AN: TriGemini: I promise that Anakin remembers almost everything, although he may disregard events as unimportant.

Rose-Aislin: They are feeding them the information that corrisponds to what she told him.

LunaticPandora: You have become the voice of Panaka for this chapter, as you are right, there is no logical reason for Padme to want to have anything to do with Leia, except the whole she's her daughter thing.

ennui deMorte: Luke swimming...it will be entertaining, to say the least.

Chapter 13

Palpatine walked across the landing pad to the door. He waited just inside the door for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. A voice hissed from the darkness beyond the pale light of the doorway, "Master," the word echoed in his mind, "I had not expected you today."

"Something has happened, my Apprentice. I felt a great disturbance in the Force two days ago. It occurred in the Jedi Temple. I wished to see Yoda yesterday, to see if I could glean anything of it from him, but he is refusing all visitors; Mace Windu as well."

"You wish me to see to it, Master?"

"Yes. I also wish for you to see what you can find out about this Jedi that was traipsing around with Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi yesterday. I have not seen him before." Palpatine produced a datadisc, and handed it to his Apprentice, who now stood before him.

"I shall find out everything there is to know about him, Master."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, preparing for his fight with Luke. Then it began. It was like a fight for his life, only more, harder somehow, as though this were more important. He blocked a wide slash coming in from the right side, parrying it and countering with a jab toward center, Luke's strength still impressing him, but a quick turn of his wrist, and Luke had his Lightsaber up to block. He was forced into a series of parries then, block, slash, turn, block again. He failed time after time to gain the upper hand against Luke, but Luke missed opportunities he could have taken to finish the fight. This was of small comfort to Obi-Wan however as he had his hands full defending against what Luke didn't miss. He was glad to see that in spite of his partner's amazing knack with the Lightsaber, he was still an inexperienced duelist. He jumped over one of Luke's cuts, allowed himself to go into a flip with a half twist, not easy with the low ceiling. He landed facing Luke's back and struck, only to meet Luke's blade. Luke then dropped and performed a sloppy leg sweep which Obi-Wan was able to evade easily with another flip. Obi-Wan then landed on Luke's back, nearly sending him out of the ring, but that turned out to be his undoing as Luke grabbed his ankles and flipped Obi-Wan off him, out of the ring.

"Good match," Luke said, holding his hand out to show that there were no hard feelings and honestly wanting to be friends with Obi-Wan, no matter how much he wierded him out.

"I don't understand how you did that," Obi-Wan said, ruefully, but taking his hand.

"He did it because you let him do it," Qui-Gon said. "He would not have been able to do that if you hadn't decided to show off your Force Acrobatics."

"The fight was taking so long. I wanted to try to press an advantage."

"And now you have discovered the weakness of the Soresu. It is a defensive technique, and to use it for offense is for the most part a waste of time," Qui-Gon said, grinning. "But don't think that I have been wasting your time with this exercise. It has improved the Techniques of both of you, Luke more than you, Padawan."

Luke ducked his head, embarrassed, "Only because I've had farther to go."

Padmé, once again disguised in her handmaiden outfit, headed out to the gardens, but on her way there Captain Panaka stopped her, "Padmé?"

"Yes, captain what can I do for you?"

"Come with me," he said, taking her by the arm and leading her down the hall into his office. "You will explain yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"This Leia person, who is she, and why are you all of a sudden taking up for her, when she interrupted delicate negotiations, and could have seriously injured you?"

Padmé sat back, not expecting that question, " She's done nothing but try to help, Captain, besides the interruption does not seem to have been deliberate on her part," she answered after a few moments to think about the question, "She just seems trustworthy. I can't explain it any better than that."

"I don't like it. She is an unknown element, and the timing of her appearance is highly suspect. She could be a threat."

"She has done nothing to earn our distrust, Captain. I understand that you are concerned for my safety, but I do not appreciate the tone that you are taking with me. I am the elected leader of the people, not you."

"I mean no disrespect, Your Majesty, and while it is true she has not earned our distrust, she also has done nothing to earn our trust, either."

"You are being paranoid, Captain. Until she does something that would indicate that she is a danger," She said.

"It's my job to be paranoid," Panaka interjected.

"I wish to keep her here. That is final."

"She's not a pet, Padmé."

Looking out into the gardens as she spoke, Padmé answered, "But I feel like she belongs to me, nonetheless."

Panaka sighed and didn't press the issue any further.

