Just to tell you, there will not be an update tomorrow, and possibly also not on Sunday. Daily updates aren't ending- I'm going camping, and computers aren't really an option out in the Blue Ridge. Sorry! This chapter's longish in an attempt to make up for that.

Smiles!

Lou.

"There's no possibility they actually believed we were an Imperial shuttle."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "It was a mind trick, Leia."

"I know what mind tricks are…" she paused as if trying to decide whether to use his name or not, and what name to use. "…And they said they believed us before you even used one. They're letting us into a trap."

"I know," said Anakin, shrugging. "I'm looking forward to it."

The look she gave him concerned him.

"I'm pretty sure that you don't stop existing if I die, if that's why you're worried. The Force will find a way to fix it."

"We're landing," called Han from the front of the ship. "Do we start blasting now, or later?"

"Now," suggested Anakin.

"Soon," said Obi-Wan with a sigh. "I'll get off, and you two can follow Anakin."

Anakin smirked. "Are you seriously leaving me in command, Obi-Wan? Isn't that your job?"

What did the galaxy come to, thought Obi-Wan, that Jedi began to laugh at battle?

Aloud, he cleared his intangible throat. "Just wait a few seconds until I'm gone." With that, the force-ghost disappeared, his voice replaced by the harsh sound of storm troopers banging down the ship's entrance.

"This," hissed Leia to Anakin, "is why I told you not to steal Commander Antilles' ship."

Anakin did not appear remorseful. "Jedi privilege. And don't talk to your father that way."

Leia turned her back on him and headed to the front of the ship.

All right. So no jokes yet. This whole parenting thing was seriously getting on his nerves.

-

Luke continued to sit grumpily on his bed. An order for complete silence ship wide had occurred about twenty minutes ago. He wasn't sure if it applied to him or not, but just in case, he had spent several minutes humming very loudly and kicking at one wall. No one had responded, and when his feet had begun to hurt, he'd stopped.

Yoda had taught him a few ways of shielding his mind, but he could remember only a couple of them and could focus on even fewer.

This, of course, meant none.

When he wasn't kicking walls, humming, or mind-shielding, he was focusing on being bored. There was, he had discovered, a box under the bed containing a datapad, but as it was entitled "The Glories of the Empire," it was not on his required reading list.

So there was nothing to do.

Luke!

Oh. Never mind. It appeared now there was someone to talk to mentally. Just what he'd always wanted, wasn't it?

Go. Away.

We are having a minor incident. Remain where you are.

Go. Away.

I was planning to begin a small amount of philosophical training earlier. I assure you that while you remain of paramount importance, this is more immediately pressing.

What? Was he supposed to be disappointed or something?

Philosophical training will be futile. I am a Jedi.

There was only silence.

Seriously, who did Vader think he was, Aunt Beru? "You remain of paramount importance." "You're sick, Luke. That's more important than the Tatooine Farmwives Sewing Circle."

What universe was he in, again? Vader had stolen Luke's dream of an awesome father. Did he seriously think they were just going to be some sort of happy little evil family?

Luke!

Go away- wait, Ben?!

"Luke!" Ben Kenobi's ghost appeared fully. "I'd have come earlier, but I'm afraid certain people slowed me down."

"Can you get me out of here?" Please, please, please just get me out of here.

Ben smiled. "A rescue party should be arriving shortly. Some friends of yours."

Great. Now his friends- Rogue Squadron, almost certainly- were putting themselves in danger because he'd been stupid enough to get captured chasing a nonexistent Jedi.

"I'm sorry, Ben."

"Sorry about what, young Luke? You did the reasonable thing, if not the wisest. I should have realized you'd have felt the disturbance too, and would go to investigate."

Luke jumped slightly. "So there was a Jedi?"

"Oh, there was more than just a Jedi, Luke. If I'm not mistaken, he's at the door."

As the force-ghost spoke, the door slid open.

"Artoo?"

The droid beeped cheerfully as two storm troopers with welding-torch marks on their armor slowly raised themselves off of the floor.

"Code Red!" yelled one of them into a communicator. "Rogue Astromech in cell-"

He cut off as Obi-Wan force-pushed both troopers against the wall.

"No, not Artoo. Confound it. Where is that boy? Ah, well, it can't be helped. Come on, Luke." This was all said at a much higher rate of speed than Luke had ever heard Ben use before.

Still, speed-talking was not exactly enough to dissuade him from escaping. The Jedi sprang over to the side of one of the storm troopers, stealing the Imperial issue blaster and then carefully sliding down the side of the hall.

"Luke. Wrong way."

Blast it. "Sorry," he whispered.

Ben said nothing, seeming preoccupied.

"So, where's my X-wing?" Artoo had been aboard the ship, it only made sense that his fighter would be too.

"I don't know, Luke."

"So how am I going to get out?"

"I told you, Luke," said Ben with a sigh. "Your friends are after you. Though they should've been here by now."

Great. Now on top of all his other problems, he had to worry about whether or not the Rogues were all right. Maybe he could say that he'd stay if they were let go- would he do that?

Yes. He supposed he was that sort of idiotically noble person. Curse his upbringing.

"Are they all right?"

