Trigger Warning: the following chapter may be traumatic for anyone with experience similar to having a child go missing. Read prepared, there's a cliffhanger ahead.

Chapter 49 - Back and Gone

Anakin worried for his son. He'd never seen anything like that before, and he wanted to go into protective dad mode and insist Luke get checked out immediately, but there wasn't time for that. Aco-Ness was standing there, holding up the ship's Mainframe that was the last thing his son interacted with while under the effects of… whatever made his eyes glow.

"Dad, we have to get back to the ship. Before… He…" Luke waved in the direction Vader was buried under.

"Right. Let's go." Anakin and Obi-Wan helped Luke up while Aco-Ness followed them with the device.

Once back, Anakin took the mainframe from the pirate and went right to work installing it. "Padawan, hand me that…"

Before he even finished the sentence, Galen passed him the tool he needed. Their Master-Padawan Bond was growing stronger.

"Thanks," Anakin sent him feelings of gratitude, which made the young man blush with pride.

"You know, I never expected to see a bunch of Pirates group hug like that. They're still at it, you know." Galen looked over his shoulder and into the next room.

"Yeah, they are really happy to have Aco-Ness back. He's their crew-mate, their family." Anakin knew how easy a crewmate could become like family. "And they were really worried about him. There we go, how about you go push that startup key for me." Galen ran over and waited with his hand over the key while Anakin counted down. "Three, Two, One."

As both men pressed their keys, lights started to come on all across the panel. Anakin ran over and hugged his Padawan in triumph. "WEEWH! We're up and running, everybody!" He announced loud enough for the next room to hear.

Triumphant voices hollered back.

"Huh? Where am I?" A female voice came out of one of the ship's speakers.

"TX. It is I, Huyang. These are my Jedi masters. They needed to transfer your mainframe to this vessel to make it functional. It's a long story, but one I'm sure you'll find satisfaction in hearing." The droid walked in speaking to the ship.

"A working hyperdrive. A Navicomputer that doesn't need error calculations. Oh, I feel out of the factory again! This is wonderful." The ship replied.

Anakin smiled. "Yes, glad to do it. What did you say her name was? TX Stormchaser, I'm glad to meet you."

"No, That classification was to the old bucket of bolts that was me before. This is another ship, and system analysis says that the core components to three other ships were installed to get me functional again. I need a new classification."

"Oh…Um…" Anakin and the others looked at each other for an idea.

"How about Rogue Shadow." Juno Eclipse suggested, then shrugged. "The name's always stuck on my tongue, and I always thought I'd name a ship that, If I ever got the chance to name a ship, that is."

"Ooh. Well, I like that name. I'm updating my classification as we speak." The girl smiled proudly. "What are your orders? Database says the Jedi are stationed on Coruscant. Would you like me to return you to grid coordinates L-Nine, point zero, zero, zero?"

Several voices in the room rushed to call out at once, "NO!"

Obi-Wan had gotten Luke safely onboard and was now pacing back and forth.

"Master." Luke's voice tried to break through. "Master, I'm fine. Look."

Obi-Wan looked. The boy did appear relatively normal. But then Anakin did too… And that thought led to a memory involving several broken bones and a concussion his former Padawan tried to hide from him. 'No, no. That can't happen again. I have to learn more about this, but how?'

Suddenly lights came on all over the ship. 'Ah-hah, Anakin's gotten the mainframe installed. At least that's good news.' Obi-Wan knew Anakin was just as worried about Luke as he was. It was only because he needed to get them all out to safety that he wasn't in that chamber pacing with Obi-Wan at that moment. And Obi-Wan knew this, could feel it over the bond with his former Padawan. Oh, he wished he could usher up the feelings to settle that worry, but he couldn't settle them in himself either.

Then an idea came to Obi-Wan. Who was the Jedi he'd always talked to when things looked the bleakest? Who had seen more with the force in his nearly nine hundred years of life than any other Jedi? Their ship was functioning again. Obi-Wan hadn't asked about it's communications before, and he had no idea if they still worked, but he had to try.

"Ship," Obi-Wan spoke up. He regretted not remembering what they said it's name was. As he waited for the ship to respond, he felt it take off, and he said a silent prayer that things would go well.

"Yes, Jedi Master Kenobi." The female voice came out of the speaker.

"Oh, good. I'd like to make a comm call. Can I access communications?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Well, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker currently has all the command protocols of Captain, and Jedi Master does outrank Jedi Knight… So, yes. You may engage that protocol at this time."

"That's good. Is there a terminal I can use? Where?" Obi-Wan added, remembering he was talking to an AI.

