A/N:

I just wanted to leave a slightly longer author's note than normal to say thank you to you, the reader.

I think I've said in the past, I'm terrible at replying to your comments and questions, but I want you to know that I read each and every comment, review, ask, and question you post, and they absolutely make my day. Your comments and interest keep me coming back to my computer to write more chapters, even as the story turns into a slog. This monster has been running for nearly four years, and while I'd like to say that I'd finish it even if I was the only one reading it, I don't think I can lie about that. This story would've ceased to exist a long time ago if not for your continued support and engagement, so thank you.

I know updates haven't been coming as often as you – or I – would like as of late, and I am very sorry for that. I've been struggling with some pretty bad stress an anxiety lately and I haven't been able to find the wherewithal to work on this story, but I am trying. I'm so grateful that you always come back to say hello each chapter. It really does keep this saga going. We'll make it to the end eventually, I'm not giving up on this story.

Thanks guys. You're the best.

Shmi watched the swirling clouds of Alderaan as they fell into a backdrop of stars. Something in her gut told her to go back, to stay, to make sure that he was safe. Anakin. He would always be on her mind, but this felt different.

No, she told herself. He's nearly a man. He has his own mind – and he's a Jedi, surrounded by other Jedi. He'll be fine.

"Hey," Tam turned to his new wife, brows furrowed in gentle concern. "You alright?"

"Yes," assured Shmi, reaching out to lay a loving hand on his arm. "I've just not been off planet in a long time."

"Truth be told," said the engineer, grinning, who built ships to traverse the sky but rarely found himself their pilot, "it's been awhile for me too." He flicked a few switches and their cruiser slowed, waiting for commands. He looked to her. "Where to?"

Shmi smiled, trying to let go of the maternal worry wormed into her heart.

"Surprise me."

Within the hour, Ben Kenobi was standing amidst their slapdash team, arms crossed within the sleeves of his robes.

To Obi-Wan's enduring chagrin, Ben remained stoic as they explained the situation. He didn't even look surprised when Obi-Wan told him about the kyber, and Panche. Anakin didn't betray a shred of anxiety as Obi-Wan tattled on his interloping.

So he's been relaying this all to Ben already. That's... good. Obi-Wan tried to take a philosophic view of it. His pride was an obstacle, but a more significant hurdle was the sudden and severe turn his mission had taken in the last few hours. How, exactly, had a stolen lightsaber in Coruscant's cultural district become this?

I'm on leave, his inner voice of self-preservation exclaimed, if this goes wrong, there's not an evacuation team waiting by. Damn, they were going to loop more of Bail's men into this, weren't they? One wrong turn and this could turn into a real kriffing mess. Like Kamino. Like Eriadu. Like Valorum. His stomach turned.

Was this how Ben felt, back in the early years, when he'd killed the Sith apprentice? But Ben had at least known the territory, as much as he could. But this was new, brand new, all of it, not a shred of familiarity in sight. Ben wouldn't be able to help him, would he? He probably wouldn't know how. Just like last time. Mace had thought Anakin was ready for this – surely he'd think that Obi-Wan was ready, too?

"-put a few jets to standby, they'll can be in reserve should things take a turn," Rex was saying, in the businesslike clip of a man trained for action.

"We'll need a pilot." Ben was in his element as well. Obi-Wan often forgot that Ben was a veteran. Ben hadn't shared too many memories of the war, but Obi-Wan knew what he looked like in armor.

"We'll have to take Panche's ship, with the kyber," Obi-Wan pointed out.

"He shouldn't have to be dragged into this," Anakin began.

"No, not him," Obi-Wan really wished Anakin were just a bit older, a bit more experienced. Anakin was, however much he liked the boy, still a boy. "Mr. Mooringer will give us his codes and his ship, and his kyber, and we'll take care of the rest. It's too risky to bring a civilian into this, we'll have to come up with a story. Rex." He looked toward the lieutenant, who stood up straighter.

"Sir?"

"You're likely the most experienced pilot among us," Obi-Wan ignored how Anakin bristled. "If you're still interested in helping us, perhaps you could familiarize yourself with the controls of Mr. Mooringer's freighter."

"I'd be happy to, sir."

"Good. Alert the Prince."

"Of course, sir."

