AN: Having gotten a very lax response to whether to post location/time, I don't think I'll go back and fix anything. Let me know if you have an opinion on any of it.
TriGemini gets Wookiee Cookies because she's the only one who remembered(and posted, as I'm sure everyone else remembers) the scene in ANH that Luke and Han were teasing Leia about.
Teresa:The future that Cedric is seeing is both possible, and likely, though, like so many things, is not certain. Yoda would say to him, "Careful you must be when sensing the future. Difficult to see the future is. Always in motion, it is. Certain it never is."
Chapter 28
Bespin, Landing Platform 21, Millennium Falcon, 39:6:3, eighteenth hourLeia nervously tucked her lightsaber into the extra material that gathered at the waist of the modified robes she was wearing. Her husband was ready, and everyone else was nearly so. She took a deep breath, and nodded to Han. She was ready.
He pressed the button that lowered the ramp; as it hit the ground, they started to file out. There was no one near the platform, surprisingly. Lando had spoken briefly with the ship, long enough to confirm that it was Han was about all. The Flight Control had seemed in favor of shooting them from the sky when they'd sort of refused to give any sort of identification.
Once everyone was out, and the ramp was closed back up, she heard familiar footsteps, and turned to see Lando coming down to meet them, with a couple of droids following him. Leia glanced nervously at Han and Luke, but they seemed at least outwardly not to be concerned about the droids. "Han, glad you could finally make it down. How are the kids?"
"They're fine, staying with their grandparents."
"Hey, you did say something about your father-in-law coming, didn't you?"
"He backed out on us last minute, but we haven't been off Coruscant except to go home in ages, so we came anyway."
"Ah, well, you're still welcome here, you scoundrel, especially when you bring such beautiful women," Lando said, bringing his attention to Leia. She rolled her eyes at him. He'd tried to get her to like him before. It hadn't worked, in either universe.
She mustered up every bit of diplomacy she possessed, and said, "I'm glad to see you again, Lando. I hope you can forgive me for what happened the last time that I was here," the fact that it had been two years, and he bloody well deserved the lightsaber to the throat meant little now.
"Of course," he said. "Think nothing of it."
"So," Han started, asking the question on everyone's mind. "What's with the tin cans?"
Lando looked around behind him, as though he were surprised. "Oh, these. Security. We've been having so many problems with piracy here on Cloud City that it's become necessary to have a constant show of force around to dissuade certain people. You know how it is. So what about you? Who all did you bring?"
"Well, Leia you know, and Aayla," he said, indicating the Twi'lek Master. "Leia's brother and sister, and a good friend of the family, this is Ash," Han waived his hand, indicating the Kel Dor.
"I am pleased to meet you," Ash said with a small bow.
"Friend of the family? How long have you been friends?" Lando asked casually.
"Since we were four. We have been in school together since we started." Ash answered.
"You and Leia?" Ash nodded. There was no reason to add to the suspicions of the droids by indicating that Luke and Leia were twins. "Well, any friend of Leia's is a friend of mine. You are welcome here for as long as you'd like to stay," Lando said to the group as a whole.
Chewie growled a greeting at Lando. "You too, big guy. I could never forget about you."
Chewie replied with something that sounded suspiciously like, 'see that you don't,' to Leia.
Lando started to head off in the direction of the main city. "Well, I have a couple of rooms that you can stay in. Nothing fancy, mind you, but nice enough. If you'll follow me?"
They all headed off in that direction and Lando acted as though he had been inspired, "If you aren't too tired, you can take a tour of the facility. It's really improved since the last time that you were here."
"That would be great," Luke said, speaking up for the first time. She noticed then that, while Jasmine was wide-eyed and curious, she still was practically glued to Luke's side. He didn't seem to mind, though.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Healers' Wing
Celia was working through some problems that her math teacher had given for homework. She didn't often leave school with homework; since dedicating herself to healing, she had little personal time, and even less time for things like homework. She usually finished her work quickly, and accurately; she had higher marks than even Cedric. Not that any of her siblings were slouches, but there were degrees of dedication to schoolwork among the Skywalker Clan.
"What are you up to now, Padawan?" her master asked as she walked into her office.
"Homework. I didn't get it all done at school, so I thought that I could finish it up now," she said, looking up from where she had arranged herself on the couch.
"That's fine, but why didn't you get it finished?" she asked.
"I'm not really sure. I guess I've been a bit distracted lately," Celia admitted.
"I can certainly understand that, but why haven't you come and talked to me about it?" Stass asked as she sat down next to Celia.
"I don't think I realized it until today," she said as she set her datapad down on the table next to her.