"The nearest Comm terminal is on the port wall." As Obi-Wan looked, lights came on one of the nearby walls as the ship started it up. Obi-Wan and Luke both walk over to it. "Is there a frequency you'd like to call?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan plugged in the number for Master Yoda's ship.

"Yoda here. Oh, Obi-Wan it is. And Padawan Luke." The blue holo of the grandmaster appeared before them.

"Master," Obi-Wan bowed, and Luke followed suit beside him. "Things did not go as expected."

"Figured this, I did, when the Black Eight Squadron arrived. Surrounded, you are," said Yoda. "No way in, I see."

"Yes, it looked pretty beak for a while there. But then we got some unexpected help." Obi-Wan glanced at Luke, before continuing. "We've acquired Huyang, and a new ship and will still need to fight our way past the Black Squadron. When we do we'll likely need to jump to hyperspace right away to escape, but before then. Have you ever heard of a Jedi Padawan's eyes glowing?"

"Hmm." Yoda's gaze shifted over to Luke. Worry and shock came over his face. "With your Kyber, you have connected. Untaught this is. How?"

"It was an emergency." Luke replied, not at all worried. "Huyang explained it to me."

The Grandmaster was silent for a minute as he studied the Padawan's face. "Pleased, Anakin will be. An update, Huyang needs." Yoda muttered some other things under his breath, but neither of them heard.

"Wait. I take it this used to be taught, but it isn't anymore." Obi-Wan added up. "Why? What's going to happen to my Padawan?"

"I told you, I'm fine." Luke protested for the upteenth time.

Yoda looked again at Luke. "Drained the energy already is. Fine, he will be. Overusing it, too many knights were. Addicted to the power, they became. No permanent effect, one time should cause."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Thank you, Master."

"Hmm?" Yoda seemed to lean forward to look at something in front of him. "Touch anything under the effects of the Kyber, did you?"

Obi-Wan's brow furrowed. "The last thing he touched was the ship's Mainframe that Anakin just installed. Then the energy drained out of him and his eyes turned normal again."

"See the effects, I do. Need to jump soon, you will. Meet you at next stop, I will. Yoda out."

The holo disappeared and Obi-Wan looked with confusion at Luke. He looked back with no more understanding in his eyes. Then they heard the ship's engine's shift as they jumped to hyperspace.

TX-Rogue Shadow, 'Gee, I like that name,' starts her engines and prepares for take off. She experiences a funny sensation in systems she can't identify for a brief few seconds and logs it in her error logs.

"Okay Rogue," Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker addresses her from her bridge. "We are actually in a sticky spot. I sense we're surrounded by TIE Fighters in a battle formation. If we want to get out of here, we're going to need to break through that line."

"Understood Sir." Rogue is very curious what kind of long distance sensors these Jedi possess, to be able to sense enemy aircraft in orbit, even before take-off. "Activating Laser Cannon, now."

Rogue's laser cannon blasts through the weakest wall in the compound. She takes off, entering low orbit into outer space. There she runs across a line of Twin Ion Engines. They don't bother to hail her or her captains, and fire immediately. 'How rude!'

Rebellion officer Eclipse is sitting behind the pilot controls, and she inputs movements to help Rogue avoid those initial blaster shots. That funny feeling inside of her underbelly intensifies, though she still can't identify an exact part or system to blame. She hopes it doesn't cause any catastrophic breakdowns.

Anakin targets her cannon onto one of the firing fighters, but the angle of his shot causes debris to hit two other fighters nearby. This happens two more times, and Rogue is starting to believe it is more than just a lucky shot. She's starting to like these new pilots.

Just then a minor mistake by Eclipse leads to one of the enemy's shots getting through. Only where she expected to feel the pain of systems shutting down and air hatches needing to be sealed, instead she feels a minor tickle. It's as if her shield's deflected the shot perfectly.

Rogue checks her status reports again, 'No, this model doesn't have the kind of shields to stand up to an LS-1 Laser Cannon.' The funny feeling in her underbelly grows again.

Anakin doesn't pause for a second, and he immediately gives her another target. She moves to follow his command, only her targeting computer develops a sudden glitch. Instead of the one target he gave her, it targets all of the enemy at once. Such a feat should be impossible. Before she can fire a defective system, Rogue logs the error and moves to shut down her canons.

Only her canons don't obey the order to shut down. They complete the order instead. Blasts of energy tinted green fire out of her Four Twin Laser Cannons and spread out, hitting each and every one of the TIE Fighters in her path.

"I don't know what is happening." Rogue tells her pilots.

"Neither do we, but I wouldn't count on it happening again. Let's get out of here fast." Anakin responds. Eclipse gives her a route through hyperspace, and she makes the jump as quick as she can. The funny feeling in her underbelly is gone.