Yoda walked into the classroom where his younglings awaited him; he was happiest teaching Lightsaber classes. He watched his class go through the Shii-Cho. They had a good grasp of it now, after weeks of training. "Good morning, class," he said cheerfully, as they finished their first set of routines under Soara Antana.

"Good Morning, Master Yoda," the class said brightly, in unison.

Soara shook her head, "I suppose that is my cue to leave, Master Yoda. I have not seen them this happy since I arrived in their classroom to teach them three days ago."

"Too bad it is that like you they do not," Master Yoda said to her, but quite loud enough for all the students to hear, "for when Padawans they become, their only teacher you will be, in the art of the Lightsaber."

A smile crossed her face as she realized the ruse he was pulling. "Quite right, Master Yoda," she said, "I would have hoped when I was a Youngling I would have had the chance to meet the Padawan's Lightsaber Master. I suppose I will have to go rescue my Padawans now, Master Windu has taken over the class in my absence, and you know what a grouch he is in the morning."

"See him before breakfast many mornings I do. Coming to lessons with the Tris Clan, much better for an old soul, it is," Yoda told her, and she left, waving good-bye to the children.

Yoda turned to his class. "Good is your Shii-Cho form, today. Start the Makashi form will we, this afternoon."

The class seemed to be of a mixed opinion about this, some groaning, some with big smiles on their faces.

Yoda ignited his Lightsaber and held it down, out to his side. "The opening stance, this is," he said as the class began their lesson.

Qui-Gon was impressed with Luke's defeat of his Padawan. It was clear that Luke was better with a Lightsaber than Obi-Wan, because Obi-Wan had made mistakes, and had continued to make mistakes throughout the battle. Luke had made his share, but once he realized it was a mistake to do something, he didn't do it anymore.

Qui-Gon prepared to start them on the Ataru after the fight was over, when Luke knocked Obi-Wan out of the ring because he had tried some fool acrobatics again and Luke had taken the opportunity presented.

"Now, since neither of you seem to be open to the Living Force, as you are supposed to be, you will try this again."

"The Living Force?" Luke asked, puzzled.

Qui-Gon threw his hands up in disgust, "Yes, boy, the Living Force. Did your Master teach you nothing?"

"I learned what I needed to survive," Luke said, "before…" he trailed off, realizing what he'd been about to say, Ben died.

Qui-Gon sighed. Something about this child, for at that moment, child he was, lost without the guiding force that had prevailed in his life, tugged at his heartstrings. "Since both of you apparently need reminded as to what the Living Force is, and what you are supposed to do with it, I suppose that will be our lesson for today."

Anakin was to remain still during some procedure that the nurse had explained to him. He only half understood what she was saying, but, with everything that had been going on in the last few days, he felt the need to meditate anyway, so he did. As usual, his attempts at meditation were met with mixed results, Anakin found his thoughts drifting. How were they here? Why were they here? Were they supposed to stop what was going to happen? If they did, how would that affect the future?

He tried not to think about it, but his thoughts kept coming back to why they had been brought here. There must have been a purpose in it. There was no way that he could stand by and watch himself make the same mistakes over again, and if it was possible, the suffering caused by the Clone Wars needed to be stopped. He didn't see how he could possibly stand by and watch as millions of people and hundreds of Jedi gave their lives to a war created out of sheer hatefulness for the rest of the world, one orchestrated by a madman.

Luke finished his meditation with the Living Force. It was quite simple, since he hadn't known there was any other kind of Force. Maybe he should ask Master Yoda about that when they got back.

He looked up to see Obi-Wan still trying to achieve the peace that contact with the Living Force brought. He stood up, and Obi-Wan opened his eyes at the noise.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt your meditation."

"That's Ok, I wasn't really getting anywhere with it anyway."

"Why not?"

"I have never had the best of luck with the Living Force. I learned to meditate with the Unifying Force, and that is just easier for me."

"Ok."

"So, tell me, who was your Master?" Luke's blood turned to ice at the question, not that he hadn't been expecting it; he just hated having to answer the questions.

Keep it simple. He told himself. "His name was Ben. I doubt you'd know him, he hasn't been around the temple for a long time." Like since it burned.

"What in the world were you doing on Dagobah?"

He hadn't expected that question, and really had no answer for it. Simple. He repeated to himself. "That was where my master chose to have my training, for a while."

