Chapter 13: Another Anakin?
It wasn't long before Ben received another message, though the next one was not on his Comlink. It was in his head. There were no words, just screaming.
"I need to leave again," he said. He stood up and walked to the door. Damien got up, too. "No, Damien. You have to stay here. This might be more dangerous than before. I don't know what to expect this time, and Darth Dude was too stupid to hurt any one. This time, it's too risky."
"Risky? Like the last time right?" said Damien sarcastically.
"Fine, come if you want, but if you get hurt, I'm not responsible," said Ben. He walked out the door to his hidden X-Wing. Damien grabbed his backpack and followed.
This planet was much farther away. They had to travel a long way. Clowen was almost next to Golda, but Coresant was much farther, and that's where Ben's mind told him they should go.
They landed on the planet. There was a crowd around a collapsed building. Ben and Damien rushed up to join it.
"Hey! You kids don't belong here!" said a man.
"Han, we…" Ben started.
"Look kids, I don't know how you know my name, but it's dangerous here! No place for kids!" said Han.
"You know me, just as a different form," said Ben.
"I don't have time for games! Get out of here!"
"You didn't like me then. Luke said…"
"Luke? Luke was with some old guy, not a twelve-year old!" Han was really getting mad.
"Twelve? Who's twelve? I'm seventy. You would know me as an old man."
"Ben, let's go. You must be mixed up or something," said Damien.
"Definitely," Han said to him quietly.
"I'm Obi-Wan," said Ben. Damien smothered a laugh. "Remember now?"
"But, but, you died! I saw it with my own eyes!" said Han, confused. Damien looked just as confused.
Ben sighed. He didn't want to have to tell this story again. "Looks can be deceiving. Only a projection of me died. I still live. A few days ago I talked to your wife. She must have known I was still living. So does Luke."
"How come they never told me?" asked Han. He didn't wait for an answer before he said, "Speaking of Leia, she's trapped under the rubble." He pointed to the collapsed building.
A boy, about six years old, with dirty-blonde hair pulled on Han's pant leg. "Daddy," he whined.
"Not now. I'm busy," said Han.
Suddenly, many people in the crowd began talking all at once. Han rushed to the front. Ben, Damien, and the little boy followed. Many people had been found, including Leia. They were pulling them from the rubble and rushing them to the nearest hospital. Han followed, then stopped.
"Anakin, where are your brother and sister?" asked Han.
"Over there somewhere," said Anakin, pointing.
"Run and get them," Han said.
Anakin ran and came back with his siblings, obviously twins. They both had dark brown hair and blue eyes. All six of them hurried off to the hospital.
When they got there, Han quickly went to Leia's room.
"How is she?" he asked a doctor.
"Not too good. Almost halfway dead. You must see her. Leave the children outside in the hallway.
Anakin, the twins, Damien, and Ben stood in the hallway.
"You better come, too, Obi-Wan," said Han.
Ben looked at Damien, who was trying hard not to laugh. "It's Ben from now on."
"Okay." They went inside and Damien was left alone with the three kids. Suddenly, he heard the girl laugh.
"What's so funny?" he asked her.
"Your hair!" said the girl. "It's blue!"
"Ha, ha!" said Damien sarcastically. Of course, it was normal to have blue hair on his planet. "So," he said, changing the subject, "your name's Anakin, but what are your names?"
"I'm Jaina," said the girl.
"Jacen," said the boy. "What's yours?"
"My name's Damien."
Ben came out. "Damien," said Ben, motioning for him to come over. He came.
"Leia's not too good. You heard the doctor. Han is going to have his hands full, so…." He paused.
"He wants us to take care of the kids for a while," finished Damien.
"Right. It's too much for him. He says Anakin is a handful."
"We can handle it. I just don't know what Sarah and Cathy will think of this. They're still getting used to me."
"Exactly."
"We could keep them hidden."
"Good idea." Ben went back in to tell this to Han. Han came out to talk to the kids.
"Kids," he said to Anakin, Jaina, and Jacen, "your mom's not doing too well. I'm going to be really busy for a while, so these guys (he pointed to Ben and Damien) have offered to take you back to their house."
"Cool," said Anakin.
"I'll take you back in the Falcon," said Han. After stopping at home and getting some things, they flew home in the Falcon, and Ben flew behind in his X-Wing.
They got home at night, luckily. They sneaked into the bears' cave. Strangely, the bears were gone, so they started a fire. Ben got his and Damien's things from the other cave.