Huyang walks with his newly buffered and oiled limbs. Skywalker I had given him the full treatment on their way back, and repaired his limb joints and empathy chip to boot. Huyang truly would say he never felt better, except…

"Rogue," Huyang walks through the ship. They had landed on Tatooine, after Anakin made them stop in three other systems to throw off anyone who might have been tailing them through Hyperspace. On one of those stops, the Pirates all departed, and now that they were home, the other humans had stepped off the ship. Huyang sees this as his opportunity to talk to Rogue in private.

"Yes, Huyang?" She responds.

"I just wanted to ask. Are you sure about this? If you're not, I can talk to the Jedi about giving you another assignment. Perhaps…"

"I am very sure. Juno will make a competent Captain, and I am eager to see action again. That was so thrilling. The Rebellion is the perfect assignment."

"I am pleased for you. I regret that I cannot come along. My programming is with Jedi younglings, and they are here." This made Huyang's energy levels feel quite dim. "What is your long-range comm number? In case we have another emergency. Normally I'd say the chances are one in two hundred thirty four, but then with four Skywalkers, and I hear three Kenobi's it does raise the odds considerably."

Rogue laughed at this. "My number is displayed on the panel nearest to you. And I do hope you use it, emergencies or not. You are a fun droid to talk to."

Huyang looked at the number and logged it in his permanent memory file.'Perhaps, if I asked Knight Skywalker for a long range communicator upgrade, he would provide,' he thought.

When they got off the ship, Luke wanted to run home immediately, but both Obi-Wan and the boy's father were settled on one thing first. They clasped their arms around his shoulders and led him into the Medic's office.

Thirty minutes later, after the boy had all of the tests they could give him, the adults were reasonably assuaged of their worry, and they all headed for home. Anakin's home precisely.

"Talked to Master Coleman and Knight Merek, I did. Meet us there, they will." Yoda announced. "Go over their plans to defend Tatooine, they will."

'Oh, that is good. I'll get to see Ella-Reese, as she'll probably be with her master,' thought Obi-Wan.

When they got to the house, said Jedi were just landing their speeder then. Luke, Leia and Galen ran ahead into the house, but Obi-Wan looked around the arriving speeder for his daughter. He'd missed his family while they were away.

"Where is Leo," Anakin asked Kento Merek, his son's Jedi Master. Clearly he was thinking the same thing as Obi-Wan.

"We sent the Padawans ahead of us to set up our presentation. They should be inside." Master Coleman said with a wave of his hand.

When they entered the home, Leia had a triumphant smirk on her face as she turned to her brother with her hand extended. Luke frowned as he pulled something from a pocket and handed it to his sister. Galen hid behind them, looking away as Anakin walked through. Obi-Wan barely noticed their exchange, as he walked through looking for his daughter.

Ahead of him Anakin stopped. His eyes were plastered open, and his lungs had stopped breathing. Obi-Wan quickly followed his line of sight to the couch, where two fourteen year olds were kissing.

A second later Yoda whacked his stick loudly on the floor and both teens looked up in shock at their parents.

Anakin had a low growl in his voice as he ordered his son, "Upstairs."

"Dad, I…" Leo tried.

"NOW!" Anakin ordered.

Obi-Wan could tell his former Padawan was not angry, just that he needed to have a serious talk with his son. And not in front of the other Jedi.

As Obi-Wan looked back at his daughter's blushing face, he knew he needed to do the same. Only this was not their house.

"Go home, we must. Hear your plans another time, we will." Yoda suggested to the two Jedi standing behind them.

Obi-Wan lived only a short walk from the Skywalker's house, but this walk felt longer than most. His daughter walked slowly with her head down, as one who knows she's going to be in trouble when they get home. Obi-Wan and Yoda walked shortly behind her.

Though Yoda had acquired his own permanent residence a while ago, he still regarded Obi-Wan's home as his own at times, and Obi-Wan had no doubt when the Grandmaster said they'd go home, he meant himself too.

When they walked into his house, Obi-Wan was not any more sure what he'd say to his daughter than when they'd left Anakin's.

Satine walked out one of the rooms and her expression changed to one of worry when she saw them all. "What's wrong Obi? Ella-Reese?"

"Go to your room," Obi-Wan ordered, and the girl quietly obeyed.

Satine moved directly in front of her husband. "What's going on?" Her tone was very serious. She wanted answers, and she was going to get them.

Obi-Wan could hardly breath. "They were kissing," he choked.

Satine raised her eyebrows.

"Kissing she and Leo Skywalker were." Yoda filled in the gaps.

Satine chuckled. "Oh. I see." Obi-Wan was shocked to see her smile at such a serious subject. "You owe me, little man." She went over to Yoda and held her hand out the way Leia had earlier. Yoda too scrambled around for a credit chip near his belt which he handed over with a glum look on his face.