Cody stepped up, not to be outdone. "I can fly too," he offered. "I may not be Rex, but I know my way around a ship. I can land a ship nearby, for evac."

"You'll be on standby here on the ground," Obi-Wan told him. "You've been limping all day, I'm not going to fly you into a potential fire fight in your condition."

The clone purse his lips. "My leg is–"

"Cody," Aola broke in quietly. He looked at her. Something in her expression told him to leave it, so he did, looking none to happy about it. Obi-Wan looked between them for a moment, and said:

"We need someone who's read into the mission here on coms for us. You'll also be our first line of contact to fire and medical."

A sobering reminder of what they were getting into. Cody glanced again at Aola. "Of course," he accepted the order as a soldier.

"Aola, Ben, Anakin, and myself will be going in. The more Jedi we have up there with that kyber, the better. Master Windu tells me he'll send any backup he can find nearby, but it's… unlikely," Obi-Wan kept his voice detached and calm, but saw Anakin's sudden uncertainty. The kid hadn't even considered that they'd need more Jedi, had he? He doesn't even know what we're getting into. Obi-Wan tried not to feel guilty - again - that Anakin had to come with them.

"Good. And Padme," Obi-Wan turned to the senator, bracing himself.

"I'm coming with you," she said immediately.

"I don't think that's a good idea-"

"You need a negotiator."

"I am a negotiator, as is Ben, and–"

"You need a negotiator who isn't a Jedi," she countered. "Or do you think these mysterious people, who can harness the power of kyber crystals and hide their base using the Force, won't be able to sense that you're more than an unbathed bum in a trashy band t-shirt?"

Obi-Wan stood in contrite and irritated silence. behind him, Anakin was fighting against a sudden laugh. Padme caught his eye and they shared a moment of silent humor. If Obi-Wan noticed, he did not let it show.

"Very well," he said. "Rex."

"Sir."

"Outfit the senator with appropriate weapons."

"Yes, sir."

"I have a blaster," Padme offered.

"Yes, and you might need more," Obi-Wan said. He glanced her up and down. "Do you have armor, too?"

"As a matter of fact," she began. Of course she does. Obi-Wan should not have been surprised.

"You ought to change, then. Anakin,"

"Hmm?" The padawan was happy to be included.

"Fake up some documents for the Senator. Make her look like someone nasty - a bounty hunter, maybe. Perhaps she's turned in Mr. Mooringer for a bounty and taken over his business."

"Oh, um, okay."

It was not a response that inspired Obi-Wan with confidence; they didn't have long to pull this off. He often wondered how anyone suffered having an apprentice in high-stakes situations like this. Ben did not seem bothered at all. He rarely did – even when he should have, especially where Anakin was concerned.

"Good. We have until this evening to get up there," he spoke to the assembly. "You know your tasks - go."

They dispersed. Rex and Cody to the hanger, Aola grouping up with Padme and Anakin – she'd always been fond of concocting cover stories.

"Ben," Obi-Wan said, darting his eye to glare at his older self. "A word?"

Anakin looked back at them, eyes shifting between the two with poorly masked curiosity. Ben glanced at his student and then angled his head to indicate a hallway.

"Of course."

They found a quiet room. Ben waited while Obi-Wan wrestled with his anxiety and the dreadful familiarity of going to Ben for advice during a crisis.

"How does he know it's kyber?" he asked.

"He sensed it."

Obi-Wan stared. "Sensed it." It was unheard of. "Across a mountain range."

Ben gave a small shrug. "He's very powerful, Obi-Wan."

Anakin's 'power' was well documented, but in Obi-Wan's opinion the word was tossed around far too flippantly. "Well, yes I'm aware of that-" the knight began,

"No, I'm not sure you are." Ben's voice was unusually firm. "I don't think he realizes how powerful he is, or could be. I trust Anakin's senses more than I trust my own."

The Kenobis stared at each other, Ben resolute, Obi-Wan trying to understand his older self through his memories of memories. It had been a full decade or more since Obi-Wan thought of Ben as himself. Deep down, there was that familiarity, but it was so shrouded by their divergent paths that some days Obi-Wan doubted Ben's origins altogether.

The knight crossed his arms. "You really think he's the chosen one, don't you?" He spoke softly, as if the walls would overhear.