"What's going on, then?"
"I think I'm worried."
"About what?"
"Cedric."
"What about Cedric has you worried?"
"He's…been different. He doesn't talk to me."
"I see. Have you talked to him about it?"
Celia started examining her toes very carefully. "I quit trying a while ago, for the most part. I tried to talk to him a few weeks ago, but he just shut me out. He had a dream that woke him the other night, but he didn't want to talk much about it, either."
"This doesn't sound like you. You don't let things go like this. Or has my most stubborn Padawan decided to change her stripes?" Master Allie asked lightheartedly, but Celia knew she was terribly worried.
"It hurts to watch him hurt, but it hurts more to think that he doesn't trust me with this. I think it almost hurts more that Luke and Dad can pry this out of him and I can't."
"I think Luke has some authority with Cedric that you don't, and Anakin definitely does. And he is getting to the age where most boys have some things that they don't want to talk about except with other boys."
"I know, Master, but it doesn't hurt any less."
"When you last talked to him, did you try talking, or did you confront him?" Stass asked her, and she thought about it for a moment.
Celia swallowed hard. "I suppose he would have seen it as confrontational."
"You, of course, didn't, because you were doing what you were doing out of love."
"Yes, Master," she admitted sheepishly.
"So, maybe if you toned it down a bit, he might be more responsive."
"I'll try that, Master. Thank you," she said, turning back to her homework.
"I don't like seeing you troubled. It's my job to see that you grow in your understanding of yourself so that you can better help others."
"So why does Cedric have to be so hard-headed?"
"I've asked you the same question, my Padawan. Tenacity is a good trait."
She hung her head in defeat. "I'll blame Daddy for that one."
"Your mother is no less stubborn. I think you get this quality from both of them in equal measure."
"I suppose so, Master."
"He wouldn't be the same person if he were not, do not forget that."
Surprise crossed her face as she considered the ramifications of him not being stubborn. "I don't think I would like that."
"He has worked very hard to make it work for him, rather than against him, but he is still just as stubborn as you are."
"I agree, Master. I'll talk to him. Maybe he'll talk about this dream some more."
"That might be a good place to start," her master agreed, and she patted her on the knee, and left her so that she could finish her homework.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Skywalker Central
Anakin felt dread as he approached the time he normally went to bed. It wasn't exactly something he was conscious of, but more of a sensation that crept up on him until he was finally aware that it had settled itself deep inside him. He sighed, trying to dismiss the sensation as much as he could. The problem was that he really didn't feel like dealing with the increasingly disturbing nightmares. Don't let Jae be alone, Jasmine's words came back to him. He cursed silently. This was the reason that she'd said it. He would have been willing to forgo sleep for as long as necessary to keep the nightmares away. He'd done it before. He hadn't slept more than about one night a week for his first two years as Vader, and not much more than two nights in a week after that.
Peaceful sleep had been something that had eluded him for most of his life. Happy moments where everything was right with the universe were few and far between, and very precious to the now-redeemed Sith Lord. He stood in his common room still torn by the decision as to whether he wanted to go bury himself in work on a droid, or go to bed.
He sighed and turned toward the bedroom. Padmé had already gone to sleep. He gently laid his hand against her stomach, and felt one of the twins kicking at his hand. If someone had told him even the day before the Battle of Endor that he would have a chance to start again, and that three months down the road, he would be an expectant father, and he would be living, though it had problems of its own, what was essentially a dream, he would have laughed, telling them that they were crazy.
The twins quieted as he sent reassurance and love in their direction, something that he remembered doing with each of his children, carefully considered or not. He loved each of his children, whether they'd been expected or not. Fully half of them had not been. Especially Jaedrea. Jasmine had been the one he'd seen in visions, bright yet terrible. Jae and Jul hadn't even been so much as a blip on his radar. Maybe that was a good thing. I think that if Padmé and I had known the full score, it might have changed our opinion of things. He sighed, changed into sleep pants, and crawled into bed. Still asleep, Padmé rolled over onto her other side, snuggling into him. She fit so perfectly in his arms, it made him remember why he'd done all of this. Why he even wanted to live after all the horrors he'd seen in what felt like two lifetimes. She softened all the hard edges inside him, and just by being there, she made him stronger. Where would I be without you, Angel? he wondered, And how did I survive so many years without you? he asked himself, wrapping his arms around her, and surrendering himself to the tortures of sleep.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Kenobi Quarters
Jaedrea felt the weird way that she always felt in her Vader dreams. She shook her head, trying to clear the sensation, but it wouldn't go. She accepted it as part of the dream, and examined her surroundings. It was a hallway, but not in the black place, it was somewhere else. The person she was in the dream was in a hurry. Vader, I'm going to see Vader, she noted. She knew other things; Vader had been injured by Kenobi, this was why he was the way he was, and who-she-was was satisfied by the outcome of recent events, at least for the most part.
