Finally the next chapter (it fought back) and in another chapter or two this fic will be done! It's kinda sad, I've been working on OiaL since early March of last year!!!!
But do not fear, I have a few stories in the works and right now I might have a Beta reader for one of them. But if you want to be the Beta reader than you must be familiar with the Landover books by the one and only Terry Brooks. And have a copy of Magic Kingdom for Sale-SOLD! on hand.
Jedi Temple a few hours later . . .
Daine almost sighed. He had told the Jedi in the room a good part of his story.
How they had been destroyed, how the Republic had been replaced with an Empire, how he'd served in the Navy under Lord Darth Vader; a Sith Lord, about how the Rebellion fought against the Empire, how the Rebellion had won, and how he had ended up in the past.
He could tell that they didn't believe him.
I have to find a way to convince them that I am not delusional.
The door slid open behind him.
"You are late." Master Windu told the newcomer.
"Sorry, I was meditating on a dream I had last night." The person said apologetically.
Daine turned to face the newcomer and gaped.
"You're Luke Skywalker!" he blurted. The young man blinked. "Yes I am." He affirmed. "You're the one who destroyed the Death Star!"
Silence fell.
Luke wanted to groan. Not another one!
"Told you!" A woman with layered shoulder length brown hair said almost gleefully. "I told you and you didn't believe."
"What have I missed?" Luke asked before adding: "And I didn't destroy this Death Star, in fact if I destroyed this Death Star than dad's a Sith Lord."
"Joke about such things you should not young Skywalker." Yoda said gravely.
"According to him nearly the entire Jedi Order was wiped out some twenty three years ago, the Republic was replaced by an Empire, that there was a rebellion against the Empire." Obi-Wan answered him.
"Okay," Luke said. He felt his guts twisting; it all seemed so familiar; like a half remembered vivid dream.
"Why don't you continue Mister Jir." Obi-Wan said.
"The rebels won and were in the midst of restoring the Republic when a woman approached me and told me that she could fix what had happened. She told me that if I took her to the planet Gastra and used my codes along with my superior's codes than that would allow her to gain access to some artifacts there."
Daine paused for a moment.
"She activated a device with lots of metal rings and it created a portal. I asked her how she was going to change things with a strange portal and she said that she wasn't going to tell me because I would never remember this conversation. She then turned and started to step into it I ran after her and entered the portal at the same time as she did. "
Daine paused again letting everyone absorb the information again.
"The next thing I knew was that I was standing in my shared quarters on the Republic Star Destroyer Regal; my roommate asking me when I thought the war was going to end.
"I tried to tell people that I didn't belong and that things weren't right but they didn't believe me. And when I tried to explain things they threw me into a Psych Ward."
"What can you tell us about the Death Star?" Mace asked. "Which one?" Daine asked. "There are more?" the woman with the short hair asked. "There were two but the one Skywalker destroyed was the size of a small moon or 160 kilometers in diameter." "That's the size of a class four moon." The Jedi that he had met outside said. "And it had the necessary firepower to completely destroy planets."
Daine stopped when he saw and noted their shock and horror.
"And the other one?" Luke asked. "The other one was over 900 kilometers in diameter. It also could destroy planets."
"Master Seachan, possible is time travel?" Master Yoda asked a female Ditaal. "It is possible that the woman's actions created an alternate timeline and that we are now living in it." She said thoughtfully.
"Then the things and the bodies we have been finding belong there?" the short haired woman asked. "That would be a logical assumption Knight Solo." Master Windu said.
"Why would anyone want to build stations of that size? I mean what's the point?" Luke asked. "That can wait for awhile young one." Obi-Wan Kenobi said.
"Sir, please wait to continue your story. There are others that must hear it as well." Matser Windu said.
"Anakin, to Telia Building take young Jir you will. Identify he can what we cannot." Master Yoda said.
"Yes Master," Anakin, the Jedi he had mistaken for Lord Vader, said bowing.
"Knight Solo contact the Leki House and let them know that he is with us and that our Healers will like to see all of his records." Master Windu said. "And Knight Skywalker, tell the Healers to gather the things that we have and prepare them for transport."
"Yes Master Windu." they said before they bowed and left.
"Come commander," he said as he turned towards the door.
Daine frowned. I never told any of them my rank. So how does he know it?
Daine followed Anakin to a hanger that had all types of transports. An old clone stood by one of them.
"Don't tell: you are the designated driver." Anakin said to the clone. "Yes sir, Master Che has decided that you are not to operate any type of vehicle." The clone said. "And don't forget that thing that Master Che says you must where outside of buildings." "I won't, thank you Rex."
Rex? Daine shook his head. There was dozens of old clones in the military, chances are that many had the same nickname.
Coruscant, The Works, the Telia Building . . .
Anakin wasn't going to admit but ever since he had laid eyes on Daine Jir he felt as if he knew him and he felt as if he was walking in on Tatooine at night, without the right clothing to protect him from the intense cold.
"Where did you find that All Terrain Assault Transport?" Anakin paused before answering. "It was found on the sixth planet in the Hoth System."
"The Rebels made their base there." Daine said. "Why didn't you bomb the base?" "Admiral Ozzel, for some reason thought that we should bring Death Squadron out of Hyperspace nearly on top of them instead of exiting Lightspeed out of their sensor range then sneak up on them." "And because he didn't follow protocol the rebels had time to raise their shields making an orbital bombardment nearly impossible, if you wanted prisoners." Anakin guessed when Daine paused.
