Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Star Wars. We won't discuss what would be going on if I did . . .

A/N: Ahh! I'm so sorry for my long hiatus. I will have more up, but ALL my fanfic muses have abandoned me lately. X-Men: Evolution, Star Wars, HP, Mercedes Lackey (oh, man, I am dry!) . . . Okay. I will finish this, I promise it will not lay here, unfinished (like some of my other things . . .) So please, be patient with me. Updates will come as soon as they're written, and I'll try not to be more than a week between updates!

Okay. Done. Read, and wait for more!

Chapter XV: Keep Walking

Anakin swung his legs off the table, wincing. All the training his body had gone through was purely artificial, with the exception of the Force. Now his mind was burning it's imprint into the brain of the clone body he inhabited, and directing muscles for the first time in over a month. "Well, Sithspawn. I can physically walk, but I'm not used to it."

"You'll have time to get used to it. The Errant Venture is hidden in the Core, and we're among the Rim Worlds," Sannah told him. "And that hair looks really, really weird."

"It feels weird," Anakin replied. "But I don't care. I need to get back there. Can we go?"

"Oh, most definitely. No offense, Anakin, but I am very glad you're out of my head," Uldir remarked. "It weighs less."

"Wonderful, as mine weighs more. Please, can we go?"

Jaina laughed. She was a far cry form the Nightsister they'd found; even a good number of the bruises had faded. The work had done her immeasurable good, and the shine was back in brandy eyes, the laugh back in her voice. "Yeah. Let's go!"

They cleaned the workstation, reassured the irate computers, boarded the Rock Dragon and blasted away from the worldship faster than Anakin could ask to leave.

*

"It's a little weird," Sannah confessed as she accompanied Anakin on his umpteenth round of the Rock Dragon. He figured he'd better get used to walking again, and this seemed to be the best way to do it. "Having you back again, I mean. Can any Jedi do this? Come back?"

Anakin shook his head, trying to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other. "If they could, Obi-Wan would have come back a dozen times since Vader killed him. And a good dozen of the Jedi want to get all the Jedi together and have a long, long talk with them on our current minor civil war. They do kinda get to have a word in, though."

"What do you mean?"

"So many of the Jedi had words to say to currently living Jedi that the people who were helping me come back let the most important plant messages in my head. I won't remember them until I see that person, upon which they pop to the front of my head and beg to be said."

Sannah laughed at that image. "Sounds kinda uncomfortable."

Before Anakin could reply, Uldir stuck his head out of the communication console. "Hey, Sannah! Tionne left you a message before we blasted into hyperspace."

"Coming. Come with me?"

"Sure. Let's see what Tionne has to say, hmm?" he had a bit of a wicked gleam in his eye, and Sannah got the distinct feeling that he was as glad to be back as they were to see him.

Tionne's message was short, to the point, and frightening.

"Sannah, get back here. Now. We had to bring Tahiri up, and she needs a friend. Badly. We don't know what will help, but right now, we'll take anything. She needs you, Sannah."

Anakin and Sannah faced each other, faces white. "Oh, Force. They brought her back. I was hoping . . ." his new body staggered a bit with shock, and Uldir caught him. Before Anakin was even steady on his feet he sent his mind out, reaching for the Errant Venture. But he couldn't. They were too far apart.

With physical bodies come physical limitations, but now Anakin wished with all his heart that he could bounce around the galaxy the way he had when he was little more than a thought with Force-talent. He came back all at once, and slid into a seat. "I hoped I could get there before she realized . . ."

"We just have to go quickly, Anakin. Don't you fret yourself into having hysterics, too, or you'll probably effect her!" Sannah pointed out. "Get up and keep walking. Work on running, Anakin, 'cause I know that's what you're gonna do the instant we hit the Errant Venture."

He nodded slowly. "I will get there in time," he told himself.

Then he got up, and went on.