She turned then, to go into a room. It was an operating theater. She hadn't known that term prior to that moment. There was a person lying on the operating table; burns covered the whole of his body, and he didn't have any of his limbs. He was in terrible pain, both from the burns, which were not being treated, and from the things that the droids around him were doing to him. A memory, one of her own this time, flooded through her mind, nearly blocking the dream from her. "You've got a fake arm, like Daddy does," she said to the cloaked figure of Vader. They were standing in a shadowy, dark, dank, nasty place, with lightsabers drawn.
"All of my limbs have been replaced by cybernetics, young one. The price of my arrogance was my vitality."
"What will be the price of mine?" she asked, confused.
"I do not know the answer to that, Skywalker. I do not readily see the future, but if you continue down this path toward the dark side, everything that you have or do love will die," he said, and she remembered the terribly trapped feeling that what he said gave her. "The next time that I see you, it will not be a pleasant experience."
"And this has been?" she yelled at him, arrogant defiance the only emotion she could identify in her own voice.
"Oh, yes. This has been an incredibly pleasant visit. I have yet to hurt you, and that could be oh, so easily accomplished, since the Jedi have tied you up and put a bow on you the way that they have," Vader said, a gloved finger tracing her jaw line, making her shiver violently. She remembered the fear she had had of him that day.
The memory stopped as suddenly as it had started. He wasn't dead. He was very much alive, and very much after her.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Kenobi Quarters
Obi-Wan woke to nauseating inner turmoil. He blocked it out momentarily as he found his bearings. Help me, Master, came Anakin's unmistakable tone.
He went to see what was happening with Jaedrea, for it had seemed that waking one would wake the other. The images he was receiving were disturbing him, if for no other reason than he knew Jaedrea was likely seeing them as well. For that matter, now that he'd thought of it, he was distinctly getting images from her. Anakin had once described the reconstruction of Darth Vader to Shmi, and he'd only given her the most, bare-bones, terse explanation that she would let him get away with. He'd never mentioned it again, but now he was reliving it. With as much physical pain as Mustafar had put him through, this had to have been at least ten times worse. Somehow, though, he seemed to be dealing with it better. It was only physical pain. There was no emotional pain to go along with it. Obi-Wan was willing to bet that if he asked Anakin which hurt more, Anakin would have said Mustafar.
Obi-Wan stepped into Jaedrea's room, and he tried to shake her awake, but it did no good. Physical proximity to her brought more detailed images, and the utter rejection and revulsion at the satisfaction that Sidious was projecting as a part of this replayed memory. Her anguish and sorrow at what Vader had been required to endure at Sidious's hand came to him clearly, easily. He began to wonder how Sidious was affecting her, and if he could somehow find a way to block that, as he waited for the dream to end.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Skywalker Central
Anakin felt as though he had hit a wall of awareness, and a painful one at that. He was suddenly, fully, and clearly Vader, just after Mustafar, just after his fight with Obi-Wan, just before the droids started the surgery to make him into the Masked Terror that had haunted the galaxy for twenty-three years. Pain. He was not in pain, he was pain. There was no coherent thought, no feeling, no love, no hate. But there was pain. And then there was another kind of pain. Pain in sympathy to his, and it took him what felt like forever to finally figure out where it was coming from. Jaedrea. This pain was Jaedrea's pain, not his, though it made him hurt like nothing else that she was hurting, and the remembered pain bled off into the Force. Help me, Master, the thought came. It was the same thought he had been thinking on that long ago day, but now he thought it for an entirely different reason, and to an entirely different person. The pain slammed back into him, leaving him gasping. The torture was nearly enough to make him feel hatred welling up inside him for his former Master. You are better than this, Anakin. You are stronger than he is. Jaedrea, love, and kindness are your strengths. The voice sounded vaguely like Obi-Wan's, though it was only one he heard inside his head. He'd heard it many times over his life, whether or not he'd been anywhere around Obi-Wan or not. It was, he supposed, his conscience, the wisdom distilled from Obi-Wan's teachings.
"My Lord, the construction is finished ... he lives," he heard vaguely, tinny, as the pain abated to a more tolerable level.
"Good. Good," Palpatine's voice said as the table he was laying on started to move him upright. "Lord Vader, can you hear me?"
"Yes, My Master," he said, looking around. "Where is Padmé? Is she safe, is she all right?"
