Chapter 39 - An Ilum Summer

Yoda put away his outer robe as he returned to his quarters. It had been a long day. Not because of anything overly dramatic occurring, simply long because of the work they had to do. Illum was nearing its "summer" rotation. Still colder than the winter on most worlds, but it was the best time of the year to allow entrance into its temple. The Council was scheduling groups of Initiates to go on the Gathering soon.

And among this year's gatherings would be a special one for the whole council. Anakin was one of those initiates.

Yoda had to fight today to hold a straight face through all the discussion. Especially when Mace up and volunteered to escort the group there. That was something that never would have occurred in the other timeline. Yoda remembered his fellow Master going to great lengths to argue that they send the, then newly Knighted Skywalker, to a completely different site to get a Kyber for a replacement saber. Unfortunately, the young man had been prone to lose his lightsaber in the haste of a mission. And unfortunately for Windu, the Temple of Ilum was and remains the best place to seek a kyber crystal. That means a journey on the Crucible, and putting a whiz with electronics next to the oldest droid in the order.

Yoda shook his head as he let out the laughter that he had been holding in. It was a headache for Windu to be seeing new upgrades on the droid every time he looked at him. Such a headache that, in the other timeline, when the time came up for Anakin to be selected as escort to a group of younglings, Yoda had mercy on Windu and he suggested they send Skywalker's Padawan instead. It was a time of war, and it was easy to make it sound like it was the most logical plan. Too bad that was the Gathering that cost them the Crucible.

This time, though, Yoda was looking forward to hearing about the clan's adventures. Anakin had just turned twelve, and was doing very well in his classes. He still had a knack for "repairing" perfectly working droids and temple tech, but at least the council got him to leave notes and instructions with his upgrades.

Yoda wouldn't dream of pushing Mace out of the way and volunteering himself to take the Bergruutfa clan, however. Young Anakin and Huyang got along, rather like two of the chemicals he kept on hand to clean his refresher drain. Extremely useful if you're in a sticky situation. Extremely messy in the Temple fountains on prank day. 'Initiates!'

No, Mace can have that honor. Yoda will sit back and prepare to be shocked when he hears about the scandal.

"Good morning, Ani!"

Anakin unwillingly opened his eyes. The red curls of his sister bobbed as she could not hold still.

"Daddy says you gotta get up now." His little tormentor turned back to his bedroom door.

Anakin groaned. Whatever Force-forsaken Jedi master thought it would be a good idea to wake up initiates at six in the morning, should be fed to a Rancor. He dressed and gathered his schooling supplies in a shoulder bag. Then he knelt to meditate, purging such violent thoughts from his mind and letting go of the emotions they were tangled in.

Wiping the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes, Anakin walked out into their open-concept kitchen and living room space. There he saw his Master serving Abigail something from a pan.

"Anakin, how are you this morning?" Obi-Wan asked with a wide smile no one deserved to have at six in the morning. "Are you hungry?"

Anakin looked over to see Abigail scoop some eggs up and take a bite. She swallowed and went back for another bite. Anakin took this as evidence that the food was edible. His sister was not shy about spitting it out if it wasn't. 'Siri must have cooked,' he determined.

"Yeah, sure." Anakin answered. Obi-Wan loaded up a plate.

"Special Day. Special day!" Abigail barely took a break between her bites to say in a sing-song voice.

"You're really excited to go up to the Creche, huh?" Anakin said. At Abigail's age, she was still in the four and under's room, where they played all day long and lessons were easy. He supposed, if that was his life, everyday would be special. "I'll walk you there when I finish my breakfast."

"Actually, you don't need to take Abi." Obi-Wan interrupted. "You've been summoned to the Hangar. Bay oh-fourteen."

"Oh." Anakin blinked with surprise. "Why?" he asked. Anakin tried to reach for the bond he shared with his Master, only to bounce off. He realized then that Obi-Wan had his shields up.

"You'll find that out when you get there. Siri and I will take Abigail with us. And you won't need this." Obi-Wan picked his bag up off the floor to put it aside.

"Hey." Anakin protested.

"I've already packed you another bag, and you don't have much time. Hurry up and eat." Obi-Wan said. Anakin huffed, and turned to obey. When his Master got stubborn about things, it was difficult to talk him out of it. And Anakin figured he must have his reasons. He wished someone would tell him what they were, but he trusted Obi-Wan not to lead him astray.

Mace pushed the button to summon the lift. He'd just had to deal with a small group of Archivists who were complaining about some improvements Initiate Skywalker applied to the Library computer. He sighed and rubbed his temple. It was only thanks to Lead Archivist Jocasta Nu's intercession that the others eventually shut up.

She had picked up a sheet of flimsy with Skywalker's messy handwriting, and read the steps he gave, daring the other archivists to follow them. When it actually worked, one of them scoffed and mumbled something about how unjust it was that they had to learn a bunch of new steps to get their jobs done. In response to this, Jocasta merely rolled her eyes and promised to assign him to the youth department if he continued to have a problem with it.

'All this to increase the machine's accuracy and look up speeds.' Mace didn't think it was worth it. 'At least I'm going to be going away for a bit.' While technically the trip to Ilum was not a vacation, it was still time away from the mass of Jedi looking to him for leadership. Plus he'd get to spend the time with Anakin and his young friends. Despite what the boy sometimes does to give him more work, Mace still enjoyed the time he spent teaching him.

The Lift came and opened up. Mace stepped in and turned around. Then he blinked several times in awe. 'Where are the buttons?' The panel which Jedi would use to select a floor to go to was missing. In its place was a small slip of flimsy, with hastily written words. "Meet L-Eleven"

"L-Eleven?" Mace said out loud.