By Ben's look, he'd given the idea decades of thought. "I think he could be. I think he needs to learn that for himself, and in the meantime, I think I need to trust him."

Obi-Wan only sighed. What else could he do? Qui-Gon was the one who really believed in the prophecies. Obi-Wan had studied them at Qui-Gon's side years ago, especially after Ben had appeared. But then people started dying, and the Sith returned, and he had too much else to think about.

"Alright," he whispered.

"He admires you more than you know," Ben said. "He'll follow your lead."

It was exactly what Obi-Wan was afraid of. "I'm going to go change," he announced, turning toward the door. "If I die today, they're not shipping me back to Coruscant looking like this."

Their plan fell together with a speed and precision that Obi-Wan found unnerving. They would travel to the mountain in two groups. In Mr. Mooringer's freighter would be Padme herself, or rather Hyla Ka'ak the bounty hunter, along with her trusted bodyguard, Rex. They would use Panche's clearance codes and land in the base. Ben and Aola would hide on board and wait for Padme and Rex to be taken away for price negotiations, at which point they would sneak out and seek out the kyber.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Anakin would man a smaller vessel to the other side of the mountain peak and seek a back entrance where they could infiltrate the mountain's defense systems and dismantle them. Obi-Wan had not appointed the teams, and wasn't sure he agreed with Ben's decisions.

"It's logic," his older self had explained. "You can see hidden things that most Jedi can't, and Anakin could dismantle the security of the whole Senate, if he wanted to. You're a good team for this."

It wasn't that Obi-Wan disagreed. He and Anakin got on well together, and their skills were indeed complimentary on this mission. However, Obi-Wan had only ever worked with the boy in the context of training, in the simple world of the temple dojo and swapping stories over fried tubers at Dex's. This was different. This was life or death. This was like the SBI, and Garen, and Valorum all over again. Except this time, it was the apparent Chosen One who'd followed him on his fool's errand.

Obi-Wan couldn't stop glancing at Ben, looking for some shred of regret, some chink in his resolve that would give Obi-Wan recourse to back out, to insist Ben be the one to accompany his apprentice. It never came. He tried to occupy his thoughts with the mission, but that led to entirely different anxieties.

If it was in fact the Sith they were up against, what were they thinking, setting up base here, in a core world capital? If it was Palpatine behind this Thorn Moon organization, Obi-Wan had a feeling that they were hiding on Alderaan for a purpose, biding their time, waiting for the right time to reveal themselves and attack. It's what they'd attempted to do on Alaris Prime, Naboo, Eriadu, Geonosis. And just like last time, we'll stop them here too.

But it's not flimsy droids this time, reminded his inner voice of caution, which had in recent years begun to sound like his memories of Garen Muln. You're going up against a mountain of crystal. If you don't think there will be some kind of fallout, you're kidding yourself.

Obi-Wan clenched his jaw and kept walking.

"-as anyone seen Kenobi?"

"I'm right here," he announced, footsteps beginning to echo as he emerged into the large hangar. The space had transformed overnight from a quiet stable of ships and tinkering pilots into a bustling emporium of activity. The hangar doors were drawn wide open to the Alderaanian air, a sheer drop into the valley below and sky beyond. Droids buzzed to and fro around the giant kyber freighter, which dominated the space, flanked on all sides by sleek Foxnocht fighters, emblazoned with Alderaanian blue and gold.

"Oh good." Dressed as a rough-and-tumble bodyguard with military posture, Rex stood amidst the hubbub like a fish in water. "Your ship's nearly ready – took us a hot second to fit cannons to our recon shuttle, but they've worked fast, so it's ready to fly."

"Cannons?" Obi-Wan gave him a look. "Do you really think that will be necessary?"

Rex was unfazed. "I'd rather you have them and not use them than die for lacking." His deadpan eyes met Obi-Wan's, and something in them made the Jedi feel exposed. "Cody's told me enough stories about you to prepare accordingly, sir."

"Oh," Obi-Wan said, looking away. "Thanks."

Rex's military training allowed him to hide his smirk. "Who is it that's going with you, sir?" he asked. Obi-Wan opened his mouth, but it was Anakin himself who said,

"I am." The apprentice materialized from behind a passing flight technician, and power-walked toward the pair as though they'd run away. "Are we ready to go then?" He was practically bouncing in his boots.

