20 BBY

Voices. Caleb was starting to hear voices. That explained it. He was going mad.

Caleb.

He moaned, trying to use his hand to swat away the noise, but his arms were too heavy to be moved.

Caleb.

He blinked once or twice, to decipher where the noise came from, when his blurred vision started to clear up, to show his Master's face in front of him.

Out of shock, he sat up, narrowly knocking his head into Depa Billaba's face, and shouted, ' AUUUGH!' Then he looked around desperately, trying to locate where he was. He was on his bed in his quarters.

He was finally back in the past. He was so glad to see his Master again, but there was a slight twinge of sadness in him when he realised he could never see Older-me, or all the other friends anymore.

Surprised at her apprentice's strange behaviour, Depa reeled back for a bit, before asking anxiously, ' Caleb, are you alright? You were shouting in your sleep just now.'

' Oh, yeah,' Caleb stuttered. ' I just had a nightmare.'

' A nightmare?' Depa raised an eyebrow. ' What nightmare?'

' Yes, the world is going to be taken over by-' Caleb nearly bit his tongue when he realised his grave mistake. He shouldn't reveal anything that had to do with Sith Lords to his Master, because Anakin made him promise.

' The world is going to be taken over by what?' Depa smiled wearily.

' Uh, uh, rancors!' Caleb hurled out the first type of creature on his mind without thinking. ' Yeah, I dreamt that mad rancors would take over the galaxy! Haha, yeah!'

Depa laughed, assuming that Caleb was just being silly, ' Well, just to assure you, rancors aren't taking over the world at this moment, yet. Now, go to the refresher to get changed for breakfast.'

Caleb climbed off his bed and took a fresh set of tunic and robes to the refresher to get changed. Then he joined his Master at the table for breakfast. Oh, how he missed 'Coruscant's breakfasts'. Not that he hated 'Yavin 4 breakfasts', but no one could blame him for getting obsessed with the delicious Coruscanti sausages and bacon.

While he was busily wolfing down his meal, Depa stirred her caff, ' Caleb, after your morning Language lesson, I will be going to have a meeting with the Council, so you are free to do whatever you like in the afternoon, okay? But promise me you will behave in Language class. I know you hate language classes, but I hope that you would behave. Master Palmer is getting rather upset with your behaviour.'

However, much to her astonishment, Caleb simply got up from his seat, went over to the side room to get his book bag and obediently said, ' I shall go off to Language class right now.' And left the room for class.

It turned out Caleb had more to do in the 'past-future exchange program' than he had expected. Ezra had politely requested for Obi-wan Kenobi, aka the Master of Language Classes, beloved of all Language teachers in his time, to tutor Caleb in his Language materials. Somehow through Obi-wan's effective wheedling, teaching and negotiating (wow he wasn't called the Negotiator for nothing), Caleb started to like the idea of Language Classes.

So the other Padawans and Master Palmer were most bewildered when Caleb settled down in his class quietly. And during the lesson, they were told to write poems about animals, and Caleb wrote an epic poem about rancors and womp rats. Of course, Master Palmer generously commended his poem in front of the class for his effective use of imagery.

When he was packing his book bag to leave, Caleb thought about what to do after the lesson. Heck, he had been given free time!

He stalked down the corridors, extremely indecisive, until he spotted a group of clones from the 501st (notable in their blue-painted armour) walking past him. Then a glorious stroke of inspiration came upon him. How could he have forgotten the guy?

It's time to pay Master Skywalker a visit.

Anakin had a terrible morning.

He woke up with a terrible pain in his head and a dizzy spell, and managed to stumble all the way to the refresher to get changed without tripping. Then on his way back to the main quarters, he accidentally fell through the door of Ahsoka's empty quarters. He might have pushed over several boxes of Ahsoka's old belongings on his way out, but was too dizzy to pack them.

Soon, he felt a lot better after three huge cups of caff, and was actually able to think straight.

Great! So he was stuck in the past with a galaxy to save, a Sith Lord to defeat and a crazy headache to deal with. How lovely. He would love to bash the Son for sending him into this disaster.

