Chapter 38: A Masters Return

Anakin sighed as he was preparing for his, Bastila, and Obi-Wan's next mission. "Bastila, you don't need to go," he told her. Bastila shook her head slowly.

"Anakin, I have been cooped up for far too long. I think it's time to go on a mission," she replied while Sasha sat on her hip, playing with the chord around her neck.

Bastila kissed her two-year-old's forehead and rubbed her back. "Well unless she comes with us…" she started suggesting.

"Absolutely not, too dangerous," Obi-Wan answered.

"She's a Shan," she commented.

"And a Kenobi," Obi-Wan answered.

Sasha just giggled at her bickering parents. "Funny," she giggled.

"We are huh?" Bastila asked, kissing her daughter's forehead.

Anakin shook his head slowly with a slight chuckle when Luke ran over. The twins were five now and Luke was beginning his training with his father. "Dad, I'm coming with you right?" he asked.

"Yes you're coming," Anakin replied with a smile as he lifted Luke up onto his shoulders.

Luke smiled as he rested his head on the top of his father's. "Might as well get his training started since mine started late," he commented.

"Even Luke would be considered too old for the Order," Obi-Wan commented.

Bastila rolled her eyes. "Please, we used to have older people join the Order in my time," she answered. Luke kept his hands on his father's shoulders with a smile when Padmé came out with Rowan and Leia.

"Dada," Rowan gurgled, holding his arms out.

Anakin smiled as he took his son into his free arm, kissing the top of his head. "You just be careful," Padmé told him.

"This is a calm mission, Padmé, nothing bad will happen," he answered smiling.

"You say that then I don't hear from you for three days," Padmé told him.

"We'll keep in contact," he answered.

Smiling, he pressed his lips to hers when their older children groaned in disgust. Anakin chuckled as he let his wife go. Setting his sons down, he embraced his daughter. "You be good for your mother, don't be so hard on her," he whispered softly to his daughter.

"Okay," she replied with a sigh.

Anakin kissed the top of her head, stroking her hair gently before standing back up. "Are you ready?" Bastila asked.

"Ready as we'll ever be," Anakin replied as he held Luke's hand and they boarded the ship.

As they were traveling to Ossus, Anakin was sitting in the pilot's seat with Luke in his lap. "Remember what I told you?" he asked smiling.

"Yeah," Luke replied smiling.

Anakin smiled as Luke started showing him what he had taught him. "Fast learner," Obi-Wan commented.

"That he is," Anakin answered smiling proudly at his son.

Bastila smiled as she was sitting on the floor with Sasha, the two-year-old was trying to get a ball to float to her. "You can do it sweetheart," Bastila told her daughter. Sasha held her hands up and the ball just rolled a little.

Anakin turned around in the pilot's chair after putting the ship on autopilot, watching Obi-Wan and Bastila with their daughter with a slight grin. Sasha was clearing getting frustrated and pouted. "Like this Sasha," Luke told her as he held his hands up, making his toy Fighter float around. Sasha's brown eyes grew wide as she watched the ship land in front of her, making her giggle.

"Otay," she replied slowly.

She stared stubbornly at her toy, holding her hands up. Bastila watched with a smile as the ball rolled a little more and then lifted off the floor about an inch before falling to the ground again. "That's wonderful, Sasha," Bastila told her.

"Not up," she pouted.

"No but it's a start," Obi-Wan answered, kissing the top of his daughter's head.

Sasha sighed as she tried again, but then let out a long yawn. "I think you overworked yourself little one," he commented, lifting her up off the floor. The toddler rested her head on Obi-Wan's chest, her eyes closing almost immediately.

"She has your calm demeanor at least," Bastila commented as she stood up from the floor.

"Yes but she has your stubbornness," he replied with a slight chuckle.

Chuckling lightly, Anakin sighed as he sat back in his chair while Luke was trying to get the ship to float around the room again. "Alright, how about another lesson son?" Anakin suggested as he set Luke down.

"What?" Luke asked curiously.

Before Anakin could answer, he saw Bastila staring a little. "What is it?" he asked.

"Anakin, you do realize that this mission could just be a dead end. No one knows if this library is still standing," Bastila commented as she sat down in a chair.

"It doesn't hurt to look. If I'm the one who's supposed to defeat the Sith and put the Force back in the balance, I need to learn everything there needs to be known about the Force," Anakin replied.