They set up their belongings in the cave. Damien had hardly anything except his Pokéballs and the backpack he carried them in. Ben had all his stuff packed away in the drawer under his bed. Each of the kids had a bag.
They got to bed finally, at least some of them, Damien and Ben. The others couldn't sleep. Anakin couldn't sleep because he wasn't tired, and Jaina and Jacen couldn't sleep because Anakin was kicking them. He had been sleeping on the outside, but he had rolled over Jaina and was now in lying in between her and Jacen.
"Hey! Get off of me!" said Jaina.
"Nope!" said Anakin.
"Stop kicking me!" said Jacen.
Anakin!
"What? And it's Anni!"
"Huh?" said Jaina and Jacen. They hadn't heard the voice. It was in Anakin's head.
"Isn't that a girl's name?" asked Damien, who had been woken by Anakin's outburst.
"No! It's not a girl's name!" shouted Anakin.
"Whatever. Just stop fighting and go to sleep!" Damien said. They did.
The next morning, they all woke up, except Anakin. "You can't wake him up," said Jacen. "Only stupid sounds wake him, because he's so stupid."
"Don't call your brother stupid," said Damien, though he knew he couldn't even count how many times he had called his two sisters stupid.
"But he is stupid! He doesn't even know ten plus ten!" said Jacen
"How old is he?" asked Damien.
"He's six years old!" said Jacen.
"How old are you?"
"Seven."
"Then of course, he wouldn't be as smart as you." Damien told Jacen. However, he knew he'd called his six-year-younger sister stupid before.
Jacen sat down at the fire. "I want to go outside!" he complained.
"You can't. We don't want anyone to find out you're here until the flood's over," explained Ben.
Jacen sighed and turned back to the fire. Ben went out to get something for breakfast. Damien went outside to get wood for a cage he was building for Pikablu. Jaina came over and sat next to Jacen.
Around ten o'clock, Anakin woke up. "I want breakfast!" he shouted.
"Make it yourself!" said Jaina.
"No!" shouted Anakin, but he got up anyway to find something to eat. He didn't know he was not supposed to go outside. He found Ember lying in front of the food, and jumped on top of him. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm trying to sleep," said Ember in is deep, funny voice. "Who are you?"
"I'm Anni."
"You're a girl?"
"No! Why does everyone here think I am a girl?"
"Because Annie is a girl's name."
"It's short for Anakin! Happy now?" He stomped away.
"What kind of a name is Anakin?" said Ember. He went back to sleep.
Anakin, not being able to find food, went back inside the cave. Unfortunately, he was just like his grandfather (the other Anakin). He didn't follow directions like he should have. He was jumping off the walls. Literally. Being strong in The Force like his mother, he was an extremely good jumper. Besides jumping off the walls, he was also screaming.
Damien came in from outside and saw Anakin jumping all over the place. Before he could say anything, Anakin jumped out the door, and luckily, landed on a chair. He jumped up and down, rocking the chair.
Suddenly the chair tipped over and Anakin tumbled off into the water.
Though Anakin didn't, Damien knew that the water stayed on you no matter what you did to get dry. He tried to grab Anakin out of the water, but Anakin kept jumping away.
"Ha, ha! You can't catch me!" Anakin yelled. He jumped into a tree.
Anakin!
Anakin stopped in mid-jump and fell back into the water.
Unless you want to be very sick, I suggest you get in bed right now.
Anakin looked around, but he could not see where the voice was coming from. "I don't know where you are but, first of all, it's Anni! Second of all, I'm not going to get sick from being in the water! It's hot outside!"
Alright, Anni. You'll get sick from the water no matter how hot it is outside. The longer you stay in there, the sicker you'll be when you get out.
"Then I'll never get out!" shouted Anakin. No one knew whom he was shouting to, except Ben.
The water will eventually dry up, so get out.
"Fine! I'll get out!" said Anakin. As soon as he got out, he was sick. He didn't care.
"Glad you decided to come in," said Damien. "Get in bed."
"No, no, no!" shouted Anakin. "I don't feel sick at all."
That was a lie, and you know it.
This voice in his head was getting annoying. And, it was familiar. "Stop it, Ben!" he shouted.
"So, you finally figured it out," said Ben, out loud this time.
"I told you he was stupid," said Jacen. "He couldn't even figure that out, whatever it was."
Anakin sighed. "Now who's stupid?"
"You!"
"Am not!"
"Are, too!"
"Both of you stop it! I've had enough of this today!" shouted Damien.
