Author's Note: Here is a little chapter that serves as my thank you. I'll be returning to my weekly schedule now, but thought I'd give you all this anyways. Again, I really appreciate your patience and support as I work on this large story. It looks like I won't be changing the cover art yet, simply because I lack the time to do it. I'll try and have something pulled together sometime soon.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd. The following work is not intended to add to, promote or distort this series. This is a work of fanfiction, and the author does not profit in posting. This is simply a writing exercise written for fun.
Zion Tano sighed as he watched his mother disembark from the Twilight. He hated to see her go, but he knew that his arrival on the Naboo would prompt too many questions. Pestilis's dreams of killing Skywalker were hardly his own, and he didn't want to be too close to the truth, lest his master catch wind of it. As it was, he wasn't sure if Demantis had his tail. That shadow from Mandalore brought about too many quesetions.
So as he watched his beloved mother meander down the Nubian spaceport, meeting with a peculiar creature spouting three-thousand watts of energy, give or take, he forced Zion Tano away. Forced him deep into the depths of his darkness as he reawakened Darth Devaro once more.
And someone felt that transformation.
Ahsoka turned for only a moment in response to a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. She managed to spot another Togruta, a tall male, raise his hood and stomp off towards another ship. Confused, she reached out with the Force to determine who he was, and was surprised to find that he was Force-sensitive and withdrawn. But the looming figure only held her attention for a moment.
"Ani!" Jar-Jar's cry suddenly drew her focus back to the task at hand, "Whatsa yous doing here?" Anakin shrugged, turning his eyes away.
"I'm here on business Jar-Jar." He started, his temper not having been improved much since Mandalore. He knew he was close to Darklighter, he could feel his astounding presence in the Force. The vastness of his abilities troubled him, as he was clearly a distance away yet still felt so strong, and he wondered if only he was picking up on it right now. But he dare not ask Ahsoka in front of Jar-Jar. "What I would like to know is why you escorted the Darklighter's to Naboo?"
Taken aback at the accusing tone in his voice, Jar-Jar swallowed, "Desa beings mesa friends." He assured Anakin as best he could, "Desa good a people an bombad warriors. Like yousa!" Anakin swallowed, crossing his arms. He didn't want to be compared to the Darklighters in any way.
"Representative Binks." Ahsoka started formally, using her sweetest voice yet, "The Jedi council believes that the Darklighters are deceiving them... that they do not work for Queen Julia or the Dagoyan, could you help us prove whether these theories are true or not?" Jar-Jar gulped, turning his eyes away once more.
"Da Jedi Council worries about Lukeeys and Layees?" He replied innocently, "But theysa good! Wonderfuls eben!" Anakin took note of one thing.
"Are those their real names?" He wanted to know, "Lukeeys and Layees?" Realizing his slip, Jar-Jar did his best to cover.
"No... desa Jacen and Jaina." He assured Anakin, who furrowed his brow once more. Jar-Jar couldn't fool a Jedi, much less a regular person.
Suspiciously, Anakin walked around Jar-Jar a moment, almost interrogating his friend, "I've heard 'Jaina' call 'Jacen' Luke before... are you sure you're not hiding something from us?" Again Jar-Jar gulped, but then he decided that the whole situation was out of sorts and reverted to his characteristic childishness.
"Ya, probably..." He chuckled at his friend, "But yousa be no learnings from mesa, whadda really going on wida Darklighters."
Anakin crossed his arms, "Jar-Jar." He warned. But his friend had already decided on the only possible way he'd allow Anakin to know anything more about his honorary niece and nephew. And he was sticking to his guns, which meant a lot as a Gungun.
"Ask em." He replied casually, "Des a been answering alla mesa questions... Ask em."
But before a frustrated and grumbling Anakin could lay into that remark, his cool headed Padawan intervened, "That's a great idea!" Her smile was as wide and as genuine as she could force in that moment. Holding her super-powerful master back with an arm didn't seem all that smart at the moment, but she wasn't his Padawan for nothing. "Could you tell us where we would find them?"
