I don't own Star Wars or any of the characters.

Anakin made sure no one would eavesdrop on him in his apartment. He made sure Mara was out of their quarters, stating he was working on something for Republic Day and needed privacy. The former Sith had also set up a frequency jammer, only briefly turning it off when he contacted his son.

There was a knock at the door. Anakin answered it and saw his son standing in the doorway. Anakin quickly ushered his son into the apartment before any passerby had the chance to see them. Once safely inside the apartment, Anakin got right down to business.

"I'm glad you're here, Luke. I just found something that might explain why the Force brought us here." began Anakin.

Anakin grabbed a datapad from the numerous stacks he had piled on a nearby table. Quickly scanning through the datapad's contents, Anakin brought up what he was looking for.

"When I was doing some research I came across some of the mission reports I—the me from this universe—went on. They didn't stick out to me as strange, until I took a closer look. Apparently I have been to over a dozen planets in the last month alone investigating reports of missing items. The items that were stolen didn't seem at that important—a few old amulets, a couple scrolls—nothing worth the Jedi getting involved. It wasn't until I realised that the items that had been stolen were endued with Dark Side energy that I knew that Sith Lord the Order has been looking for had to be real." explained Anakin.

"Sky—Ahsoka's eldest son—mentioned that a few recently discovered artefacts were found on Dxun, Onderon's largest moon, and were possibly of Sith origin." told Luke.

"Onderon was one of the systems I investigated. This universe's Anakin went there not even a week before we arrived. That was why the Council gave him—me—the day off, because he—I—had been running around the galaxy for over a month hunting leads on the Sith Lord. Whoever this Sith Lord is, they know what they are doing. From what I've read in these reports, there's little to no trace of a Sith. Every time the Order gets a lead it suddenly goes cold and becomes a dead end. Evidence is lost, witnesses go missing, and some Jedi have ceased communications with the Temple." continued Anakin.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about how to best act upon this new information.

"Ezra and I are going to meet with his mater—Caleb Dume—in a few hours. He said his master's wife—Hera—might be there. Hera's father is the Ryloth senator. She might know something about these thefts." theorised Luke.

"Ryloth was one of the planets where a dark side artefact was reported stolen. Find out what you can from this Hera, but be careful when gathering information. The last thing we need is anyone suspecting that we're up to something." reminded Anakin.

"I'll be careful, Father." assured Luke.

"And take R2 with you. He can record and store any information you learn better than any datapad." told Anakin.

Luke promised his father he'd bring R2 with him when he went to meet with Ezra's master and his wife. With a final farewell, Luke left his father's apartment.

Two hours later Luke and Ezra walked down a hall to the main hangar in the Jedi Temple, R2 in tow. Luke had informed the small blue and white astromech of his plan. He'd also told R2 he had to keep he was doing secret. No one but him or Anakin could know what they were doing. R2 had chirped his promise to keep the information he and Luke gathered secret.

Upon entering the hangar, the Padawans and astromech walked up to a modified VCX-100 light freighter dubbed the Ghost. Luke got a flash of memory and remembered the Ghost belonged to Hera Syndulla, a captain in the Republic army and the leader of the legendary Phoenix Squadron. Two people were standing outside the Ghost, and Luke instantly recognised them as Jedi Master Caleb Dume and Captain Hera Syndulla.

Jedi Master Caleb Dume was a tall (six feet three), thirty-seven year old human male with a strong physique and lean frame. He had tan skin, shoulder length brown hair he wore half pulled back, a goatee, and blue eyes. He was dressed in tan Jedi robes and light armour, a lightsaber clipped to his belt.

Unlike her husband, Hera was a slender, lean muscled Twi'lek. She was thirty-three, five feet eight, green skinned and green eyed. Intricate tattoos were etched into the sensitive skin of Hera's lekku. Dressed in a Republic captain's uniform, a set of goggles on her head, Hera was one of the most modestly dressed Twi'leks Luke had ever seen.

Ezra walked up to his master and the Ghost's captain. The raven haired Padawan gave Hera a quick hug before bowing to his master. Caleb laughed, clapping a hand on his Padawan's shoulder. For a moment the three did not notice Luke, lost in their own galaxy. But then Ezra turned back to Luke. The Jedi Master and Republic captain stared at the son of the Chosen One.

