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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: PARTNERS AND PRESSURE

It had been, as usual, a very awkward dinner. Although Luke did notice that Han seemed slightly more comfortable around Anakin, tensions were just as high as ever. Leia's clear displeasure at not knowing what it was that Luke and his father were keeping from her was very clear. Even Lila seemed a little on edge. All in all, Luke was very glad when dinner ended and they all retreated to their quarters.

He crashed down on his bed with a moan before sitting up again and grabbing his holo-pad. He took a deep breath to clear the stress dinner had created and was about to start writing again when he felt a familiar cool touch on his shoulder. Luke looked up to see his father standing over him, a chillingly serious look on his face. "What is it?" Luke asked, although he already had a few suspicions.

Anakin sat down next to him and closed his eyes. "We need to tell Leia."

While it was just as Luke predicted, his insides felt as though they had frozen over. Even if he was the one to tell her, he doubted her reaction would be a little less than ideal. She hated Anakin, not to mention she had a very fiery temper. Luke didn't want to imagine what would happen if, or rather, when she found out. "I know," he answered. "I should be the one to do it."

"I agree," Anakin said. Then he frowned. "Luke, there's something else I need to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Lila knows," Anakin answered.

"Lila knows? How? When did she find out?" Luke knew she would have to find out eventually, but he had imagined it after Leia knew, maybe even with the Princess telling her, but now? This was definitely a surprise. Maybe that's why she'd been so uncomfortable at dinner.

"Last night she came in here asking me about why we reacted like the way we did that morning with Yoda. She did save our skins. So, I told her," Luke's father explained.

"Okay…" Luke said. He wasn't really upset that Lila knew, just surprised. And maybe a little worried, too. She and Leia were close. He knew that her having to keep a secret from her friend would be incredibly stressful for her.

Anakin sighed and touched Luke's shoulder again. "You should get some rest. We can tell her… after training tomorrow," he suggested.

Luke nodded. "Alright. I think I actually will try to get some sleep tonight." As much as he didn't want to. Still, if he had to tell Leia about her birth family tomorrow, being well rested might be good idea.

"You mean you're not gonna stay up all night writing? Yeah, sounds like a plan," Anakin teased, showing his snarky side, but also probably just trying to turn they're conversation to something less stressful.

"You know, they say that you actually write better at night," Luke retorted with a small smile. He'd heard it somewhere, although he wasn't sure if it were true or not.

"That's great, Luke. Now get some sleep," Anakin replied as he got up and lay down on his bead, kicking off his boots and sliding of his gloves, revealing his metal limbs.

Luke lay down and closed his eyes as Anakin shut off the light. Tomorrow Leia would find out. I've got a bad feeling about this, he thought to himself.


"Ow!" Han yelled as he pulled his hand away from the ever-moody alluvial damper that Chewie's diagnostic had revealed was malfunctioning (again). It was around 0100 last time Han had checked. Chewie had given up around two-and-a-half hours ago, leaving Han alone to try and repair it.

He sighed. This thing always seemed to want to cause trouble, so much so that it was typically one of the first of the ship's systems he suspected when the Falcon stopped working. Luckily, they'd caught it before they'd tried to go into hyperspace again. Still, this time around it was being extra difficult, and Han could not guarantee he could fix it. Maybe it was because it had been hit when they were making their rough landing, maybe it was because it just wanted to pick on Han. He couldn't tell.

Suddenly an idea come into his mind. A crazy, idiot idea, but an idea. Maybe—

No. No way was he going to invite him to tinker with his ship. No way. But still…

It was probably just because he was so sleep deprived, but Han soon found himself at the door of Luke and Anakin's quarters, quietly knocking on the door.

I am I really doing this? Maybe he just wouldn't answer. Then Han could go to bed and come back tomorrow. Yeah, he liked that. Get some rest then look at the project from a fresh angle. It wasn't like he had—

"It's the middle of the night. What are you doing?" came a very drowsy voice.

Han jumped a little as he looked over to see Anakin Skywalker standing in the doorway, the scars under his eyes joined by dark circles. "Uh…" he answered. "It's nothing."

"What broke?"

"The alluvial damper."

"Lemme see," Anakin moaned as he disappeared into his quarters, his mechanical limbs whirring as he moved. He came back wearing his black boots and gloves, as well as his white tunic. "Come on," he said, still sounding slightly miffed at being woken up so early, as he brushed passed Han and headed for the repair bay.

Han followed cautiously, regretting this already. Once they entered, Han said, "The alluvial damper is right… over… there…" but Anakin had already seemed to have found it on his own.

"Yeah. Thanks. Got it," he grumbled as he crouched down, placed his hand on his chin, and stared at the machinery. It didn't take him long to start shaking his head. He turned back to Han. "This is bad," he assessed.

"Well I figured out that much…" Han remarked. Although hearing it coming from the man who had fixed his supposedly unfixable power converters, it was a bit alarming to hear him say that. "Can you fix it?"

