MistiWhitesun: The people believe that Padme was used. They place the full blame on Paplatine. Naboo trusts their former Queen. :)

And I said Vader, not Anakin. ;)

Thanks! :D As for the Angel Warrior, his name in Naboo has evolved. At first, it meant light. Later on (influence by the tales of Anakin's first words to Padme), it became Angel. Some people still use Light Warrior, but most prefer Angel Warrior. ;)


Chapter Eight
"Preparations"

Anakin hugged the palace wall in the dead of night as he crept toward Ladora's lab. He was not sure why he was doing this; something from the Force was telling him to do this and keep it secret. Across from him were windows, outside of which guards stood watch. Those guards who were on the pay of Nega Ion, governor of Theed and responsible for the law forbidding outsiders to come to Naboo. If they saw him, Ion would be told, Ladora would be in trouble, and the mission would be either over or prolonged; neither was an option.

Anakin mentally sighed at the thought of the governor. Naboo was in a state of denial; ever since the Vong conflict started, no news had come in about the state of the galaxy…under Ion's orders. The people knew the Vong were out there, but were comforted by the governor's claims that Luke and Leia were having no problems with the enemy. Ladora and their family could not talk about the war due to the law. Naboo did not know that Chewie and Anakin were 'dead' or about the slaughter of Jedi or of the fall of Corasaunt. The only person who did, other than Ladora, Lenny, their family and friends, was Ion.

He stopped thinking about what Naboo knew and Ion as he came to Ladora's lab. He slowly walked across the hallway. As he took out his cardkey to open the door, he silently thanked the Force that Ladora, who was very protective of her lab, had not locked him out. He went in the lab, closed and locked the door. While it would not keep people out, it might destract them for a while. He searched the storage compartments on the left wall, looking around for what he needed. In the last section, he found it. Anakin took out the E-web blaster, put it on the floor and started putting it together. When he finished, he looked it over. This E-web was heavily modified. The barrel and power box reached up to his chest. There was no hose, instead the barrel and poweer box connected together and it was supposed to be twenty times more powerful than before.

Anakin had found out about the E-web on the way back from the Chaos tree. Ladora had talked about her projects and, when she had gotten to the E-web, Anakin had gotten his feeling. He had gone straight to bed after they had gotten back, but he had not sleep well, not enough to make up for the lost sleep. Sometimes the feeling would wake him and others it would be his dream. He had finally given up on sleeping and started to follow the feeling. It had led him here. He knew what he had to do now, coming to him by standing next to the repeating rifle.

He put the power on the lowest setting, moved the table so it would not get blasted and went and stood in front of the door. He raised his right hand and held the trigger remote in his left. He took a deep breath, let half of it out and pressed the trigger button.

Five long seconds past, then a red bolt came out, hit Anakin's right hand and was absorbed. But the shock threw him backwards against the door. "Whoa, she wasn't kidding when she said it was more powerful than a regular E-web," he said softly. He looked at his hand. It was throbbing. There were carbon scorch marks, but it worked. He absorbed the bolt just like he absorbed blaster bolts. He grinned, got up and did it again and again and again. He kept doing it until he no longer was thrown back. He went through the process two more times, each on a higher setting than the previous one.

Finally, he put the machine up and crept back to bed. He was leaving Naboo to start on the first mission soon and he would need some sleep. And he would be sleeping knowing he was following the will of the Force.

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Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep.

Without opening his eyes, Anakin turned over and covered his head with his pillow. His chrono could not be going off now. He had been sleeping so well; no dreams had invaded his slumber. His hand reached out and knocked the chrono off his desk. The beeping stopped. Relieved, Anakin put his head back on top of the pillow to let sleep overtake him again.

Then it hit him.

Anakin's eyes snapped open. He rolled over to look at his fallen chrono. The blankets got tangled with his body and, as a result, he fell out of his bed. He got up on his knees, a blanket covering his head. Picking up the timepiece that he had missed landing on, he pulled the quilt off and looked at the chrono. Wow, he had been asleep for a standard 27 hours, but that meant it was time to get ready to leave.