"Yes, Lord Vader was less than pleased. We had to engage the Rebels on the surface. They destroyed two AT-ATs but, in the end, we sent them running."
"What happened to Ozzel after he pulled that stunt?" Anakin asked, with the sinking suspicion that he should know Ozzel's fate." "Lord Vader strangled him with the Force and promoted Captain Firmus Piett to admiral." Daine explained softly.
"What did Needa do then?" Daine blinked. "He, ah, personally apologized to Lord Vader for losing the Millennium Falcon. And well Lord Vader wasn't in a forgiving mood. Which is strange because in the past he had let some people live. Must have been the whole Skywalker business."
"Which Skywalker?" "What?" "Which Skywalker Commander? There are four: myself, my wife Padmé, my daughter Leia and then my son Luke." "We were looking for Luke."
Anakin was silent for a moment.
"Did you catch him?" he asked. "No, but we did catch his friends: Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa. They were tortured to draw him to us. Frankly I didn't understand how he'd know that his friends were in pain." "When a Force Sensitive bonds with beings they can feel their joy, sorrow, pain and death. Jedi Masters have a similar bond with their padawans; they know when their padawan is in trouble and can come to their aid."
"Huh, that's interesting."
"So what happened after they were tortured?" Anakin asked, he had to know whether or not his son had walked into the trap. "He showed up just as Lord Vader predicted, but he wasn't captured. He apparently dueled Lord Vader and lost." Daine explained. "He escaped; the odd thing is that Lord Vader didn't kill Piett afterwards."
Oh Luke, did you know that it was a trap? Of course he did. His desire for revenge was stronger than his desire to rescue his friends. Remind you of anyone? Yes, me. Skywalkers are so easy to predict. Threaten to injure, injure or sometimes kill their loved ones and they will stop at nothing to get to you.
I have a question for you. What? Who are you? Why Ani, you already know. You-
"Is there anything that you haven't been able to identify?"
Anakin nearly jumped at the sound of Daine's voice. "Just parts of ships and bodies." Anakin answered. "Maybe I could identify the parts or identify where the bodies came from." Daine said. "Follow me."
The Telia Building, elsewhere . . .
Mik Jerrison sighed as he put the shard of a star ship's hull back into it's crate. Why does it seem so familiar but yet so foreign?
He heard the door slid open but he didn't turn to see who it was.
"Mik, what are you doing? We have a lunch date." He turned to see his wife, Charly, standing just inside of the room. "Sorry Sweetheart but there was this one piece that looked familiar so I decided that I was going to have another look at it; just to see if it rang any more bells."
Charly smiled. "You could never let a mystery go." "Could Sweetheart?" he asked playfully as he closed the crate and put it back where it belonged. "You know what I mean." Her was playful but there was something to it.
She looped her right arm around his chest.
"Come my knight in shining armor or we might lose our reservation."
As they left the Mik thought that he heard something hit the ground but when he turned to look he didn't see anything. Someone must have knocked something over in one of the rooms. He told himself.
The Telia Building, a few hours later . . .
Anakin felt numb.
The remains that had been in the AT-AT were mostly clones and all of the clones had a very familiar legion markings on their armor, and according to Daine Jir they were known far and wide as Vader's Fist; he knew them as something better: the 501st.
He twisted a badge from one of them in his hands in an effort to relieve his feelings of betrayal.
They were going to kill me! No they weren't.
"We should be heading to the Senate Offices, they should be ready for us about now." Anakin said softly as they walked they walked away from the cold storage rooms; wondering why his inner voice said that.
They will never betray me. No they wouldn't.
"How receptive will they be?" Daine asked. "With what you have had to say to us they should be pretty open to it. But don't get your hopes too high." Anakin replied. "Believe I won't, too many people haven't believed me. So just because I have the backing of the Jedi doesn't mean anything until I convince the others." "Darn straight." Anakin said.
"If you were a little taller and less talkative you could almost be . . . ." Daine trailed off, unable to complete his sentence, Anakin was almost grateful that he had.
After a few minutes of walking Anakin's foot hit something and sent it sliding across the floor and into the wall.
"As you can see three Star Destroyers are either disabled and/or drifting."
Anakin turned his head and found that he had kicked a data/holo disk player.
He used the Force to call it to him.
"As you can see the Devastator appears to be completely disabled. The Conquest and the Star Sword appear to have some power and-" Anakin watched as the two drifting Star Destroyers collided with each other and then vanish in a huge fireball. "The Conquest and Star Sword are gone! I repeat: the Conquest and Star Sword are gone!" The image dissolved and a Twi'lek male appeared. "It is my sad duty to report that even though the Empire has been overthrown the dead count is tremendous. A total of six Imperial class Star Destroyers were destroyed along with seven Victory class and one Super class. The number of destroyed Rebel Capital ships is six. At this point in time almost all the Rebels are accounted for and it is still unknown how many Imperial troops and officers have fallen but it is feared that the count reaches well into the hundred thousands. Our hearts go out to all of those who's loved ones are numbered among the dead and missing."
"That's not mine." Daine said as Anakin turned the player off.
"We must get to the Senate Offices now." Anakin said as he retrieved his commlink. "Rex, I need you to have the speeder ready to go for us. There's something everyone needs to see."