A Few Notes On Progress:
The trilogy now has a title! I decided to call it Out of Order, due to the reoccuring themes of breaking the Jedi Code and corruption in the Jedi Order. Also, I plan to complete this story and then do a clean-up on it like I did for Flying Solo (no author's notes). For more about upcoming stories/projects, look in the works in progress section in my profile.

This chapter beta-read by gladdecease and Master Mono. Thanks!

My father finally got his midi-chlorian test, in a spaceport on the opposite side of Alderaan. He scowled when Obi-Wan showed him the readout. "A very thin trace, but a trace nonetheless," Kenobi explained, slightly amused by Han's reaction. "It is not my place as a master, but if I were not, I believe the proper response would be, 'I told you so.'"

Ricco laughed hysterically, falling to the ground shaking. "Okay," he choked, clutching his side, "my turn." He rolled up his dark brown sleeve so that Obi-Wan could stick his skin with a small probe. The little vial attached to the portable test rapidly filled with his blood, and the Jedi master had to remove the needle so that he didn't take too much. As Master Kenobi had predicted, Ricco too had the small lifeforms in his bloodstream, but more than Han did.

"It is to be expected," he said. "Naturally he would have received the genes from both of his parents." I glanced at him, confused, but Kenobi continued without noticing. "Now that we have that cleared up, we can get back to finding our missing Jedi. Bail gave me the coordinates of the last place anyone saw her. I'm sure we'll at least find some clues to where she might be."

"So what, we're gonna just march up there and say, 'Yeah, we're lookin' for a Jedi master, you seen her?'" My father seemed to be in a worse mood since the midi-chlorian scanning had proved positive; still he had a point. "The Sith would be all over us in seconds."

"Exactly," the old man replied with a smile. "Which is why we'll be disguised. Since the two…er, three of you, including Chewie," he added with a nod in the Wookiee's direction, "already make up the crew of a fairly average freighter, I figured we should build off of what we already have. If you don't mind, I think Gracie and I should pose as your co-pilots."

The whole party was silent. Other species walked around us in the crowded market adjacent to the spaceport, which, I realized, must have been less than sterile. Suddenly the thought of the cuts on my father's and Ricco's arms made me sick. The scrawny mechanic kept glancing nervously from me to Kenobi, Kenobi to Han and then from Han back to me. It was he who finally broke the silence. "With all due respect, Master, how the hell are we gonna do that?" Ricco asked.

That was what led us to rummaging around the small stack of supplies Han and Ricco had brought from the Millennium Falcon, looking for anything promising. Kenobi smiled as he came across a tan garment; Leia must have left some of her laundry with the captain, though I doubted she'd expected them to get washed. At last he found a pair of pants that almost fit and a shirt that smelled clean. My father tossed me a pile of clothes that hit my head. "These are a man's," I protested as I picked them up from where they'd fallen.

"Yeah, mine," he snapped back. "Tough luck, it's all I got. Unless you feel like wearin' some of Ricco's…He's real skinny, you know." The glare he shot me suggested that I should take his first offer. I grumbled as I yanked the strange garb over my robes, but I quit complaining when I saw Obi-Wan doing the same without so much as a whine. If the Jedi master could control himself, then so could I. After all, it wouldn't be long now until I, too, became a full-fledged knight of the Republic.

The landspeeders we borrowed were practically brand new, and the ride was a fairly smooth one. Han complained nonetheless. I decided that it would be best if I left him alone, and instead I reached into my pack for a datapad. According to the HoloNet report, my mother and the other Jedi had last been spotted entering a prestigious apartment complex. Many politicians and beings of power called it home. Chancellor Palpatine was even rumored to have purchased one of the smaller units there for his visits to Alderaan. It was the perfect place for a trap.

None of the witnesses had seen the Jedi leave by way of the main entrance. Later, a crowd of the Temple residents had exited through the side doors, looking a little more ragged than before. Among them had been Mace Windu, an elderly master who had served on the council for years. After his Padawan, Depa Billaba was lost to the dark, he had never been quite as agile or motivated, and he collapsed while still in the building. The other masters and Senator Amidala had carried him to their vehicle. He was delivered to the medical center, where he still remains in rehabilitation.

