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Chapter Five

"Stop," Ben ordered, coming to a halt at the crest of a sand dune. Anakin reached out with his senses, feeling for anything unusual around them. His search was in vain; the desert was eerily calm. He hadn't seen any familiar landmarks. He supposed it was possible that Ben was leading him away from the towns and the native life rather than toward them.

"What is it?" Anakin asked, raising a hand to shade his eyes. He followed Ben's gaze, but there was nothing there.

Ben pulled out a pair of macrobinoculars and fiddled with the settings. "We're coming up on the enclave. Need to make sure it's safe."

"I don't sense anyone nearby."

Ben shook his head, still looking down at the binocs. "That's the point." He held the device up to his eyes, adjusting the dial. His presence was as closed off as it had been since they'd met. It was unnerving.

Anakin extended outward with the Force. Now he felt a faint hint of something, but it was muddled, distorted. Like listening to sounds underwater. "This is a Jedi enclave?"

"Yup."

"And do you usually bring strangers home with you to your secret Jedi base?"

"No. Not usually."

Anakin sighed, wiping sweat from his eyes. "Right. So naturally it will be easy to explain who I am."

Ben glanced over his shoulder at him, frowning. "No one is going to believe that you're really Anakin Skywalker." He returned his attention forward.

"That's understandable," Anakin replied more than a little sarcastically.

Ben finished adjusting the macrobinoculars and scanned the horizon. "The Order has been spread out and in hiding for so long that many Jedi don't recognize each other without introductions. We won't have to hide that you're a Jedi. You can use your first name, too, and if anyone asks, you were named for Anakin Solo."

"Solo?"

"Yes." Ben's presence was still unreadable, but his face betrayed a certain sadness as he lowered the binocs. "He was a hero, a famous Jedi Knight. He died when I was just an infant."

"I see."

Ben smirked. "You want to know if he was named after you, right?"

Anakin shrugged. The thought had crossed his mind. "Am I that transparent?"

Ben raised one eyebrow and shook his head, chuckling. "I can see I didn't inherit any modesty from your side. But yes, he was named after you. I guess you must have been pretty well known in your time."

"Well… yes, I am. I mean, I was." Anakin hesitated. There was something strange about the way Ben had phrased that last comment. "But you would know about all that, wouldn't you? From your parents?"

Ben didn't look at him. Instead he waved a hand in the air, slowly weaving it back and forth. Something glinted along the horizon, something that almost looked like a lightsaber blade.

"There are a lot of things I don't know about the past," Ben finally answered. "The galaxy hasn't been a normal place for quite some time." Without another word, he began to plod down the sand dune, walking in the direction of the glint of light.

"Yeah," Anakin murmured. "I get that."

It took about ten minutes to reach the glint they had seen on the horizon. When Anakin came over the last dune, he saw a tan, dark-haired girl standing next to a landspeeder. She couldn't have been more than eighteen, but there was a solemnity about her that made her seem at least as old as Ben. It wasn't until she cracked a smile that Anakin saw a hint of real youth.

"We weren't expecting to see you so soon," the girl said. She glanced over Ben's shoulder at Anakin, but didn't say anything else.

Ben dropped his bag in the back of the speeder and turned to hug the girl. "Me either. Don't tell me you're disappointed?"

"So disappointed." The girl pulled away, her eyes darting over to Anakin once more. Ben must have noticed.

"Kala Di, this is Anakin. We picked him up while we were on our mission."

Anakin nodded politely. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you. The girl glanced at Ben before continuing. "You're a Jedi?"

"I am."

"Oh, well that's good." She seemed relieved. "We need everyone we can get."

Ben sat on the edge of the speeder and lifted himself into the passenger side. "Shall we?"

Anakin got into the back while the girl, Kala Di, took the driver's seat. As they took off, Kala Di turned to Ben. "My mother will be relieved to see you," she said, rolling her eyes affectionately.

Ben laughed. "Why is that?"

"She always worries about you. Especially these last six months. You know how she is."

"Yeah, I know." Ben reclined in his seat and folded his arms behind his head. "Anything else you want to tell me before we arrive?"

Kala Di smirked. "Well, Tahiri's back. She got in last night."