"Not quite." Obi-Wan looked him up and down, wondering if he'd ever been so eager to leap into a firefight when he was a teen. "You're going to be our pilot. Best familiarize yourself with the ship and make sure everything is in working order."

"What, that one?" Anakin gestured to the shuttle. Obi-Wan, having expected the apprentice to hop to pilot duty with immediate gusto, did a double take when Anakin remained standing in front of him.

"Yes that one," he said.

"I've already checked it," Anakin told him. "I helped install the cannon."

Obi-Wan had not known that, but it hardly mattered. "Well, best check everything else is working, too."

"I already did," Anakin assured him.

The strictest of protocols dictated that Obi-Wan himself give the ship a second once-over as its co-pilot, but he trusted Anakin's instincts about ships over his own; best have an expert look twice than an expert and a fool once each. "Then do me a favor and check it again," the knight instructed. "Especially the cloaking systems and shields."

Anakin's perception of Obi-Wan Kenobi was, for better or worse, colored by the fact that he'd known the man since infancy and regarded him as more a brother than an authority. So, lacking all Jedi sense of respect or deference, he gave a cavalier shrug and asked:

"Why?"

Obi-Wan blinked at him a few times, knowing damn well that Ben had raised Anakin better than this. He spoke calmly. "Well, among the twelve or thirteen reasons that present themselves," he made eye contact with the boy, "because I told you to."

Anakin seemed taken aback by such an order. He glanced briefly at Rex, sheepish. "You're not my master, Obi," he said quietly, more embarrassed than angry.

"No, I'm not," Obi-Wan replied with firm annoyance, "But if faulty equipment gets us shot down today, and I miraculously survive and you do not, I will be the one who has to tell your master, and that's not a conversation I want to have, so please, go and check the systems again."

Painted such a picture, Anakin now saw the sense in it. The teen gave a chastised nod and wordlessly jogged over to the shuttle. He's so excited for action he doesn't think of what can go wrong. Obi-Wan shook his head as he watched the teen duck under the bulkhead of the ship. He's going to have to learn quickly.

"You know," Rex interrupted his thoughts. "When you first came here, I thought Anakin was your apprentice," the clone confessed.

"Me?" Obi-Wan turned to him, aghast. "His master? Force, no. I'm far too young for that."

"You could've been his master if you weren't out roaming the armpits of the galaxy all the time," Cody seemed to have overheard them, and limped over in good humor. "You're not so young."

Rex chuckled at this, but Obi-Wan did not share in the joke. He blinked and, after a moment, turned to his longtime friend. "Cody," he fixed the clone with a dangerously innocent stare. "How old do you think I am?"

Cody's smile evaporated. He glanced at Rex, who gave him a facial shrug. Cody looked back at Obi-Wan. Slowly, nervously, he began to say, "Ff-"

Obi-Wan's eyebrows shot upward.

"Th-" Cody corrected too late, "-irty…." he paused, expression wrestling with itself. "...nine?"

"Kriffing Force," Obi-Wan huffed. Rex laughed. Cody tried to apologise.

"I'm a clone!" He disclaimed. "I'm bad with ages - Rex is too."

"I'm not that bad," his brother smacked him. "You really thought this guy was over forty?"

"I… I don't know, he could be," Cody floundered.

"You're daft, Cody, I always knew your batch was a trial run."

"Hey, watch your mouth, you runt."

"You should watch your own - I'm sure you're very popular with the above-thirty crowd."

"Oh, shut up."

"Pick up many girls like that?"

Obi-Wan shook his head. He let them bicker a bit longer before he said, "Since you're here, Cody, I can only assume we're all set to go."

The agent abandoned his banter and nodded. The movement was like turning the safety off a blaster: a swift, practiced switch that gave the air a heavier weight. "We're all set down here. The Prince wants this done as quick and clean as possible. We've got medical and an evac squad on standby. I don't want to use either, though, so you'd better be careful up there," the agent said.

"Wouldn't want them to scratch their paint," Rex snarked, patting his belt and holster. He took a breath. "Well, then, time to go." All humor dropped from his voice. "You stay on comms, Kenobi. We'll see you up there."

"See you then," Obi-Wan echoed back, raising a hand in goodbye as the clone jogged over to the freighter.

