Sorry guys I said I was going to update soon and I ended up updating now. I'm sorry but university and friends got in the way, I just survived the annual Star Wars Marathon with my best friends and my boyfriend and I only had the time to put the last touches at che cahpter tonight. It was a tough work because I had to introduce a new character and start a new plot line which required some more attention. It took some time but it's here. Next one will come in tow or three days, Maybe four, it depends on how much spare time I manage to find. Hope you like it!
Chapter 13 – A Friend In Need
"Darrick?"
Darrick Kohr, along with his sister Alehan, was one of my friends during my training. He was already there when I joined them and I was a sort of intrusion in their routine. They were already trained in the basics of the Force and I was only a kid without experience. Let's make it short: they hated me.
I was an element of distress and many times I was stranded by the others and when I started showing some peculiar characteristics that made me more proficient than them well, this condition got only worse. Master Yoda often told the other children not to give into envy and to concentrate into getting better than me, but many of them still couldn't stand me.
Not Darrick and his sister. We caught up together almost instantly, we were sparring partners for some years while we were both at the Temple at the same time. Basically, we grew up together. And now he was here.
"In person! It's good to see you again Anakin!" he hugged me tightly, with a sound pat on my back.
"Same here. I thought you were dead! You were at the Temple when...well, you know when."
"Actually I wasn't at the Temple. I should have been though. I was rescuing my Padawan. She, well, she fell by the hand of the Clones. Unfortunately, I didn't reach her in time."
"I'm sorry to hear that Darrick."
"Well, it was hard. After I saw the Clones do what they did and what happened next I went into hiding and flew from Coruscant to the Outer Rim. There I got in touch with the few other Jedi that managed to get refuge with other people on the run. And then I got caught in the Alliance. Now I'm in charge of evaluating the rookies. But you don't need evaluation. Sith you're Anakin Skywalker! You don't need any recommendation!"
"Darrick, from what I know, the rebellion needs to be protected. From what you know, I could be a Sith in disguise!" I joked as I sat down on the couch in front of him. The wound hurt a bit, but nothing like a week before.
"Don't you dare to turn on me! I've had enough when I discovered that Darth Vader is, better, was Aster."
"Don't tell me! Palpatine was working his methods even on me! When I found out his intention I just wanted to kill him!" I admitted. Fortunately I decided to obey Master Windu.
"And now you'd be dead. Anakin, you did the right thing. Even if it cost you a lot." he leaned forward "By the way let's get to business. The Alliance needs men. Capable men. By now we are only a couple of thousand of people that offer their abilities to the cause. Just that. Some minor skirmishes on lonely planets in the Outer Rim, but nothing more. They don't even suspect it will become a greater movement in the future as we all hope. We're trying to organize a full scale offensive, but we don't have enough men right now."
"How about infiltrating in what remains of the Senate?" asked Ruwee, as if he had read in my mind.
"We already have more than a few Senators that are still active. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and some others. They where those who actually formed the Alliance, did you know that?"
"Yes, my family here filled me in." I said, waving at the Naberrie.
"And how do the know?" Darrick was a bit suspicious.
"Our daughter, Padmè was one of the founding members." said Jobal.
"Oh, yeah, sorry I forgot I was called with her name as a reference. Excuse me again but you're never cautious enough." he stopped for a moment then took out a datapad from his robe "Now, with your reputation and your contacts well, I'm sure you're gonna get to a high rank in a month or two."
"I don't care about ranks I was already a General during the war, now I'm just a soldier. I can do whatever you want me to do. I'll do it."
"Listen, Anakin, right now there isn't so much action. We have a place though on a moon of Onderon, in the Outer Rim. We are gathering ships, droids, fighters, whatever we can get our hands on and are worth the repair costs. You're a magician with a laser cutter and actuators. That's the best I can do now. I'll keep and eye open if Senator Organa decides it's time for a real army and if we need an instructor."
It wasn't much, but it was enough. At least I could be useful. But I needed to know more.
"What about Senator Amidala." I blurted out almost without thinking.
"What about her?"
"Where is she?"
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I never met her in person, Master Kenobi keeps an eye on her and her children, he trains them, but we don't know anything else. She's kept under tight protection and surveillance, probably because she was the Senator that kept opposing to Palpatine 'till the end, even if she was the one that shoot him to the rank of Supreme Chancellor."
"In the end she opposed him because she felt she made a huge mistake when she proposed him for the rank. Chancellor Valorum was a weak politician, but at least didn't have an Empire in his head." Ruwee interrupted him. "Palpatine was subtle, his mind was all focused on becoming a totalitarian ruler. And she unconsciously helped him. That's why she opposed him in the end."
"It's logical after all. But why such an interest in a Senator?" he asked then, partially uncovering my secret.
I wanted to tell him the truth, but even after so many years I knew that hiding our marriage was the best thing to do to assure that she would be protected. Darrick was one of my best friends, but I couldn't afford the chance that he could spill the news somehow. I was about to spill it myself to him right there, but I decided not to. He deserved honesty, but there and then was just the wrong time.
"Nothing. We were just good friends, since the beginning of the war." I lied.
