AN: Hey guys! So, since this is the last update before the days, happy Hannukah, merry Christmas, happy any other holidays falling around now, and for those of you that don't have any, good luck pushing through all the Christmas bullshit that nobody shuts up about! Obnoxious, isn't it? It's what I celebrate and I can barely stand it. Anyways, happy holidays to all!

Anyways. So last chapter was loads of fun. This one is too, but less life and death drama. Mostly. It's set up.

Enjoy!

Part 2, Chapter 7: Gnashing Teeth

"Okay, so my credits are on them being a couple now." Neria said, nudging Anakin with a grin.

"Nah. They're probably still trying to spit it out." The younger boy replied, shrugging slightly.

The two were waiting in a hangar of the temple. Technically speaking, they were mostly just waiting for their ship to return, so that they could finish examining how it went. Meeting their friends as they arrived was just a side bonus. The most important thing was those sweet, sweet post-flight checks.

"Oh, there they are. Get ready to make some subtle inquiries as to the state of their relationship."

"Or we could just ask them whether they banged or not."

"...Where did you pick up language like that?"

"...Places."

The ship landed, and the ramp quickly came down. Instead of the expected greeting of both girls coming down and happily discussing their vacation (or possibly new relationship), the two mechanics were instead meeted with both exiting the ship in sullen silence, ignoring one another and simmering with silent anger. Neither of them bothered to greet their waiting friends, instead just exiting the hangar. By different doors no less.

"...The fuck?" Neria muttered, looking after where the two had left.

"So. I'm guessing they're not a couple."

Coltin had been enjoying the quiet weekend without any teenage padawans in the apartment. He had kept himself occupied with reading, meditating, and spending some time in the salles, working on his katas.

And definitely none of it was spent in irrational worry over his absent padawan. That would be ridiculous. Ha ha. Ha.

And at the moment, he was relaxing on the couch with a cup of tea and a datapad, waiting for his apprentice to arrive home. And the inevitable happy rambling that would follow.

The one good thing about her amnesia was that she was active more open with him lately. For however that made sense.

The door opened, and he got to his feet.

"Padawan! You're back! How was the weekend- what happened?"

Michelle had her jaw clenched tightly, and was practically giving off an aura of anger. And underneath that anger…

Pain. Emotional, thankfully, not physical. Still, this definitely required a master's intervention.

"Come on kiddo, talk to me, what's wrong?"

"I- and Zinnia- and she- with-" Michelle stammered out, punctuating the words with sharp gestures that were quickly aborted, as she tried to get the words out. Coltin waited patiently, projecting a sense of calm and safety at her.

And then she gave up on words entirely and broke down in tears.

Coltin's 'Respectable Jedi Master' aura went out the window in a heartbeat, in exchange for pulling her into a hug. Because Jedi serenity was all well and good, but sometimes you just needed to hug your crying kid. And while officially he was supposed to deny it… Michelle was very much Coltin's kid.

Yeah. He was pretty much the worst Jedi ever.

But, considering he was holding the closest thing he'd ever have to a kid, he was pretty okay with that.

It took a lot of crying and comforting, but eventually Coltin managed to get the full story out of her. Or, most of the story. It seemed to boil down to her and Zinnia getting together, and then breaking up on account of an argument.

Ah, to be a teenager again. There was a long list of thing Coltin would choose to go through over puberty again. Being thrown off a cliff and literally getting castrated were both on that list.

Still, the point remained, Michelle was upset and crying, and it was apparently Zinnia's fault. Which was unfortunate. For her.

Coltin mentally booked off the next day. He would be very busy engaging in the only possible response to someone hurting his padawan.

He would be having a talk with Zinnia's master. Quite possibly a violent one.

He was such a badass. Master of the year.

"Michelle! Hey!"

Michelle sighed, and turned around, Frankly, after the weekend she had had, she didn't even want to be outside of her room, but she had things to do, and Coltin was mysteriously absent on a mystery errand. She didn't even want to know.

Really, she had just gotten back the day before. How could he suddenly have something to do? Weird man.

"Hey guys. What is it?"

Seha and Isaac had been the ones to track her down, both looking to be various levels of concerned.

