We have taken forever, literally forever with this guys, and we're so sorry! But at least you know that we're still alive! :P If you're still on board with us, here is the next update... finally. :)
The Beginning of the End.
The grand Temple, the Jedi's home, rose above the horizon in the dusk sky as the Jedi and clones approached its magnificent structure in the yellow speeder.
Obi-Wan looked over at his young ward and gave him a look of warning. "Anakin, we only have so much time on this ploy. The ray from the gun should have only turned for you two hours. Seeing that it took us about an hour in bickering and flying to get here, you don't have much time before you turn back."
Anakin looked sharply at his old master, brother and father figure in everything but blood. "Well you, Master Tachi and the rabid one don't have long until you turn back either!"
Ahsoka narrowed her cerulean eyes dangerously and snaps at him again, the clatter of her sharp teeth echoing around the speeder.
Anakin ducked behind the seat a bit, "Keep her away!"
Obi-Wan sighed, acting more like the Jedi Master he was rather than the small child he had become. "Anakin, you have the most important task. We can't let you get side tracked. Ahsoka and I are merely decoys."
"What about me!?" Siri turned to Obi-Wan with a look of disbelief.
"You, my dear Siri, will be taking on the feat of distracting Adi. We need to know if she truly is on our side or not."
Siri perked up at the opportunity of distracting and annoying the heck out of her former master once again. 'This'll be great!'
Anakin kicked the back of the seat, bored out of his mind, even though they had only been flying for about ten minutes.
"Anakin, please stop it!" Obi-Wan pleaded.
"I concur," Rex groaned, shoulders tensing as he concentrated on getting them and the speeder to the Temple landing pad in one piece.
They finally were able to land the speeder, causing Obi-Wan to go into one last frantic explanation of what had to be done. Anakin mainly huffed and groaned at what the smaller Master had to say, but soon he was running off to meet his destiny in the Prank Wars.
"Anakin!" Obi-Wan called out in alarm, arm outstretched hopelessly. The younger boy was hightailing it down the hall screaming about destiny.
Obi-Wan sighed, "We can only hope that this works now."
Rex leaned his elbow on the top of the door. "I'll fly a perimeter around the Temple and keep you posted on the councillor's position."
Obi-Wan smiled at him as he jumped out of the speeder, "Thank you very much Rex. Cody should already be inside reporting details to you."
"Okay, Sir," he nodded briefly. "Good luck." With that he set the speeder up and off into the skyline and began making a circle around the Temple.
Siri gently handed a drowsy Ahsoka over to Obi-Wan before leaning over and giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "See you later."
Obi-Wan slowly dragged his hand across his cheek, frowning as a child part of his mind attempted to break through the adult mind by whispering 'Yuck! Girl cooties!'. He shook his head sharply. "Why do I need Ahsoka!?"
Ahsoka glared up at him, actually INSULTED!
Siri only gave him a look, as if to say, 'You really are stupid.'
"You're going to need her for a distraction. I'm going to be too busy running from- I mean distracting Adi."
Before Obi-Wan could ask what Siri dared to do to her former master, the blonde has vanished around the corner. He shook his head and sighed. "All right, Ahsoka. Let's do this."
Ahsoka laughed and giggled as Obi-Wan ran down the hallway, drawing some attention from the passing Masters.
'I don't like this, I don't like this. I don't like this AT ALL!' Obi-Wan cringed at all of the attention he was receiving. 'They probably think I'm some child baby kidnapper. Now where would our padawans be?' He felt like face-palming himself, however, Ahsoka beat him to it by slapping his face with her small, orange hand. "Ow! Of course!"
The crèche.
Ahsoka pouted. She had just assisted Obi-Wan in somehow managing to tell him that the children would be in the crèche and she didn't even get a thanks. It sucked being the youngest kid in the group! No one listened to the kid!
Obi-Wan cleared his throat after he noticed the pout, "Thank you Ahsoka."
Ahsoka beamed a wicked grin before hiccupping as Obi-Wan shifted her in his grasp. "Sorry."
Obi-Wan turned the corner and stopped abruptly, cradling Ahsoka's head in his hand. In the crèche sat the younglings, surrounded by Jedi who were reminding them of the Jedi way.
Sam was one of these younglings. He had a glare set upon his face as he inched closer and closer to the door.
The other padawans tried their best to keep their attention on the Jedi Knights and Masters surrounding them so not to give away Sam, yet they couldn't help but sometimes let their eyes drift to the young boy.
One of the Knights gets suspicious and looks over at the door, not only seeing Sam scooting across the floor, but also Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. "Younglings get back in here."
"Oh, no," Obi-Wan whispered. "Running now!"
The only problem there was that he couldn't feel the ground beneath his feet, and instead of moving forwards he was moving backwards. He turned his head to see that the Masters were pulling him back towards them.
