Uhg, I stayed up all night lol (Not only writing this but also watching my father play Arkham Knight. That game is amazing, I love it, Mark's Joker is stunning and I will probably have nightmares thanks to a few moments where he just popped out at us haha)

I hope you like this, this is one of those lovely "Connecting Chapters" as I call them, haha.

I don't really have anything to say, my brains already going into sleep mode haha

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When Anakin woke up the next morning, he could tell simply by the feel in the air that something was off. Glancing down at his still-slumbering wife, Anakin gently disentangled himself from Padme and slipped out of the bed, shrugging on his under tunic and running a hand through his tousled hair.

The halls were silent, and it seemed no one else was awake but Anakin. Quietly, he made his way to the kitchen, turning on the caf machine ahead of time while he blearily ran a hand down his face as if to wipe away the sleep. He let the machine to its warm up, ambling into the living room where he would have a perfect view of the sun finally appearing over the Coruscant skyline.

However, he found his usual spot on the couch was occupied by a sleeping red head, who also just happened to have a familiar article of white clothing clutched in her hands. Anakin frowned, glancing back in the direction of his son's room as he tried to figure out why Mara was out here instead of in with...with...

Anakin couldn't sense Luke.

Fear clutched at Anakin's heart for a moment and he reached out to grasp Mara's arm, gently shaking her awake. "Mara...Mara, wake up," he said firmly.

The red head groaned, instinctively clutching the white tunic in her hands closer to her face as her eyelids fluttered open slowly. "Mm, what...?" she asked sleepily, stretching like a feline.

"Mara, where's Luke?" Anakin asked, his eyes never leaving hers while she steadily came out of dreamworld and back to reality. Anakin noticed that her grip on the tunic tightened.

"Luke?" she asked, though Anakin could feel pain and sorrow slowly dawning on her as the memories came back to her. She met Anakin's eyes only briefly before she looked away, slowly sitting up and tucking the tunic to her chest. "He left."

Anakin's eyes narrowed. Maybe he was just jumping to conclusions... "What do you mean he left?"

"I mean he packed a bag, left a note, and slipped out in the middle of the night, with no plans for even saying goodbye besides that holorecording," Mara said harshly until her voice broke at the end. "If I hadn't been woken up, I wouldn't have caught him before he left."

"And you let him leave?" Anakin asked sharply. Mara was immediately offended, rising to her feet.

"Do you think I wanted him to go? You know how he gets! When he decides that he has to do something, there's nothing that's going to stop him from following through with it," she said with a scowl, turning away. "And if you would have seen him...could hear him when he talked...no matter how much I wanted him to stay, to get him not to leave...I couldn't. Besides, nothing was going to stop him from leaving—not even me."

Anakin frowned, moving so that she was facing him once again. "So why did he leave?"

Mara glanced at him. "I'm sure you can figure it out."

Anakin's heart plummeted. He'd been hoping that small nagging voice in the back of his mind was wrong; he should have known better. "He shouldn't have gone alone," Anakin said firmly as Mara moved towards the kitchen.

"He wanted to; and truthfully, I agree that this is something he needs to do alone, despite how much I want to help him."

"Mara, you know what will happen if Luke goes after him out of vengeance—"

"He's going there to end all of this, before any more people get hurt...he's going to protect me...he feels that Judro is going to come after me next if he doesn't stop him first because of a dream he had..."

"He obviously isn't thinking straight Mara, why didn't you stop him? Now we'll have to find him before he can find Judro," Anakin said in a low growl, turning to head back to his room. If he moved quickly enough, he'd be able to catch up to Luke and stop him before things got too out of hand...

"Anakin," Mara called out firmly, stopping him from moving much further. In her hand was the holodisc that Luke had left behind. "I think Luke explained himself better than I can."

Anakin hesitated. The holodisc would slow him down if Anakin decided Luke's reasoning wasn't reasoning at all, but at the same time...what if Luke had a perfectly good reason? With a sigh, Anakin took the holodisc from Mara, making his way over to the datapad he kept on one of the couch side tables. With a sigh, he sat down on the couch while Mara sat across from him, Sliding the holodisc into the device. An image of Luke appeared, and Anakin couldn't help but wince at the sorrowful look in Luke's eyes. He was obviously still coping; reason number one why Anakin didn't want Luke out looking for Judro right now.