Leia was the only one not to return, and after an extensive search of the entire building, she was presumed dead. The report mentioned that there was no body. Senator Amidala was quoted as saying that until there was solid proof that she perished they could not give up hope. "One Jedi life is as valuable as several," she insisted. The Force was clouded, and the council had not been able to find any leads. I would have been given a new master had I remained at the Temple. Mentally filing this information, I prepared myself to debrief my companions. Of course, without Master Kenobi's consent, it would not be allowed. It was not my place to act as a leader.

At last we reached the complex. "Master Kenobi," Ricco piped up. "This is a real fancy place for an evil Sith lord to be hidin' out. Shouldn't we be lookin' down some dark alley, or in an old warehouse?"

"Nah," Han said before Obi-Wan could open his mouth. "He tried that once. Didn't work."

"You mean you faced down an evil Sith lord?" the boy asked, eyes wide. "Wow!" He stared up at the captain in awe. "I never knew just how amazing you were, Dad." Ricco grinned. I raised my eyebrows at him, and his face fell. "Whoops," he said sheepishly.

"Dad?" I chimed in.

"Gracie," Kenobi warned. He hopped out of the landspeeder. We followed, standing on the small walkway around the complex. Obi-Wan looked around, as if seeking something. He continued toward the apartment. Occasionally he would mutter, "Yes, yes, that's it exactly."

Meanwhile, Ricco was getting his answer "No, kid, I didn't face him down, not me, I just kinda showed up," Han rambled. "That was your mother's doing, all hers, not me, I just was there to keep her from going to the Dark Side. Luke deserves the real credit, you know, he was the Jedi. Only now I'm a Jedi too and-" Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he glanced around nervously. "It was your mom, Ricco."

"His mom?" I asked again. There was a sudden disturbance in the Force, and all thoughts of the strange conversation were pushed back into the corners of my mind. "Wait…did you feel that, that sudden pulse of energy?"

"Yes," Kenobi said firmly, turning his head toward our small, oddly dressed party. "I believe our mysterious Chancellor is inside. And as for you," he added, glaring at Han. "It's a wonder that your entire family wasn't discovered ages ago, what with your loose tongue." The captain looked unnerved. "Relax, I'm only joking. Aren't Jedi masters allowed to joke?" said Kenobi, reassuring the smuggler with his smiling blue eyes. They sharply contrasted his grimly set mouth. "She was bound to find out someday. But now is not the time."

"What?" I asked. "What is it that I'm supposed to find out, and how am I supposed to find it out if you refuse to tell me?" As always, I was left in the dark. It sounded almost as though Ricco was under the impression that Han and Leia were his parents! Surely that was impossible. After my conversation with Bail, though, this seemed like a possibility.

"Our Sith lord is just around the corner, most likely with our Jedi master. I advise that you waste no time in locating the source of this sudden change in atmosphere." Kenobi advanced toward the door, ignoring my constant attempts to make eye contact. A tall protocol droid appeared in the window of the complex. Ordinarily it would have wasted no time in letting us in. However, upon noticing how we were dressed, it appeared to almost sigh. The prejudice its programmers had must have influenced its behavior. We waited for the doors to open for quite some time. At last it reluctantly allowed us entry.

"Excuse me, sir," the droid said, addressing Kenobi as the head of our band. He certainly walked with the authority of a ringleader. I still found it hard to believe that he would pass for a smuggler. "Do you have reservations? The operators of this building instructed me to keep out all suspicious strangers and-" The droid's photoreceptors went black, and its head slumped onto his chest. I assumed that Obi-Wan had deactivated it using the Force.

"Impressive, Master Kenobi," I said. "I could hardly tell that you were channeling the Force at all." Ricco muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'kiss-up.'

"Oh, but that wasn't me at all," he replied with a smile. "Search your feelings, Gracie. Reach out with them. You will find that some of us possess talents that even they cannot explain." He continued to the front desk, where keys for the chancellor's room might be obtained from the weak-minded beings that ran it.

I looked at Ricco. Perhaps he had deactivated the droid. His eyes scanned the vast room rapidly, with its tall marble pillars and soft yellow lighting, and he let out a long whistle. "Pretty fancy carpeting, eh?" he said to me as he appraised the red weavings we stood on. "I'm probably messing 'em up with my boots. But that's what carpet's for, anyway, so I shouldn't care."

I nearly asked him if he had been the one to mentally flip the switch, but then I remembered the experience on the Millennium Falcon when I had touched his thoughts. I focused on his Force signature until his inner voice merged with mine. I soon learned that his interest in his surroundings had not been a ruse. Ricco was incredibly observant, and he, too, hadn't known who had shut down the droid mid-sentence.