"Wing power check?" said a female voice from the bridge of the cargo ship; Padme, hair braided and tucked into a grungy helmet. On the ground, Aola rounded the hull in her full Jedi browns, blue midriff showing in flashes behind her tabards. She ran her hands down the ship's blocky wings as the flaps raised and lowered experimentally.

"Check and check."

"Cloak check?"

"Check."

"Landing check?"

"Check."

Their verbal inspection faded into the cacophony of the hangar. Obi-Wan turned to bid Cody farewell, but found the agent looking with acute fondness and anxiety at the Twi'lek knight preparing to leave. Obi-Wan's goodbye died on his lips. We're all fools, he thought. These two especially.

"Don't worry," Obi-Wan startled Cody out of his reverie. "Ben'll bring her back in one piece for you."

"For..." Cody was even more startled. "What are you talking about?"

"Cody." Despite his convictions, seeing the clone's expression made something deep in Obi-Wan's gut ache for the man. His expression softened. "I am only half blind, you know."

Cody looked at the ground. It took him a moment to collect himself. "I'll be standing by the whole time, sir." He looked up at his friend, an entire conversation passing between them in silence. "May the Force be with you."

"And with you." Obi-Wan turned to see Ben standing near the shuttle, his hand on Anakin's shoulder. The knight could only guess at what they were saying to each other. If he were a gambling man, he'd wager it was something along the lines of what Qui-Gon still told him whenever he left on solo missions: don't be stupid, trust the Force, stay alive.

After a moment the master and padawan parted, and Ben joined Aola at their ship. Obi-Wan strode toward the shuttle. "Anakin," he called, and the apprentice's head snapped up to attention. Padme had started her take-off sequence, and the hangar filled with the low rumble of engines. "Set shields to half power and turn on the cloak. It's time to go."

Aola left the bridge and made her way back to the cargo bay where she and Ben would be hiding amongst towers of crates. Ben was already there, standing in the bay, datapad illuminating his serene expression.

"Padme- sorry, Miss Hyla has the helm. We're about to take off," she announced. "Better strap in." While Aola folded out one of the crew seats and tugged on the safety belts, Ben only shifted his feet and wrapped a hand around the cargo netting. Aola looked at him and then at the row of a half dozen cargo seats open beside her. The engines whirred beneath them. After taking a pause to pointedly not comment about his disregard for safety regulations, she asked:

"Do you think this will work? Hiding here, I mean. If they're really Force sensitive, won't they sense that we're here?"

Ben glanced up at the crates all around them. "The kyber will help," he said. "If nothing else, it will distract them long enough for us to get away undetected. They don't know to expect us, and our Force signatures will blend in around so much kyber. They'll believe what they want to believe."

Aola ran a hand down the side of one box. Even through the netting and the cases and packaging, she could feel the distinctive hum of Kyber, low and powerful.

"It is distracting," she conceded.

"Even more so if you plan to build an empire out of it," Ben agreed. Neither of attempted to speak over the roar of the engines as they brought them up and out of the echoing hangar. It wouldn't take long to reach the mountains.

"Did you have to bring this thing along?"

"What, you've got a better droid in your back pocket?" Anakin looked back over his shoulder to see Obi-Wan batting away RB-1's flopping, flailing appendages as the tiny machine panicked amid the g-forces of their turn. The droid hurtled sideways, and Obi-Wan grabbed it before it could crash into a window. It responded by wrapping its arms around his face.

"He's going to be our ticket into their mainframe and, therefore, Ben and Aola's ticket inside," Anakin explained, looking back to the sky. "You can't hack systems that big without a droid to do the talking. Arbee's helped me hack whole orbit systems to the Outer Rim and back, haven't you, Arbee?"

The droid, pausing in its singular mission to drive Obi-Wan to madness, gave a beep and a noodle-armed salute. Obi-Wan grabbed the arm while he could and peeled the droid off himself. It squealed indignantly.

"And has he always been this temperamental on flights?"

"It's the g-forces," Anakin said. "He's a floating sphere, he has a pretty specific definition of up and down. Small ships mess with him sometimes."

Obi-Wan sighed while the droid cried in his lap – why had Anakin made a droid that could cry? "And you just… let him suffer?"

Anakin snorted. "I usually put him in a storage bin," the padawan confessed.