"Father, Mother," Luke started in a tired voice. "Whichever of you find this first...I'm sorry, but I had to leave. I don't expect you to understand, I know you want me to sit back and cope with everything that's happened before I get back into the thick of things, but...I can't. I have to go after Judro; he's not going to wait for me to cope, he's going to hit me again while I'm down unless I do something about it. On top of that, I know he'll go after Mara next, and I can't lose her too," Luke said fiercely, a fire of determination burning in his eyes.

"If I go alone, and if I go to him, then I'll be able to draw him out; but only this way, only alone. I have to do this, I'm sorry. I know you don't like that I'm going alone, and I know you probably think I'm not thinking clearly, but...I have to do this alone; I want to do this alone. I can't stand the thought of anyone else getting hurt because of me. Besides, by now I think I've earned the right to take care of Judro myself. I promise that I'll come home, but not until this is over. I have to make sure you're safe, and...and I promised Jeza I wouldn't let him—or anyone else that might be involved—get away with this. Please, just...let me go. I'm not just doing this for myself; I'm doing this for Jeza, and Mara, for all of you as well. No one else is going to get hurt because of the vendetta Judro has against me—I have to end this...I love you all." He hesitated before he tacked on a final, "Don't try to find me or stop me, it will only make things worse. Besides, I'm probably already off-planet and en-route elsewhere."

The transmission ended and Anakin sat staring at where the image of his son had been not moments earlier. Mara watched him silently for a few moments before she finally broke the tension.

"So what are you going to do?"

"He's right...following after him will only chase Judro away," Anakin murmured with a sigh. "And he's the only one Judro will let in if he gets wind Luke's looking for him...so long as he doesn't think Luke's trying to kill him...But I'm not going to do nothing..."

"So..."

"I'm going to use my connections to keep track of where he is; I at least have to know where he is and a general idea of how he's doing, or this is going to drive me mad," Anakin said, standing up sharply.

"You're going to let him go?" Mara asked, standing up with him. Anakin sighed.

"For now...if I think things are getting too dangerous, or if I feel he's losing himself, I'll pull him out myself."

"I actually take comfort in that; thank you."

Anakin started moving back towards the kitchen; he was going to need a lot of caf today. "I'm going to go make a few calls; don't tell Padme if she wakes up before I'm done, I want to tell her myself."

"Of course Anakin," Mara said. Anakin paused in what he was doing, turning back around to stand firmly in front of Mara. He gently grasped her chin in his hand, making sure she looked him in the eyes.

"He loves you, you know; he loves you as much as I love Padme. If my son is anything like me, he'll do anything to keep you safe, even at the cost of his own life. I don't know about his soul though, as he's been down that road and knows where it leads; let's hope we never find out," Anakin said gently, still holding her gaze. "You need to be aware of that, you need to know the effect you have on him. When it comes down to it, you're most likely going to be what makes him or breaks him. I don't want to see him hurt like that. Know the hold you have over him; should something ever happen, it will be important for you to know, so that you can do what you need to in order to keep him safe. He's right; the best way to hurt him now is through you, and his enemies will come after you."

"I'll be sure to be careful," Mara said slowly as Anakin let go of her chin.

"That won't always be enough," Anakin replied with a slow shake of his head. With that, Anakin turned away from her and left to establish some contacts that would keep their eyes out for Luke.

If he couldn't be there for Luke, the least he could do was keep an eye out for him.

Luke settled down in a secluded corner of the shuttle for the third time since he'd boarded. Unfortunately, he had a very recognizable face, and he kept getting suspicious glances wherever he sat. Here, in the way back right in the corner, he could easily hunker down and appear like he was sleeping. With his hood pulled low over his face and a hand resting readily on his lightsaber, Luke leaned his head against the wall and let his eyes wander over the other passengers.

There was a family onboard, a few shady characters, a bounty hunter or two, but no one in immediate sight that Luke felt might be a viable threat. That was good; it meant he could take time to sit back and figure out just what he wanted to do now that he'd successfully given his family the slip.

He paused to feel the spike of regret at the thought before he pushed it aside and continued on with his planning.

Judro wanted Luke to join him; if Luke somehow made Judro believe that Luke had consented, Luke would be able to get close enough to Judro to kill him. Judro wouldn't believe it right away though; Judro would want Luke to prove it...

Luke shoved that train of thought away. There had to be a different approach...he could take an assassin approach; infiltrate Judro's operations enough so that he could figure out where the man was. Once he had that piece of information, he would be able to sneak in...