"Leia and Captain Solo are fine, Luke. Now, which-"

"Leia and Han?!"

"It's a long story," sighed Ben. "A very, very long story. Now, if you'll just follow-" Ben stopped dead. "Oh, no."

Luke's reaction was on the opposite end of the spectrum. "Han! Leia!" He waved frantically.

Obi-Wan scowled deeply at the couple. "And what, exactly, happened to Anakin?"

-

Anakin hadn't meant, exactly, to get separated from the rest of the group. He wasn't complaining, or anything, but he hadn't planned on everything working out this well. It just had.

The other three, who, with the possibly exception of transparent Obi-Wan, didn't want him around anyway, could go rescue Luke. This would save him more long, annoying discussions about things that weren't his fault.

Meanwhile, he could go teach his future self a thing or two about what happened to people who messed with Anakin Skywalker's life.

Of course, now that he'd been wandering for a while, he was beginning to spot a few flaws in his plans. Not the obvious ones, of course, but a few others.

He had no idea what his future self even looked like. Obi-Wan had mentioned something about a life-support suit, but what in the world did one of those look like? A modified uniform of the not-clone-troops?

He had fought several of them already, but none of them seemed to have any Dark Side presence. No, that presence was somewhere at the other end of the ship.

The other end of this giant, city-sized ship.

So Anakin's secondary mission for the last few minutes had been not only looking for his future self, but looking for where they kept the speeders on this ship. There had to be some variety of them somewhere, and he was regretting having left the one he'd purchased back on Tatooine.

It was really annoying to be on two unsuccessful missions at once- what was that?

The Dark Side. There was something very nearby now that felt suspiciously familiar to that tree on that stupid swamp planet Master Yoda had insisted he visit last a few weeks ago. Apparently, "teach you something, it will," but all it had really taught him was that he hated swamps almost as much as deserts.

It wasn't his future self, but it had to mean something.

Anakin elegantly sliced down the door of the supply closet his son had hidden in earlier. The door to the secret tunnel was still open.

There. That was where it was coming from. The tunnel. Lightsaber held high in case of a sneak attack, Anakin slowly walked into the tunnel.

Hello? he called out mentally.

A few whispers on the edge of his mind were the only response. He decided not to try again.

His lightsaber cast enough- if rather oddly scattered- light to see by, but not to see too far ahead. And it was thusly that Anakin found himself stumbling down a flight of stairs onto some sort of heavy door.

Sith!

On second though, perhaps he would not use that curse word again. Ever.

Stang!

Luckily, he had neither landed on nor damaged his lightsaber, and by waving it around he could see that the door was some thick, dark alloy of metal. It was creepy, and that was not an adjective Anakin was prone to using concerning doors. There was some sort of box on it that might've been a lock.

Anakin focused on it, using the Force to try to see the inner mechanisms.

Click!

Well. That had been suspiciously easy. But the important thing was that the Creepy Door was now open, and he could go through.

It slammed shut behind him as soon as he did, and it did not escape his notice that there was no lock or handle on this side. Still, he was armed with a lightsaber. Doors were not his biggest concern.

It was what was on this side of the door that was. A ship- or not quite a ship. Some sort of heavily modified speeder thing, from what Anakin could see of it, all black and mostly engine.

Well, his transportation problem was solved all right. The Jedi climbed into the seat of the speeder. The thing was fairly tough to start- a keycode might've helped him- but he finally managed to hotrod it into moving.

"Wahoo!"

His shout of joy echoed off the sides of the tunnel as he sped down it, having more fun than he'd had since at least the last time he'd flown something.

It would've significantly dampened his mood had he known yet what was waiting at the other end.

-

"But it's like, he spends all his time for three years trying to capture me, and now that he's finally got a chance to 'complete my training' he just locks me in a cell and throws away the key? It makes absolutely no sense…"

"Look, kid, your family problems are fascinating, but you really need to listen to Obi-Wan now."

Obi-Wan's ghost was rather pleasantly surprised to hear the smuggler refer to him by his real name as opposed to "old ghost guy" or "Ben". This entire mission seemed to, in fact, be running much smoother without Anakin, and the Chosen One had only been lost for a few minutes.

"I'm sorry, Ben," said Luke, his face an innocent picture of contrition.

"It's all right, Luke. Leia?"

The woman cleared her throat. "Luke… I'm your sister."

"Huh? But that means-"

His sentence would've been completed with either "Vader is your father too" or "stang, Hoth medbay, ew ew ew…" but he hadn't quite decided which when Obi-Wan spoke up again in the new speed-talking voice he'd developed. (Or, really, regained with the return of Anakin).

"Also a version of your father from the Clone Wars when he was a Jedi is lost on this ship and I don't even want to know what he is up to, can we go now?" He punctuated the end of the drawn-out sentence by gliding rapidly towards a flight of stairs.

Leia grabbed Luke's hand, as her brother appeared too stunned to actually move of his own volition. "Come on!"

Han jogged alongside them. "Just out of curiosity, are we ever going to get any time to actually discuss any of these life-changing revelations?"

"Follow me!" yelled Obi-Wan again, now halfway down the stairs.

"Do you even know where we're going?!"

The force-ghost didn't answer.