Realizing he'd found a great compromise, in which he, himself, did not compromise the twins' identities, Jar-Jar nodded eagerly, "Desa been visiting Padme's villa. Goin ders to lookie sure it is safe."
"To make sure its safe?" Anakin's eyes went wide, "Why?"
Jar-Jar shrugged, "Some bombad dark-Jedi wantsa Padme dead, an Lu- an Jacen an Jaina wantsta be makin sure desa don't getsa der wish." Anakin, suddenly panicking, thought he had the story figured out in his head. Hiding out with Bail right before Padme get's dawn into that banking scandal! They knew what was going on the whole time!
"If they wanted to keep Padme safe," he challenged his friend as fear overtook him, "Then why did they leave her on Coruscant?" He then dashed off towards the military portion of the hangar, desperate to find a ride. Ahsoka sighed as she watched him sprint, turning to Jar-Jar with almost sad eyes.
She knew that Anakin would not forget this betrayal, no matter how much he liked Jar-Jar. She'd already figured out that Anakin had a handful of people he considered most important, and Padme was probably number one.
"Thanks Jar-Jar." She told the Gungun, "I'll see what I can do to catch him." The tall sentient nodded to her as she dashed off, a smile on his face as he planned to report to his beloved Queenie Julia. He could only watch in awe as a speeder was suddenly commandeered by a panicked Jedi general and his Padawan commander.
Hale was a bit concerned as his comm went off once more. He checked the device and noted that yet another one of his expensive cameras had been deactivated. Taking a deep breath as he swept a hand across his balding forehead, the man turned to his two trusted accomplices.
One was his son, who stood a hair taller than himself and still had all his brown hair to speak of. The other was their trusted Togruta friend, who came to work for them after they'd bailed her out of a nasty debt. She stood as tall as his son, with pale colored Montrals peeking up over his head. Both were valuable employees and he wasn't willing to risk either of them.
"What'sa matter father?" His son's tenor voice called out to him, making him smile in recollections for a slight moment. He just shrugged instead.
"Someone's deactivating the cameras at the Naberrie place." He told them both, bringing his accomplices both to high alert.
The Togruta, as expected, was immediately ready for action, "So we go put them back." She rallied the two men, "It will be easy!"
Hale shook his head, "No Yiya." he warned her, "We could be implicated if we try anything. Better to play it all off as a surprise."
His son, Junior, then inserted, "But what about the client? What'll he do?"
Again, Hale shrugged, "We simply inform him that the devices were compromised and that we will not accept the payment." That was his decision.
Yiya was near outrage, "But! All that money! How much you spent on the pin cameras!" Hale merely shrugged it all off.
"They were far cheaper than the cost of our lives, my dear." He assured her, "I'll handle the client myself." And then he turned, knowing that he was likely to face a grand punishment for his failures, even though he wasn't a machine, or of either side of this bloody war. All that mattered was setting right what he could.
Cautiously he dialed out the HoloComm code that would lead him to the infamous leader of the Galactic Federation.
Luke was going through the kitchen, disabling the pin-cameras one by one through the Force, when it finally hit him. He couldn't go on any longer.
The world began to spin around him like someone had pulled the plug in a bath tub and poured sparkling stars into the water. He could hardly breathe and found himself gasping for air. Suddenly, he saw the ceiling and his prosthetic hand reaching out towards the glistening chandelier above the island.
With a thunk, the man fell backwards and slammed his head on the island counter top, accidentally sending what little distress he could fathom out into the Force. And it wasn't his choice to do that. "Damnnit, that kriffing-" is about where his curses started. Fatigue didn't do much for his vocabulary filter.
Leia came dashing down the steps from where she was disabling cameras shoved into the glass sconces. She'd felt her brother's pain and was almost in a state of panic.
When she shoved the swinging door open, glancing into the white and stone kitchen, she put both hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. Her brother was curled up, clutching the back of his head with both hands as though he'd hit it, spitting out more swears than she was certain her husband Han knew. "You okay?" She asked as she knelt down beside him. He shrugged and slowly sat up, looking at his hands. She had to stop herself from staring at his now slightly more aged and ashen face. He's aging way too fast. She realized, I'm not sure we'll be able to reverse this at this rate.