Luke sighed and closed his eyes, taking several deep, calming breaths. No matter what he did, Luke was going to end up in a position where he just knew he'd be tempted by the dark side. The question was, would he be strong enough to resist when that time came? It wasn't exactly how Luke infiltrated that was the problem; it was whether or not Luke could resist the dark side's seductive pull. It had tugged on him a few times as of late, but he'd been able to resist for the most part. When Judro's life was his to take, however...that was going to be a different situation entirely.

Determined not to accidentally talk himself out of all of this, Luke went back to figuring out how he was going to go about all of this. Once he landed...wherever this shuttle was taking him—he hadn't really had a destination, he'd just jumped onboard the first ship headed out of Coruscant—he was going to find someone who would be willing to take him to one of the planets that had joined Judro. That or he could find himself enough credits to get his own ship to fly around. He supposed he could do some bounty hunting for some side cash on-planet once he arrived.

Someone approached him—one of the bounty hunters it appeared—and Luke tensed. "Hey—I want that spot, runt. I suggest you move," the Aqualish growled. Luke slipped his hand out of the folds of his cloak, discreetly moving his finger and peering at the man from under the darkness of his cowl.

"You don't want to cause any trouble," Luke murmured.

It took the Aqualish a while to speak, during which Luke began to worry that perhaps the bounty hunter had too strong of a mind. Finally, he spoke. "I don't want to cause any trouble."

"You want to sit somewhere else, and let me have this spot," Luke added, putting a little pressure into his words just to be sure that the man obeyed. The Aqualish nodded slowly.

"I want to sit somewhere else and let you have this spot," he said, and with that, he left to sit in some other corner of the ship. Luke relaxed back into his seat, turning his attention back to the wall. He closed his eyes, letting the cool metal under his forehead calm him down at the same time he summoned up a mental picture of Mara. His arm wrapped around her waist in the new hours of dawn while they lay together...of course they'd never made love or anything like that, they'd simply slept in the same bed. With a slow sigh, Luke continued to bring the mental picture to the front of his mind to calm himself. Mara's hair splayed out across the pillow, her cheeks flushed the lightest shade of pink as she slept, the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed...

Thinking of her calmed Luke down so much, he nearly fell asleep despite the fact he was supposed to be keeping an eye out.

When Anakin finally emerged from his calls, Mara was nowhere in sight and Padme was humming contently in the kitchen as she made her family breakfast. Anakin felt a pang go through his heart at the thought that he had to ruin her mood by telling her that Luke was gone—again—by his own choice this time. Anakin took a deep breath, preparing himself.

As he turned around the corner, Padme looked up with a smile. "There you are. I was beginning to wonder what happened to you. I don't think the other two are awake yet," she said in a cheerful tone of voice. "What were you doing?"

"I had to make a few calls," Anakin murmured. "Padme, we need to talk," he said softly, placing a hand over hers. Padme frowned, putting down what she was doing the moment she heard the tone in Anakin's voice.

"Ani, what's wrong?" she asked. "What's going on?"

Anakin grimaced. "Padme...Luke left in the middle of the night. He's going after Judro," he said seriously. Padme's eyes widened in surprise and horror.

"Alone? Anakin, he was nearly killed the last time he went up against Judro! He-he's not thinking clearly!"

"Padme, listen to me," Anakin said seriously. "Mara caught him trying to sneak out, and he left a holorecording to give us an explanation. I've listened to both and...I'm letting him go. He needs this, trust me. I was making calls so that I can get some of my eyes and ears up around the Galaxy keeping an eye out for him. He wants to do this alone, so I won't go after him, but I will at least watch out for him."

Padme covered her mouth with her hand, looking like she was trying to ward off unpleasant thoughts. "I'll...I'll make a few calls of my own. With both of our sources, we might just be able to find him and keep track of him...Anakin, what if he gets hurt—"

"Padme, Luke can take care of himself. He's almost thirty years old," Anakin said soothingly, rubbing her arms. "He's not helpless, and he knows what he's doing. We're going to have to trust him, respect his wishes, and keep our distance. I promise you though, if I think that it's getting too dangerous or that he's starting to lose sight of who he is, I will personally drag him out of there if I have to. You have my word Padme, we won't lose him again."

Padme sighed and hugged her husband tightly. "I just want him to come home safely Ani," she whispered.

"He will, I know he will," Anakin murmured into her hair. Gently, he pulled away. "I'm going to go see if Mara's hungry, is that all right with you?"