Anakin was finally convinced to get into bed, and when he got there, he was chained down so that he wouldn't reconsider. He was very sick. He had a very bad cold and he was semi-delirious. He started saying strange things, such as…
"The dragon's gonna eat Naboo!"
"What?" asked Damien.
"The dragon's gonna eat Naboo!" Anakin jumped out of bed, despite the chains, and jumped around the room screaming it.
"Look! I don't know what you're talking about, but get back in bed now!" Damien shouted angrily. He grabbed Anakin and got him back into bed.
"I take back what I said before," said Damien, later, "we can't handle him." He laughed a little. "Actually, I mean it. I'm no doctor."
"Well, we do have someone here who is," said Ben. "Get Sarah."
"Me? I think you forgetting two things. One, Sarah hates me at the moment, so does everyone else here. Two, the others aren't supposed to know about them," Damien said.
"I don't think Sarah would be too happy with what we've done, but I think Han will be less happy if Anakin gets very sick," said Ben.
"Anni," Anakin screamed.
"Whatever. Do you think it will be a good idea if I tell them?" asked Damien.
"It doesn't matter. If they're mad, they'll be mad at both of us. There's nothing we can do about it," said Ben.
So Damien went to get Sarah. He went to the other cave and knocked on the door. Sarah answered it.
"Oh, it's you," she said. She was about to shut the door on him.
"Sarah, wait," Damien started, putting his foot in the doorway so she wouldn't slam it in his face.
"What do you want?" asked Sarah.
"Well, it's kind of an emergency. Ben said you were a good doctor so I…"
"How did Ben know I used to be a doctor?" asked Sarah. She shrugged. "I must have told him and I don't remember. Look, I'll help you if I can. Where have you guys been?"
"Just follow me," said Damien. He led her back to his cave. They went inside.
"Oh, good. You got her to come," said Ben.
"What can I do for you?" asked Sarah.
"First, we have some explaining to do," said Ben. "The second time Damien and I were away, I ran into an old acquaintance of mine. His wife had been almost killed in an explosion, so we offered to take his kids until she got better."
Sarah didn't look so annoyed anymore. "So what does my being a doctor have to do with any of this?" she asked.
"Well, one of the kids, Anakin, or Anni -yes, I know it's a strange name - fell or jumped into the water. Now he is sick. He stayed in the water for quite a while. That's where you come in," explained Ben.
Sarah didn't know what to say. "I'll see what I can do, but this is not something I can easily deal with. This is enchantment we're talking about here." She went to look at Anakin.
In a few minutes she reported, "He's pretty sick, but he'll be okay in a while if you keep him in bed and keep him warm."
"Thanks," said Damien and Ben.
"So I should keep quiet about this, right?" asked Sarah.
"No, it's time we told everyone else. They deserve to know," said Ben.
"Yeah, and how long do you think we'll be able to keep them quiet?" asked Damien.
"Not very," said Jaina.
"I didn't even notice you there," Sarah said to her. "Who's that?" she asked Ben.
"That's Jaina, and that's Jacen," said Ben.
"I didn't see him, either," said Sarah.
That night, they had a little meeting in the forest. Ben told them all what had happened. No one seemed to mind much that there were three more in the forest.
Anakin somehow worked his way out of the chains during the meeting. He bounced out the door and over to the meeting, which was being held in the other cave.
"Hey!" Tim shouted, as Anakin jumped onto the floor next to his brother. "I thought you got kicked out of here!"
"I've never been here before in my life!" Anakin argued.
"Yes you were! You ate a mushroom and got catapulted out!" shouted Tim.
"No," said Ben, stopping the argument, "that was his grandfather."
"Another Anakin?" said Sarah.
"But how is that possible?" asked Cathy. "We've only been in this forest a few weeks!"
"Not true," said Snowy. "You have been in here what may have been a few weeks in forest days, but forest days are different. While it is one day in here, it could be one day, week, month, or even year out of the forest."
"Weird," said Turtle.
"It always changes. But the forest knows, if you want to, let's say, get a job, it will be the same as regular days until you stop the job."
"Well, if we've been here three generations, how come we haven't aged?" asked Sarah.
"You don't age here. Since time passes irregularly, there is no way to compute ages, so, the forest doesn't try. You just stay the same age. The ducklings, for instance, have been ducklings for two hundred, twenty-two years," said Snowy.
"When does time start again?" asked Sarah.
"When you have been out of the forest for a month consecutively, you will start to age again."
The meeting was over, as no one had anything else to say now.
"I think they took that pretty well," said Damien.