected up to that moment as we waited for Ferus' arrival, which came not much later.

"Have they found anything?" he asked as he stepped through the door.

Obi-Wan gave him a strict nod. "Close the door and get comfortable. We have a lot to talk about."

He did as ordered, the same way a Padawan would do if ordered by their Master. Me excluded. I have to say that, from a certain point of view, Ferus had become Obi-Wan's Padawan the same moment he set foot on Dantooine, years before. Deciding to leave the Order, he never completed his education and still had huge problems keeping the Force at bay, being suject of some extreme side effects of being Force Sensitive and only partially trained in the use of the Force. He could use it, but he couldn't avoid being used by the Force. That had led him to ask Obi-Wan for help, and he did help him complete his training. To that day, Ferus was one of our greatest resources and one of our most reliable agents, completely in charge of any logistics regarding the Jedi and some covert missions, like Rahm's mission in Nar Shaddaah.

"Right, now that we're here we need to plan this carefully. We've got the logistics expert, the General in command of our fleet and me, the old one. We have a tough situation in our hands and we need to act quickly before this young boy here decides to exsterminate us all. This is why we're here. We won't leave until we have a plan and a team to make it happen. Understood?"

"Understood." we said, together.

"Good. To answer your question, Ferus, yes, they did found something. Here's what they were able to deduce from what material they could get their hands on: Vader's having Galen acting as his long hand for a personal revenge streak that goes back to the days when he was a Padawan."

I tell you, Ferus' dumbstruck face was incredible, almost impossible to describe with words. He was absolutely astonished by what Obi-Wan had just said. "What? A personal revenge streak? What does that even mean?"

"I knew you'd find it kind of hard to believe, but here, take a look at this." he handed him the datapad with the files about the Jedi found dead in the last eighteen months, with the findings on the sealed Jedi archives attached to them. "See? Every known Jedi that has survived the Purge on that list is linked to Vader's younger days, when he was a silent but slightly troublesome Padawan that sometimes stuck his hands where he wasn't supposed to."

Ferus flipped through the digital pages, quickly reading through them like only a skilled data analysis expert could do. His face changed from astonished to worried to scared to terrified as he changed page. It was blatant that the situation didn't look too good even to his eyes. "Damn… this is bad. Pretty much everyone of us has outstanding accounts with him! I know I do at least."

Obi-Wan looked at me, a weird smile on his face. "You tell me? It's my fault if he's in that suit, and Anakin not turning to the Dark Side and not joining Sidious' plan is the motive I turned him into human charcoal. We're pretty much fucked."

I nodded. "We're all on his list. One day or another, he'll start looking for us. That's why we need to act. Now."

"Oh yes, I definitely agree about that. You have anything in mind?"

"Anakin, I think it's your cue." said Obi-Wan.

"Thank you Master. Now… I've had little time to think about it but my idea is to gather a small team composed of Jedi and go look for Master Paratus on Raxxus Prime."

"The junk planet?"

"Precisely. When you came back you reported that his mental state was deteriorated enough that he couldn't distinguish between friend or foe. It's a point to our advangate, because either way he'll be prepared for anything that would come on his planet, a young guy with a red lightsaber included. But as Master Ti is healthy and well capable to take care of herself, Master Paratus is alone on an hostile planet, not aware of the danger, he's an easy prey, he'll go after him and we're unfortunately two weeks late. Understood?"

A short but thick moment of silence followed, with Obi-Wan and Ferus exchanging worried glances, until my… our Master nodded. "Understood. It's a pretty good plan, considering what we're up against. We just need to act quickly, even though it's going to take some time before we can leave."

"I can move things up a little so we can leave earlier." stated Ferus. "As one of those responsible for logistics, I'm kind of influential when it comes to moving ships here and there."

"That would be greatly appreciated." I replied. "Now, here comes the real issue: who will we take with us?"

Another short moment of silence, before Obi-Wan spoke. "You were talking about Luke and Leia, weren't you?"

I nodded. "Yes. I think they're ready for their Trials. Or at least we could start testing them in real situations and not only in a training field. They need to have some first-hand experience on thier powers and abilites, or they'll never be ready to be Knighted."

"What do you think, Ferus?"

He rubbed a faded scar on his forehead, pensive. "I don't really know… I've never gone through the Trials, even after you've completed my training, I don't really know what kind of preparedness is needed for them."