Luke bowed to the couple, trying to suppress the strange nervousness that quickly overcame him.

"Master Dume, Captain Syndulla, it is wonderful to see you again." greeted Luke.

Hera gave a warm, motherly smile to the nervous Padawan.

"You don't have to be so formal, Luke. We've known each other for years." lightly spoke Hera.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of what to do. Caleb, seeing Luke's distress, placed a hand on his wife's shoulder and got her attention off the young Jedi.

"Just leave the kid alone, Hera. With everything that's been going on lately, we're all a bit on edge." reasoned Caleb.

Suddenly, Cham and Annie came running down the Ghost's docking ramp, a droid hot on their heels. The droid chasing Cham and Annie was a C1-series astromech droid. It's dome was orange and flattened at the top with a small antenna sticking out of it. Luke noticed the droid was a bit battered and worn, one of its legs not matching the other.

The C1 astromech extended a taser from its side. Seeing the taser, Cham and Annie immediately ducked behind Ezra. The C1 shocked the Jedi Padawan, making him scream in pain.

"Chopper, you are going to be scrap metal." swore Ezra.

But before Ezra had the chance to turn the C1 astromech, Chopper, in to scrap metal, Hera stepped in. The Twi'lek looked from the droid she had built as a child, to her son and his friend, then back to Chopper.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" asked Hera.

Chopper let out a series of annoyed beeps, relaying his version of what had transpired between him and the Jedi initiates. Annie shot out from behind Ezra. The young half-Togruta crossed her arms, glaring at the orange domed astromech with all the fury a ten-year-old could muster.

"That's not how it happened, you bucket of bolts. Cham and I needed to get some information for the speech we're doing for Republic Day. Cham said he had found some things in the archives but left them on the Ghost. We went to the Ghost to get the datapad Cham left there, when Chopper attacked us out of nowhere." exclaimed Annie.

"Annie's telling the truth. I wanted to copy the files onto another datapad for Annie but she didn't have hers with her. We asked Zeb and Sabine if they could loan us one but Zeb didn't have on and Sabine was using hers to write a report from her last mission. We tried to get Chopper to download and copy the files, but then he started chasing after us with a taser." added Cham.

Luke blocked out the lecture Caleb and Hera were giving to Cham and Annie. He turned to Ezra as if asking the Padawan to explain what had just happened. Ezrajust shrugged and ushered Luke into the Ghost. R2 followed after the two Padawans, nearly missing being bumped into by Chopper. R2 beeped angrily at the other astromech before hurrying to Luke's side when he called after him.

Ezra showed Luke to the kitchen. He grabbed the two some food and sat down at the table beside his friend. Luke accepted the ration bar Ezra offered him and ate it silently.

"Can you believe they had to eat these things all the time during the Clone Wars?" spoke Ezra.

"They're probably from the same batch." joked Luke.

The two friends laughed. Luke saw he had found an opportunity to get the information he needed.

"Do you ever wonder what it was like to fight in the Clone Wars?" asked Luke.

"Sometimes. Master Caleb's told me about the battles be fought but he only became a Padawan near the end of the Clone Wars. He didn't see as many battles as your father and Master did. He didn't even see as many battles as Master Ahsoka." stated Ezra.

R2's beeping got the Padawans' attention. The two looked up to see what R2 had warned them of. Luke smiled when he saw the person R2 had warned him of was none other than Captain Hera Syndulla. Hera sat down at the table and greeted the two.

"So what are you two talking about?" wondered Hera.

"Luke and I were just talking about what it would have been like to fight in the Clone Wars." answered Ezra.

A slight frown pulled at the corners of Hera's mouth. It almost seemed like she was remembering something. As soon as the frown had appeared it disappeared.

"If you two are talking about the Clone Wars why don't I tell you about the battles we had on Ryloth?" offered Hera.

Luke realised this was the chance he had been waiting for. He gestured to R2 to start recording. R2 did as the young Jedi commanded, being careful so none realised he was even recording them. Hera began to tell her stories about Ryloth during the Clone Wars and Luke listened contently, assured that R2 was recording everything.

Sorry if this chapter was boring. Things will pick up in the next one. Comment if you like the story.