"So… we heard what happened from Neria, who heard from Zinnia… and, it sounded a little one sided. But from what we managed to gather… are you okay?" Isaac asked, clearly worried.

Michelle had a support group. Weird. Having friends was weird.

"Eh. I'm getting by. Look, I'm not really in a talking mood right now, can you guys… I don't know. Do this later? Or not at all? I've got stuff to do. By myself."

Michelle almost winced as she finished talking, realizing in hindsight that wow, that was fucking rude. She was a terrible friend. Just the worst.

Fortunately, Seha was good at being the bigger person. Both due to being physically larger, and also nicer than the others. Really, she was the best Jedi of the friend group. Council material maybe even.

"Alright, you take however much time you need. We're staying neutral on this, so if you need to talk, just come find either of us, okay? ...Also, I'd avoid Neria if I were you. She's… not thrilled. With you specifically. Yeah. Anyways, have a good day. And seriously, if you need anything, call me."

And with that, Seha gave Michelle a quick hug, and left. She had such good friends.

Isaac hung back a moment, looking mildly nervous, before leaning in towards Michelle.

"Just between you and me? I'm actually on your side. Don't tell Seha, she'll get that disappointed look? You know the one. It's awful. Thanks!"

And Isaac ran off after Seha, catching up to her down the hall and matching her pace.

Expressing support while also respecting her boundaries. Michelle's friends were so good. And she didn't even do the heavy lifting to get them at first. The benefits of bodyswapping.

And speaking of…

A quick mental poke confirmed the continued truth. Ketros was refusing to respond to Michelle.

Bitch.

Whatever. Michelle had a meeting to get to.

She finished walking to the Room of the Thousand Fountains, and after some wandering, spotted the person she was looking for, and sat down beside him.

"Hey Anakin. You would not believe the fucking weekend I had."

"Are you explaining why you were so pissy getting back? Cause I still haven't heard an explanation for that." Anakin said, sounding slightly resigned to the whole thing. The younger teenager looked relaxed, boots off and pants rolled up, feet dunked in the fountain he was sitting at. Michelle was fairly certain he wasn't supposed to be doing that, but frankly, it looked like a good idea to her. So, she quickly kicked off her own shoes and joined him.

"Okay so. In order. I got laid, I got a girlfriend, people tried to kill us, I stopped them, got into a screaming argument with the girlfriend, and now no longer have a girlfriend. Except for the part about getting laid, this all happened within the span of two hours."

"...Alright, I'll admit, that's more impressive than I was expecting. Damn. Do I want to know what the argument was about?"

"No. If you ask, I'm drowning myself."

"Fair enough. Wanna not talk about it?"

"Jesus, yes."

"...You keep saying that, who the hell is Jesus?"

"Uh- he's- um- it's hard to explain, don't ask. Long story. Ask about something else."

Anakin gave her a weird look, but shrugged, changing the conversation topic.

"Alright. Weirdo. I don't know… got any new conspiracy theories?"

"Moons aren't real. They're all government monitoring stations. Every last one of them. The more moons a planet has, the more they're watching." Michelle said, the response coming quickly and easily. Honestly, conspiracy theories were fun. And she had even more ammo to work with in a futuristic universe.

"...Huh. A lot of your theories can be blamed on the government, huh?"

"Totally. Government is responsible for everything except actually governing. Typical, right?"

Anakin snickered, and kicked some water at her leg. Naturally, she retaliated, and the two spent the next few minutes casually engaged in an epic splash fight to determine the fate of the galaxy. Or whoever had better aim, or stronger feet. Y'know. Equally important things.

The fight was ended by a master coming along, shooting both teenagers a sharp look, and effectively frightening them into submission. Jedi were good at death glares.

"Okay, that was scary. But seriously, you've got a lot of government theories. Like, that one about Palpatine being a Sith Lord? Come on." Anakin said, laughter in his voice.

Michelle snorted, and tipped her head back, mostly for the purpose of hiding any satisfaction on her face. She was fine with Anakin thinking it was all a joke, as long as he was thinking about it. Getting the idea stuck in his head was kind of what she was going for. Victory for Michelle.

"I appreciate that you're still thinking about it. That's a legitimate theory, tell your friends."

