Epilogue

"I don't like it."

Padmé turned to her husband and smiled. "Of course you don't, my love. But I am a diplomant, and you're not."

Anakin grumbled. "I still don't. Not on Tatooine."

"Olin and Obi-Wan will be going with me, we'll be fine."

"Hrm."

She couldn't help the grin as she reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. "Oh hush, you."

Anakin grinned in return. "I love you."

"I know." she said. They kissed.

Padmé picked up her back and walked over to the shuttle, with Anakin watching until Olin stepped to his side.

"I'll take care of them, Anakin. I promise."

Turning towards the other Jedi, Anakin smiled wearily. "I know that. It's just that I'd rather see her go to Coruscant than Tatooine, and if something happened to her, it would destroy me."

But then he registered what Olin had said. "Wait, how..."

Olin laughed. "She told me, Anakin! Besides, there's more than one Force presence around her. It's barely there, but if you know what to look for. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Are you certain the Galaxy can take a fifth Skywalker?"

"I hope so, Ferrus, I really, truly hope so."

"Nothing will happen."

Anakin watched his wife disappear into the shuttle and sighed. "I know that, and I appreciate it, Ferrus."

He turned and placed his hand on Olin's shoulder. "Thank you."

Anakin walked back to where Ahsoka was waiting, before watching the shuttle depart.

"So, what's now?" his former Padawan asked.

"Now I go eat something, then home to mope in my living room before picking up my children to spend some quality time with them. You know how they are when one of us has to leave when they can't see us off."

"I know, Skyguy."

Anakin sighed and then couldn't help but laugh. "I'd be doomed without the two of you, you know that, right?"

"Of course I do."

A growling noise was heard.

"Force, you really are hungry, aren't you, Master?"

"Be silent, young one." Anakin replied with a grin. "Really, however did your Master ever put up with your snippiness?"

She shrugged. "Eh, he managed."

He laughed again. "Come on, Snips. I'll let you invite me, in exchange for all the trouble you got me into."

"By that logic you should be getting Master Kenobi dinner to the day he dies, then."

More laughter.

"May your Padawan just as bad!"

They had openly stolen the ship and the supplies that were on it.

Plenty of small freighters were waiting to be disposed of by Republic contacts in the settled galaxy, and ideally they would not actually miss this small Sullustan ship, at least long enough for the fleeing former members of the Order being far enough away to not be found.

Officially none of them had permission to leave the planet, but at least they had all resigned from the Order by turning in their lightsabres. They all had replacements or components to build a new one, but the gesture had to be made.

That had been eight weeks ago, and now they were deep enough in the Unknown regions to be essentially unfindable, especially with the series of random jumps they had made.

Deciding to simply pack up and leave Weitun hadn't been easy, but the call had been made for them when the Council had supported Republic leadership in their misguided efforts to secure a temporary alliance with Jabby the Hut. After that it had taken only a week more of planning and selecting a ship, along with another week of gathering the supplies. For all the issues they had with the Jedi Order, leaving it behind hadn't been easy for any of them. For all of them the Jedi had been home since they were babies, and they had taken considerable time to come to the conclusion that leaving was their only chance at serving the Force in the true way.

The idea to do so had first been floated only days after the Council had relaxed the old Code, but back then they had all hoped to reverse the changes. Of course the Skywalkers had turned themselves into the darlings of the Order and the Republic, so getting anyone to realize that their way was false and untrue to the Force was a task that could only end in failure.

So they surrendered their swords and left. They had no idea if there had been any serious attempt to bring them back, but in the end they didn't really care.

The pilot, a Bothan female, checked her sensor scopes for any sort of place where they could settle down. It wasn't as if they were deep enough to avoid the Republic permanently.

What they needed was an uninhabited planet that they would colonize, but not that far away that they could not seek out further Force sensitives. But looking for a place to stock up their perishables such as plain water were never unneeded, so she kept checking her displays.

Because of this, she saw the ship as soon as it emerged from hyperspace.

Quickly alerting the others, she slowed down and began a slow approach course, mostly because the sensor readings were unlike anything she had ever seen.

BY the time the unofficial leadership of their group had reached the small bridge, they were easy within sight range.

"What is it?" someone asked.

She motioned at the ship.

"You tell me, Kiran. This is unlike anything I have ever even heard about."

He looked up and saw that she was right. The ship looked... almost like a Alderaanian whale, except that it was of a yellowish base colour and had a series of black spots all over the hull. Somehow, it worried him, even though the freighter was unarmed and they posed no threat to anyone. Still.

"Get the Navicomputer warmed up."

"Yes."

"Send them a message too."

The message was sent out almost immediately, identifying them as a group of peaceful Jedi colonists.

No reply was received.

"You know what, I think that ship is... somehow, alive. There is something... not quite a Force signature, but it's not dead matter. I can't explain it."

She didn't have to, because by now they all felt it.

The ship, or whatever it was, came closer until it hovered above them.

"Get us out of here!"

The Force rippled with danger around them.

Without needing orders, the pilot turned the ship around and firewalled the engines, but even as she did that, she knew that there was little she could do, and by the time the fighters were launched from the other ship, the Jedi freighter had barely made it out of tractor beam range.

The first blaster bolt impacted their weak shields, and minutes later, there was nothing left but an expanding cloud of debris.

The End (For now)

Final notes:

These too were supposed to be their own chapter, but these too wouldn't work out as single entries. Before you ask, originally I was also going to describe their leaving more, but as much as I tried to write that part, I couldn't get it to work, so I jumped to this one. And what I've done with all this is to doom myself to actually get and read a certain series of novels I swore I'd never touch...

Aaaaanyhoows, I don't know when I'll get started on Episode IV, mostly because I have some work-related stuff to do in my supposed time off, but expect at least the title crawl in at most two weeks. Until then so long, thanks for all the fish and may the Force be with you.