MINDSPRING- I am such a nerd.

Honestly, I think I spent at least four hours on the Star Wars wikia, cleverly named Wookiepedia. But it so COOL!! There are so many different things to read about…!

George Lucas is, I swear, a genius.

Anyway, back to the story. Last chapter was from Obi-Wan's POV, and he was, as usual, concerned about Anakin and his leadership skills. We discovered that Anakin was, for some reason, separated from his troops, and his troops did not arrive at the Revelation.

Nice goin', Ani.

Please, please, please, please, please, please, PLEASE review! I want to know what you guys are thinking of this!!!!

Chapter Four
~Maureen~

I stood in front of the living room, looking at all the unconscious men lying on couches, sofas, chairs, and an inflatable mattress. Six men were in this in this one cramped room, and the other four were upstairs, on the beds in the guest, kid (two beds in this room), and master bedrooms.

Natalie's crazy idea had worked.

The only man conscious had collapsed onto the ground after only a few minutes awake. He was the only one who had woken up, and so by extension, the only one whose face we could see. He was handsome, in a rugged, no-nonsense way. While Caitlin started to freak out, Natalie quickly ran into the ranch house to see how many people could sleep in the house comfortably. She's pretty quick-thinking and clever like that.

But, the only hitches in that plan were that: we would have to move ten critically injured men into a house that was built a few feet up from the ground connected by concrete stairs; we had to do it in the heat of the day (mid-and-upper 90s today); and we would have to carry four up the twisting, narrow stairs to the bedrooms.

And, being army men (as they no doubt were), they were pretty…heavyset.

My arms were throbbing and weak. But we had done it. And I felt great, along with exhausted, sore, and gross. I turned to Nat and Kit-Kat and smiled, "Wow, I can't believe we actually fit everyone in here."

Nat frowned and crossed her arms, "Maybe so, but not nearly enough room for us and our luggage." Being the material girl that she is, she brought three huge suitcases. When I asked her what they were for, she replied 'clothes, makeup, gymnastics stiff, and shoes.'

Oh, boy.

"That's fine by me." I said, wiping sweat off my forehead.

"Me, too. We can camp out in the backyard." Kit-Kat gestured out the window at the large lawn. It was nearly night, and her face was in shadows, but I could tell she was grinning from ear-to-ear.

"Alright, I'll grab the tents." I started walking to the garage, where I knew the tent was. Before we had met Natalie, since about the fourth grade, Caitlin and I had gone camping here several times.

"We just can't let that one with blue know. He'd get angry." She pointed at him, sleeping on the couch. He was frowning, even in sleep. I felt a twinge of pity for him, being in a strange land that could not help him.

"Wouldn't want that." Nat's sarcastic reply broke into the conversation, letting us know how she felt about sleeping in a tent. She was already somewhat pissed that Kit-Kat had lied to her about the ranch house. She had confided that in me while we were getting water, and I knew she wasn't kidding.

Kit-Kat smiled hesitantly and said, "I'm sorry, Natalie. I knew you were excited about having the weekend just to ourselves, but… I didn't really plan on this." I looked at Natalie.

She crossed her arms and looked away. "I know I'm being annoying, and I'm sorry. I wanted it to be just us. And no freaky men from outerspace." She gestured with a wide swoop, and then her shoulders fell and her face crumpled. I bit my lip and hugged her.

"It's okay, Nat. It'll still be us; only we have to make do with tents instead of a house."

Kit-Kat nodded in earnest, and I felt bad for her. She had wanted this to go really well, but it looks like fate wasn't really going to let that happen. Suddenly, I felt exhausted. It was nearly eight, I was starving, and we still had to set up the tent. Plus, I had helped drag ten heavy men up several stairs, heave them onto beds, and put the dead men in the field, where we were going to bury them tomorrow.

We stood in silence for a few minutes, and then I sighed and said, "Well, we had better get the tent set up and get dinner ready. You," I tickled Natalie on the stomach until she was forced to let out a laugh, "have a big day in two days!"

Her face brightened and she squealed, "OMG, I do!" I shushed her and looked pointedly at the men. She rolled her eyes and gave them the finger. I put a hand over my mouth and laughed, while Kit-Kat sighed dramatically and tugged on our hands to go outside.

Besides the spaceships plowed into the grass and the blast marks on the buildings, you really couldn't tell what had happened.

I grabbed the tent from the garage and handed another one to Caitlin. We trudged to a spot directly behind the house, where we would be invisible from the road, and set up camp. Well, Kit-Kat and I did; Natalie went to go get us food.

By the time she had returned, an hour had passed, we had set up the tents, the sleeping bags, and had unpacked the luggage. I was twiddling my thumbs, bored, and Caitlin was reading the newspaper, whose headlines blared 'A TREATY HAS BEEN REACHED!' LEADERS OF THE U.N. HAVE MET WITH COUNT DOOKU AND AGREED TO PEACE! A sub-headline mentioned that it had happened after several weeks of secret negotiations.

Somehow, I knew that that news was really bad for the men we had in the house.

I looked up when I heard the crunch of gravel. I poked Kit-Kat's head and we both ran over to the Jeep, where Natalie was busy unloading several bags from the local market.

"What took you so long?" I said impatiently, crossing my arms and giving her my meanest look.

She merely smiled at me and continued to unloading, handing me some bags. I looked in them and said, "What do we need all this food for? We're only here for a week!"

She shrugged and handed Kit-Kat some bags. She was already over their mini-spat. I rolled my eyes and waited for her response. She pulled at a strand of her hair and looked at me, "I just thought, since the dudes are apparently going to stay here a while, we should get them some food."

I smiled and so did Kit-Kat. We walked up to the house and began putting the food away as quietly as we could.

Later that night, I was staring up at the 'ceiling', listening to the bugs and wondering what that headline really meant, for all of us.