"I'm afraid she died…it seems in your anger, you killed her," Palpatine replied.
"I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt her! She was alive! It's impossible! No!!!" the scream, the feelings he put into it, the denial of the untruth of the statement were just as strong as the day he'd first uttered the words.
The tone of the dream changed suddenly. Jaedrea had been released, but he was still trapped for a moment longer. Palpatine's face changed to one of his more evil-looking sneers. "You should remember your place, Lord Vader," he said, and the dream dissolved. He woke in a cold sweat, gasping as though he were a fish out of water.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Kenobi Quarters
Jaedrea looked up at the reconstruction again. Not much had changed, except that he looked more like the black figure she'd come to know so well. A medical droid came up to her, and said, "My Lord, the construction is finished ... he lives."
"Good. Good," the voice of who-she-was said. Something happened as she moved closer to the table, and it started to stand him upright. "Lord Vader, can you hear me?"
"Yes, My Master," he said, looking around. "Where is Padmé? Is she safe, is she all right?"
"I'm afraid she died…it seems in your anger, you killed her," the words sounded so sincere, but she could feel the true emotions behind them somehow, and knew the truth. Whoever it was that she was supposed to be only cared whether he thought she was dead, because that would make him stronger in the Dark Side. She felt sorry for the manipulation that Darth Vader was enduring, for the Dark Lord had known very well that at that moment, though not for too many more, she was still alive, and that Vader had little if anything to do with her demise. That had been his doing.
"I couldn't have! She was alive! I felt her! She was alive! It's impossible! No!!!" The scream ripped through the dream, and she found herself awake, with Obi-Wan there.
"Master," she cried, throwing herself into his safe, warm arms.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Kenobi Quarters
Obi-Wan comforted Jaedrea, knowing that she had been through a terrible thing that night. It took her some time and her father's presence before she was able to calm down. They were in the common room by that time, and the position that father and daughter had chosen to arrange themselves in made him smile. It was not unlike when Anakin would wake with nightmares when he was small, and Qui-Gon had been the only one who could comfort him, and Qui-Gon would lay on the sofa, and Anakin's slight form curled up on his chest, held tightly to comfort him. "I remembered something," she said, finally, sniffing several times as she said it.
"What's that?" Anakin asked casually.
"I think Vader is alive. I don't think he's dead like you said he was. And he's scary."
"Why do you say that?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I think I met him. I talked to him."
"What did he say to you?" Anakin asked her.
"That he'd lost all of his limbs. That the price of his arrogance was his vitality," she said carefully, trying to remember the exact phrasing.
"Do you remember anything else about that conversation?"
"I asked him a question, but it didn't make much sense to me."
"What's that?"
"I asked him what the price of mine would be," she said, quietly, as though even the very words frightened her now.
"Why doesn't it make sense to you?"
"Well, I suppose if I were to try to think like I was then…I was having dark thoughts, right? So I guess that if we were maybe talking about the dark side, that maybe it would make sense."
"So what was his answer?" Anakin asked, though both of them knew the answer to that question. The discussion she referred to had been carefully orchestrated before, and dissected after.
"He didn't know. He said that the next time that I saw him he wouldn't be nice."
"And then?" Obi-Wan prompted her.
"I asked him if he thought it had been. I didn't hardly even recognize my own voice. It felt weird. But he said that he'd been really, really nice, because of some reason, but I'm not sure what. And he said something about the Jedi tying me up and putting a bow on me? Anyway, after that, he touched me, and I don't think I've been so scared in my whole life."
Obi-Wan could see, though Jaedrea could not, Anakin wince at the fear he'd caused in her. "Well, now you know a bit more about Vader. Is he still so scary?"
"I think if I met him in real life, he would still be scary, but in these dreams, it's different," Jaedrea said, thinking through her words.
"Vader isn't really that scary," Anakin said quietly.
"What do you mean, Daddy?"
"He was a broken man; your dreams showed you that, physically as well as emotionally. He had lost his will to fight."
"Because he didn't have the people he loved?" Jaedrea asked.
"Yes, that was most of the reason," Anakin answered.
"You told me Vader was dead, and now you don't deny that I saw him alive," Jaedrea reasoned.
"I didn't say Vader was dead. I said that he died." Anakin qualified.
Jaedrea twisted herself so she could see his face. "What's the difference?" she asked suspiciously.
"He died. But in some ways he still lived. His physical body died, it disappeared into the Force. But something of Vader remained," he explained.
"So he's like both?" Jaedrea asked, confused.
Anakin sighed. "I don't quite know how to explain it, Jaedera."
"Is he dead or alive?"
"The body of Vader died a long time ago."
