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Chapter Four

Arden watched the lights on the landing pad grow larger as the Happy Ho'Din began its descent. It was night on this side of Nar Shaddaa, and the port area was aglow with flashing neon signs advertising various less than reputable businesses. Despite being a notorious hideout for criminals, the Smuggler's Moon was anything but discreet.

The Ho'Din settled onto the platform, letting out a hiss of steam. Arden continued to stare out the viewport as Elias began shutting down the ship's systems. After a moment, he turned to her.

"I'm sorry, Arden."

She picked one bright green sign to focus on. It invited patrons to enjoy "Exotic Females Nightly."

"I should have told you."

"You said that already," Arden answered.

They sat in silence, listening to the other passengers moving around outside of the cockpit. Rain began to speckle the viewport, plopping gently against the ship. Arden stared at the lower left corner of the viewport, watching one raindrop grow larger as it made a trail toward the bottom of the window. The door opened, and Ames walked in.

"I got a signal from the safe house."

Elias frowned and turned to look at Ames. "Who?"

"Guess."

Elias narrowed his eyes at the boy.

Ames rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. It was Myri."

Elias sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I guess we weren't as far off the grid as we thought."

"Well, it is Myri we're talking about."

"True."

Arden didn't even try to guess who this Myri was or why she was waiting for them on Nar Shaddaa. She was still reeling from everything that had happened, especially the discovery that for the last six months she'd been in a relationship with one of the most wanted Jedi Knights in the galaxy.

"Who are you?" She tried to be demanding, but it came out more like a plea.

Elias didn't look at her at first. "I lied to you about my last name. It's not Till. It's Cain." He took a deep breath and turned toward her. "I'm a Jedi Knight."

Arden pressed her lips together and nodded. Then she slapped him across the face. The crack echoed in the cockpit.

"Why?" she asked, her eyes hot with tears.

"We were deep undercover. I couldn't tell you."

"So you were using me?"

He glanced up quickly. "No! It wasn't like that. I never meant to get you involved in all this."

Arden looked away. "Yeah, well you did."

"I'm sorry, I should have told you."

Arden felt her lower lip trembling. She covered her mouth with one hand.

"Arden…"

"Just leave me alone."

She didn't say anything else to him for the rest of the trip. In all honesty, she hadn't really known what else to say. The war between the Jedi and the Sith had torn the galaxy apart, and all she'd wanted to do was make her own way while staying off the Empire's radar. How was she supposed to react to the news that she'd been employed by Jedi for the last six months, that the man she'd hoped might become her lover was actually the notorious Jedi Cain? How could Elias expect her to react any differently?

"We'd better get moving," Elias said, interrupting her thoughts. Arden stared blankly at him, pulling the anger and hurt inside.

Ames cleared his throat. "Kohr and Ulin are waiting outside. The way seems clear."

Elias reached up and switched off the cockpit lights. "With Myri here, I'm not surprised."

Arden followed Elias and Ames out of the ship to where Kohr and Ulin were silently waiting for them. None of the men spoke; they each looked around, examining the shadows. Out here in the open air, Arden felt extremely vulnerable. She wanted to reach for Elias, just for reassurance, but she held back.

"Why are we—?"

Ulin raised a finger to his lips and shushed her.

"Not until we reach the safehouse," Elias whispered in her ear. "Someone's always listening."

Arden nodded and took a step closer to the others, waiting for something to happen.

The shadows stirred, and a cloaked figure stepped out into the light. Arden tensed up, but she noticed a smile creeping onto Ames's face. The boy strode forward to meet this stranger. After a moment, the others followed. Arden saw two pale hands reach out from the cloak to grasp first for Ames, then for Kohr. Ulin received a hug, and Elias was greeted with a bowed head. Arden wasn't sure if the mysterious figure had nodded at her as well, but it was over quickly, and the stranger was already leading them into the city.

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Ben Skywalker sat on one side of the dejarik board, staring at the man who was, despite all odds, his grandfather. He placed a hand on the board and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. There were a million things he wanted to ask him. Things about his father, about the old Jedi Order.

Things about the dark side, mostly.

None of those questions made it past his lips. Instead, he locked eyes with Anakin Skywalker – Darth Vader – and waited.

His grandfather cleared his throat, interrupting the uncomfortable silence. "Is there a problem?"

Besides the obvious? "No," Ben answered, removing his hand from the board and breaking eye contact. "It's just hard to believe, you know?"

"But you do believe me?" There was a powerful earnestness in his voice, an almost child-like desire to be trusted and depended on. Even without the Force it would have been compelling.

Ben nodded. "As crazy as it all sounds, I do."

Anakin let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks."

"But how did you know I was telling the truth? I could have been lying about being your grandson."