He got up, disentangled himself from his covers, made his bed and went to the refreasher for a shower. His hand received a good scrubbing due to the scorch marks. It did not hurt much as Anakin had enveloped it into a healing bubble before going to sleep. After he finished, he put on some clean clothes. He went to his chest, took out a small carrying case and placed it on the bed. He gathered some extra clothes since it was going to be a long trip. He went to his desk to collect his new half-completed lightsaber as his old one had not been retrieved, when he saw something that would need to be packed before it.

His Shadow Jedi uniform was folded neatly on the desk with the boots, gloves and gauntlets on top. He took the clothes and equipment and laid it out on the bed. Anakin remembered the arguments over the costume during his first week on Naboo. Everyone who would fight the Vong had to pick a color to be identified with and, since the others had picked colors similar to their lightsabers, Anakin chose purple. Unfortunately, Ladora stomped out that selection saying that the color would remind his family of him and the Shadow Jedi could not be linked to Anakin Solo. Disappointed, Anakin decided on dark blue.

He folded the dark blue skin-tight body suit and packed it. Next, he took the same colored armor, still amazed at how flexible Ladora was able to make Corusa gems and cortosis ore, and placed it in the case.

A smile crossed his face at the next part of his apparel. He held up an identical copy of the padawan outfit his grandfather had worn in the days before the Clone Wars. He chose the outfit because it would remind him of three things: his Jedi heritage, how far his family had come, and how much had been sacrificed for that. Only to be destroyed by the Vong, he thought as he put the clothes in the case.

His hands trembled as he picked up his mask. He had only made the decisin recently and was still questioning on if it was the right one. In his hands he held a face-less mask. It seemed logical; if his family feared a Shadow Jedi, then they would not think of Anakin Solo. Still, that did not mean he liked it, and he buried the mask deep in his case. Finally, he packed the gauntlets, gloves and boots.

He placed his lightsaber in a case compartment. Then he walked over to his bedside desk to collect the four holos there. One was a holo of his parents and siblings, another of Uncle Luke, Aunt Mara and Ben, the third was of his grandparents and the last one was of Tahiri. He held them, thinking. Then he turned them off and put them in his pocket instead of packing them. He looked down at a machine next to the desk. It was a programmable laser puzzle. After he finished his lightsaber, he was going to create a new hologram of his family, his entire family. His parents, siblings, uncle, aunt, cousin and grandparents. He got out a second, smaller case from under the bed and put the generator into it.

Anakin made a final check of his room to make sure he had not missed anything. Then he got his cases and left his room. Outside the apartment, he got a pleasant surprise. Ladora and Lenny's parents were waiting and, when he appeared, their mother stepped forward. "We decided to see you off. It was, sort of, on our way to the gym."

The gym was on the first floor and Anakin would not be passing it to get to the hanger, but he did not mind. He wanted some company. The twins' father got the two cases and they walked Anakin to his destination. Too soon, they reached the parting point.

Ladora's father put the cases down. "When you come back, if you have the time, we could take a run on the sims. I want to see how well you can fly," he said, smiling and ruffed Anakin's hair.

"I'll use that to get you back for sending Ladora after me the other day. I thought she was going to throw me out of a tree," replied Anakin, grinning.

He tsked, "That's the best revenge you can come up with?"

"I'm not the 'getting back type.' That's more Jaina than me."

He looked towards his wife. "Training in the way of pranks, he needs."

She shook her head. "The perfect master for that, you would be." She embraced Anakin with a hug and Anakin returned it, his face pressed against her soft brown hair. When they parted, she looked into Anakin's eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked. She looked as if she was going to cry.

"Nothing. It's just-" she hesitated. "It's nothing." Silence. "Will you keep them safe for me?" she asked finally.

Anakin did not give a second thought at the request. He knew what she was talking about. "Of course, I will. You don't have to worry and thank you for everything both of you have done."

"You don't have to thank us. We're just doing what we were meant to do," the twins' father responded. "Now we need to get to the gym. Make sure nothing flies around when a certain someone get angry." He winked at Anakin.

Lenny's mother crossed her arms, not noticing the wink. "I have control of my anger, thank you."

The couple walked away, still arguing. "Uh-huh, that's why that chest broke into splinters after you threw it against the wall the last time you got angry with Tygeris."