"Do you want to learn more about the Force or try to find a way so you wouldn't have to destroy Demonia?" Bastila asked curiously after Anakin sent Luke to the back of the ship to play.

Anakin sighed. "You said you were able to bring Starkiller back from the Dark Side," he answered.

"But Starkiller wasn't a Sith, Revan was and you see how well he is," Bastila commented as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You brought him over to your side," he answered.

"I was able to do that easily because he always wanted to be better than his brother. Starkiller turned on his own, I just offered him the chance," she stated.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, Anakin rubbed the back of his neck. "Anakin, I know how you want to bring your sister back, but you don't know how long she's been under Sidious's rule. If she never had the chance of ever being good at all, there might not be hope for her," Bastila explained.

"Starkiller and Revan were raised on the Dark Side," Anakin muttered.

"Yes but Starkiller, unlike his brother, had a taste of good. He worked with the Jedi even though it was as a cover-up to destroy us, he fought with us. He saw what we were truly about, he got a taste of true power and he wanted more of it. That's what made him change," Bastila explained.

Anakin was silent. "What if Annalie doesn't want to be evil? What if she does want to change but she just doesn't know it?" he suggested.

"You're clinging to hope that might not exist, Anakin," she answered.

"She doesn't now any better though Bastila. She was raised to be what she is. Sidious could've done Force knows what to her to turn her into this. She's still Annalie Skywalker I can sense it, I know it," he insisted.

Bastila could see the hope in his eyes, the determination to show that his sister still had good in her, but it was just buried away. "Did you believe Starkiller was so evil that you couldn't convert him? Revan too?" he asked.

"Revan's just bantha poodo now, but a long mission is what had us close. Starkiller was my friend when we were seventeen-year-old kids, Anakin. I had time to convert them, where and how will you get the time to show Demonia that there is good in her?" she asked.

Anakin was silent as he kept staring out the window to see the stars fly by in streaks. "Anakin, listen to me, if you go in there with your mind distracted even though your shields are up it can and WILL kill you, I have seen it happen," she told him. The young man stared at his former master with an emotionless expression on his face, but his eyes were giving him away. "See? That is exactly what I'm talking about. Your shields are up, but your eyes give it away. You must deal with your own demons, that includes of what happened to Annalie or it WILL be used against you," she explained.

"Is that why you haven't gotten into a real battle in thousands of years Bastila? Since you can't deal with your own past demons?" Anakin asked, catching her off guard.

Bastila crossed her arms over her chest again. "Anakin, this isn't about me," she replied.

"No, but you are telling me to not reveal in any shape or form of a weakness when everyday I can see it on your face that you are afraid of going into a real fight. The last fight I saw you get into was on Geonosis," he told her.

The former Jedi Master scoffed. "Afraid? Here I thought you knew me," she commented, shaking her head slowly.

"I do that's why I'm telling you that you are lying, you are hiding something. At least you believe you are hiding something when your eyes give you away. You haven't fought a battle in years, why? There are stories and legends about what you had done, but yet now thousands of years later you are obviously trying to keep away a secret that you don't want the enemy to know about," he explained.

Bastila cleared her throat, moving to leave the room. "Maybe it has to do with the fact that I could feel your fear for Obi-Wan's life on Geonosis and I wasn't even near you at that time," he told her.

"At the time Obi-Wan was a friend that I didn't want to see get killed," she replied.

"I wasn't born yesterday Bastila. You were scared of watching someone else you care about die in front of you because of a Sith," Anakin told her.

Bastila stopped and looked back at him. "Like how you lost Mattie," he added.

"How…" she trailed off.

"Holonet has just about everything, Bastila. I know about Mattie," he answered.

The woman cleared her throat again, rubbing her hands together. "Mattie's death was thousands of years ago, what happened then is irrelevant to what's going on now," she replied.

"Really? Then how is it when he's ever mentioned your eyes suddenly get clouded over and I feel the grief rolling off you?" he asked.

Bastila was silent, clearing her throat. "Irrelevant," she answered before walking away. Shaking his head slowly, Anakin let out a sigh as he sat down and started mulling over about what they could possibly find in the library…if they found it.

When they arrived on Ossus, Luke was staring out the window with wide eyes. "Wow…" he said quietly.

"Very different from Tatooine isn't it son?" Anakin asked.