"Ahsoka, do something!" He cried in her face before depositing her on the floor. She sat there aimlessly, gazing at him in worry and confusion. "Crawl, Ahsoka! Crawl dammit!"
Ahsoka glared at him, with her big cerulean eyes piercing into his soul, before crawling over to the Jedi Masters and giving them a bit cute smile, intent on distracting them.
'Great work, Ahsoka! You could charm me if I was on their side!' He telepathically told her.
This encouraged Ahsoka, who widened her grin.
One of the girl Jedi Masters leaned down and picked up the small child, "And what are you doing, young one?"
Obi-Wan felt his feet return to the ground as the Jedi Master's hold around him weakened. 'Great job, Ahsoka!'
He dashed around the corner and pressed his back against the wall.
'Hey! What about me!?' Ahsoka called out through the Force.
'Just stay there and keep distracting. Sam and the others and sneaking out now.'
'You better get me out of here afterwards,' Ahsoka mentally growled.
'No. I'm deserting you here.' Obi-Wan sarcastically replied.
'WHAT!?'
'I'M NOT LEAVING YOU! IT'S SARCASM!'
Ahsoka was not able to control her emotions as well as she would have been able to do as a Padawan learner and began crying in the Jedi Knight's arms.
The humanoid Jedi gently cooed in her ear soothing words and stroked her back smoothly, settling the Togruta.
'Take your sweet cake time getting me out, Master Kenobi.'
'Patience is a virtue, Ahsoka.'
'Not right now it isn't.'
Obi-Wan sighed, 'You're turning into your Master.'
'Please just get me out.' She actually sounded frightened. 'I hate being all googly-eyed over.'
Obi-Wan ducked around the corner again and peeked in the room. Most of the children had left already, hopefully going back to the hideout. 'All right Ahsoka. When you hear me shout, crawl for your life.' Obi-Wan stepped in and tripped on purpose. He landed on his butt and started fake crying.
The other Master's all turned to face Obi-Wan who had tears streaming down his red face. "Oh dear. It's okay, youngling," a human female soothed gently as she lifted and cradled him in her arms and drew her fingers through his auburn hair.
'Ahsoka NOW!'
It wasn't the speed that she preferred, but Ahsoka crawled for her life. Her freaking life! She was surprised at how fast her stubby little arms and legs were moving, despite not giving her great distance. It did give her speed, however.
She finally managed to get out the door and hid behind the corner.
'Now to save myself...' Obi-Wan thought. He cried harder and furiously wiggled in the Jedi's grasp until he managed to slip out of her grasp by giving an almighty kick on his legs. Landing on his feet he shot off like a bullet towards Ahsoka's Force presence and the padawans.
One of the many Knights caught sight of Obi-Wan approaching a corner and the heads of some of the padawans. Pointing she yelled, "Quick, after them!"
Obi-Wan looked back over his shoulder, his eyes widening and a low groan of worry escaping his throat as he turned back and raced around the corner. "Ruuuuuuuuuuun!" was all he said as he scooped Ahsoka up in his arms and continued down the hall.
The padawans, hearing the thundering footsteps of the Knights and Masters not far behind, didn't hesitate for a second longer than Obi-Wan before dashing off on the direction he headed.
Anakin ran behind the Knights and Masters, looking like the perfect face of innocence, "Masters! There's been a terrible ambush in the East tower!"
The Masters stopped and turned to face Anakin, completely oblivious to whom he was. The human female stepped forward. "We'll head there right now." She pointed towards the green humanoid. "You take a few more Jedi and continue to track them down."
Because Anakin had not grown up in the Temple normally, like the other Younglings, it made him the perfect man for the job of trapping unsuspecting Masters and Knights.
He led them to the East Wing, a devious smile on his face.
Anakin hurled himself towards the empty room ahead. The doors were open and he knew there was going to be a rope dropped down for him the moment his head was under the arch way.
The Knights and Masters hot on his heels, Anakin threw himself at the rope just as it dropped and swung upwards, watching with his sapphire eyes as the Jedi ran in the room and stopped dead. "What the-?" They turned and saw Anakin swing back down like a jungle man, the other two padawans who lent him the rope flip down from the archway, and all three of them dive through the door before slamming it closed and locking them in.
Despite the rumbling and shouts of protest against the door, Anakin spun on his heel, dusting his hands off with a wicked smile plastered on his face. "All too easy..."
Anakin searched through the Force and felt a group of Jedi Masters exiting the training rooms to the left. He toddled over there and smiled up at them. "Hiya."
One Jedi Master, an expression of pure love for little Anakin, all but jumped towards him. "Hello there, young one!"
Anakin blushed and looked down at his shoes, "Can you help me back to my Crèche Master? She said she'd meet me in the East Tower."