"So his spirit, that part of him is alive?"
"Yes, that part of him is very much alive."
"Is that part of him like physical alive, or is he just a spirit?" Jaedrea asked perceptively.
Anakin closed his eyes, and Obi-Wan knew that he was struggling to try to put together a truth that she wouldn't draw conclusions from that he didn't want her drawing. "Jaedrea, I want to explain some things to you about Vader before we delve into this any further," Obi-Wan said.
She nodded, her attention off Anakin for the moment.
"I met Vader after something very special happened to him. He was able to redeem himself by doing something that should by all rights have cost him his life. He did this to save the life of another. He was no longer a Sith when I met him."
She looked confused. "But what about, in my dream, there was something about you hurting him, and that was why he was in the suit?"
"That was true, but we will talk about that in a few moments. When you met Vader, he was trying to warn you off of the path of the dark side."
"Why would he want to do that?"
"Having fallen himself, he knows how much it hurts to fall completely to the dark side," Anakin said, "He was trying to save you from having to learn that lesson yourself."
"When I spoke with Vader, he had come from the future. He came back to make the galaxy a better place. He didn't know how he had come back; the Force had done it, perhaps, or he had been able to draw enough power from what was going on at that time to do it with his force of will."
"He came from the future?" Jaedrea asked with no small amount of disbelief.
"He did," Obi-Wan confirmed. "He made profound changes as well. I've seen snippets of the future Vader lived in; it wasn't pleasant."
"So, now, what happened to Vader was that he returned to the time he had come from. But the future was no longer the same," Anakin said. "And he was given his body back."
"So he's alive, like really alive?"
"Yes," Anakin said.
"But if he went to the past to make it better, he would have made sure that he didn't get all burned, wouldn't he?"
"He did indeed. In fact, he made sure that the circumstances that brought about his fall to the dark side were impossible to recreate."
"So he never was bad?"
"No, he never was bad."
"So he could be anybody?" Jaedrea asked, her fear of the mechanical terror that Palpatine had created rising.
"No, only himself," Anakin assured her.
"But, who is he?"
Anakin looked down, not willing to meet her eyes as he told her the truth, "He is me."
Obi-Wan could almost literally see the wheels turning in her head as she assimilated the information that she had known about Vader into a framework that this conversation provided her. "I'm sorry, Daddy," she said finally.
"I'm sorry, too, baby," he said.
Obi-Wan watched as she asked him a few questions that filled in details of the conversations that they had had about Vader, and finding peace in the fact that, while her father could be a very scary person, he still only had her best interests at heart, she fell asleep again. Anakin blinked sleepily at him. "Are you staying here, or shall we move her back to her room?"
"I'll be fine here, Master. I don't know how Padmé will feel about it, but I'll deal with that tomorrow."
"Easier to ask forgiveness than permission?"
"Always," he said with a yawn. He shifted Jaedrea slightly so that he was more comfortable, and in moments he was asleep as well.
Obi-Wan went to bed, a slight smile on his face.
Bespin, Cloud City, Vengence Reborn
Sev'rance Tann landed her ship. She'd felt queasy for the last half of the trip to Bespin, and now it was turning into full blown nausea. She'd eaten little on the trip, her usual fare, ration bars, but it hadn't satisfied her hunger. She was slightly worried about the baby. Ration bars were nutritionally sound, and she'd never had problems going long stretches with only that for food.
But that had been before she'd gotten pregnant. She walked to the rooms she had taken over for her personal use while she was on Cloud City, and found a basket of fresh fruit had been placed there. Curious, she examined it, her earlier nausea forgotten. She picked out something that looked good, took it to the sink and washed it, then took a bite. She couldn't identify it, but it tasted exquisite. She walked over to the comm station and sat down, intent on finding out more about her condition, since it was apparent that she didn't know enough.
The HoloNet was quite informative about pregnancy in general. So she requested articles related to nausea and pregnancy. From the voluminous results she got, it was apparently common. She chose an article entitled, "Cravings and Morning Sickness in Human Mothers," since articles related to the Chiss were virtually non-existent in general, and it was even odds that there was even information about what happened to pregnant Chiss women. She'd certainly never run across any Chiss females in the Republic, and only a couple of Chiss males, though they were rather prominent figures. Both military, though, and she found military types incredibly boring in general, and didn't make an exception just because their skin was the same color as hers was.
She chose to look at articles about human pregnancy because the baby was half-human in the first place, and to all appearances, the differences between the Chiss and humans was little more than skin deep, at least as far as she had been able to tell.