He was prepared to continue dozing off in his kitchen seat when there was a sharp knock on his quarters' door. ' Coming,' He groaned, dragging himself to open the door. Outside, peering at him worriedly, was his former master Obi-wan Kenobi.

' Force, are you drunk, Anakin?' Obi-wan demanded disapprovingly. ' I know you don't have missions, but it just isn't right to get drunk in such troubling times.'

Anakin slurred, going slightly mad from his headache, ' Long time no see, Master! Nice to see that you are actually alive and not blue. Good that you are not an Old Man, Master!'

' Blue? Old?' Obi-wan pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, knowing that Anakin wasn't actually trying to be rude. ' You really are drunk. Now come with me to the Halls of Healing, so Master Rig Nema could whip up some hangover medicine for you.' He heard that the clones were discussing how the General had been more on edge and growing slightly mad ever since Ahsoka left and as the war dragged on. Unfortunately, those rumours were true.

Anakin edged away from Obi-wan in terror, ' I am not drunk. It's just I have a terrible terrible headache and I really really really need to go to bed.'

' Okay, sure,' Obi-wan stepped away. ' Go ahead.' Casting one last worried look at his apprentice, he closed the door behind him.

Once he sensed Obi-wan was leaving, Anakin gave another loud groan, stumbled all the way back into his room (still holding his cup) and just threw himself onto the bed with his face buried in the pillow.

Caleb had the impression that Anakin was unconscious. He was continuously rapping the door of the Knight's quarters for the past half hour (Jedi Masters that were walking down the corridor eyed him weirdly), and there was still no response.

Finally, he remembered that the Knight had a tendency of sleeping until very late hours. But he really, really, really needed to talk to the man before his Master returned from her meeting.

With no further ideas of how to get Anakin's attention (cutting the door down with a lightsaber seemed like a wonderful idea, but Master Windu wouldn't approve), he simply used his final trump card - Climbing through the vents.

Thanks to Ezra's previous teachings, Caleb got to the top of Anakin's vent in just a minute, and jumped down with well practiced ease into the man's bedroom. He noticed with amusement that Anakin was still sleeping, but with his face in the pillow and a cup of caff in his robotic hand.

Seriously, Caleb had no idea why he hadn't suffocated to death yet or why his cup of caff never spilled.

He resorted to grabbing Anakin by the shoulders and shaking him violently. ' Wha- what?' Anakin yelped, standing up.

' Hello. It's me, Caleb,' Caleb grinned cheerfully. ' Your time-travelling pal. Remember me?'

' Yes,' Anakin rubbed his temples. Fortunately, the pain in his head was reduced into a small throb.

' Headache?' Caleb winced slightly. ' Yeah, I got this nasty pain in my head too when I woke up. But it kind of faded after breakfast. Soooo. I guess we are back to the past, right?'

' Yes,' Anakin said glumly. ' I just bumped into Master Kenobi. He isn't blue. Or old.'

' Ohhh, right,' Caleb joked. ' I will have to get used to seeing a non-blue Master Kenobi. And I can't call him Old Man anymore, can I?'

The older man chuckled for a bit, before turning quite serious, ' Now that we are back, we have to be extra careful. I bet the Chancellor would call in to see me soon, and I need to play around for a bit with him.'

' Cool,' Caleb nodded obediently. ' So what do I have to do?'

' I want you to help me monitor what the Council is up to,' Anakin shrugged lightly.

' Me?' Caleb said, astonished. ' What use is the Council stuff to us? And why me?'

' Dunno. Who knows what information will be useful to us now,' Anakin said. ' Besides, your Master is in the high council. It is easy for you to know what is going on within the Council.'

Caleb frowned, ' Why don't you ask Master Kenobi? I thought he belongs to the High Council as well.'

' He'll be suspicious,' Anakin pointed out.

' Fine,' Caleb shuddered. ' That would be so weird.'

Looks like things are going according to plan! :D