CHAPTER IX
A shattered hope

Perit woke up to find himself surrounded by some of the Jedi that had "rescued" him. Those Jedi were Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker. Perit didn't know their names at the time, so he just called them Jedi. They were talking about something when Perit interrupted him.

"What are you going to do to us?" asked Perit. "Kill us? Torture us? Make us your slaves? I know you're not Jedi. I know Jedi, and you don't look like Jedi." Mace then sighed and then tried to speak to him.

"This may come as a shock to you", said Mace, "but you're in the future. Four thousand..."

"I know we're in the future", yelled Perit. "But I saw you. You were killing those insect creatures. You're murderers!" Perit's yelling woke Shaina and Kaldo up at the same time. Mace then started to panic a little.

"Look", said Mace. "A war just started. Between the Republic, who we're part of, and a rebel confederacy. Those insects are called Geonosians. They've allied themselves with the Confederacy and..."

"I don't care", yelled Perit. "Just get me out of here like you brought me here!"

"Perit!" yelled Kaldo. "Behave yourself! These are good Jedi, and they saved our lives! Without the one in the brown and black robe, we would've died. Now shut up and talk to these Jedi like you would talk to Master Yodo!" When Kaldo said Yodo, the future Jedi were in shock. Yoda would often talk about his grandfather, Yodo, and his father, Joda, and the adventures they had. Now they just meet people who knew Yoda's parents! The knew from there on that they were authentic.

"How did you get here?" asked Obi-Wan. "What happened".

"You see", said Kaldo, "We were sent on a mission by the council to go to Naboo to investigate what happened to a fleet of Republic Fighters that dissapeard above the planet. We found a bunch of strange battle droids that we battled, and we followed the ship. The ship went into some strange warp thing and we ended up in the future, I think. Then we crashed and that's how we met you".

"Let's go outside", said Mace. "We'll be back in a minute". They then walked out, closed the door behind the other Jedi, and talked amongst themselves. "What they say cannot be true. They must be lying."

"I agree", said Obi-Wan. "Even though I cannot sense deception from them, the dark side has been clouding our minds lately. We should keep them into a holding cell until they tell us the truth.

"I believe them", said Anakin. "Maybe there is no deception from them. Why would they be lying?"

"To lead us into a Separatist trap", said Obi-Wan. "I'm really tired. I'm going to take a rest. Anakin, tell them that they'll have to stay there for a while. Let's go". Then Obi-Wan and Mace walked off, and Anakin went to the cell.

"Guys", said Anakin. "I believe you. But none of the others do."

"Is that a good thing?" said Shaina.

"No", said Anakin. "But I can help. I know everything. Where your weapons are, the best escape route, etc. Tomorrow at breakfast time, I'll be here with your weapons. Then we'll go out the window, scale down the walls to the hangar bay, and steal a starship. How does that sound?" All the Jedi were silent.

"It's crazy", said Perit. "We'll all get caught and put in an even worse jail. Either that, or we'll get killed. And how do you expect us to scale down a wall with our bare hands?" Anakin was going to tell them when a Clone Trooper walked by.

"I have to go", said Anakin. He then closed the door and ran off.

"Do you think that crazy plan of his will work?" asked Shaina.

"It's the only hope we have", said Kaldo. "It's a new hope, and our last".