"I'm sure we have one of those around here somewhere," Obi-Wan groused.

"No need." Anakin flipped a switch which would activate the ship's invisibility shield. "We're nearly there."

"Alright," Padme took a deep breath to steady herself. She hadn't undertaken a mission – a real mission, disguises and all – since her days as Queen. The moves of this high-stakes dance were something she'd memorized as a child, and they came back easily, bringing along with them the usual pre-arrival jitters. "I'm going to check in with our Jedi friends and make sure our weapons are primed and ready. Tell me once we're in range."

"Yes, ma'am." Rex didn't divert his eyes from the windscreen as Padme left him alone in the bridge. He opened a comm.

"Alpha nineteen, this is Mooringer one, please come in."

"Mooringer one, this is Alpha nineteen, what's up?" Rex couldn't help but smile at the kid's unusual address.

"Your cloak's working perfectly," Rex reported, glancing at his sensor panel which told him he was the only ship for miles. "What's your current position and destination?"

"Currently five ticks south of the summit. There's a covered alcove two ticks further around. We'll land, find that door, and await your signal."

He made it sound so effortless. Rex checked his coordinates. "Good. According to Mr. Mooringer's instructions, that'll be just about opposite from our landing point. They'll be guarding the front, I doubt they'll neglect the back. Be careful."

"Always am." Anakin knew he was lying, and it came through in his voice. It should have made Rex nervous, but the Lieutenant found himself smiling again. If they all lived through this, Rex thought he'd like to grab a drink with the kid some time.

Anakin had to give them credit; it was nearly impossible to tell the mountain was anything other than a mountain. Nearly.

"Looks like there's heavier cannon over here." Anakin pointed to a snowy slope a short ways up from where they planned to land. "That must be our way in."

"Looks like?" Obi-Wan peered over Anakin's shoulder, squinting hard. With the aid of the Force, his blindness rarely became an issue, but he still struggled with long distances. It took him a moment to admit defeat. "I don't see anything," he said.

"Well, I mean, I don't see it," Anakin shrugged, "I sense it. Can't you?"

Obi-Wan peered again, and was quiet for a long moment. "No," he said at length.

Anakin was not sure how to respond. "Well, it's there," he replied, already doubting himself. "I'm sure of it." He actually wasn't, notnow that Obi-Wan "can sense the bits moving along a circuit board" Kenobi couldn't verify his hunch. "Once we're on the ground it'll be easier to sense the details." It had better be, especially for Obi-Wan, because if Obi-Wan didn't start seeing what Anakin could see really fast, they'd be kriffed.

"Of course," was all the knight said. Anakin nudged them in to land, panicking in silence.

Panche's clearance codes worked exactly as he'd said they would, but Padme hadn't been prepared to watch as the mountainside split apart like a curtain. The snow melted away as if it had never been there—and perhaps it hadn't—as an invisible shield rippled and flickered like an iridescent pond until it pulled away entirely to reveal a frigid landing base.

"Holy chssk," she found herself saying.

"No kidding," said Rex, leaning forward to watch, wide-eyed.

"That bad?" asked Aola in her ear.

"Bad? I don't know." She eased the freighter in for landing. "I've just… I've never seen anything like it." She'd seen cloaking shields, sure, not unlike the one they'd outfitted on Anakin's shuttle. But this was not a simple invisibility shield; this had mass, and weight, an atmosphere. "Are you sure someone could make something like this using the Force alone?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line.

"Ben thinks so," Aola answered.

"I don't suppose the Jedi temple has anything like this?" she asked.

Aola laughed. "When we go to Ilum, we make it a point to not being the entire planet back with us. These people don't seem to share our reservations."

"And we're bringing them more," Padme said quietly, to herself. She watched as the landing pad below filled with attendant droids, blinking lights guiding her into position. They were close enough now that she could see into the sheltered helm of the base.

"Time to hunker down," she told her friends, "it's time for me to go. Rex?"

"Yes ma'am." The clone didn't need another word. He stood, flipped the lock on the cargo bay, turned off his blaster's safety, and pulled on an armored chest plate. Aside from the click and clatter of Rex getting into gear, the cockpit was silent. Fully armed and armored now, the clone stepped up to survey the landing pad below. They were close enough now that he could see an entourage waiting for them, led by a tall woman clad in white.

