Disclaimer: I would looooove to own Star Wars. Can we say 'delete Star By Star'? I knew we could!

A/N: Aaaaand here's the next chappie! Got one more left and an epilogue, I think - and maybe a sequel, if I can get off my duff and write it.

***I APOLOGIZE TO ALL MY READERS - I FORGOT TO UPLOAD CHAPTER XVIII (18)!! It's now been uploaded in its proper place (you'll remember there was a prologue, so the numbers are off). It's called "Stay", and it's the conclusion of Tahiri's suicide attempt. A thousand and one apologies - this is so embarrassing!***

Read and review - tell me whacha think!

Chapter XXII: Ready for Anything

Mara met her frantic sister-in-law outside the door of Tahiri's room, the twins apparently having succumbed under parental interrogation. They, Tenal Ka, Zekk, Sannah, Uldir, Lowie and Em Teedee, along with Jaina's pet shook, followed along behind their elders with sheepish looks on their faces.

The former Imperial assassin, however, could not be cowed so easily.

"You are not going in here until they let us in," Mara declared. "Yes, Anakin's back, yes, he's brought Tahiri back, but none of it will stick unless we let them work it out."

Leia, who had been about to launch into a tirade at Mara, paused, then shook her head. "He's my son, I need to see him!"

"You've had all three of your children restored to you today, Leia - and speaking of that, get over here, you two!" Jacen and Jaina rolled brandy-brown eyes but complied, only to be taken up into a fierce hug by their aunt. "Don't either of you do that ever again!"

"I think that's something we can safely promise, Aunt Mara," Jacen replied impishly.

"And Jaina, what on earth did you do to your hair?" Mara surveyed Jainia's cropped hair, and the young woman turned red. Lowie barked a comment.

"Master Lobacca points out that if you think Mistress Jaina's hair has changed, you should see what Anakin's looks like," Em Teedee needlessly translated.

*

"How did this happen . . . What did you do to your hair?" Tahiri laughed, running her hands through the incredibly long blond hair. "You look really different. Shorter."

Anakin smiled. "Yeah. We ran into a bit of a difficulty when we found out that my body had been burned."

"Wait - if this isn't yours, whose is it, and what happened to the person who was in it before? How did you do any of this in the first place?"

The incessant questioning made Anakin's smile widen. Life wouldn't be the same without Tahiri's incessant chatter, and in the short time after her captivity by the Vong the area around her had seemed unnaturally quiet. Death certainly hadn't been worth it without her.

"Bantha got your tongue?"

"As usual, I was waiting to get a word in edgewise."

And so it was. Anakin and Tahiri, two of the most promising trainees ever to grace the Academy, were a team again. For while it took Luke and Mara nearly ten years to meld, from the moment they met in the Grand Audience Chamber of the Great Temple, Anakin and Tahiri had been more one being than two. Separate, they were powerful, but together –

They were unstoppable.

"Apparently, I wasn't supposed to die, so I scared the robes off a bunch of dead Jedi when I showed up. I don't remember much of what happened while I was dead . . . The memories have been fading since I rejoined the land of the living. All I know is that the body I'm in is my clone, grown at the natural rate since I was three years old. The soul inside the clone had never been conscious in his entire life, so when I explained things to him, he agreed to leave and let me have his body. Again, I don't know the details - one of the others might be able to tell you more, because their memories won't have faded."

"Who are the others? You don't remember anything from when you were dead? Did you ever -" here Tahiri paused, because she knew she'd been having trouble when deprived of Anakin, and she didn't know which memories were real and which were hallucination. "Come see me?"

Anakin hugged her tightly. "All the time," he whispered. Tahiri, reassured, giggled.

"So. What else?"

"Well, Jacen and Jaina are back - Jaina was a Nightsister for a while, and she has really short hair and a pet shook, and I think Jacen and Tenal Ka have finally, permanently gotten together. Oh, and we're going to have to talk to Uncle Luke about Sannah . . ."

Tahiri suddenly looked up, though her hands never left Anakin. "Speaking of Sannah - where is everybody?"

"Probably waiting outside the door, having been stopped by Aunt Mara. She was the only one who knew what was going on."

"So . . . Feel like getting mobbed?"

Anakin took a deep breath. "Alright. You ready?"

"For anything, Anakin Solo. Anything."