"Why of course, young one! We'd be delighted! Isn't that right Madame Nu?"
Jocasta Nu smiled down lovingly at the little Anakin. He was relatively surprised. It was the first time he'd ever seen the woman smile at him. He knew that after this whole fiasco and once the truth would be revealed on who he is, he would be lucky if she ever smiled at him again.
"Of course dear. Let's get this adorable youngling back to his Master."
"Thank you, Masters," Anakin said in his cutest voice, giving them all his cute, puppy dog eyes.
They instantly followed him to the East wing, content with the cute little sandy blonde dreads bobbing up and down in front of them as he walked.
"He is absolutely adorable," Anakin heard one Master mutter, and he smiled arrogantly. 'I still got it.'
He led them into another room in the East tower, "Huh... I thought she said she'd be here..."
Anakin, eyes briefly flashing wild, spun around on his heel. "Ah! Well... she's... she's... vanished?" He held his arms out hopelessly, a worried smile growing on his face and his brow creasing.
"We'll help you look, young one." Madame Nu comforted him by walking further in the room with her fellow Jedi.
'Man, I'm a good actor! And they didn't pick me for Anakin Skywalker – that's me - in that TV show, 'Republic Heroes'. Half the stuff they present there isn't even accurate, nor can that douche actor portray me correctly!'
Anakin quickly ran out of the room during the chaos and locked the door behind him.
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAMWAHAHA!" He cackled like a mad man, drumming his fingers together repetitively.
Though, in his shortened form, it made it sound more cute than evil.
He ran and skidded his way through the halls until he heard thundering footsteps. He froze soli, like a rabbit caught in headlights, and stared with wide, scared eyes. He was ready to hightail it, believing it to be the master's until he saw a horde of padawans round the corner and bound towards him like a pack of wildebeest. The one thing that managed to keep him in control was a kid with a wild bush of spiky auburn hair on top of his head and a small orange Togruta in his arms.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin's eyes gleamed with joy. "I've got most of the Knights I could find locked up in the East tower."
"Great job, Anakin!"
Anakin beamed with pride, "Now just to formulate the final prank to end it all."
"Yeah, and what's that!?" Obi-Wan wasn't entirely sure whether he wanted to know.
Anakin smiled, his hair falling in front of his face a bit as his body started growing. Without skipping a beat, Anakin replied his deep, silky voice, "That's yet to come."
Obi-Wan was also transforming back into his normal form. To say the least, he couldn't have been more joyful if he tried as his own hair fell in front of his face. "Oh. Good. Joy."
"Erm, excuse me, Master Kenobi, but, err, COULD YOU PUT ME DOWN NOW PLEASE!?"
"Whoops... Sorry there Ahsoka," Obi-Wan set her down, blushing a bit.
Ahsoka shook her limbs before darting after them again. Once she was sandwiched between the two, she puffed. "Thanks. I'll let you off."
Several Minutes earlier...
Siri Tachi ran down the hallways of the grand Jedi Temple, little pigtails flying behind her.
"Master Adi!?" She repeatedly sang in a high, sing-song voice.
Adi Gallia had been relaxing and catching up on the latest edition of the steamy romance soap series, "General Med bay."
Adi started forwards on her sofa, eyes glued to the screen in fascination and hope. Two characters, a man and a woman both stood face to face, inches apart from one another. The woman's eyes kept flickering to the man's lips and back to his chocolate brown eyes before conflict flitted across them and she turned away claiming that it's not fair on Taylor.
"Ah, come one, Amanda! Just kiss him already! It's obvious you want him! It's Jake for Force's sake! You're in a general med bay woman! Go and sanitise yourself!"
Jake grabbed Amanda's shoulders and turned her around to face him, "We can do this. Taylor isn't here and doesn't have to find out." He sighed dramatically before looking her straight into her deep emerald eyes, "Remember that promise you made me? We could run away from all of this! We don't need the med bay anymore..."
"I can't, Jake," Amanda turned her head away from him.
"And why the stang not!?" Anger flashed in Jake's eyes as he grabbed her chin and made her look into his eyes again.
"I'm pregnant... and it's Taylor's."
Siri opened the door quietly, ignoring her former Master's pleas to the HoloVid as the dramatic music played in the background and betrayal fell on Jake's face.
Siri couldn't believe her luck! She always knew her master had a thing for romantic sitcoms. She swore she heard her master's please during the late hours of the night when the Tholotian woman thought she was asleep.
"No! It can't be Taylor's! You only slept with Jake that one night you were forced to clean up together!" Adi was practically bawling, reaching for another bon-bon from the tray of chocolates next to her.
Siri was grinning like a Cheshire cat, blue eyes twinkling. "We- we... I don't know how it happened but it just did. I've always loved him first, Jake! It's always going to be Jake!" Siri had to put a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling.