"Looks like they're expecting us," Rex's voice had transformed into that of someone else, someone gruffer, stiffer, who'd be more than happy to shoot someone in the face as soon as look at them. It made Padme feel safe. "Orders, Miss Hyla?"

Padme slipped into the role as easily as a handmaid's gown. "Get me my gun."

"Yes, ma'am."

Waiting in the cargo bay was a unique torture, not least of all because at any given moment, Aola had no idea if they'd been caught or not. Ben did not seem to share her anxiety.

"They don't know we're here," he told her. "Settle down."

"How can you tell?" She'd never gone up against other Force-sensitives before, not in such numbers.

"Because if they did, we'd be hearing a great deal more blasterfire."

Of course. Aola sniffed, and the sound seemed to echo against every facet of every kyber crystal that kept them company. The power in the hold was quietly overwhelming, and she fought the need to escape.

"If they don't know we're here, should we escape now, before they figure it out?"

"No," Ben said. "We need Obi-Wan and Anakin to make a path for us, unlock some doors."

"Right." They'd gone over this before, but the crystal was baffling Aola's memory. She shook herself. "Last time he had to unlock a door, on Eriadu, Obi did it in less than five minutes," she said optimistically.

It was maddeningly quiet. They listened for shots. None came.

"Good," Ben said, and fiddled with the comm at his belt. "Hopefully he's not too rusty."

Padawan Skywalker trudged through the snow, feeling ridiculous, leading an experienced, war-hardened Jedi Knight to a door that was, at least to Anakin's mind, as obvious on the mountainside as a zit on someone's face.

"It's here, can't you see it?" Anakin called back. RB-1 shook in the wind beside him, bleeping irritatedly at Obi-Wan as the older man followed meters behind.

"For the last time, Anakin," Obi-Wan was even more annoyed than his companion that he couldn't see or sense the door, "no. Just get me there and show me where the wires lead."

If you can't see it, Anakin thought privately, then how the hell will the wires help? "Just a bit further," he said, and waved Obi-Wan on. "Come on, it's right here." He waved the knight over to a flush wall of stone. It looked like the same dark basalt that was peppered beneath the snow of the whole mountain range, but Anakin knew better. It hid a door, a door whose outline shone up through the Force like a beacon, backlit by the kyber that powered it.

"Where, exactly?" Obi-Wan was standing right by it. The man had been one-eyed since Anakin's childhood, but the padawan had never once thought of him as blind until that moment.

"Here," Anakin took the man's hand and pressed it against the cliff.

Obi-Wan reacted as if burned. "Holy chssk," he yanked back his hand and held it. He looked, wide-eyed, to Anakin. "You weren't joking - where the kriff did they get that kind of power?"

"So you can see it," Anakin was relieved.

"I can't see it, but-" Obi-Wan put his hand back, hesitantly, as if the wall would bite it off, "kriff," he said. Anakin was privately impressed; he'd never heard Obi-Wan curse so much in so short a span of time. The knight missed his amusement, too enthralled by the wall of raw power behind the mountain.

He'd found something of a talent for manipulating electrical circuits sometime after he'd lost his right eye. Qui-Gon had always said that it was his senses making up for the loss; Obi-Wan wasn't so sure, but it did come in handy. But electricity was a fair bit different than this. This was kyber, this was the Force itself. But this Force had been bound and bent around a framework held up by dark intentions. Unlocking this door was not a matter of rerouting bits and blips; this would be about willpower, and light, and undoing the power over the door without making everyone in the base aware of it. He could sense the kyber crystal inside his saber humming at his belt; it seemed very small in comparison.

"So," Anakin said after a bit, "can you open it?"

"Well," Obi-Wan said, "If I don't, this entire operation is doomed, so I suppose I must." Still, it had been Anakin who'd seen the door, who'd sensed the kyber. He has more power as a child than I'll have in a thousand lifetimes, Obi-Wan realized. He didn't want Anakin to ever know how much that impressed him—and scared him.

I trust Anakin's senses more than I trust my own, Ben had said. Obi-Wan heaved a sigh.

"But I'm going to need your help."

Anakin did not know how to unlock doors with his mind, but he did know that if it meant keeping his friends safe, he could be a quick study. "Alright," he said, and let Obi-Wan tell him what to do.