"Senator, are you sure that he is to be trusted?" asked Chancellor Rothrock, fearfully.
"Yes. I would trust Anakin with anything." Padmé replied. She and the Chancellor had had strings quite similar to this for the past hour, and when he wasn't asking her if she trusted Anakin, he was asking for some crazy little detail that he really didn't need to know. This new chancellor was so difficult to work with! Palpatine may have been corrupt, but at least he didn't ask for every single little detail! Padmé inwardly groaned, she was going to be here a while.
~*~
"Is this it, Leia?" asked Anakin.
"It looks like it." she replied.
"But so did the last five places we went to, and two of them didn't even sell ice cream." said Anakin.
"I'm almost positive this one is it!" she said, and luckily it was.
"What kind of ice cream do you guys want?" asked Anakin.
"Oh! I want chocolate with chocolate chips and chocolate sauce on it!" said Leia excitedly.
"What about you Luke?" prompted Anakin when Luke didn't say anything.
"I don't know. I don't think I've ever had ice cream before." Luke replied.
"You've never had ice cream?" exclaimed Leia, "You're kidding, right?"
Anakin chuckled, "I forgot, Tatooine doesn't have much of a variety of foods, does it?"
Luke shook his head, "It doesn't."
"Well, how about if you just try something then?"
"Okay!" Luke replied.
Half an hour later, after Luke and Leia had eaten their ice cream, Luke voiced what he had been afraid of since they had left Alderaan. "Hey Dad?" he asked quietly.
"Yes?"
"Is Mara going to be okay?"
Anakin thought for a moment. "I don't know, Luke. Obi- Wan went to look for her, and now I have to go find Obi- Wan. I think she's alright, but she probably won't want to come back with us. She was really angry with Obi- Wan, and that's my fault."
"Why is that your fault?" asked Leia.
"Well Jedi- they have different ranks. You start out as a padawan, then a knight after passing some trials, then a master. Knights and masters train padawans to become knights and masters like themselves. Since padawan and their masters spend so much time together, they become close, almost like a mother or father to a son or daughter. Most Jedi never marry or know their parents, as Jedi are taken from their parents when they're really young. So young that they wouldn't remember them.
Anyways, at one time I was Obi- Wans padawan and he was, and still is, like a father to me. When I was 22 years old, I turned to the dark side, and everyone thought I was dead. Then, thanks to your mother and Obi- Wan, I managed to turn away from that. But within the time I was supposedly dead, Obi- Wan took on Mara as his padawan. Obi- Wan and I talked a lot on Alderaan, and on Tatooine, we were making up for lost time. And I guess Mara thought Obi- Wan was going to disown her, and take me as his padawan. She got mad at Obi- Wan and left."
"I still don't see how that's your fault." said Leia. "Its Obi- Wan's more that it is yours. He should have noticed the way she was acting and talked to her about it."
"Yeah. Mara said she was mad at Obi- Wan." Luke added. "Its his fault he didn't notice."
~*~
Mara's ship landed on Ilum without difficulty. Now to find her stone. This can't be to hard. Mara tested the air on the planet. It had enough oxygen in it that she could leave her ship without an air mask. She left the ship and began to search for a cave. This landscape is so barren. It will be difficult to find a cave with the stone I need Mara continued to walk until she came to a small cave. It was so dark she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She reached into her pocket and ignited a glow stick. The walls of the cave glimmered in all sorts of colors in this light. There were blues, purples, greens, yellows, whites, oranges, and, what she was looking for, reds.
She approached the reds in awe. The lightsaber she had had she hadn't made herself, so there was no choice in the color of its blade. She had wanted red, but the master who had given it to her said that red wouldn't be a good choice. Now she could have red. Mara reached up and touched a bit of the stone. She began to pull on it to try to get it to loosen itself from the cave wall. She set her glow stick down and began to pull at it with both hands. It began to loosen a little bit, but it appeared that she would need more than her hands to pull it loose. Mara looked around. Maybe if there was another stone that had already fallen, she could use it to pry this red one loose.
~*~
All four of the Skywalkers awoke around the same time since today, Anakin would leave to search for Obi- Wan.
"Can I come with you?" Luke asked as Anakin said goodbye to him.
Anakin shook his head. "No, it may get a little to dangerous, but maybe some other time."
Luke put on his best pout face and Anakin levitated him into the air and tickled him with the force. "No! No! Put me down!" said Luke through fits of laughter. Anakin levitated him back to the ground, grinning.
"Bye, Dad," said Leia as Anakin hugged her.
"Bye, Leia," he replied.
"When are you going to come back?" she asked.
"Hopefully I won't be gone for to long. Besides, I'm sure I would miss you to much if I were."
Leia grinned and said "Okay."
"Anakin," murmured Padmé as he took her in his arms. He kissed her tenderly on the lips. "Come back soon." she said.
"Don't worry, I will." he said, and he kissed her again.
"Ew!" said Luke, when he saw them kiss. Leia glared at him, and both Anakin and Padmé laughed.
"Bye." said Anakin once they had stopped laughing, "I'll miss you." and with that, he got on to the ship where Siri and her padawan we're waiting.
"Very strong in the force he is," said Yoda who had watched this whole scene from a distance.
Master Windu nodded. "Do you think that prophecy is true? Was Anakin really the one to bring balance to the force?"
"Hm... Skywalker has come close, but not balanced the force is. Balance to the force someone else will bring."
"The only question is, who?" said Mace.
_*_
AN: Sorry that took me so long! Please R&R! I will try to update soon ^ - ^ Oh yeah, and if you we're wondering, that last bit with Yoda and Windu will have a lot of importance in the sequel!
- Sarah