Ben groaned, shielding his eyes. "Great. Thanks for the warning." He looked over his shoulder at Anakin. "You're going to like Tahiri."

Anakin inhaled deeply and nodded. As Ben and Kala Di continued to talk, Anakin watched the desert sweep by, his thoughts turning absently to the objects that lay hidden beneath the dunes. In his youth he had met many treasure hunters who hoped to uncover Tatooine's ancient riches, but few had been successful. The desert rarely gave up its treasures.

He remembered the last day he'd been here, the day he had buried his mother. She was out there somewhere, her gravestone probably claimed by the desert long ago.

The desert heat continued to wash over him, weighing down his eyelids. After a few minutes he gave in and closed his eyes, the sound of the engine lulling him to sleep.

.

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Arden sipped her cup of caf and watched the reactions of the others as they listened to Myri's report. Mostly there was stunned silence. At some point, Kohr and Ames had returned with the girl, and they were standing off to the side, lost in thought. Elias kept running his hands over his eyes.

"What do you propose we do?" Ulin said at last, breaking the silence.

Myri took off her cap and laid it on the table next to her plate. "Valin is on his way to Tatooine now, and he and Ben will get the rest of the Council up to speed. We wait here for them to send word. Meanwhile, Ulin, you need to crack that datapad."

"Already on it," Ulin said.

"So we just wait?" Allana asked. "We just wait here while the Sith manipulate those kids?"

"Allana…" Ames started.

"No! How can we even be thinking like this?" She looked at each of them before finally settling her gaze on Arden. "You," she said.

Arden froze, her cup halfway to her lips. "Me?"

Allana moved closer to her. "Isn't this just what the rest of the galaxy expects of us? Tell me honestly, what do you think of the Jedi? You don't trust us."

"That's enough, Allana," Elias said quietly.

"It's not enough, Elias, don't you see? The galaxy thinks we're running scared, and we are! We're going to sit here in safety while the Sith twist innocent children to the dark side."

"We're going to think this through so that we don't make any mistakes and get anyone killed," Elias said sharply. Allana stared down at him, her chin trembling.

"Ben would agree with me," she whispered. "He would try to rescue them."

"He already tried."

There was silence, and then Ames, Allana, and Kohr began speaking all at once.

"What?"

"What happened?"

"Is that what we were doing on Ossus?"

The three teenagers continued to ask questions, one after another. In the midst of the confusion, Arden raised her hand in the air.

"Question?"

Everyone in the room stopped talking and turned to look at her.

"Well that's not at all intimidating," she muttered.

Myri chuckled. "Go ahead, Arden."

Arden swallowed. "Can someone tell me what is going on here? For real? Because I'm pretty confused."

Elias and Myri exchanged a look. "The Daybreak was supposed to be off the grid, but I've been keeping tabs on you all," Myri explained. "I contacted Ben about the situation with the children as soon as I learned about it. I warned him that going to Ossus wasn't the best idea, but that kid has a mind of his own."

Arden stared at Elias. "You knew about all this?"

"No. Ben told us we were looking for information that was important to the Jedi, but he wouldn't say what it was. I'm guessing he looked for the children, and when he couldn't find them he went after the data on their whereabouts."

Kohr and Ames looked stunned. "We didn't know," Kohr said. "He told us to keep watch, make sure no one realized we were there."

Ames nodded. "And then that stranger showed up and blew our cover."

Kohr shook his head. "Our cover was already blown, genius."

"Wait a second," Myri interrupted. "What stranger?"

"A stowaway we picked up on Ossus," Elias said, resting his chin in his palm. "When the Sith caught up to us on Heibic, we left him with Ben."

"Why?"

"Because that's what Ben wanted. Apparently the guy knows how to use a lightsaber."

Arden looked up to see Allana giving Elias a death glare.

"Did it not occur to you," Allana said slowly, "that this stowaway was a Sith?"

Arden laughed, more out of nervousness than anything else. "That would be pretty ironic," she said.

"I don't see the irony."

Elias put a hand on Allana's shoulder. "The man was crazy. He kept claiming he was Anakin Skywalker."