Women usually seek prenatal treatment between the second week and the second month of pregnancy, depending chiefly on how regular their cycle is. "Prenatal treatment?" Sev'rance wondered aloud, but continued reading. Morning sickness is usually the second sign discernable by the expectant mother. Unfortunately, this is caused by the fluctuation of hormones in early pregnancy, so there is little that medical science can do about it. "No cure?" she asked to the screen, but it didn't answer her. There are women who never experience it, and at the other extreme, those who experience it the entire pregnancy. Most women experience anywhere from two weeks to two months of morning sickness, and some events can make it worse. Space travel is discouraged for pregnant women, because, with their systems already in turmoil, the slight disruption that hyperspace usually causes can be enough to make some women terribly sick. "Well, that doesn't seem to be happening to me. I think it was the ration bars."
Once a woman gets through morning sickness, and sometimes even before, other hormonal fluctuations cause cravings for sometimes strange foods, or strange combinations of foods. It has been noted that a number of children have shown strong preferences for the foods that the mother craves. There is no definitive study about the veracity of this claim, and it is quite likely that this isn't something that will be studied extensively. "Cravings?" she asked, looking at the core of the piece of fruit that she had just consumed. She looked back at the screen and started researching what exactly was meant by 'prenatal treatment,' and how necessary this treatment was, and whether that could explain why normal food seemed to be making her nauseous.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Kenobi Quarters
Qui-Gon entered Obi-Wan's quarters. It wasn't a habit to check on Obi-Wan, not any more, at least. He'd done so for most of Anakin's Padawanship, but now he had fallen out of the habit. But he felt the need to do it this morning. A strange sight greeted him. Anakin was still sleeping on the sofa, and Jaedrea curled up beside him, with one of Anakin's arms securing her in place. It was probably a good thing that he'd chosen his left arm for the task, as Qui-Gon remembered a few mornings waking up from that position with cramps in his arm.
"I didn't want to wake them. These dreams have been so rough on both of them," Obi-Wan commented, entering the common room from the kitchen.
"Mmm. I think both of them have busy days, don't you?"
Obi-Wan sighed. "Yes, they do. I think it's that they both look so innocent when they are asleep."
"You've known Anakin for long enough to know that he's far from innocent."
"I can pretend once in a while." Obi-Wan said, the corners of his mouth turning up of their own accord.
"It does you no good, Obi-Wan, really. I can remember when Anakin was that small; when he really was that innocent."
"I can remember not a few nights when it was you and him curled up on the sofa."
"Yes, I remember that, too. I'm surprised sometimes that he actually sleeps in a bed, as much time as he's spent on either your couch or mine."
"Master?" Jaedrea asked sleepily.
"It's time to get up, Padawan," Obi-Wan said.
She slid from the sofa, walking with her eyes closed, rubbing one of them with the back of her hand as she yawned, to her room to get ready for her day. Her sudden absence woke Anakin, who sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I haven't slept that well in a while," he said.
"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked.
"I'm usually up for various reasons at least two or three times during the night, and sometimes I don't actually even go back to sleep before something else requires my attention. It was kind of nice to go to sleep then wake up in the morning even though I did get up for one nightmare," he stretched as he stood up. "I suppose I'd better go home before I do much of anything else, though," he said, looking down at his rumpled sleep clothes.
"What various reasons do you have?" Qui-Gon asked him.
"It depends. Sometimes, it's when Padmé comes to bed, though since she's been taking time off from the Senate she's in bed before I am. Jasmine has nightmares often. Cedric woke me last night, and now this thing with Jaedrea, and all that on top of my own nightmares, but usually only one of those things on a given night. Now we're watching Leia's twins, so I'm up usually once to feed them. When the twins get here, I'll be doing most of their care. There's always something. It isn't anything I figure I can do anything about, but I do appreciate good sleep when I get it."
Coruscant, Jedi Temple complex, NFS classroom area
Jaedrea went to the classroom where Obi-Wan was teaching his Political Strategy class, and as she'd hoped, he was still there, and he was alone. "Master, I need to talk to you."
"What do you need, Jae?"
"Well, while I was in flight class, Elysa said something to me."
"What was that?"
"That I shouldn't be allowed back into classes; that I shouldn't be a Padawan anymore."
"What do you think about that?"
"I don't know, Master. I've thought that myself, but I want to be a Jedi; I want to do good things. But I'm afraid that she's right," she said.
"You made a mistake, Jaedrea. We all make mistakes. The thing is that you need to learn from them."
"But what if she's right, Master? What if I shouldn't be a Jedi?"
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually fear you will make one," Obi-Wan said.
"Yes, Master, but I'm afraid that I can't do this anymore."
"If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down."