"I don't remember ever seeing you around the Temple before."

He thought about the answer for a while, finally deciding on a bit of truth. "I have never been to the temple before; I was quite old when Ben took me on."

"Really? So were you 8, 9?" Luke nodded his assent. "You should have more of this down than you do."

"It wasn't long after that…" he didn't want to talk about Ben dying to Obi-Wan.

"Qui-Gon told me that your Master had almost died, he didn't know much more detail."

Luke sighed, "It's just been so difficult. It was easier, somehow, on Dagobah." He thought about the lessons with Yoda, and Artoo's constant commentary on the situation.

Obi-Wan nodded, "Yes, I can see in your eyes that you've seen more than you'd like to have. Whatever happened, it must've been horrible."

Luke couldn't help but smile at the young man who would become the wisest being he ever knew, other than Master Yoda, "Yeah, a lot of it was bad, but there were times that were pretty good too. Unfortunately I'm under orders from Master Yoda not to discuss the details."

Leia waited on the sofa. The Queen had brought her to her dressing chambers, and then left her alone as they all went into another room. One of the girls, a handmaiden, but for the life of her, she would have sworn that it had to be the Queen, came out, and headed out the door. Leia shook her head, and got up, wandering over to look out the window. She would do it, too, if she were Queen. Dress as a servant, and let one of them take her place. It would be easy enough, considering how much make-up the Queen wore, and the many-layered outfits that seemed to be standard. She smiled as she looked out onto a garden, letting her mind wander, and it settled finally on her mother, the warmth that she had felt in her arms, and the joy, and the sadness. Luke had asked her about her mother, the last time that she had seen him, before he'd gone to face Vader. She wondered what had happened to him, because she didn't feel like he had died, just…vanished. He was gone somewhere she couldn't follow, but then, after she had gone to sleep that night, she woke up falling into the Queen of Naboo's lap. Maybe whatever had happened to Luke had dragged her along, too. Maybe she could find him. The thought that her brother might be out there in the galaxy comforted her. She wasn't alone. She might never find him, but she wasn't alone anymore. He always seemed to be getting into more than he could handle without her. It might do good to find him quickly.

"If you would like, you can go out into the garden. Padmé always likes walking in the garden." One of the handmaidens said, and at Leia's confused look, she added, "I am Yané."

"It's not that, really. I wish I could go home. The gardens there were always so beautiful." She commented, turning back to the window, and the idea that had formed earlier poking its head out.

"Where is home?" Yané asked.

"Alderaan, but I don't know if I'll ever see it again."

"Why ever not? It's not that far away."

"Oh, I don't know, just a feeling that I get sometimes. It's been 6 years since I've seen home." Shattered, destroyed. But is it that way anymore? Surely not, with her saying how close it is. Father, will you even know me? The feeling hit her in the pit of her stomach as she looked out to the sky overlooking the Palace, wondering if maybe someday she would be able to see Bail again.

The door opened and the handmaiden who had left returned. "The Queen will be needing me," Yané said.

"I will be there in a little bit, Yané."

"I will inform the Queen, Padmé," Yané said.

"Thank you," Padmé said, and Yané left the room.

"So, you are certainly the talk of the Palace, which is saying something with the blockade going on," Padmé said.

"Do you think they plan to invade, Your Highness?" Leia asked, seeing right through the disguise.

Padmé was startled, "What….how did you know?"

"Easy, it's what I would have you doing if I was in charge of security around here. It serves two purposes, it redirects those who would mean you harm and it lets you relax and NOT be royalty for a while," Leia explained.

"Is it that obvious?" Padmé asked, obviously concerned.

A small laugh escaped her. "No, its not, most people wouldn't have noticed. I'm familiar with security procedures is all, in addition to a Jedi heritage. It gives me a slight edge even though my brother hasn't had a chance to train me yet. In fact it was just before I showed up here that I had found out."

"Really? I thought it was forbidden for Jedi to have children."

"I really don't know much about my parents. I was raised on Alderaan as a member of the House of Organa. My mother died shortly after I was born."

A voice called down the hallway, "Padmé, we need to get going, we can't be late!"

"I have to go, but we will talk again soon," she said, taking off toward the voice.

She looked out the window again, missing desperately her family, her father, her brother. There was a strange empty place in her heart where she missed Han. She did not miss Darth Vader, and she hoped fervently that Luke had been able to see clearly at some point, and kill the rotten bastard.