"I think they're ready." said Obi-Wan. "But Anakin is right. All of us had a lot of first-hand experiences when we were Knighted. They have spent most of their lives in underground bases or in a very protected environement, they're techinally ready but I don't really know if they can hold their own in a real-life situation."

"What about Hilean?"

I shook my head. "Too young. She's a great Padawan, but she's too young. I don't doubt that she could hold her own but she's really too young and inexperienced. She needs more training."

"Right. You're right. I was her age when I left and you saw where I landed. So, alright, you have Luke and Leia. Who else?"

"You". Obi-Wan and I said at the same time.

He had Jane's same reaction: fear. "Me? What for?"

I let Obi-Wan do the talking. "You're one of our greatest assets and you already know the place. Also, this whole operation was your doing, you organized and prepared it with Rahm, you came here asking for our help when you didn't know what to do. It wouldn't be polite to leave you here while we have all the fun."

"But…" he sort of gasped, not exactly knowing what to say. "I'm not sure I can be an asset even in this circumstance. I mean I…"

I interrupted his nonsense blabbling. "Ferus, please. Don't underestimate yourself. We need good Jedi on this one, and you either come with us or stay here and take the place of another Jedi and teach the kids. Your choice."

"And what authority would you use to force me to go with you?" he spat out, angrily.

"Mine." interjected Obi-Wan. "I'm the only senior member of the Order and I am the only Council member too so, I'm ordering you to come with us. You might have left the old Order but you came back to us, that puts you straight under my responsibility. You are coming with us and that's an order."

He didn't really look happy about it. He was internally fuming with anger. He didn't like when people told him what to do, and this time, Obi-Wan was exploiting all the authority we had given him to force him to do something he didn't want to do. I was already bracing myself for the moment we would tell him Jane would have come with us. That would have made him explode. Literally.

He took a deep breath and tried to calm down a little, but the pulsating vein in his temple was telling a totally different story. His nose flared as he exhaled and if his eyes were blasters, I would have been really, really dead. All his hatred towards me, even if in the last few years it seemed to have dissipated, came back at full strenght.

"Listen, I know you're not exactly happy to have to stay in close quarters with me, but we're not going on a pleasure cruise. We have a job to do and a Rebel Alliance to protect, think it with this point of view in mind."

"Just… try to stay out of my way, alright? As long as we keep our interactions to a minimum, we should do good." he said after a while. "Stay out of my way."

And I had come to think that, with time, one day we could have been friends again. "No problem with that. Guess what, we're lucky. No upcoming birthdays this time."

He rolled his eyes and snorted, loudly. "Two your kids are coming with you, don't you even dare to say you miss your family when we're on the road or I swear I'll…"

"Cut him some slack Ferus. Hoth was a very weird situation and you already admitted you dragged him there in retailation for that broken nose. Come on, we have a little more thinking to do. Let's not start arguing about that alright? So, who should come with us?"

It took us a long time and a little bit of convincing to get both Jax and Aleha to come with us. They were reluctant to leave both with Matt being so young and with all the other kids to take care of, but in the end we managed to put together the best team we could gather in those conditions. When we emerged from Obi-Wan's office, we were all sort of satisfied, but I wasn't exactly happy of the outcome of that meeting.

Ferus was still angry at me. Furious.

Nothing had changed, after all.

Oh well… it would have, sooner or later.

When we finally got out of the small room, it was almost time for dinner and we were literally sucked into the preparation for the meal. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were absolutely the worst moments of the days, since we had to get it ready and have all the kids eat. We were lucky we had enough teenagers that could help us with the children, or we would certainly be doomed. Fortunately, Ferus and Jane helped us quite a lot in this matter, even if they didn't have to.

Anyway, after dinner, as we were taking care of cleaning up, I dragged Lysveet to the side for a moment. "I need to talk to you."

"About our little secret project?"

"Exactly. When do you have a moment to spare?"

She looked at her watch. "Come to my office after you've dealt with the clean up. I'll ask Darrick to put Willow in bed for tonight."

That was our plan and we carried it out with no itches. About an hour later, with all the kids in bed or self sufficient enough to get to bed when they had to, I knocked on her office's door. She invited me in and told me to close it shut, so no one could disturb us.

"Hey, sit down. Make yourself comfortable."

"You're not working, right?"

She shook her head, barely hiding a smile that lit her eyes, behind the glasses. "Absolutely not. I was just watching this." she turned the monitor towards me. She was watching her lastest ultrasound.