"Who ended up becoming a Sith," Arden finished.

Allana looked as though she'd just eaten something sour. Kohr held up his bag of datatapes. "I've got the recording, if you want to take a look."

Myri rubbed her hands together. "Well, I've got to see this."

"Yeah," Allana said. "Me too." She snatched the bag out of Kohr's hand.

"Hey!"

As the others stood up and followed Allana and Kohr out of the room, Elias leaned close to Arden. "Can we talk?"

Arden stared down into her mug. "Don't you need to tend to your Jedi business?" she said quietly.

Elias closed his hands around hers. "It can wait."

Arden shook her head and pulled her hands away. She didn't want to shut him out; she wanted to forgive him. He was a Jedi, yes, but he was still Elias.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "Go. Sounds like you guys have more important problems."

"Arden…"

She couldn't look at him. She couldn't take that hurt expression on his face. "I'm not going anywhere," she said. "I'll still be here when you're done. I just need some time to think."

"Okay," he said. "Okay. I'll be right in the next room."

Arden nodded up at him, eyes averted. She heard the swish of the door opening and closing behind him. Satisfied that she was alone, Arden allowed a few tears to slip down her cheeks.

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"Hey, you okay?"

"Huh?" Anakin squinted up into the light, his head buzzing. He massaged his temples, letting his eyes adjust to the brightness. It took a couple of seconds before he saw Ben's face hovering over him. His grandson was staring at him intently.

"Heavy sleeper?" Kala Di asked from the driver's seat.

"No," Anakin mumbled, holding his hand to his forehead. "Not usually."

Ben studied him for a moment. "You must have really been exhausted. You were out cold. We're coming up on the enclave now."

Anakin sat up in his seat and looked over Ben's head. Ahead of them was a cluster of crude tents, no more than twelve in all. Kala Di brought the speeder to a halt at the periphery of the enclave. While Anakin surveyed the scene, Ben and Kala Di jumped out of the speeder, grabbing their gear.

"You two are welcome to come have dinner with us," Kala Di said as she anchored the speeder to the nearest tent.

Ben gave her a half-smile. "Thanks for the offer, Kala Di, but I think Anakin and I are going to eat on our own."

"Okay, but you're going to miss out." She turned away, opening the tent's front flap.

"Maybe another night," Ben answered. His voice remained nonchalant, but as he met Anakin's eyes, his expression darkened. "We've got some things to discuss."

Kala Di waved and disappeared into the tent.

"Come on," Ben said. "I'll show you around."

As Anakin followed Ben into the encampment, the first thing he noticed was that there were children everywhere, and very few adults. The children stared at him openly; the adults acted as though he wasn't even there. The youngest children were playing in the sand or running between the tents. Most of the older children were sparring, some with metal rods, others with their bare hands. Ben stopped in front of one of the smaller tents and watched as two little girls levitated a set of wooden blocks in the air.

"This is just one of our enclaves," Ben said, eyes still on the children. "We have to keep our numbers as small as possible to avoid detection."

Anakin turned away from the girls and ran his fingers across the textured cloth of the tent. "More like a camp. This isn't permanent, is it?"

Ben shrugged and started walking again. "Nothing's permanent. We make do. The less civilized we seem, the less anyone pays attention to us."

"I suppose that makes sense." The tents reminded him of another camp on the sands of Tatooine. "Don't you ever worry about the Tusken Raiders?"

The dry laugh that scratched its way from Ben's throat seemed to spring from some ancient source. It sent a barely perceptible shudder through Anakin's body.

"They don't bother us," was all Ben said.

Anakin closed his eyes and smelled the wind that swept between the tents. "I used to live just east of here."

Ben nodded and wiped sweat from his cheek, looking around the camp. "Mos Espa. The Sith razed it to the ground after two Jedi were found under the protection of some locals." He smiled at a little blonde girl as she scurried by. "So we stay out here."

"Even after what happened?" It was hard to imagine that Mos Espa was just… gone.