Anakin gave a very worrying expression. "I sure hope so, but I make no promises." He sighed. "Here goes nothing."

And suddenly, Han's tool box was skidding across the floor from where he'd left it. How in the universe did he do that?

"I guess you've never seen anyone use the Force before," Anakin guessed with an amused smirk (he was smirking?) as he grabbed one of the tools started tinkering with the tech.

"You honestly believe in that kind of stuff?" Han asked. Although he had heard stories about Jedi being able to move things with their mind, he had never really thought it was possible. Though that might be changing soon.

Anakin looked back over at him, half smirking, half frowning. The overall effect made him look very smug. "Yes," he answered, casually levitating a wrench.

Han's jaw dropped and he hated himself for it. He promptly closed it. "Huh. I never knew Jedi could actually do that."

The smirk disappeared from Anakin's face. "I'm not a – I'm not anymore," he stuttered, letting the tool fall. He caught it in his hand and continued his work.

"Not a… what?" Han asked, getting slightly confused.

"A Jedi, okay!" Anakin snapped. Han tensed. It was just because he was tired, and he wasn't going to lose his temper and go on a killing spree to get it all out of his system, right? Right?

"Okay. Yeah. Got it," Han replied. Then he remembered what Anakin had said to him the last time they had been together and how much he sounded like he'd truly meant it. Surprising himself once again, Han took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down a bit. "So, uh, need any help," he asked as he knelt down next Anakin, hoping to change to subject, as well as that his temper had cooled.

Anakin sighed. "Yeah that might be nice," he muttered. "Here, take this—" he handed Han a pair of clamps "—and squeeze that—" he pointed to one of the tubes inside the the damper.

"I see what you're up too," Han said, doing as instructed. Anakin used his wrench to unscrew something, and suddenly a white gas blew out of the machine, making them both pull back immediately, squeezing their eyes shut as they covered their mouths and noses, and coughing as some of the smoke entered they're lungs.

Anakin cursed, sounding very hoarse. "That wasn't supposed to happened," he said once they were clear of the small cloud that was now forming, alarms blaring in the background. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Han said, sounding slightly better than Anakin, whose partially cybernetic lungs were probably not doing as great a job of filtering the toxins as Han's fully natural ones were. "We should probably close that up before it floods the ship." They did have air masks, but Han doubted Anakin would want to put one of those on. Hopefully he wouldn't need to.

"Got any bonding tape?" Anakin asked, sounding slightly better, but still not great.

"Yeah, but it's in my tool box," Han explained, gesturing to it, still under the quickly growing cloud of smoke. "Uh – could you do that magic for thing again and get that thing back over here?"

"Yeah," Anakin said with a nod. He closed his eyes and stretch out his gloved hand. Then he opened one eye again. "For the record, it's not magic," he informed Han.

"Yeah, whatever. Just get my tool box," Han retorted as he crossed his arms.

Anakin rolled his eyes, then closed both of them again. Soon enough, the tool box was racing across the floor, right toward Han, like a loyal anooba eagerly scampering toward its master. Maybe a little too eagerly, as the metal object slammed right into the toe of his boot. "Ow!" he exclaimed.

Then he looked over at Anakin who had a satisfied smirk on his face. "That was for calling the Force, 'magic.' Although I did hit you harder than I intended to. So, sorry about that."

"Yeah sure ya did," Han muttered to himself. He bent down and grabbed the yellow colored tape as well as a pair of goggles and some mouth and nose protection. Then he got on his hands and knees and, holding his breath, crawled into the cloud.

Once he located the leak he ripped off a strip of the tap and wrapped it around the tube it was coming from. The gas stopped, and as the cloud dissipated, the alarms went off.

Han pulled off the protection and peered into the alluvial damper, trying to figure out what had gone wrong, or if there were indications of further damage. To his surprise, he could find neither. "You're not gonna believe this," Han muttered.

"What?" Anakin said, crouching down next to him. However, his eyes widened as he saw what Han had. "It's fixed," he murmured, looking over at the fellow mechanic. Then a smirk grew across his face.

Han felt his muscles stretch as well into a crooked grin. "Ha! We did it!" He stood up, Anakin along side him and the two of them triumphantly high-fived, clasping each other's hands, grinning like boys. "No wonder the alluvial damper's been so moody lately. That thing's probably been leaking like that for months," Han assessed.

"But it's so deep in the system that you just didn't realize it until now!" Anakin finished. Then he looked back down at the machine. "You should probably have that thing replaced soon."

"Plus, any components damaged by the gas that I haven't replaced already," Han added. Then he smirked a little. "You know, you're pretty good."

Anakin smiled. "You too." Suddenly a yawn escaped him. "I guess I should probably get some rest."

"Alright, old man," Han remarked.

Anakin tensed. "I'm not. That. Old," he repeated. "I'm just tired because you woke me up so early."

"Hey! Would you have preferred a ship with a faulty hyperdrive?" Han retorted.