"I'm not bleeding." He assured her, ignoring her shock and reaching up to put a hand on the back of his head again.
Leia rolled her eyes and found the industrial-sized ice box in the kitchen, opening all the doors to find a freezer pack or something of the like. As she did this, her brother struggled to stand on two feet, nearly falling with each attempt. "Stop it." She ordered, turning about to find a towel to place the pack in. Her brother looked up at her with frustration in his icy blue eyes, "You're hurt and you need to accept that."
He shrugged and fell back onto the ground, sighing. "I hate it." he informed her with a tired voice, a yawn exuding from him a moment later, "I hate being idle."
His sister passed him the ice pack with a gentle smile pulling at her face before she reminded him, "Resting isn't being idle... it's letting your body mend... and you've been carrying us both for more than a week now." Nodding, Luke placed the ice pack on the back of his head, grimacing as the cold met the bruising blood.
Because of his dizziness, Leia assisted her quite a bit taller brother from the ground, helping him into one of the sitting rooms that was near the waterfront. The room was white and plush, decorated as though a grand scholar lived there and making Luke feel as though he'd entered fragile space. He hadn't debugged this room yet, but a quick Force-flash took care of the seeing of him for a while. Leia merely chuckled, hitting any device in the radius of them with yet another flash for good measure.
"I'll get the cameras in this room," she said while observing the setting sun, "You just get yourself back to one-hundred percent, in case we have to fight those dark Jedi again." Luke rolled his eyes like a frustrated teen before collapsing on the fluffed pillow behind him. He put his feet up and attempted to close his eyes, his nerves still calling out to his sister in the Force. "I know I'm not far enough along to beat them on my own, so really listen to me... Rest, little brother."
Luke snorted, "Whatever you say, little sister."
And surely enough, she felt his consciousness actually flicker off for a while, and that brought a smile to her face. So she began relentlessly working on removing all recording devices from that room. A pin camera in a stringed instrument. Another in a sconce. Three more hidden in various plants around the room. Someone really wants to know what she's up to... Leia realized as she turned back to her sound asleep brother before resuming her work on the second floor, the question is why.
Filled with all new worries about her mother, Leia finally reached one of the many bedrooms inside the home. It was a quaint room lined with white curtains and windows. A dark framed bed highlighted the space, covered in white covers and more pillows than anyone ever needed. Pictures of family filled the open spaces on the furniture, including her mother with a younger Pooja and Ryoo. Leia lifted this image and smiled at the grins exchanged by the moving light.
And, if only just for a moment, she saw it all. Her heart brought everything to life. In place of her cousins, a younger form of she and her brother stood in their places, grins wide as they cuddled into their mother. She wore a white dress with a silver belt, her hair loose and wild on her back as it twisted into waves and curls. Her brother wore a white tunic with a black over tunic, his hair tossed in the wind as it fought to turn into wheat curls, like he used to wear when they were still mother had a twin in each arm and was unable to decide which direction she wanted to look at first. And, suddenly, she turned a wide smile forward and called out to the camera man, "Come! Join us Ani!"
When Leia blinked, the picture was normal once more, but she found herself shedding a tear. Fight for us, father. Leia found herself chanting in her heart, Fight all your darkness for our happy future! It seemed the Force heard her plea, as it pulled her attention back towards a small dressing table. It was perhaps the most elaborate piece of furniture in the room, but that was hardly the reason she was so drawn to it. The Force told her to open the top drawer, and it told her to remove a small metal locket hidden under the spare linens she'd found inside of it.
It was a tiny thing, with a small insignia Leia recognized as a crest of Naboo. Gold and ivory lined the trinket, nearly hiding it's small clasp. Carefully, she opened it, and inside she found something breathtaking. A portrait of her mother and father staring into each other's eyes deeply with slight grins on their faces. So that's what it looked like, she realized, knowing that their visit on Coruscant would have forced the two into hiding their feelings, That's what their love looked like.