"You said you loved me!"
"I thought I did!"
"Noooooooooooooo! Why, Amanda? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?" At this point Siir couldn't hold back the laughter anymore. She lost the battle and let out a ton of giggles, so many that it hurt her stomach.
Adi turned her head towards the door, trying to find the search of laughter in the midst of her pain, "Who's here?"
More laughter erupted from Siri as a result. "I always knew you were a soppy romantic, master."
Adi's eyes landed on her former Padawan, surprisingly in a younger form. "Siri?"
Siri stood there in all of her glory, pigtails swinging slightly, hands planted firmly on her hips. "The one and only, master."
"How did you... Where did you..." Adi let the questions hang as she tried to think of how her former Padawan was now in front of her but younger.
"Long story, master," Siri waved her hand, brushing off the subject as if this sort of thing happened every day. "I'm sure if you put mischief and mechanics together you can figure out who did this to us."
"Us?"
"Yeah. You didn't think it was just me, did you?"
Adi could only stare at her with her mouth hanging hopelessly open like a Goldfishes.
Siri couldn't stand how awesome this was turning out to be.
"Siri-"
"You know you should tell Kit how you feel about him. Maybe go all melodramatic like Amanda and Jake there."
"You. Wouldn't. Dare." Adi's eyes narrowed.
"Try me," Siri smirked wickedly.
Adi jumped up out of her chair and ran after the little trickster.
"Oh, Kit. Kiiiiiit! I love you so!" Siri yelled, using the voice changer she had always kept with her since her undercover mission in Adi's voice, throughout the halls of the Temple as she ran away from her enraged former master.
"SIRI MARIE TACHI!"
"OH KIIIIIIIIIT! PLEASE! WHY DO YOU NOT LOVE ME BACK!? WHY AAYLA!?"
'Aayla is going to kill me!' Adi thought fearfully.
"Siri! Stop!" Adi started chasing after the small blonde.
"Nope. Never! ADI LOVES KIT! SHE ONCE SANG TO HERSELF ABOUT WRITING IT IN THE STARS SO THAT IT WOULD FOREVER BE THERE!"
"SIRI!"
"What!? I'm only stating the tru- What the?" She realised that her voice was changing from the high pitched tone of a young girl a much more elegant and charming voice of a woman. And she was beginning to see things from a taller perspective. 'Oh dear.'
Adi continued running after her, determined to catch her, that is, until she saw the changing.
"Siri, what in the Force happened to you!?"
Siri just continued to run, leading her towards the East tower.
She was beginning to puff out, feeling the heat on her cheeks increase. Her stamina, though it was great, could only last so long as she risked a glance behind her, meeting the feral and enraged gaze of her former master.
"Gonna cut it close..." Siri lead her on the wild goose chase, as the angry woman behind her drew closer and closer.
"Siri! I. Will. Make. You my padawan again!"
"If you had the guts to do that you would have done it already!"
"Fine then. You are my Padawan again! I'll have Master Yoda verify it."
"No! No, no, no, no, no! Now you're gonna get it!"
Each continued to attack the other with insults as the East Tower grew closer.
'Come on... Almost... there!'
She ran through the door to the East Wing, motioning her hands for Anakin or Obi-Wan to open the nearest door.
The two awaiting adults, quickly jumped to attention from their bickering as they saw Siri approach, furiously motioning for them to get into action, and hastily opened the doors.
Siri ran into the room, quickly circling the perimeter around the dazed and confused masters, and rushed right back out, slamming the doors behind her, trapping her Master.
"Success!" She yelled in delight, spinning around on her heel and immersing herself in a victory dance of shuffling left and right, swaying her body from side to side and whipping her hair in circular motions, all with a very pleased, smug and rocked out expression on her face.
Obi-Wan and Anakin only stared at her during this victory dance.
"This is your love..." Anakin looked over at Obi-Wan.
"Like you can talk," Obi-Wan quipped, sharing an amused and knowing glance with him. "How many years older than you is Padme? Let's see... about six or seven?" He noticed the look Anakin was giving him and before he could open his mouth to retort, the older Jedi hastily added. "I'm not judging!"
"She's only five years older! And you're two years older than Siri..."
"Then don't judge!"
Anakin just sighed and walked away.
Obi-Wan watched him before shaking his head and smiling ruefully. 'He'll never get over it...'
"Okay, Siri, are you done with the victory dance?"
"Just about!" The blonde replied, finishing her head banging and skipping next to him. "Okay, what's the plan?"
Anakin was over by the far end of the hall and leaned in close, whispering to his close set of friends. The end was near.
Dun, dun, dun! We are heading towards the finale! :D Let us know what you think, please people! The ultimate prank and the outcome of this war will be upon you in due time!