"I can't believe it," Captain Solo said out of the blue. "I was just thinkin' that I wished that damned droid would shut its kriffin' trap and leave us alone, an' then it did." Two heads turned simultaneously to look at him: Ricco's and mine. "What? Can't a guy talk to himself in public once in a while? Damn."

"You used the Force!" Ricco exclaimed. "And all this time I thought you weren't a Jedi. I mean, even though Master Obi-Wan said it was true, I didn't totally trust him. The midi-chlorian test could have been wrong, too. Now I know that it was right. Hell, we're a whole Jedi family! You, me, Gracie…" He turned to me again. "Rodders. Did I ever tell you? I'm-"

"My brother," I said slowly.

Heat welled inside of me, like a predecessor of anger directed mainly at myself. How could I have been so stupid? He was right there all along. I should have been able to tell by his Force signature. There was a bond, something I had touched before by mistake, but I had only skimmed the surface. There was so much more that I could have seen, and yet I saw nothing. I had been too concerned with the present to even glimpse at the future.

I soon found that there was anger to spare for my father as well. "Why didn't you tell me?" I shouted. Heads in the lobby turned to stare openly at the strangely dressed girl who was screaming at a startled man. "You should have let me know. I am your daughter, and I deserve to know if I have siblings! Perhaps then I wouldn't look like a fool all the time. This is all your fault, and you know it!" Blood pounded in my ears. I glared at him for the longest time, waiting for him to apologize. Instead, he looked behind me in the direction of the front desk and the corridor that led to the rooms.

"If you're done establishing your reputation as a crazy woman," he muttered so that only I could hear, "then we can go find out where Master Kenobi just disappeared to." I unclenched my fists, too preoccupied to be ashamed. He spoke again, out of the side of his mouth. "Because something's tellin' me that it wasn't to buy more Jedi robes." He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned me around. Kenobi was indeed nowhere to be found.

I scanned the lobby, reaching out with the Force to sense his aura. All I could feel was the hum of life given off by the other beings in the apartments. Suddenly, I felt a hostile presence headed straight for us. It was burning hot, but its center was dark and cold, and it was most definitely not sentient. "Duck!" I yelled, not having the time to whip out my lightsaber. A blaster bolt flew over my head, causing no damage but coming dangerously close to my ear. I got up, then turned around to face my father. He was angry, but otherwise okay.

The same could not be said for the hunk of melted durasteel that was the front desk.

Mass chaos was breaking out in the complex. There were screams coming from further down the hall. "Come on!" Han yelled. "The bolt was coming from that direction, its owner can't be too far!" The three of us ran, following the trail of circular burn marks and long, deep cuts in the walls. We ran up so many flights of stairs that I lost track of the level that we were on. We stopped only when we came to a dead end, home to three lifts, two of which were severely charred. "That one!" my father shouted, pointing to the one that was the most likely to work.

All of us crammed into it, and Ricco paused for a moment with his eyes closed before punching the number for the floor three levels above us. "How do you-" I started to ask, then stopped myself. I didn't know if he was right, but I wasn't positive that he was wrong. I didn't wait for the doors to open when we stopped. Activating my lightsaber, I sliced them to smoldering shreds.

The trail of smoking holes and gashes continued on the level where the lift stopped. I berated myself for doubting my brother as I ran. The marks, I noticed, had become more spread out, and eventually they stopped altogether. I paused, panting. My arm, limp at my side, still clutched my activated blade. Ricco had arrived there just a second ahead of me. He collapsed onto the ground. "Gracie, look at this," he choked out, struggling to stand again. "I think the fighting ended here."

"It doesn't really look like fighting," Han muttered as he caught up with us. "More like a struggle. Maybe Sideous finally managed to get stun cuffs on Kenobi's arms." He swore loudly. "Great. Now we got two missing Jedi, and a hotel full of people who think we're nuts."

Finally strong enough to continue our search, I staggered over to a wooden door. Using the Force, I could detect a small amount of heat radiating from the metal knob. Although the door could be opened with a remote, there was still an old-fashioned lock that was used when the remote wasn't working properly. I visualized the mechanism, looking for any weak spots that it might have. Finally I found one. There was a sound of screeching metal, and the lock opened.

Han stepped in front of me. "I don't care that you're a Jedi, you're still my daughter. And I ain't letting any kid of mine get themselves killed." He smiled. "Leia wouldn't let you, either, so don't think that we never agree on how to raise you. Even if it is pretty rare." He pulled out his blaster, checked to make sure it was charged, and then opened the door.