Smiling to herself as she put the locket back, Leia returned her attention to the rooms. She was surprised at how these rooms were filled with extraordinary views of the lake and mountains. The space was simply breathtaking.
After breaking her trance, she immediately spotted the first of many pin-cameras set up by the nefarious maintenance workers. Or so she hoped. Having collected and effectively smashed each one in her bare hands, Leia was starting to get fatigued.
Like her brother, the whole Gamragist thing had worn her out and she wasn't sure how long she could operate on this particular level. How her brother managed to be so powerful still, despite the drain, was something of a mystery to her. But he's paying the price for it, she realized, He's aged faster than I have. Sitting back onto one of the canopy beds, Leia sighed and turned towards her own reflection in the mirror.
She looked as tired as she felt, and her skin was starting to turn paler again. The wrinkles she was starting to get made her recall those sported by Palpatine on the few time's she'd been able to see him up close, and she wondered if his supposed injuries from the Jedi years 'earlier' and her own were related.
She sat back on the bed and tried to rest, certain she'd gotten most of the cameras, but part of her could not. Part of her had to keep going, and that was likely the same part that made Luke so stubborn.
So, with a harrumph, she pulled herself off the soft cotton and stomped in towards the large, walk-in closet attached to this room. Mother's room, she realized with a smile.
The gondola driver Paddy Accu was a kind man. He wasn't overly tall or short, nor too heavy or too light. His face was lined with white hair at the top, and wide smile on the bottom. Anakin knew him well and trusted the man with the knowledge that he'd visited this estate. Often.
And it was this very small friendship that made Paddy so easy to interrogate. Anakin didn't even have to ask a word for the man to start talking his ear off about the mysterious Darklighters.
"It was strange..." Paddy told him earnestly as they drifted past the last town before the chain of retreats, "I thought they were you and Senator Amidala at first, they looked so much like you both." Anakin gulped in hearing that. This was the first time Padme had been implicated to begin with. "When they said they were here to do some routine checks, I figured you'd be back Master Skywalker... you're always assigned to protect the senator."
"Well..." Anakin joked, hoping his Padawan wasn't picking up on how often he actually was at the lake retreat, "I am the best at it." Ahsoka, still somewhat young and naïve, chuckled beside him as the villa came into view. She gawked at the string of homes lining the opposing bank where the town sat, each spaciously set along a long, mountain side road, knowing that their destination was so much further away.
Paddy, an all-knowing grin on his face as he watched Anakin Skywalker survey the space, took a deep breath as he continued to drive past the scenic countryside. "The man was especially strange." He admitted after a time, "He slept the whole way, and yet awoke without so much as a question. I knew he was unconscious, but he still reacted to things the Mrs. and I said or did." He then turned his black eyes back to Skywalker, "I've never known someone to do that before... I know they are Jedi, but their connection was strange. And what made it stranger is that they didn't seem like two people in love to me."
Ahsoka's brow-marks furrowed, "How would you know that?"
Grinning a bit and then sending Anakin a quick glance, the old man informed the young Togruta, "Most people that come to these parts do so with the ones they love the most." He then cocked his head to the side, ushering towards another young couple passing by on their own gondola speeder, "When Jacen Darklighter boarded the boat, he didn't even tell his wife he planned to sleep... he just shrugged off his jacket and was out. And she did nothing to keep him close. They rode on opposite ends of the gondola almost... most couples would have handled that differently."
Anakin sat back and crossed his arms, noting that both he and Ahsoka were both in and out of proximity from each other, just as Paddy had described the Darklighters. But the gondola driver wasn't finished with his statement, "Jaina Darklighter also insisted that they are less than two months married... in these surroundings, its near impossible for newlyweds to keep their hands off each other. That was when I surmised they were lying."
Curious more than anything, Anakin wondered, "So, what do you think they are to each other?"
With a grin, Paddy inquired of Anakin, "What is your friend here to you?" There was a pregnant silence as Anakin listed off adjectives in his mind; pain in the ass... friend... mentee... sister...pain in the ass... ... even bigger pain in the ass...