"Wait! You're betting on this?" Obi-Wan was flabbergasted.

About a year later, Anakin woke from a rather unsettling night. He'd had no visions, but was still feeling unsettled.

"Morning Honey," Padme greeted him.

"M-mmmmnh," Anakin groaned.

His wife smiled at him. "I'm going to go make breakfast. Why don't you go see what the twins want. It is their special day."

Anakin nodded and wiped the sleep from his eyes. It was the Twins Growing-Up Day, he remembered. Luke and Leia were both eighteen, and officially adults this morning. "I feel like an old man. Don't tell Obi-Wan I said that."

Padme laughed. "Your secret is safe with me. Seriously, though. Time to get up."

Anakin pulled himself out of bed and threw on his robe. After showering and dressing, Anakin went past Leia's bedroom door and knocked. He received no answer, but then from a teenager, that's not a strange thing.

He walked across the hall to Luke's door and knocked. "Luke...Luke?" The wave of grief that passed through his son's door was so strong, even a non Force-Sensitive person would be affected. "Can I come in?"

There was no answer, but Anakin opened the door anyway. Luke sat on his bed with tears streaming down his face. Anakin walked up to his son and passed him more tissues. Then he sat beside Luke with his hand on his back, waiting for him to settle enough to tell him what was wrong.

Luke continued to cry, and Anakin felt a mess of loss, fear, and a few twinges of regret coming from the boy. After a few minutes, Anakin looked up towards the hallway, and the still unmoved door of Leia. Even in the midst of a teenage moodswing, it was unusual for the girl not to at least come out and check on her brother when he's clearly so upset. "Where's your sister?" He thought out loud.

That question spurred Luke on to cry harder, until he choked out the words, "She's. Gone."

Luke continued to cry, but Anakin left him and burst into his daughter's room. Her bed was empty. At least half her clothes were gone. And the bag she kept to use on missions, along with her lightsaber and other personal belongings were nowhere in sight. A harsh yowl escaped his throat, and the force shook as far off as Yavin, as the distraught father fell to the floor and cried.

Hello Everybody,

I hope you don't mind my shortening the Pirate's reunion like I did here. They are all very happy to be reunited and are going on to likely continue their raids and pirating with Hondo this time. A big, happy Pirate family!

I renamed TX the Rogue Shadow and gave her to Juno Eclipse, because in Legends, she did have a ship named the Rogue Shadow. Now, in Legends, the ship first belonged to Vader and was used to taxi around his secret apprentice before Juno ever got the job. So I don't believe I can credit her with coming up with it, but here you can call it latent Force Sensitivity or a premonition into (no longer possible) alternate futures, but I had her suggest it as a name. We'll see if we see the Rogue Shadow again, I honestly can't predict it. And I couldn't let her go without Huyang asking her for her number.

The part with Ella-Reese and Leo was just too tempting the way I'd left it before, back in chapter 43. And I just couldn't resist getting Yoda in on the action as well.

On a side note: I have a baby idea about an AU in which Anakin tells the Council about his then pregnant wife, and they all tell him they secretly had agreed on giving him an exception to the attachments rule when he was a kid, because they wanted him to breed more force sensitives. They say they couldn't explain it to him then, because he was a nine year old. And by the time he was old enough to have 'that talk,' he'd already displayed a resistance to authority. They said that they thought just letting him 'break the rules' was the best way to get things done. Then, when Obi-Wan is still looking at them furious like, 'Why wouldn't you at least tell me! I was his Master'. They turn around and say, 'Why do you think we assigned the chosen one to you, a brand new knight all those years ago when we were hesitant to allow Qui-Gon, a Jedi Master to take him. Yeah, we thought your own impropriety would wear off on the kid.' Obi-Wan would be thrown off by 'impropriety? What!' and they'd say 'yeah, a certain dutchess and her offspring. We tried to negotiate to bring the kid to the Temple, but the mother refused all requests. Latest news says she's calling him her nephew, but yeah, we had the DNA test done.' Then after Padme has the babies, Twins, the Council gets into another argument over who's bet on the child's gender wins, and Obi-Wan, or maybe Yoda Idk, just smiles and pulls in the credits. Or maybe before Padme even gets pregnant, the council gets impatient and decides they'd better interfere to make sure Anakin makes his babies, somehow. Aah, so much comedic potential. But alas I don't have time for another fanfiction right now, so this baby's up for adoption...

Now the ending is a cliffhanger. I'm sorry for that. But this is one I've had planned for a while now. In the next chapter we'll start a little before this as we will learn exactly what happened to her and why. To give you a hint the twins are eighteen now and almost at the age they were in A New Hope.