Inside the room was dark. The only light came from my ignited lightsaber. It radiated a purple glow, making my father's face even grimmer. Ricco hung back a little, watching for an ambush from behind. Though all were Force-users, I was the only one to wield the weapon of a Jedi. I also remembered that while my weapon was designed to be civilized, they were taught to shoot to kill. We continued through the room, feeling our way around and hoping that we wouldn't bump into anything. Surprisingly, there was little furniture in the chancellor's quarters, and when at last Han stumbled, it was against another person.

I could tell by his motion that my father had jammed his blaster into whomever was blocking the way. The shadow breathed in sharply to keep from crying out, a familiar female gasp followed by a harsh whisper. "Watch it!" she shouted. For it was none other than Leia, my mother and Jedi master. I moved closer with my lightsaber so that I could see her fully.

Had I not known it was she, I wouldn't have recognized her. Her face was grimy, her hair matted with blood. Han didn't seem to notice; he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her. The hands she placed on his neck were bony and thin. In fact, she seemed to have shrunk since I had last seen her. This was alarming because she had always been a small woman. I was afraid that she might never be strong enough to fight again.

My parents broke apart for a minute, and then Leia hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder. She turned away from him and whispered, "Flyboy, you came to rescue me, didn't you?" A wistful smile broke out on her face, though her lips bled from the effort. It startled all of us when she looked at him again. Raising one weary hand, she slapped him across the cheek. "Idiot!" she hissed. "Don't you see that it's a trap?"

"A trap? But…" He stared at her, mouth open, then bit his lip to keep from cursing. "Gracie."

"If this is a trap," I spoke softly, "then it wasn't you they were after. It wouldn't be Kenobi, either, or they would have killed him rather than kept him alive. They need a hostage. Which means that they are still looking for someone, or..." I felt cold. It penetrated my clothing and even my bones. "Or maybe they're already here."

"They are," Leia said, nodding grimly. She looked as if she were about to keel over, then vomited on the ground behind her. Ricco turned away, disgusted. "Sorry," she apologized, wiping her mouth. "I'm not sick, don't worry."

"You're not?" Captain Solo asked in disbelief. "You sure seem different. It's like there's something about you that's…changed. Only you've been like this before, and I recognize it. Maybe it's your Force signature. I found out that I'm a Jedi and all that and…" His face went pale. "Oh, no."

Leia gave him a sickly smile. "Yes."

"You mean…" My father swore loudly, throwing down his blaster in disgust. He brushed his hair out of his face, where perspiration was accumulating on his skin. "Did I hurt you, either of you?" He ran to her side. "The blaster…If I had known that you were…but you can't be…but you are! This makes no sense. Could you die from this? I mean, you're so thin." I stared at the strange scene unfolding before me. It seemed like there was no end to the secrecy in this family.

"I'll be fine, Han," she said. "Right now I'm exhausted. But we need to leave. Palpatine won't be long now that he's gotten rid of Obi-Wan. He's still alive, but he won't be for long now that Gracie's here. That's why I was unhappy that you came," she explained. "He already tried to turn me to the dark side once. I'm positive that, since he wasn't the one to capture me, I am only bait. Palpatine has an army. The clones are loyal to the Republic, and he managed to convince them that I was working with the battered remnants of the Separatist forces. If he can find a Padawan…"

"If you haven't seen him," Ricco whispered, "how do you know he's the one behind all of this?"

"Think about it," Han replied. "Who else has the power? The motivation? The opportunity? The cover? No one would suspect him of committing treason 'cept us." I nodded in agreement. There was a sound outside the room, like several pairs of feet hitting the ground in a strict pattern. I looked around nervously. Searching with the Force, I felt the presence of several beings approaching quickly.

Then the door burst open in a cloud of dust and wooden particles, making us cough and shield our faces from the entrance. When at last it settled, a withered, cloaked man strode into the room, flanked by two guards on either side. They were wearing full body Mandalorian armor and carried heavy repeating blasters, not to mention the demolition gear they had used to break down the door. Judging by what I had seen and heard in classes, the men in the armor were clones. If they removed their helmets they would all have the face of Jango Fett.

Even if I hadn't been told about the clones' new ruler, I would have known by the powerful dark aura radiating from him that the man in the center was Sideous, dark lord of the Sith.