Ahsoka's mouth went wide as she finally decided on something, "Master and Padawan!" Anakin turned to her in surprise, both his brows furrowed together.
"What makes you say that?"
Turning her eyes outwards towards the water, Ahsoka muddled over all that Paddy had shared with them, "Because Jacen didn't announce that he was going to sleep... And Jaina didn't question him. Jedi Padawans are told to respect what their masters do as much as what they say."
Anakin nodded, recalling that same credo himself, "Too bad you missed that lesson." He jested, to which Paddy actually chuckled.
Puffing out her face, Ahsoka scowled at her master, "I did not!... since when have I ever questioned one of your naps?"
"Since when have I been allowed to take naps, Ahsoka?" She had to relent to that one.
They rounded the final bend, where Padme's residence was. The sight of the grand building never ceased to amaze Anakin. He found himself marveling once more. And he wasn't the only one.
"Padme lives here!" Ahsoka gasped as they neared the lower docks. "How can she ever leave this place?" Anakin chuckled, understanding that statement far more than Ahsoka would ever know.
"She believes in duty above all other things in life, Ahsoka."
Paddy chuckled and nodded some, allowing the others to disembark before pushing his boat free of the dock easily. As he coasted away, he turned and informed Anakin, "I dropped them off way down the lane because I figured something is up. Hopefully they'll be too tired to notice you." Nodding to him with a smile, Anakin thanked him.
"You're the best Paddy."
And with that, the elderly man saluted him and began the tiring trip towards the mainland. Turning with his Padawan, Anakin began to carefully plan their moves. "Keep your presence small." He informed the young one, "We move together and carefully. If he's as strong as Yoda, we don't want to tip him off."
Ahsoka nodded before they continued up the steps with only a slight, light tapping signifying their presence.
Grievous's small, modified starfighter flew easily through the space that encompassed the Chommel Sector. With its built in hyperdrive, he was able to move as much as he wanted across the galaxy and enjoyed the freedom. Two deactivated RX droids were in the storage of his ship, ready to assist him should the target be more... interesting than not.
He still wasn't convinced that he wasn't assassinating Skywalker. And this knowledge forced him to be more cautionary.
Though Skywalker was still young and growing into his extraordinary power, Grievous had learned long ago to never underestimate the man. Reports indicated he should have been the strongest Jedi, but personal disagreements with the code left him unable to fulfill that potential. At the moment, even his own master had more usable strength than he.
But that didn't mean he couldn't draw on more power, especially when his heart wasn't conflicted.
Through reports and the occasional run-in, Grievous had learned to respect the so called Hero with no Fear. And it was for this reason that he was perhaps over prepared to face this look-alike. Jacen Darklighter was his name, but his face indicated he was Anakin Skywalker. Therefore, in Grievous's mind, there was no reason not to go above and beyond in preparing for him.
His spies had informed him that the man was hiding on Naboo, though the exact whereabouts of the warrior and his so-called wife were still fuzzy. He knew it would not take long to narrow down locations, but what he really wanted to discover was why their benefactor wanted him gone. And why his wife had to remain unharmed... unless it was really the wife the benefactor was after...
How absurd, Grievous decided, long having forgotten what love felt like. His programming wouldn't allow for that emotion anymore.
So, he brushed the idea aside and turned his ships trajectory towards that of the Naboo, a slight grin expressed only in his slitted eyes.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed that! The bit with the locket was a last minute add in. I figured it was appropriate to show just how much this trip is starting to mean to Leia. It actually amazed me she put the locket back... maybe she could sense it wasn't near as special as other items in the house. We'll have to see what happens with that in the next chapter :)
I'm hoping to update my other story, Legacy, tonight. I'm not sure how many of you love Escaflowne or Digimon Tamers, but if you are among that fangroup, it might be worth your while to check it out. I should have it updated in a couple hours... I lost all that data when my computer decided to be a problem and have to start from scratch.
Anyways! Please don't forget to review. I've noticed a lot more people reviewing and I really appreciate that you are all taking your time to give me feedback and support like that. Thanks for being such a great audience!