Anakin looked away for a moment. "It wouldn't have been a very good lie. It's not exactly common knowledge that I'm going to be a father." He rubbed his hands together slowly. "Jedi aren't supposed to have families."

Ben didn't fail to notice the bitterness in his grandfather's voice. It sent a chill up his spine. He thought at first that his emotions were playing tricks on him, that he was searching for signs of the darkness that would turn this man into Darth Vader. But as Anakin continued to rub his palms together, Ben saw how pale he was, how dark and sunken his eyes were. The man was afraid, confused, and sleep-deprived. Not a good combination for someone destined to turn to the dark side.

"I didn't realize the old Order didn't allow families," Ben said carefully. Even at its peak, the New Jedi Order's information on the Old Republic Jedi was full of holes. "Families are common among Jedi in this time."

Anakin nodded his head silently, staring at the dejarik board. "So," he said after a moment, his tone indicating he wished to change the subject. "Were you on an undercover mission?"

Ben frowned. "Huh? Oh, the eyes. Yeah, I guess you could say that."

His grandfather pressed his lips together and leaned back in his seat. "It seems like there are still plenty of Dark Jedi to deal with in your time. Some things never change."

Ben smirked. "Those weren't your average Dark Jedi, Gramps."

Anakin made a face. "Gramps?"

"No? I kinda like it."

"I kinda don't. You can just call me Anakin."

"Oh, all right." Ben leaned back in his chair, mimicking the other man's posture. "Anakin. Those were the Lessers. Sith apprentices of varying degree, all of them lower than the Master and his Lords."

Anakin's eyes widened. Ben was getting used to that look on his face.

"How many Sith are there in this time?"

Ben wondered how much he should tell him. Would it make a difference what he revealed? Telling him about the Empire certainly couldn't make things worse, he supposed. Still, he was hesitant.

"We don't have exact figures. A few dozen Lords. Several hundred Lessers, possibly a thousand. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers of various Force sensitivities. Compared to the military forces of any number of worlds, their size hardly seems worth mentioning." Ben gave Anakin a knowing look. "But you and I both realize how powerful a single misguided Force-user can be. A whole army was nearly unstoppable."

Anakin shook his head, lost somewhere inside his thoughts. Ben could sense confusion, doubt, even fear. Yes, there was definitely a large amount of fear clouding his grandfather's presence.

"I don't understand how Sidious could have built up an army of Sith under our noses. We thought there were only tw—"

"Sidious?" That was a name Ben hadn't heard in a long time. He'd always thought of Palpatine as simply the Emperor, the focal point of evil, the nightmarish specter that was used to frighten children into behaving. The demented puppet master who shaped the galaxy in his own image, whose brilliant schemes accounted for every possibility, even those that couldn't be predicted.

Well, all except for one. The most important one.

The true power of the light.

Ben wished he could have seen that power firsthand, wished he could have seen his grandfather hurl the Emperor down that shaft in a final act of defiance against the darkness.

"He's not responsible for this," Ben continued. "Not directly, anyway."

"How do you mean?"

The whole, terrible truth would take time to explain, and Ben wasn't ready for that yet. He needed to rest, to regain his footing. Just being in the same room with the man who was both destructor and savior of the Jedi Order was causing him to lose focus. Maybe once they reached their destination, he would tell Anakin what had happened to the galaxy he knew.

"Not now," he said. "We'll be arriving on Tatooine in a few hours. Maybe then my head will stop spinning long enough for me to explain."

Anakin didn't argue. In fact, he looked almost contemplative. "What business do you have on Tatooine?"

"You'll see."

.

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The safe house was nestled between a pawn shop and a junk store in one of the less frequently trafficked areas of Nar Shaddaa. Arden followed close behind Elias and Kohr as they turned the corner, passing the front window of the pawn shop. Ahead of them Ames, Ulin, and the mysterious hooded figure had stepped off the path and pressed themselves flush against the wall. After a few seconds they disappeared from sight. Kohr glanced over his shoulder as he approached the keypad on the wall. By the time Arden and Elias joined him there, a door slid open, and they stepped through.

The first thing Arden saw was a long, narrow corridor dimly lit by blue lights. Ames was standing alone at the very end of the corridor, looking down what appeared to be a flight of stairs. The lights gave his dark skin an eerie glow. Arden realized he was whispering to someone out of view, perhaps standing at the bottom of the steps. He made a shooing gesture with his hand, looking behind him as he did so.

"It's all right, Ames," Elias shouted down the hall. "Arden's not going to tell anyone."

Ames looked embarrassed, or maybe nervous. Arden couldn't tell which. She was a little surprised that he was apprehensive about her being here. They'd worked together for months without much incident.

She reminded herself that he was a Jedi, and Jedi were known for their secretive natures.