The boy nodded with wide blue eyes. Chuckling, Anakin landed the ship onto the planet's surface. Bastila stared out the window with a sigh. "To think Ossus used to be such a beautiful planet," she murmured. Anakin held his son's hand as they left the ship.

Obi-Wan had a hold of Sasha as the two-year-old looked around curiously. "Where exactly do we start looking?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Anywhere I guess," Anakin replied.

"I think it would be safer if the children stayed on the ship with Artoo," Obi-Wan told him.

Anakin looked at Luke who was already trying to help them search for the library. "I don't think you're going to get Luke back on the ship," he replied. Walking over, Anakin rested a hand on his son's shoulder. "What does the scanner say Luke?" he asked.

"I can't find the library," Luke replied.

Giving his son's shoulder a squeeze, they continued walking along to find the library.

Walking around, Luke saw something out of the corner of his eye and stopped. Realizing his son had stopped walking, Anakin looked over at him. "What are you looking at son?" he asked.

"The tree," Luke replied.

Looking over, they saw a huge tree there. "Big…" Sasha murmured. They just stood there for a minute, staring at the massive tree in front of them.

"It's not polite to stare," the tree spoke, startling them.

Luke ran behind his father frightened and Sasha buried her face into her father's shoulder terrified. "It's alright, it's alright," Obi-Wan said softly, kissing her forehead gently.

"Who are you?" Anakin demanded sternly.

"The question is who are you? Are you friend or foe?" the tree asked.

Anakin looked at his son then at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan handed Sasha over to Bastila before stepping forward. "I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, my wife Bastila, and our friend Anakin Skywalker," he told the tree.

"Jedi Master, so the Order still exists," the tree commented.

"No, the Order has been destroyed by the Sith. The Jedi are all but extinct, we are in hiding," Obi-Wan explained.

The tree fell silent. "Who are you?" Anakin asked again.

"Ood Bnar," the tree answered.

Obi-Wan's eyes grew wide and looked over at Bastila who was standing there with wide eyes. "I've heard so many stories about you," she commented.

"Who is he?" Anakin asked.

"He's a Neti Jedi Master. The day the planet was attacked, he turned himself into a tree to protect ancient lightsabers from Exar Kun," Bastila replied.

Anakin stared at the tree, holding his son close. "Anakin Skywalker is it?" the tree asked.

"Yes," Anakin replied.

"The Force is strong with you and the child with you," Bnar told him.

Bastila stood behind Anakin, her hand on his shoulder. "Master Bnar, Anakin is the Chosen One that prophecies have spoken of," she replied, "the one who will bring balance to the Force and peace into the galaxy."

"Such a heavy burden, such high expectations for a boy," Bnar commented.

"Anakin is a powerful boy, very in control of his powers. He is able to defeat the Sith when that time comes," Bastila replied.

"There is a lot of conflict I sense in the boy," Bnar answered.

Bastila looked at Anakin, but he refused to meet her gaze. "Master Bnar, there is a lot of conflict. I want to destroy the Sith, I want to put the Force back in the balance. I have the desire and the need to raise my children in a peaceful galaxy and not one destroyed by war," Anakin explained. Luke kept his arms around his father's waist.

"The conflict young one?" Bnar asked.

"My sister is a Sith's apprentice. She never had the chance to see good in the galaxy. She was stolen from my mother. I know there's good in her, Master Bnar. The Emperor hasn't destroyed all of the innocence from her, I know it. I just want to save her and bring her home," Anakin explained.

Bnar was silent for awhile and Anakin lifted Luke up, having his son sit on his side. Luke rested head on his father's shoulder. "I shall teach you the ways of the Force that your Jedi friends are unable to show you. The ways that I sense have been long forgotten," Bnar explained.

"I will be honored," Anakin answered.

"Your friends as well, teach them the older ways of the Force. It could be a great advantage for all of you to learn," Bnar added.

"We would be honored Master Bnar," Obi-Wan told him.

"Then we shall begin whenever the three of you are ready," Bnar told them.

Looking at Luke, Anakin pressed a kiss to his forehead to his son's head before setting him down on the ground. Staring back at the tree, Anakin moved down to one knee. "I am ready for your teachings Master Bnar," he stated with a slight grin.

"As am I," Bastila answered as she set Sasha down on the ground before bending down on one knee.

"As am I," Obi-Wan put in before doing the same.

"Then let's begin," Bnar told them.