Anakin smiled. He was very much reminded of his own parents. He turned to the statue of the final Queen of Naboo, Jamilla. He reached up and spinned the fanned headdress. Jamilla slid forward and Anakin grabbed his baggage and went down the stairs of the secret passageway to the hanger. It was too risky to go the regular way to the hanger, much too public. The passageway ended and Anakin pushed the wall out. He walked into a hallway overlooking the hanger. He looked down to see only one ship occupying the space. His eyes widened and a smile grew on his face. He ran the rest of the way and sat the cases down to take a better look at the ship.

It looked to be about forty meters long, but with a thinness that reminded Anakin of the Falcon. The surface was smooth and silver. And with its shape, it was more of a work of art than a ship. He walked over to the boarding ramp where Ken was standing. "This ship is amazing," he said.

Ken grinned. "Everyone thought you would like the Probe."

"The Probe? Is that what it's called?"

"This is the Silver Probe. Called that because Ladora says she probes the galaxy for information. Looks like a yacht, but she can take on anything. Fastest ship ever with a 130 MGLT sublight engine and a Class .3 hyperdrive and armed to the teeth," said Ken, sounding like an hoload.

Anakin whistled. He knew at least three people who would love to get their hands on this ship. "How many can she hold? Who built it?"

"Six crew and ten passengers. Ladora and her father took four years to build, but they still like to tinker with it every now and then. He did most of the work. The shape was Ladora's idea."

"She has an obsession with the New Republic, doesn't she?"

That remark got Ken laughing. "You should've seen Ion's face when she first flew it. And it's more of a Rebel obsession than Republic. I think Ion tried to find a law that said you can't give a ship the shape of the Rebel insignia, but it doesn't exist."

Two thumps landed next to Anakin. "Anakin, I think you forgot something."

Anakin looked behind him. Talon and Lusa had brought the cases he left behind when he had started to inspect the ship. "Oh, thanks, guys."

"You're welcome," said Lusa.

"No problem," said Talon and then he turned toward Ken. "We can watch the hanger while you show Anakin his quarters."

Ken nodded his agreement and montioned Anakin to follow him. Anakin nodded, grabbed his cases and started up the ramp. Talon and Lusa started to whisper as soon as Ken and Anakin were out of sight.

"You know, those two have been doing that ever since we rescued her," commented Ken. "The quarters are in what we call the wings. Yours is in the left one." They walked toward Anakin's quarters, the last one in the row. "Chewie is next door. He's very protective of you."

Anakin thought of Sernpidal. "Yeah, he is."

He started to unpack as Ken stood outside, waiting for him to get done. He put the laser puzzle in a compartment under his bed. When he finished, he looked back toward Ken and found a purple and silver R2 unit and a round, silver repulsor droid behind him.

"Ken," said the repulsor droid, "Ladora wanted you to know that they are in the cockpit and she needs you to help with the pre-flight."

The Jedi Prince introduced Anakin to the two droids, SERD1-01 ( or Silver) and R2-D4 (or Defour). Then the two followed the droids to the centural hold. Defour stopped and hooked herself up to a console near the boarding ramp. The rest went in the cockpit where the others waited for them.. Ken sat next to Ladora in the co-pilot seat and in front of Caiya while Silver hooked herself up to a cylinder on the ceiling in-between Ladora and Ken. A seat behind Ladora was empty, but the one behind it was taken by a sour looking Rene.

"Are you all right, Rene?" asked Anakin.

"Hmrph," was all she said.

"She caught Talon and Lusa together," explained Ladora.

"Rene, this is not the Old Order. Love is perfectly acceptable now," said Ken, but Rene gave him such an accusing stare that he turned around and worked with Ladora on pre-flight check-up.

Anakin sat down in the seat behind Caiya, not saying anything. He knew Rene liked doing things the way the Old Order did, but had the no emotional attachments going too far? Ken was right; things were different now.

Lenny came running in and sat in the empty seat behind his sister. "I told Governor Dayton our cover story. We'll clear to go," he informed them.

Ladora mumbled something postive, but did not look up from working on pre-flight.

Lenny looked behind him at Rene and her sour face. "What's going on?"

At first, no one answered. Then Anakin told him. He thought he saw Lenny sneak a glance at Caiya, but it must have been his imagination because Lenny turned around and started on the navigation.

Moments later, the ship took off. They cleared Naboo Control and started preperations to make the jump to hyperspace. Anakin felt excitement. He was back in space, back where he belonged.


Finally. Now the good stuff starts. :)