Ben gave another one of those vague, noncommittal shrugs that Anakin was becoming accustomed to. "They had no reason to suspect we'd stay here after being the cause of so much destruction. But the Jedi have evolved. We're no longer quite what the Sith expect." He smiled at Anakin – not the warm, inviting grin of a joke shared between comrades, but the sly, arctic smile of a patient predator circling its prey. It startled Anakin to see that look on a Jedi's face. For a moment, the memory of Palpatine's face as he revealed his true identity returned with full force.

"You will be able to save your wife from certain death."

How could he not have seen it? How could he have gone all those years without knowing the truth? Was all of this his fault? His family had survived, obviously, but the rest of the galaxy had fallen to the Sith. He should have been able to stop it. Why hadn't he?

The little blonde girl came running by again; Anakin stared at the tracks she left in the sand.

"Hey," Ben said. His expression had changed; now it was more tired than anything else. "You okay in there?" Before Anakin could answer, Ben jerked his head toward a group of people who were busy sparring. "Come on, I'll introduce you."

Anakin pushed the doubts and fears down, pushed them deep inside where no one would sense them, and put a smile on his face. "Lead the way."

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Darth Dominius surveyed the welcoming party as he stepped onto the landing pad. At the head of the group of soldiers stood a tall, lean Zabrak female, the tips of her horns barely visible underneath long black hair. Dominius could sense that she was puzzled by his return, but she hid it well.

"Welcome back, Lord Dominius," the Zabrak said softly, bowing her head. "We thought you were returning to Coruscant."

Dominius regarded her coolly. "Tressk and Jadyk were injured during our pursuit. They require medical attention."

"Of course." The Zabrak turned to the soldiers. "You heard Lord Dominius."

"Yes, my lady," they replied in unison.

Dominius watched them leave. "There has been a change of plans, Lady Varice. I will be leading the hunt for the Jedi."

"I was not informed—"

"I am informing you now. You will meet me in the council room at twelve hundred hours. Bring Lady Misra with you."

Varice bowed again. "As you wish, my lord."

As Dominius brushed past her, he glanced over his shoulder and smiled. "Tell your brother I look forward to his speedy recovery, Lady Varice. I'm sure he'll want to personally thank his assailant for that new bionic arm."

She appeared surprised at his sudden candor. "That is all he has been able to talk about since you left, my lord." She bowed again, lower this time. "I shall return with Lady Misra within the hour."

"Very good." He was most anxious to renew the Jedi Hunt. Most anxious indeed.

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Arden sat in front of the safe house's holoproj, watching as it ran a series of HoloNet news updates. Apparently there was an illegal public assembly being crushed on Obroa-skai, an economic crisis on Mygeeto, and a reported Jedi raid in the capital city of a planet whose name she couldn't begin to pronounce. The reporter ticked off each incident as though he were talking about the weather. He was like her; he had become used to the grim reality of the Sith Empire. Such crises had become a fact of life over the last several years. Arden was no longer surprised by the reports.

The door to the next room opened, and Kohr came out, giving Arden a tight smile. He joined the others who had already emerged from the room. Ames and Allana were sitting together on a couch, talking in hushed tones. Ulin sat at a computer terminal, deaf to the world as he tried to crack the datapad's encryption. That left only Elias and Myri in the other room. Arden wondered what they were talking about. Jedi stuff, probably. Things she would never be able to understand.

The door slid open again, and this time Myri came out. She looked at Arden and jerked her thumb toward the doorway. "Go on in," she said, smiling warmly.

Arden nodded and stood up, turning off the holoproj as she did so. She crossed the room and stopped in front of Myri. The older woman tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Go easy on him, okay?" She smiled again and walked away, leaving Arden alone in the doorway, Elias was sitting at a round table inside the room, looking completely shamed. Arden closed the door behind her and sat down next to Elias. No sooner had she made contact with the chair when he blurted out his apology.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Arden, I was stupid, I—"

Arden put her fingers to Elias's lips, silencing him. "Let me start, all right?" she said quietly.

Elias nodded.

"Good. Now, what did Myri say to you?"

He looked surprised, but he met her gaze directly. "That I'm an idiot. That I shouldn't have lied to you for so long. That I'm damn lucky to have found such a nice girl."

"She did not say that."