She looked at him suspiciously. "What Jedi Master said that?"
His eyes twinkled merrily. "Ah, you should be able to find that out for yourself, my very young Padawan."
She huffed, and left, but she felt much better, even though she would have to go find out before she saw him again, because he would ask.
Coruscant, Jedi Temple, Skywalker Central
Padmé laid Sabé down next to her brother, after having taken them to breakfast with the rest of the family. They were both very good babies, fussing much less than any of her children. Maybe that was partly because they were her first grandchildren. Not yet old enough to show more than the basics of their personalities, Anakin seemed to find them less than interesting. He hadn't said anything much to her today, and he'd gone over to Obi-Wan's in the middle of the night for some reason. Probably something she didn't want to think about.
As her twin grandchildren settled down for a short nap, she started looking at what Bail had left her that morning. He had been in a hurry, because between getting the people who were working on the new Constitution going, and the troubling developments concerning the IGBC, he really didn't have much time to devote to ensuring she was kept in the loop, so he left it to, from the construction of the sentences and the language chosen, Chis. She read the report, and felt a certainty settling in the pit of her stomach: the Outer Rim planets were at their wit's end, and the IGBC was not going to let up.
Coruscant, Senate Rotunda, a small meeting room
Cedric was busy talking to the other committee members when Bail came in.
"We have an emergency situation in the Senate, we need all of you there."
"What's going on Senator?" Cedric asked.
"I'm afraid I can't answer that, they've voted this be a closed session, Jedi Skywalker," Bail answered with sympathy.
"Oh…well, I'll be at the Temple then if the emergency ends and we can reconvene."
"Very well," Bail said and led the Senators out.
Cedric gathered his things and took a cab back to the apartment. He wasn't old enough to fly the skylanes of Coruscant yet, at least not in the daytime, even though he thought he'd be just as good, if not better than some of the idiots they let on the skylanes. He sighed as he arrived and paid the cab driver, who had some insane ideas about how to change lanes. Cedric for his part believed that it was only his gentle persuasion with the Force that had kept both of them alive. He had nothing to do now, his schedule had been cleared for today's session and he really didn't feel like going home. He wandered the halls of the Temple and eventually found himself outside of the Healers wing. He checked his chronometer as his stomach growled; it was half an hour past when he normally ate lunch.
He sighed again and decided maybe Celia would keep him company while he ate. Ordinarily he wouldn't feel the need for company, but his most recent dream and the sudden block of unfilled time made him want to seek it out. With Luke off planet, and his father busy with Jaedrea, that left only one person that he really felt at all comfortable talking about anything with, Celia.
He entered the wing and found his sister doing paperwork on some recent patients, she looked up and smiled, but he could feel the surprise roll off of her in waves.
"Hi, sis. Have you eaten yet?"
"Huh?" she said, and Cedric had to suppress a chuckle when her stomach rumbled.
"I'll take that as a no. Let's go to Dex's," he said.
"Dex's? This must be serious," Celia said.
"Yeah," Cedric replied, the last thing he to her before they got to Dex's. Once there, for the first time he told his sister everything about what was going on with him.
Coruscant, Senate Rotunda, Senate Main Room
The Senate was quickly called to order once the Reform committee members arrived with Bail. He took his place on the Chancellor's dais, and recognized Tomas Leper of Dantooine.
"Thank you Chancellor, honorable members of the Senate. We come before this august body to resolve, once and for all, the unfair practices of the InterGalactic Banking Clan. They have offered many of our most desperate and vulnerable citizens what initially appears to be very generous terms for loans they must have to either stay in business or keep their homes. Only the terms aren't as generous as the victims of these con artists would have—" Leper said and was interrupted by the Banking Clan's senator.
"Lies! We offer your people the only terms they can get, it is not our fault that other lending entities will not do business with them," the senator shouted.
"Order! Order! The Senator from the Banking Clan has not been recognized!" Chis Bon shouted, letting the outrage reach even his even tempered voice.
"The Banking Clan is correct, our people can't get loans from other sources, because anytime another bank or loan agency tries to do business with us, their computers get infected by viruses, or the loan officers sent are harassed at best or wind up dead at worst." As Leper took a breath, the Banking Clan senator began speaking.
"You accuse us of this? It is not OUR fault that your planets are criminal dens of petty thieves and murderers!"
"That is an outrageous statement coming from one of the heads of the largest criminal enterprise in the Republic this side of the Hutts!" the Senator from Dantooine began.
"You DARE compare us to the SLUGS! I will take great pleasure in the foreclosure proceedings on your entire region, SENATOR!" The Banking Clan's Senator shouted.