That made me smile too. "Oh, I get it. How are you feeling, by the way?"

"It seems like the worst is over. I mean… I haven't been feeling that well for the past months but now it's better. Even Janu said it's normal. I'm well ahead in the second trimester now and I feel better. But we're not here to talk about my son…"

"Your son?" I asked. "I thought you and Darrick decided to wait and be surprised!"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Well… yes… But last month Janu sort of let it slip and…"

"Alright no problem. I won't tell him. But you're right, we're not here to discuss your son even if talking about kids is way more fun that talking about Ferus and Jane."

"Well, considering how they've been acting in the last few years, they're pretty much kids themselves. What did you want to talk about?"

"Ok… well… I talked to Jax and it seems like he knew about Ferus having someone special in his life, but he didn't know it was Jane."

"Now that's curious."

"They had a deal: they didn't tell each other anything about their personal lives in order to keep the other shielded in case one of them was captured. You know, Ferus did a double crossing game for years before he was busted around the time he came here and Jax was of course in grave danger simply because he was alive, stuff like that."

"Well that makes sense. I just wonder how he couldn't make the connection, once he saw how the acted with one another."

I shrugged my shoulders. "No idea. I mean… Ferus isn't exactly a sharer so is Jane… they tend not to communicate their feelings so lightly."

Lysveet nodded, sagging a little bit on the chair to get more comfortable. "Yeah I learned that. But what did Jax tell you?"

"His tale wasn't different from yours, except for a tiny but extremely important detail: he said that her father sent him away, saying that she didn't want him in her life anymore. Problem is, according to what you told me, she was unconscious at the time and didn't regain awareness for a while."

"Six days. They kept her sedated for six days."

"Here, that's what I meant. It doesn't add up. I spoke to Padmè this morning and she agrees with us. We need to do something or they'll end up destroying each other."

"Oh that's sure!" she exclaimed. "Right now they only keep running in circles like fried droids and in the end they get into one bed or another or whatever available surface!"

I barely managed to suppress a very loud burst of laughter. "Yep. I noticed that, and believe me, I have quite a lot of experience of quickies in weird places. They sort of defiled that spot!"

Her face cruched up in a weird, confused expression. "Defiled?"

I nodded. "Yeah, not far away from the very spot they… engaged in their activities not only Padmè and I shared our very first kiss, but it's probably the very spot where we conceived the twins!"

It was her turn to suppress a laugh. "Gods, you two really have some experience in the matter of acrobatic sex."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I wouldn't call it acrobatic… just… unconventional. You know, sometimes biological needs surpass the need for privacy. But we're not here to discuss our sexual life, nor theirs. There's much more going on in this, and I want to know what the hell happened. I have two daughters and I would never do anything to hurt them, Jane's father must have had some very important reasons to do what he did, considering how hurt she was afterwards."

"Are we sure it was his fault? I mean, James Kobb is a very powerful man and he's one of our main founders, I don't really see any reasons for him to lie like that."

"Money? Personal interests? I mean… you said it, he's really powerful, he owns Incom Industries and he's one of our source of money, which is partly why we accepted Jane in our ranks, other than the fact that her rap sheet was amazing and her score as a pilot is beyond the expectation of every human being…"

"And that's why you had her midichlorian count tested, because you thought she might have been Force Sensitive, like you, right?"

I nodded. "Maybe not exactly like me, I mean, my count marks me as a convergence in the Force, it's not lack of modesty but I'm one of a kind, but I actually thought that she might have been missed when she was born. I'm still not entirely conviced that she's not Force Sensitive, but that's a completely different matter. What I want to make sure about is her mental health, as Ferus'. If they go on like this, they'll implode. I don't want to see them waste their lives like this."

"Agree. But even if I find anything that could explain what happened between them, do you really think that exposing it to them would make a difference?"

I thought about that for a moment. The truth is rarely pure and never simple, and nearly nine years of living like that could have completely changed their feelings, but I sensed something deeper than the simple physical attraction that some may think occurs in a "couple" like them. The problem was a weird thought that had begun forming in the back of my mind. The previous night, when I was hold between a rock and a hard place while witnessing their… thing, I felt something that at first I couldn't consciously register until I thought about it later: they felt better. Even if they were angry or at least slightly distressed, through the Force they felt better. Jane felt like she could breathe better and Ferus… as unreadable as he always was, he was at rest. As if a missing piece had been put back where it belonged.