Padme nodded. "I'll...I'll finish up breakfast..."

Anakin gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek before he turned away, hearing Padme click on the Coruscant News Network about the same time that Anakin left the kitchen. When he returned a few short moments later, it was to see Padme watching the news at rapt attention. Anakin frowned, coming up beside her.

"Padme what is it?"

She wordlessly shook her head, and Anakin looked up at the news, following her gaze.

"...son of Jedi Grandmaster Anakin Skywalker seems to be attempting to turn over a new leaf!" the female Rodian news anchor was saying. "Luke Skywalker made headlines not too long ago when, after coming out of his exile after only five years, he received a full pardon from Chancellor Kuroth; an act the Chancellor is still receiving flak for. He was sent into that exile when he was found guilty of charges of mass murder, treason, conspiracy, torture, kidnapping, arson, blackmail, and theft; quite a terrifying record. In fact, Skywalker's victims are still being found to this very day!"

"What's he making the news for now, Lilia?" her coworker, a male Mirilan, asked.

"Well, apparently he was involved in the evacuation of Alderaan, J'mar," she replied. "Our sources tell us that he was seen evacuating residents with none other than Mara Jade, the woman that has quite a few tantalizing rumors surrounding her when it comes to Luke Skywalker, and an unidentified gray skinned twi'lek girl. He was involved in several rescues, including the rescue of a small boy named Zane from a burning building!"

"Sounds like he's trying to make up for all the crimes he committed in the past," J'mar mused.

"That's not the half of it," Lilia replied with a light laugh. "One of the refugees onboard the ship that Skywalker was on recorded what happened when Zane was reunited with his mother, thinking that it was simply going to be a heartwarming reunion between a mother and son; something many of the Alderaan refugees were going to need to see to lift the spirits. They ended up with way more than they bargained for! Take a look."

Immediately, the picture shifted to show the cargo bay of the Millennium Falcon, and Anakin watched as a young boy was reunited with a woman, the mother embracing her son while Luke stood off to the side, head down. The boy said something, and whoever was recording moved closer to pick up the dialogue.

"...Luke who baby?" the woman asked the boy.

"That Luke; the man who saved me," the boy replied, gesturing towards Luke who was still standing off to the side. Luke seemed to shrink a little as he was pointed out, and the woman and the little boy approached him, the woman beaming with happiness.

"I cannot thank you enough for saving my little boy..." she started to say, though she suddenly trailed off when Luke looked up and made eye contact, recognition flashing across her face. Luke tensed in anticipation the same time anger morphed the mother's features. "You!" she she breathed out, and then suddenly her hand snapped up and slapped him so hard across the face Luke's head snapped to the side and blood started to flow out of his mouth. Padme jumped when it happened, and Anakin tensed in obvious anger. How Luke reacted though, was most of what got to his parents. He didn't even fight back. He licked the blood from his lips once and, realizing that the blood flow wasn't going to stop, did nothing else to stop the bleeding. He didn't even ask why, he simply stood there and took whatever she threw at him with a dejected, defeated look; like he was used to this sort of thing and was tired of fighting.

"I thought you were exiled! I was watching the news that day, I saw you put on the ship—how are you here?" the mother shrieked at him.

"I...received a pardon..." Luke said so quietly the video feed hardly picked it up.

"Why would they give a monster like you a pardon? You took my daughter away from me!"

Padme placed a hand on the counter to brace herself as she suddenly weaved dangerously, and Anakin felt his heart shatter at the same time as the woman's words hit Luke at full force. Their son looked as if he couldn't breathe, and tears were evident in his eyes; he looked as if she'd shot him. "I-I-I'm so sor...sorry," Luke forced out in a bare whisper. The woman laughed in his face, and Anakin felt his temper flare again.

"Sorry? You're sorry? Sorry won't bring my daughter back! You'd have to know what it feels like to be sorry, and you don't! You know nothing of the loss that I went through because of you! I don't care what you did to receive your precious pardon, because I see what you truly are, and you will never redeem yourself in the eyes of those whose lives you've destroyed!"

With that, the woman turned her back on Luke and dragged her son as far away from him as possible. Luke stood there, the tears no longer restrained to his eyes as he gasped in air like he was suffocating before he turned and rushed out of the room. The feed froze, and Lilia started speaking off screen.

"Now we'll see what happened moments later, when Mara Jade entered the picture; what we learn is absolutely shocking..."