"ORDER! ORDER!" Bail shouted, his aide not able to be heard over the shouting, hammering the gavel down.
"Of course Chancellor, I apologize for my outburst," the Senator from Dantooine said.
"Will the Senator from Dantooine be censored for his slander?" the Banking Clan Senator asked.
"No, he won't be, and you WILL be quiet until the Senator from Tatooine is finished with his allotted time, which is still at twenty minutes,"
"That is impossible! He's already been talking for ten!"
"No, he hasn't been, Senator. You, on the other hand, have been, and without being recognized by this chair. If I censor anyone it will be you, now return to your station!" The pod of the Banking Clan slowly moved back to where it came from, Bail glaring at it all the way, once it arrived he turned back to Leper, "Now Senator, begin again and I will not tolerate ANY further interruptions."
Leper continued his presentation without further interruption, he finished with, "…and it is for these reasons that we support passage of the Fair Banking Act. All banks and businesses should be free to do business anywhere in the Republic and any citizen of the Republic should be free to do business with any of them. We now motion to previous question on the measure."
Bespin, Cloud City, guest quarters
Jasmine had been very excited by the prospect of getting to explore Cloud City, but over breakfast, between Luke and Aayla, they had decided that she needed to stay in their rooms. Lando was going to stay with her and Han and Chewie. The only comfort that she took in it was that at least she wasn't going to be the only one left behind. "Be good, Little Bit," Luke said as he and the other Jedi left to check some areas Lando hadn't taken them to.
"I'm always good, Master," she said quietly.
"I know," he answered, ruffling her hair slightly. "You are a very good Padawan."
"I don't want to be here without you," she said.
"You'll be fine. I'll be back in less than an hour."
She nodded, finally accepting that she wouldn't be able to talk him out of leaving her behind. "Yes, Master," she said, dejectedly settling into one of the room's sofas, curling up so that she was as small as possible.
"Let us know if anything weird happens, if you can," Luke said to Han and Lando.
"We will," Han said, and the Jedi left.
"Well, kid, we're going to play cards. Did you want to join?" Han asked her.
"I've never played cards," she answered him.
"Well, there's no time like the present to learn."
She shook her head. "No, thank you."
"You can't just mope around all day because Luke didn't take you with him. Look at me, I'm not moping."
"I don't think you really want to teach me cards," she said.
"You don't think so?"
She shook her head again. "You won't like playing cards with me. I'll win."
"Well, I might let you win a couple of games to build your confidence up."
"I'm fine," she said with a look that should have closed the discussion. She felt Han's surprise at how much she could look like Leia.
"Are you sure?" Lando asked, speaking up for the first time.
"I'm sure," she said, and pulled out her datapad so she could work on her Political Strategy homework. She watched out of the corner of her eye as Han shrugged at Lando and he and Chewie and Lando sat down at the table, leaving her be. She kept an eye on them; they looked like they were having fun, but something was unsettled in the Force, and it related to them, more to Lando, but to all three. It wasn't specific enough to pin down, which irked her slightly, but since she'd talked with Luke about needing to learn about things for herself, it hadn't really bothered her.
Then something changed, and it felt like a million things were going on at once. She reacted; there was no time for anything else. Using the Force, she bounced herself into the air, just high enough to do the half twist she needed to do before flipping and landing between the three adults and the door before it was fully open, admitting droids that were suddenly trying to fire on all of them. She moved with blinding speed catching the first blaster bolt before her lightsaber was fully ignited, sending it back to the droid, hitting the violent machine square in the nose destroying it, before the remains of its body hit the floor she'd deflected two more bolts back to their respective droids. Then she was on the move to the door, cutting down two droids just as they were coming in. The Force sang through her as she moved, and she couldn't help but grin and she cut down a sixth droid, clearing the hall, for the time being. She closed down her blade just as Luke contacted her. I think it's time to get Chewie, Lando, and Han to the Falcon, Little Bit.
Yes, Master, she replied. "We need to get to the ship," she said, suddenly authoritative, summoning her datapad to her hand with the Force. Her formally shy, unsure expression now all business, Jedi business.
Lando looked at Han. "If her little sister can do that, you had better never do anything to hurt Leia. I'd hate to think what her father could do."
Jasmine made no response, but waited for them to get ready to go. They didn't take long, but she felt a small amount of resentment from Lando that she was giving orders. She knew Han knew that she was only relaying orders. Han, for someone who wasn't Force-sensitive, was at least awfully perceptive. Her mother could be the same way, sometimes. She shrugged it off as being around those sensitive to the Force sort of forced a bit of sensitivity on them. Self-preservation.