"Oh, I have! Hey, did you know, I actually know the Chancellor?"

Michelle felt a sudden spike of unease, but pushed it down.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! I told him about your theory, he thought it was pretty funny too!"

"...Did- did he now." Michelle forced out, in a strangled voice.

That would explain why the people had been trying to kill her.

Palpatine knew that she knew about him.

Fuuuuuck.

Michelle's reaction was pretty damn hilarious.

She had gone pale as a sheet, and was clearly frantically trying to keep her cool. Unfortunately for her, Anakin could see through the half assed attempt, and could tell that she was extremely freaked out at the fact that her crazy theory had been passed along to the man in question. Really, what did she expect?

Okay, she probably hadn't expected Anakin to be friends with the Chancellor. That was understandable. But in Anakin's professional opinion, she was overreacting a little.

"Don't worry, he's not mad or anything, he got that it was a joke." He tried, giving his best reassuring smile. She look distinctly un-reassured. Damn.

"That's all well and good but oh my god he knows- knows about my insane theory. Oh my god. Holy fuck."

"You have a weird way of swearing, has anyone ever told you that-"

"I'M STRESSED FUCK DAMN IT!"

Michelle's sudden yell seemed to have come out louder than she intended, and she turned bright red as multiple heads turned, and glares came from the people disturbed from a meditation, or just irritated with her for yelling.

"Maybe we should go right now before we get yelled at." Anakin suggested, quickly removing his feet from the fountain and shoving his boots back on.

"Good idea. Let's leave immediately and at a rapid pace, preferably in the opposite direction of that guy that I think is coming to yell at us." Michelle said with forced cheer, also replacing her shoes, and getting up. The two left at a very brisk pace, in the opposite direction of the master who was absolutely coming to yell at them.

...The incident was probably going to get back to Master Obi-Wan.

Damn it.

Well, all the more reason not to return to the apartment right away. And besides, Michelle had a look on her face like she was going to be worrying over the Chancellor hearing her conspiracy theory for the rest of the week, and he was pretty sure she had enough to be stressing about.

Fortunately, Anakin had a solution to both problems.

"Hey, so you know how the Chancellor's my friend?"

"...Yeah." Michelle said, dragging the word out slightly more than she needed to, suspicion clear in her voice.

"Well, I could probably arrange for you to meet him. To prove that he's not mad or anything. And you could even apologize, if it would make you feel better!"

There was a pause, and Michelle's face shifted into one of deep thought. Clearly, she was having some sort of internal debate with herself, although she continued to walk, matching pace with Anakin. Finally, she sighed.

"Well, might as well get it over with. Like ripping off a band aid. Sure, let's go see the Chancellor. Should be fun. In an 'I'm going to die horribly' sort of way." Michelle deadpanned, assuming the grim expression of someone walking to their execution.

Honestly, she was so dramatic sometimes.

AN: Hahaha THAT'S FOR A REASON ANAKIN. SHE IS QUIETLY FRIGHTENED FOR HER LIFE.

Fortunately for Michelle, Anakin being in the dark about everything works both ways. He might have revealed her to Palpatine, but he's also passed it on to her that he knows. So Michelle… doesn't have an advantage, but at least she's approaching even footing.

Well, not that either. But now she gets a chance to try and talk Palpatine into not killing her. So that's fun.

Epic showdown next chapter!

Fun fact: The Michelle Palpatine showdown was actually the first scene ever written for this. Like, back before I did P1 Ch1, or even got anywhere on the outline. It just… demanded to be written. It's a good scene. And means that part of the work for next chapter is already done!

Honestly, this part is turning out shorter than I expected. I don't think that's going to be a problem in the future, because all the other parts REALLY go long. Like, come part five, the chapter outlines are all big paragraphs, and I've got a 1000 word scene written already that covers one short sentence for one. It's gonna get looong.

But for now, we're a little short. Whatever. It happens.

See you all Tuesday! And again, happy holidays!

Also, just so you know. At one point, I seriously considered writing 'The Displacement Holiday Special', and it was going to be just as much of a nightmare as you'd think. Instead, I decided that I really didn't have the time, and scrapped the idea before it hit the outlining stage. You're welcome.