"I don't know. But either way, if we don't dig, we don't know if we may find something that could help them. If we do, well, if you do, we may come up with enough evidences that they've been set up and we tell them, they might realize their mistakes and start talking."

"You too have the feeling that all this mess was caused by their incapability to communicate?"

"My inability to communicate nearly destroyed me and made me turn to the dark side. I can recognize it when I see it."

"Good." she stated. "I already told you that it might take me a while before I find anything useful, but I'll keep you posted as things come up. When are you leaving?"

"Don't know. Maybe a couple of days. Tomorrow after breakfast Obi-Wan and I will explain our plan and tell the others who will come with us, then we'll leave for Yavin."

Lysveet chuckled. "Your favourite place, isn't it?"

"What can I say, it was vacant when we got there, sure as hell the Empire wouln't search for Jedi in a place so thickly shadowed by the Dark Side of the Force!"

"Good thing most of us are not Force Sensitive."

"Yeah, that's really a good thing, or we'd have more disciplinary fines than meals distribuited each day. The influence of the Dark Side on us was the reasong Ferus and I aren't exactly at best terms right now."

"Yeah, Darrick told me the story some years ago. I have the feeling he's not exactly prone to forgiveness…"

"He's not. And she's not a sharer. Couple those things and you get the worst pairing in the Galaxy for resolving issues by talking. And I'm not the most lucid person when sleep deprived. With your premission, I'd like to get ready for the night. And I have enough experience around pregnant women to know that you should do the same."

She nodded and started the procedure to turn off her computer, leaving the servers running. "Your experiences tells you the right things. I'm exhausted. I just hope Darrick managed to put Willow down for the night, or it'd take me a lot of time to go to bed."

I chuckled, knowing that Darrick was amazing with kids and knew his way around with his daughter more than he let others know, and that he knew all the tricks to have her do as he said. "Come on, let's call it a night. We'll deal with this mess tomorrow, hoping I won't get any more dark and twisted visions."

"You've had enough of them to last for a lifetime!"

"And I fear I'll have more as years will go by. Come, let's get out of here before we start talking again and we'll end up going to bed at three in the morning. Darrick would kill me, totally."

As we got out, I noticed Obi-Wan waiting right outside her office, hiding in the shadows where she couldn't see him. "Go to bed Lysveet, sleep well."

"You too Anakin. Good night!"

When she disappeared upstairs, Obi-Wan moved away from the dark spot and came closer. "You two are planning something big."

"Yes we are. And if we succede, maybe things between Jane and Ferus will settle."

He grunted a little, a sound I could barely hear. "Why are you always trying to make people getting together?"

It was an earnest question. From his point of view, it made little to no sense. From mine, it meant everything.

"Master, I know we see things in totally different ways, and the real reason why I tend to do a little bit of matchmaking job here it's because I know how it feels to be far away from the person you love. Even if the distance is only meters away… it hurts. And we're in a situation that requires all the concentration we can get, from each person involved. If they can't find closure, they'll end up destroying each other and that doesn't look good for us all, not if we all want to keep our skin unmarred. Also… I'm kind of a sucker for happy endings."

He shrugged his shoulders, definitely not satisfied with my answers. "You better not sidetrack our mission for this, because if you do I swear…"

I raised my hands, stopping him. "I've ordered Lysveet to do her part in her free time. She won't devolve time she'd use for the Alliance's affairs to hour little project. I swear, we're safe on this side."

He shook his head, but I knew that deep down he agreed. "Alright alright. Do your thing. But I want to know everything about those two. Everything you learn, I want to learn too. And not because I'm curious, but because I want to understand your point of view. Agree?"

I nodded. "Agree. Thank you Master, I swear it will be worth. It just might take a while."

"Let's hope it doesn't take too long. By they way… this afternoon… you didn't mention to Ferus that Jane was coming with us."

"Neither did you." I replied.

Again he shook his head then headed towards the stairs, to his bedroom. With nothing else but a smile.

People are calling it the worst season finale ever. Seems like they never watched Crossing Jordan's Season Six finale. The friggin' series finale. At least we know there's a season 7. CJ finished in the worst way possible. My trust is a little shaken, but In Marlowe I Trust. He's not Shonda Rhymes. They'll pull it off.

It's gonna be a long summer though.