They joined Ames at the top of the steps. Far below, at the base of the steep staircase, stood the hooded figure.

Next to Arden, Elias smiled. "You can take the hood off now."

The figure shrugged and reached its pale hands toward the hood. With a flutter of material and a murmur of discontent, the hood was flung back, revealing a young girl with copper-red hair and eyes that appeared – at least from where Arden was standing – to be as gray as durasteel. She couldn't have been any older than fourteen or fifteen, not with that face. But the way she stared up at them, as though she could read their minds and souls, made her seem far older. It might have been a trick of the light, Arden thought, because as soon as they began to descend the stairs, the look was gone, and in its place was the fresh excitement of youth.

"What took you so long?" the girl asked with mock severity, her eyes lingering on Kohr and Ames.

Ames grinned as he and Kohr each slung an arm over her shoulders. They towered over the girl. "We ran into some old friends."

Instead of being amused, the girl looked past them, her eyes searching the stairwell. "Where's Ben?" she asked, a frantic edge creeping into her voice. "Isn't he meeting you here? You didn't leave him, did you?" She ducked out from under their arms and rushed toward the stairwell.

"Allana!"

Everyone in the corridor, including Arden, turned to look at the woman who had spoken. Wearing a dark jacket and pants with a Corellian bloodstripe down the side, she couldn't have been past her early thirties. Her short blonde hair was covered by a lopsided cap of unknown military origin, her arms crossed loosely over her chest. "You know you would have felt it. Ben's fine, right, boys?"

Elias nodded, grinning wryly at the sight of this newcomer. For a moment, Arden felt a twinge of jealousy. "It'd take more than a few Sith to kill Ben Skywalker."

Arden felt her eyes widen as she turned and stared up at Elias. No, he couldn't have said what she thought he did. There was no way. No way at all that she'd spent six months cooped up with the most wanted Jedi, the most wanted felon, the most wanted anything in the entire galaxy.

It just wasn't possible. Captain Dagen was unusual, a little scary sometimes, but the ragtag leader of the resistance against the Empire?

No. She refused to believe it.

Oh, Force be damned, how did she get herself into this mess?

Elias had moved away to shake hands with the older woman. Arden shook her head to clear her thoughts and followed after him.

"He's probably halfway to Tatooine by now," Elias was saying.

"No doubt." The woman finally seemed to notice Arden standing at Elias's elbow. "This must be Arden Veiss."

Arden blinked her eyes several times before responding with a very articulate and sophisticated, "Huh?"

The other woman extended her hand toward Arden. "Myri Antilles. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Dumbfounded, Arden took the woman's hand and let her shake it. "Yeah, same here."

"Wait a second, wait a second," Elias cut in. "How did you know who she was?"

Just what I was going to ask, Arden thought.

Myri gave Elias a pointed look that clearly said, "Where have you been?"

"You knew," Elias said after a moment, looking a little betrayed. "You knew all along what we were up to."

"Of course."

Elias groaned. "Ben told you, didn't he?"

Myri just smiled at him. "I knew you'd figure it out eventually." She glanced around the room, eyes falling on Kohr and Ames, then Ulin. "I've been keeping tabs on you from afar. Ben contacted me one time at the beginning of your little mission, asked me to dig up any dirt on Arden Veiss before you took off for Ord Mantell." She smiled at Arden, a cheerful, unexpected smile. "I told him except for a short juvenile record, the girl was clean, and you all shipped out."

"But then how did you know we'd be here today?"

Myri shook her head. "Elias Cain, after all these years, it's like you don't even know me." She placed a hand over her heart. "I'm hurt, I really am."

"Yeah, yeah," the younger girl, Allana, spoke up, winking at Myri. "It's been three days of this. I'm glad you're all here, finally."

Ulin, who had been silent until now, laughed heartily. "Listen to that one! And I always thought you were the quiet type."

Allana stuck her tongue out at him, an act which made her look even younger. "Most of the time, yes, but I can only take so much of the famous Antilles sense of humor." She gestured toward Kohr and Ames to follow her. "C'mon, let's let the grown-ups talk."

"I am a grown-up!" Kohr protested as they disappeared into another room.

"Ah, shut it, you're barely eighteen," Ames mumbled. He closed the door behind him.

Myri looked after them with a hint of something wistful in her eyes. Nostalgia, maybe? "Kids," she muttered, chuckling. "Bet it's been fun sharing a ship with those two boys, huh?" She was talking to Elias, but her eyes were on Arden.

"Yeah, it's been interesting," Elias replied.

Myri jumped suddenly. "Where are my manners? Come on in, we'll go to the commons and get something to eat. I'll fill you in on everything that's been happening."