"She did!" Elias insisted. "I'm serious, she told me I shouldn't have waited so long to tell you the truth, especially since it's so obvious I'm in love with you."

Arden blinked several times. "What?"

It seemed to take Elias a few seconds to realize what he'd just said. "I'm in love with you," he said again, softer this time.

Arden thought she had cried herself dry earlier, but her eyes grew moist. "What do you want me to say, Elias? I don't even know you."

"I'm still me," he said, placing a hand over his chest. "Being a Jedi doesn't change who I am."

"Being a Jedi is who you are. You're Elias Cain. You're Ben Skywalker's sidekick." She stood up and walked to the other side of the room, where she began pacing. "Do you know how many times in the last seven years I've heard your name connected to a bombing or a raid or assassination attempt?"

"I know, but I promise you, that wasn't me."

"You're saying you were never involved in any of those things?"

Elias took a deep breath. "We're not evil, Arden," he began. "We don't try to kill innocent civilians." He paused for a long moment and dropped his gaze to his lap. Arden's throat tightened.

Elias finally looked back up at her. "But I won't say it never happened."

The tears she'd been holding in check started to flow. Elias stood and made a move to go to her, but he seemed to think better of it.

"Those stories are lies," he insisted. "The Sith fabricated most of those attacks and blamed them on us. But there have been accidents, a couple when I was younger…" He let out a frustrated sigh. "We didn't plan things through; we underestimated the Sith, and people died. I didn't mean for it to happen. We were trying to save our friends. But that doesn't make me any less guilty."

Arden leaned against the wall and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I don't know anything about the Force, Elias. I've never been able to understand why your feud with the Sith had to involve the whole galaxy. But I know you're not a bad person." She saw Elias relax a little at those words.

"I'm so sorry, Arden."

"I know you are," she said. "But I don't know if that's enough. You knew I didn't trust the Jedi. Right from the beginning you knew. And you let me believe you were just like me, just another person trying to stay out of the Empire's way." She sniffed back more tears. "I let you in. I trusted you. Why couldn't you trust me, too?"

Elias took a few steps toward her and stopped just outside of arm's reach. "I don't have a good reason. I guess I just got used to living the lie. I couldn't tell you at first, obviously. But by the time I could trust you, I was too afraid of losing you."

Arden shook her head. "You know, that's really childish. It's not up to you to keep me around. That's my decision."

Elias seemed more bothered by this than she would have thought. "You're right," he said quietly, his voice breaking a little. "You know, the Jedi have an old saying about fear, about it leading to the dark side. I was afraid, and it clouded my judgment. I'm sorry."

Arden considered him for a moment. For most of her life, she had lived in fear of anything related to the Force. She had vivid memories of the civil war and how it had served as a launching point for the more personal war amongst the Jedi. She still remembered Jacen Solo's chilling speech the day he took control of the Galactic Alliance. But she had never heard of a Jedi apologizing for his actions, and certainly not doing it more than once. She knew Elias was sincere, knew it somewhere deep inside her. Could he really be the only one?

"You know this isn't going to fix everything between us," she said after a moment.

"I know, and I completely understand if you never—"

"But," she interrupted, "I'm willing to stick around and find out what the hell is going on with you people." She raised one eyebrow, waiting for his reaction.

Elias gave her a grateful smile and reached out to take her hand in his. She allowed it.

"Does 'you people' include me?" he asked, trying not to smile too wide.

Arden let out a heavy breath and shook her head. "I must be out of my mind, but yes." She cupped his chin in her palm and leaned in to kiss him lightly on the lips.

Elias laughed and pulled her into the tightest hug of her life. "It's a good thing you're such a forgiving woman."

"You don't know how lucky, buddy." Arden squeezed in return. "Now, I'm guessing you'll need help if you want to rescue these kids, right?"

He leaned back to get a better look at her. "You… you want to help?"

"Of course," Arden said. "I may have a natural distrust of the Jedi, but I know the Sith are bad news. No child deserves to be raised by them."

Elias pulled her close once more and kissed the top of her head. "You don't have to worry either, because I'll protect you. No matter what."

Arden grinned and closed her eyes. "Believe me, after seeing those little lightsaber tricks of yours, I don't doubt it."

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