"Yeah, like you're asking me because you were friends." I had forgot about his keen awareness when it came to detect lies. And I wasn't such a good liar in the end. "Spill it Skywalker."
I glanced around me and sighed. "I think we need to discuss this in private, just you and me."
There were bits of our story that weren't actually the best for her parents to hear.
"Use my study. And take your time." interjected Ruwee and guided the rest of the family towards the kitchen.
"Come now, we have a lot to talk about, even more than what we have done!" I stood up gingerly and headed to my father-in-law's private study. I made him sit on one of the armchair and I just leaned on the desk. Sitting down and standing up again would have been too much after that ruinous fall of half an hour before.
"So, Skywalker?" he leaned back and crossed his arms "What the hell are you hiding?"
"Listen Darrick, if you want to hate me after this, do it. The fact is that me and Senator Amidala are indeed good friends, but...well, we're even more than that."
"I gathered that." he nodded "But there's more am I right?"
Suddenly I felt a huge weight on my neck and sighed. "We married, almost ten years ago."
He remained silent for a moment. "And I guess that you're the father of her children."
Plain and simple, no hint of disgust in his voice like I had thought. Almost an empathic tone.
I nodded, not daring to speak. Suddenly I realized I had been clutching my bionic arm all the time since I had sat down at started talking about the Alliance with him and the muscles at the joint with the neural pad were aching. I tried to relax but all the calm I had found that morning while teaching Ryoo the basics of the Force was gone now, replaced by a feeling of anxiety I wasn't familiar with and it was making me uncomfortable.
"Alright. Congratulations Anakin! Unfortunately I can't help you. I don't really know where they are."
"Just get me in. Give me orders. Five me an engine of an old starfighter and I'll be happy. Anything just to be a pain in the ass of the Emperor. Even a minor sting!"
"I told you! As soon as you're ready to move and not limping like a crippled man head to Onderon and find a transportation for the Dxun moon! It's a jungle with an old Mandalorian settlement. We use it as a stocking area!" he threw me the datapad he'd been fumbling with as we talked. "There's the required coordinates and map of the area. Just head there and tell me that Master Kohr sent you. Give me a nickname, a covert identity and I'll provide you a new ID document. I'll send them here next week alright?" he explained.
"Alright. By the way, I won't be able to walk straight just in a week!" I laughed.
"But what the heck happened?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "A skirmish with the Empire. A gas tank exploded and a shrapnel hit me. Pretty bad."
"Always the smart one. One day Anakin, this behavior will lead you to a painful death! Listen, I'm sorry I can't help you finding your family but I'm just a recruiter. And it's hard work, let me tell you. If it were for me, I would already be out there slicing my way through the troopers, but we can't afford that now. My sister Alehan is trying to find any Force Sensitive child in the galaxy to start rebuilding the Order" Instantly I thought about Ryoo and what Sola had told me about letting her join the ranks of the Jedi. Thank the Force no one noticed she was Force sensitive. " We are a helpless organization with huge dreams and even bigger stakes. We have all to lose and not to much to hold on to. It's a crappy life Anakin, are you sure you want to join us?" he asked me.
I took a deep breath. "Are you sure you can afford not to have me in your ranks?" I asked then.
He sighed. "No, we can't. We need your saber. And we need your ability with war ships. And your ability as a tinker. Basically we need you, and you need us if you want to do something."
"Guess it's sealed then. We need each other, and if my identity remains hidden, we can all work together and get all the benefits. I can't afford the risk to reveal myself and have them killed, not after what I went through to save them. To save you all. I don't pretend to get to find them tomorrow."
"Well, now I guess I have to go. I promise I'll try to find you a better employment for you with time, but for now, we can't really do anything more than repair and possibly try to design a couple of starfighters for the future." he said standing up.
"Thank you Darrick. It's even more than what I could hope."
"Don't thanks me yet." he said hugging me again. I hugged him myself. "Do it when you get to Dxun and I'll bring more news. I'll try to get in touch with Senator Organa, he's the easiest to reach."
"You're doing far too much for me right now, considering the bad reputation I gathered during these years. I just hope someone will realize that the Empire is responsible for all of this, not the Jedi."
"I'm in the same situation. Each time I move, I fear someone from the war could recognize me and blow my covert. Now, create a blaster proof covert and try to hide as best as you can because your face was even more publicized than mine back in the days."
I walked him to the door. "I'll try. Make the IDs ready for Atton Rosh. I guess it will do."
"Atton like former killer that helped the Exile Jedi after the Mandalorian War?" he asked. He was a keen historian, he knew pretty much everything about history of the Jedi, even the Dark Times.
"Yep. Like that."
"Deal. You're in Anakin. Or I'll better say Atton."
"Thanks again Master Kohr. It was a pleasure to meet you again." I said as I opened the front door.
"No problem Atton. Be on that moon as soon as you're ok and the galaxy will thank you." then he walked down the garden towards the street. I would have saw him only a couple of months after that day.
I looked down at the datapad in my hand. I was in. I had just joined the organization soon to be really called Rebel Alliance. One step closer to my final mission.
Getting my family back together again.