Uncertain about her current situation but feeling a bit more reassured by the friendliness of their hosts, Arden stayed by Elias's side as they followed Myri Antilles into the common room. She didn't have to forgive him yet for everything that had happened, but she didn't mind being close to him for now.

He was still her boyfriend, after all.

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Tatooine.

It seemed almost a lifetime since he'd been there, a lifetime since he'd buried his mother and destroyed whatever innocence had remained inside him. Since then he'd crossed the galaxy, visiting even more of those far away worlds a nine-year-old boy had once promised to see. This time, though, his missions weren't ones of peace, but of war.

His mother's eyes, so full of love and pride for her Jedi son… she had not lived to see the irony.

The first time he left Tatooine it was to become a guardian of justice. He spent ten years on Coruscant and any number of planets, learning and training and living alongside Obi-Wan. There were dangers, yes. There were tragedies, but always at the end of each mission, of each trial, there was a light shining out at him, promising rest and sanity and salvation.

After his return to Tatooine three years ago, that light had faded to but a shadow of its former brilliance. The Clone Wars had begun immediately after, threatening to tear the Republic, the Jedi Order, and the galaxy apart. For a while he was able to convince himself that there was hope of victory, that it was even fun sometimes to lead his troops into battle against the droid armies. But as each successive separation from Padmé grew longer, and as more and more of his friends and followers died, the darkness slid through the cracks. It was always there now, whispering to him of things he shouldn't know, as intimate as a lover.

Even here in a future that he could no longer affect, it spoke to him.

Anakin stood with his hands clasped at the small of his back, staring at the splotchy brown surface of the planet growing larger in the viewport. Ben had already slid into the pilot's seat, making the final adjustments for their approach. Anakin remained standing, eyes still fixed on his old home. He'd never realized before how dead it looked. If he didn't know better, he would have thought no life could survive there.

All things die, Anakin Skywalker.

He inhaled with a sharp hiss. Ben looked up at him, his face impassive.

"Something wrong?"

Anakin shook his head, embarrassed by the slip. "It's nothing, just memories."

Ben nodded slowly, returning his attention to the controls.

With a mental sigh, Anakin allowed himself to drift outward into the currents of the Force. He was still having trouble believing that this was not just a dream, that he wouldn't be waking up to find Padmé next to him. But the evidence was there in the fabric of the Force. It was familiar, yet so different. Nothing was the way he remembered it, and that above all was what told him this was really happening. The Separatists might have been able to craft this elaborate lie with the help of their Sith masters, but no one could change the Force. It moved along its own current, ebbing and flowing with the times. It could be prodded here and there, manipulated by lesser beings. But it could not shift so radically in such a short time.

Whether he liked it or not, Anakin was in the future. His grandson's future.

His grandson.

Anakin bent his head toward Ben, suddenly curious. "How old are you?"

Ben laughed without looking up. "Twenty-five standard years."

Anakin groaned. Make that his grandson who was older than him. "This is too bizarre," he muttered.

"Tell me about it."

There was another long stretch of silence as the ship dropped through Tatooine's atmosphere. Despite being in a controlled environment, Anakin could almost feel the air heat up around him. Ben landed the ship on a rocky patch of ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. As he watched the dust settle, Anakin turned to Ben once more.

"When exactly did you realize I wasn't crazy?"

Ben leaned to one side and lifted his bag onto his shoulder. He flipped a switch, and the ship vibrated as the hatch opened. "When we were in the service passage and you said 'Artoo, it's me,' as if he should recognize you." Ben shrugged. "Only a few people ever knew that you once owned Artoo-Detoo, and most of them are dead. I put two and two together." Ben finished powering down the cockpit and nudged past Anakin, heading for the open ramp.

"Wait a minute, so I poured out my life's story for nothing?"

"Not at all." Ben smiled back at him as he ducked under the bulkhead. "I needed a good story to cheer me up."

Anakin couldn't help grinning a little as he moved to the top of the ramp. "You're a funny man. I see you inherited my sense of humor."

"I don't think you can claim credit for that, but if you'd like to try, you can get in line behind my mom. She's got dibs."

"Your mom…" Anakin's voice lost all trace of amusement. "Is she…?"

Ben must have realized what he was asking because he quickly shook his head. "No, she's not yours."

"Oh." And with that last word he felt the full impact of Tatooine's blazing suns as a familiar heat engulfed him. White, blinding light reflected off the sands. Even the smell of the desert was oppressive. There was nothing but sand and rock as far as the eye could see.

"Welcome home," Ben said wryly.

Anakin didn't respond. This wasn't his home. The only thing that had ever made it his home was gone, taken by the Raiders. His heart could only rest when Padmé was near, and Anakin was reminded – for the thousandth time since arriving in this galaxy – that Padmé was gone.

He could never go home again.

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