Above him a string of lights going around the whole lift lit up and blinked. "Greetings. What is your destination?" said a feminine voice. The lights blinked with her voice.

"Where did you come from?" Mace asked.

"Master Skywalker found me. I was an educational droid for many years, only it seems my old form had fallen into some moisture when I was deactivated and there was little the young Master could do to repair me. Eventually he decided to abandon his attempts to rebuild my form and give me a new assignment. You may call me El-even for shorts, or If you want to be friends, El."

"Alright, Bring me to the Temple Hangar," Mace tried.

"On my way." L-Eleven said.

"And what did that boy do with the normal elevator panel?" Mace asked.

"It's touch sensor was off by point three seven percent." Mace remembered that sometimes you needed to push extra hard to get it to respond. "He's going to get a new sensor and then repurpose it elsewhere."

"Oh. My head." Mace clutched his again throbbing cranium. The number of reports he'd be receiving due to this alone was enough to make him think about handing Yoda his council seat. Almost.

"Understood. Rerouting to Halls of Healing," said El.

"What! No." Mace objected.

"You are experiencing pain in your cranium. According to my sensors, your heart rate and blood pressure are elevated. According to Jedi code 117.3 all Jedi exhibiting symptoms of poor health should report to the Healers as soon as possible, unless you have a Council Override.

"Yes I do. I am Master of the Order, Mace Windu. Identity code one-seven-eight, four-two-five-nine. Now take me to the Hangar."

"Oh, Macey. I used to grade your Aurebesh reports. Did you ever learn how to spell Peace-es?"

Mace rolled his eyes as El laughed. He hoped more than anything that getting Anakin his own lightsaber would give him more things to do. Perhaps even making him so busy he wouldn't find any more projects to do around the Temple.

'One can only hope.'

"Bye Ani," Abi called out as they watched the twelve year old run out.

Obi-Wan stepped through the door to watch him go, as he breathed a sigh of relief. That his Abi kept the secret he'd sworn her to alone was a matter to thank the Force for. Two year olds can be loose lipped after all. Not to add to that, his Initiate can be especially good at pulling information out of unwilling parties. Obi-Wan was just glad his shields held.

"Hey Kenobi." Master Mundi called from the neighboring apartment. "How was the morning? Is he off?"

"Yes. He left moments ago. And so far, he knows nothing," Obi-Wan replied.

"Good, good. And what about your other plans today?"

"That is a lot easier. Once Siri gets out of the shower, we're going to take her into the city. Going to see a show for kids and then maybe, if we still have energy left, we'll stop and see Uncle Dex."

Mundi laughed. "Well, you enjoy your first Skywalker free day."

Obi-Wan nodded along, but inside his mind filled with worry. 'First? That's right, Anakin will be a Padawan soon. What if he accepts another knight's offer?' The thought of not having Anakin in their home was not a good one. Obi-Wan fortunately still had his shields up, so he was able to contain the emotional swirl.

As Anakin walked into the specified Hangar Bay he noticed his Clan-mates were all standing there looking at him. "Hey guys, what's up?" he asked.

His question was returned with confusion. "We were hoping you'd know," Alex said.

"I don't know anything. Master Obi-Wan just said I was summoned here."

"Master Quarmall told us the same thing," said Leeta. Both girls, Freya and Kate nodded in agreement.

'Do you think this is about the A-Wing,' Kent communicated over their clan bond.

'I told you we weren't supposed to rewire it,' Ramu fretted.

'Relax. If this is about the A-Wing, I'm sure it's to thank us. We improved it drastically.' Anakin reassured. Normally, Initiates didn't form bonds this strong until they became Padawans, but a lot of things were easier for Anakin than the typical initiate. Forming bonds is one of those things. By experimenting he found that all he had to do was start to weave it, and the others were able to finish making it grow.

"What are we gonna do n-AH," Freya asked out loud, and it turned into a yell as the doors to one of the ships, a Paladin-class corvette, suddenly opened and Mace Windu stepped down.

"Greetings Initiates." Mace turned and looked down seriously at them. He was radiating pride and mischief. "You have done very well in your classes, and it is time for you to go on a journey. The trip is long, and difficult. It has made and broken many initiates before you. We are going to a very special place, a sacred site, known as Ilum."

'Ilum.' Anakin remembered hearing that name before. Then it clicked for him. "Lightsabers!" He shouted. Beside him, his clanmates were getting excited too.

Mace looked down at Anakin and laughed. "Yes, while there, you are each going to find a kyber crystal. One that resonates with you specifically. Then you will build your own lightsabers. Come aboard, and we will begin preparing for the flight."

The younglings all eyed each other in excitement. Then almost at once, they all turned to run past Mace and onto the ship named The Crucible.

Well, no Huyang yet, this trip to Ilum is probably going to take a few chapters. I reviewed the one episode that featured the gathering, through you-tube clips and episode transcripts because I've never seen the actual show. So some of my facts may be a bit off. For one, I never found an actual reason why Anakin was not with Ahsoka then. So I made one up. Another, it seemed like the kids were unsure of where they were going until the last moment when Ahsoka gave her big intro speech.

I did say several chapters back that my interpretation is the Jedi tend to keep things around until they are not useful anymore. So some of their technology is outdated, and even if it occasionally goes on the fritz, they won't buy a new one until it shuts down completely. Naturally, Anakin likes his newer technology and he's fixing things as he sees them fritz, no matter what the Council says.

Poor Mace doesn't know what he's getting into. And Yoda's saying "Suckers!" He's not going to help. I hope I can make this adventure build up to what I've started, because I don't even know for sure what's going to happen either.