"No, but you're smart. You'd have figured it out." Suddenly he tensed for some reason. Then he took a deep breath. "Look, good night, okay?"

Han frowned. Anakin clearly looked like he had something unpleasant on his mind. "Night," he said, deciding not to ask.


"Today, practice lightsaber combat, we will," Master Yoda said. "Skywalker, help teach them, perhaps you will?"

Lila looked over at Anakin to see that at Yoda's words he'd tensed. She understood why he didn't think he deserved to be Jedi anymore, as much as she disagreed with it, but he almost seemed to react worse to the thought of teaching someone. What? Did he think a student would slow him down or something?

Anakin then looked over at Lila, an almost fearful expression on his face. She gave him her best encouraging smile. She had a feeling he'd be a good teacher, and was eager to see him in action again. Besides, maybe if he gave it a chance he might feel more open to it.

Anakin turned back to Yoda and gave a heavy sigh that gave Lila the feeling that there was something more to his reluctance to teach. "Alright," he said, his tone making it sound like he had just agreed to deliver a eulogy. He took a deep breath, and for the quickest moment, Lila thought she felt something like grief coming from him, but she was new to this ability, so she might be just misreading it. Then he stood. "I'll be right back. You two are gonna need lightsabers." He walked off and into the jungle around them, soon disappearing into the mist and undergrowth.

Lila looked over at Luke in confusion, but he just shrugged. Did lightsabers grow on trees? She highly doubted that was the case, but then why else would he be tromping off into the woods?

She soon got her answer when Anakin came back carrying a very long stick that was nearly two meters in length. Tossing the stick up in the air, he quickly drew his lightsaber, its vibrant humming filling the air, and sliced it into two, lightsaber sized halves.

"Wow," Luke breathed, his eyes wide at Anakin's stunt.

Lila grinned. "Show off," she remarked

Anakin said nothing to their reactions as he bent down and picked up the "lightsabers," but when he handed Lila her stick he gave her a surprisingly sad smile.

However, she did get the chance to ask as Anakin walked in between the two of them and took another deep breath. He began: "There are several lightsaber technics, some of them offensive, others defensive, others still are a mix of the two." He paused, as if thinking over what to do next. He seemed to make up his mind, but said nothing. Instead, he just looked between Luke and Lila, the look on his face seemed as though he were about to choose one of them to be sacrificed.

"Lila, assistance Master Skywalker—" Anakin flinched "—needs," Yoda said, seemingly giving Anakin a helping hand. Although it was clear he didn't like being called "Master Skywalker."

Lila nodded. "Okay," she said softly. She got up and stood across from Anakin. She examined his stance and tried to copy it as best she could, holding her "lightsaber" at her side like he was.

For a split second, Anakin gave her such a heartbroken look that it made Lila start a little. However, he soon swallowed it with the shake of his head. "Uh… r-right," he muttered to himself. He tried to muster a smile but Lila could very easily tell it wasn't at all genuine. He retracted his lightsaber and attached it to his belt. Then he turned to Luke. "Can I see your stick?" he asked.

"Yeah sure," Luke answered, handing Anakin the practice weapon, his voice filled with concern for his father. Anakin took the stick and held it in a very well-rehearsed, but half-hearted stance. "T-try to… to deflect…"

Suddenly he almost angrily tossed the stick several feet away from himself. "I can't do this, Master Yoda," he said, his voice holding the pain of something Lila couldn't understand. Then he looked over at her, with the same expression on his face as before. "I'm sorry," he said to her as he turned away and walked back in the direction of the Falcon.

What was that all about? Lila wondered, but chose not to voice it out loud.

So much for getting to see Anakin teach.

Yoda had ended up finishing the lesson after Anakin had left, and although learning about Form One was very interesting, Luke had been excited to see what his father would've done.

But the time to worry about that wasn't now. As Luke walked up the Falcon's ramp, he knew he had other, more important things to worry about. It was time to tell Leia about who her birth father was.

:3

MUHAHAHAHAHA! (don't kill me)

I remember writing that and just being like, "Should I? Should I?" Obviously I went for it.

Also, the part where Luke says that he heard somewhere that people write better at night actually comes from me. I heard it somewhere, and don't know if it's true. I don't write at night (unless I wake up at 4 a.m. and I'm just like, "I MUST WRITE!" which has happened once or twice), so I couldn't really say from experience. Although, if anyone knows for sure, let me know! I'm curious!

In other news, over the weekend, I finished Lost Stars! It's so good, and I loved the ending so much! It also gave me a few insights for Memories, actually...

*SPOILERS FOR LOST STARS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!*

Ciena and Nash were totally the ones who shot down Anakin over Veritas. Being such good pilots it just makes sense. Ronnadam would have probably took them aside and told them they would be going after a "defector." No questions asked.

*SPOILERS OVER!*

NEXT CHAPTER: Oh boy. Uhhhh... well Leia finds out! And reacts...

May the Force be with you!

-CWN