Disclaimer: If I said I owned Star Wars, Lucas would "Use the Lawyers"

A/N: school sucks. It takes time away from writing. I apologize for my lack of updates! Don't kill me! (see, then you don't get to read the rest. I have an ace in the hole!)

Chapter X: Solo Luck

"He what?!"

Jorus clapped metaphysical 'hands' over his 'ears', regardless of the fact that it wouldn't help. "Created a clone. I found it because I've been cloned; I have experience. Much the same way young Zekk found your sister – although not quite." the old Jedi winked.

Anakin shook his head, hardly able to believe it. "Is this Solo luck or what? I find a way to come back, my family screws me up by burning my body, and then I find a clone. Sithspawn!"

"Anakin!" the Solo heard a familiar voice and turned. Lyric floated beside him, her tail a shimmering blue due to the effect this world had on her, on all the Jedi who died. "I finally collected everything. Well, everything the Masters will allow you to take back with you. Greetings for friends and family, a few assurances and a couple of lectures."

"I don't know if I can remember all that," Anakin moaned. By now he'd gotten used to seeing Lyric again, even if she was dead.

She dismissed his worries with a webbed hand. "You don't have to, not really. I'll store it in your personal Force-well so you can reach it when you find the people they're keyed to," Lyric extended one of her hands and touched his head. For a moment his every thought was contained in those messages, and then they vanished without a trace into his subconscious.

"Thanks. I suppose, since they're getting near that worldship, I ought to go check up on my resurrection committee," Anakin grinned wryly. "Never thought I'd hear myself say that."

Lyric laughed, her voice like the waters she lived in. "No one did, Anakin, rest assured of that!"

"Hey, Ani?"

The blond began banging his head against the blue mist. He'd acquired that nickname when a few of the Jedi discovered that his grandfather had used it. "Anakin, Lusa, I beg of thee," he implored. The crimson-flanked centaurian snorted.

"Anakin, then, human," she corrected herself, grinning. Her tail swished lightly. "Once you check up on our old friends you'd better make a stop at the Errant Venture. Tahiri's hit a rut."

The human started at the crimson-haired Jedi. "What do you mean, a rut?"

Lusa sighed. "They can't get her out of the age she's in, and she's getting worried that you've spent all this time on Coruscant without calling her. If you can push her up another year or so, it would buy us more time."

He nodded as Lyric shimmered away. "Because they'll snap her back if they have to, and then we'll have no time at all. They won't even be able to 'fix' my body if I want to get back to the Errant Venture before Tahiri . . . does something rash," Anakin ground his teeth in frustration. "I wish there was something else I could do! I feel so useless just sitting here and letting them do everything to bring me back!"

"You can do something," Lusa pointed out. Humans, she thought, stamping an annoyed hindhoof. So defeatist. "Check in with the resurrection team, then encourage Tahiri. Go on!" she shooed him away, and Anakin shimmered off.

*

He shimmered back in Tahiri's room on the Errant Venture. She was pacing back and forth, still dressed in the outdated orange jumpsuit, muttering to herself. "There's something wrong. If Anakin was going to be gone this long, he'd have told me! Or at least called. And where are Jacen and Jaina? They're usually here when Anakin's on Coruscant!"

Oh, boy . . . Anakin perched on the edge of Tahiri's bed, watching her. Alright, then, here goes nothing. *Tahiri?* he nudged her mind with the force. Flipping through the memories she'd blocked, he drew the memories of the next six months into her forebrain. Nomi Sunrider, possibly the most talented Jedi in history in Jedi Battle Meditation and mind manipulation, had taught him (for the duration of his time deceased) how to subtly alter another Jedi's perception of time. The memories became present and then past in the space of a second. He let her go when they had graduated out of their orange jumpsuits, after which he had gone back to Coruscant with his entire family, including Jacen and Jaina.

When he was done, he sat there, staring as Tahiri relaxed. Sithspawn, I miss you, he thought. I'm here, Tahiri. Don't give up, he sighed. I'd better not give up, or neither of us is going to get through this with a modicum of sanity.