Anakin glanced at Mara, who was staring at the screen with enlightened horror slowly dawning on her face. That was his first sign that something unpleasant was about to happen.

The feed picked up again with Mara marching up to the woman in an obvious fury. "What's wrong with you?" Mara growled, earning a blank stare from the woman. The woman's expression only furthered Anakin's anger with the woman.

"What are you talking about?" the woman said in an offended tone.

"Luke, that's what I'm talking about. He just saved your boy's life, and that's how you thank him?" Mara snarled at her.

"He doesn't deserve my thanks. What he deserves is to rot in a cell, or better yet be put to death for all the families he's destroyed," the woman shot back, getting to her feet. Mara was obviously livid, but she kept her tone forcibly calm.

"Didn't you see the look on his face? In his eyes? He's not the man that killed your daughter, and he's completely repentant of what he did five years ago. He knows what it's like—"

"He knows nothing of the pain he put this family through," the woman said hotly, but Mara finally snapped, her shout carrying throughout the cargo hold.

"He just lost his daughter not even an hour ago! Not even an hour!" Mara shouted in the woman's face. "She was murdered just because she called him Father. And you have the audacity to say—"

Mara took a deep breath before she continued on angrily. "That girl was his entire world; and she was just murdered in cold blood while he went to save your son, simply because she was associated with him. Don't you dare try and say that he doesn't know, that he doesn't understand, that he doesn't feel; he knows all too well what it's like."

With that, the feed went dark and shifted back to the news anchors. "I must say Lilia...I was not expecting that. I thought it was a shock enough when that lady lashed out at him like that, but to find out he had a daughter! And she was murdered right before that all happened! Wow, that was unexpected! You've got to wonder what was going through his head when she was shouting at him about the loss of her daughter at his hand."

"I know J'mar. I must say after seeing that...I really think that the young Skywalker is turning over a new leaf! I'm starting to see why Chancellor Kuroth gave him that pardon. The question is, will other's see? Was this little boy's mother right when she said he will never be redeemable in the eyes of his victims? One of our sources in the Jedi Temple was able to shed some light on Skywalker's mysterious daughter, and we found out that she's adopted, taken in under the young Skywalker's wing the day he came into exile, and the only survivor of one of his massacres! She was completely aware of the fact that he was the one who slaughtered everyone in her village too, but that didn't change anything! We're told she avidly defended Skywalker to the Jedi Council, and vouched for letting him return to the Jedi Order. Our source further tells us that Skywalker refused to rejoin as well—"

They didn't hear much more, as Anakin reached over and turned the monitor off. There was silence in the kitchen for several long, long moments before Padme finally spoke. She was facing Mara, tears in her eyes and trailing silently down her cheeks.

"Thank you...so much...for defending him. I cannot begin to explain..." Padme said before she started crying, and Anakin was shaken out of his thoughts and moved to comfort his wife. While he held Padme close, he held Mara's gaze.

"I agree with Padme...and while I am grateful...I'm more worried about their informant inside of the Jedi Temple. I have a pretty good idea who it was, and I'm going to make sure that punishment is swiftly dealt so that no one finds it in themselves to believe that just because of Luke's history, they can spill such secrets to the media," Anakin said darkly, his eyes flashing.

Mara shook her head. "I don't know if it's going to be a good thing or a bad thing that this got out...though I can say this much...now, wherever he is, Judro knows that he broke Luke with Jeza's death," Mara said quietly.

Padme wiped her eyes clean, pulling away from her husband. "As soon as we finish eating, I'm going right to the press with Kuroth and demanding that they remain silent on this issue due to Luke's security. We can't have things like this leaking out while he's out there, alone, looking for Judro..." Padme said, trailing off with a shake of her head. "We have to stop them before this gets too far."

Anakin nodded. "I agree; especially with this Jedi Informant; there's too much that's supposed to remain in the Council Room that's not to be brought to the public eye, and already that's been violated...I'm probably going to have to take my breakfast to go Padme, they'll want me at the Temple as soon as possible."

Padme sighed. "That's all right, I'm used to it," she said wearily. Anakin watched Mara as she sat down at the table, staring at a fixed spot on the table.

"I wonder if Luke saw the news," she said softly. The kitchen grew quiet for several long moments before movement resumed.

"He'll be fine," Anakin murmured, gently squeezing Mara's arm.

It sounded more like he was reassuring himself than Mara.