Obi-Wan turned as Anakin and Luke came into the hanger. He didn't know where they'd run off to, but he was sure he would know soon enough. Both seemed to be in emotional states, although each seemed unaware of the other's. He wondered what wedge could have been cast into their usually open communication.

"Master," Anakin greeted him quickly.

"Where have you been?"

"Long story," Luke said, "Is Han here?"

"He's up in the cockpit looking over the instruments again."

"Thanks," Luke said, hurrying away, and Obi-Wan had a strange feeling it was to get away from Anakin.

"What happened?"

Anakin shifted uncomfortably, "Like Luke said, it's a long story."

"I'd like to hear that story, please," he said calmly.

Just as Anakin was skirting the question again, his comlink beeped. Gratefully, he reached for it as Obi-Wan looked on.

"Yes?"

Mace Windu's voice crackled over the link, "General Skywalker. Palpatine is dead."

"Yeah?" Anakin asked, sounding less than surprised.

"The marks on his body indicate the use of a lightsaber."

"Oh," Anakin said, then, as though trying to cover up for himself, "Do you think it was Sidious?"

"We found a red lightsaber."

"Oh, well then, it must have been," Anakin said casually.

"He was holding it, Anakin."

"Well, then, that clears that up."

"What are you talking about, General Skywalker?"

"Palpatine is the Sith."

"That is amongst the wildest suspicions you've ever shared with me. There will be a full investigation."

"Okay," Anakin said, "Then we can know for sure."

Obi-Wan stared at him as he turned off his comlink and looked up, "Why do I feel as though his death was not Skywalker free?"

"Well," Anakin started just as Luke came back down the landing ramp.

"Father? Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan turned to the young Jedi, "Yes, Luke?"

"We're going to leave now. Han brought my things for me. I thought I should come and say goodbye," he said, but he stood awkwardly at the bottom of the ramp. Anakin wasn't making a move towards him either. What happened? Thought Obi-Wan, They've been so close I've worried about us being discovered. Why would Luke suddenly withdraw now?

Finally, Luke walked over and held out a hand, as though he was going to leave his father with only a handshake. As Anakin tentatively reached for his hand, however, Luke changed his mind and held out his arms for a hug, which Anakin obliged, hugging him tightly before setting him down to go see Obi-Wan.

"Your friend and I have talked about this," Obi-Wan said as Luke erred, apparently unsure whether he should hug him or shake his hand, "He thinks that it would be better if we came to help you."

Relief washed over Luke's face as he decided that Obi-Wan deserved a hug. Obi-Wan released him, and he asked, "Really?"

"Yes, certainly. He told us that you haven't been able to complete your training, and that you have no teachers left. He believes it will be possible to return us to our own time."

Luke seemed so glad, and he turned back to his father, "Will you come, Father?"

Anakin laughed, "Would I miss an opportunity to see my daughter?"

Luke smiled, and Obi-Wan saw the mysterious barrier slide away. So that was what it had been, Luke hadn't wanted to think about leaving his father behind. Something still seemed to remain, but most of the wall simply slipped away.

Obi-Wan led his friends up onto the ship, where Luke eagerly began to give Anakin a tour, which he accepted. Obi-Wan found his way to the cockpit, "We're ready to go," he told Han.

"Great," the smuggler answered. Obi-Wan strapped himself in as the ship began to rise.

"Any idea where Anakin and the kid were?"

"I think it may have had to do with Palpatine."

"Yeah, that'd make sense," Han said, "You think they managed to kill him?"

"From the sound of it, someone with a lightsaber did."

"Good," said Han, "That'll make it that much harder for the Sith to come back."

"Yes," Obi-Wan said, "It certainly will."

"Where are they now?"

"Luke's giving Anakin a tour."

Han snorted, "Of course. You ready for hyperspace?"

Obi-Wan nodded, and braced himself. Han threw the lever, and the ship pitched forward, sending Luke nearly flying into the dashboard, and he would have, if Anakin hadn't caught him from behind as he entered the cockpit. Obi-Wan turned to see Anakin set his son on his feet again, and Luke slipped into the seat behind the pilot, looking embarrassed.

Anakin laughed, and took the other seat.

"I wonder what Leia's been up to while we've been gone," Luke said.

"Probably fighting the Empire?" Han answered sarcastically.

"I'm looking forward to meeting this sister of yours," Obi-Wan said, "Do you think she takes after Anakin or Padme?"

"Uh," Luke said, "A little bit of both, I think."

"Speaking of Padme," Anakin said, "Does she know where we are?"

"No," Obi-Wan said, "I thought you would have told her."

"We have to go back!" Anakin exclaimed.

"Don't think we can do that," said Han, "I say you just give her a good apology when you get back."

Anakin stirred uncomfortably, "I'd like to let her know we're all right."

"I agree with Han, there's no saying how many times this can be done."

Anakin nodded.

:"I'm sure Mom won't worry too much. You probably do this to her all the time."

"I do," Anakin conceded, "But she worries."

"Of course she does," Luke answered soothingly, "But she'll understand you had to do this. You know she will."

Anakin nodded, "I guess. What's your sister like?"

Luke paused, uncertainly, "Intense? Passionate? Strong, definitely. She's beautiful," which amused Han more than made sense to Obi-Wan, "She also might not be too enthusiastic about this arrangement."

"What do you mean?"

"The one where you come to the future with us. She's… had her own run in with Vader. And she doesn't really know we're related yet. So we're in about the same position as you were when we came here. I don't know how to explain this to her."

"You'll work it out."

"Yeah."

The ship bucked, and Obi-Wan saw Luke grab onto his seat, and realized that he hadn't done up his crash webbing. As space rematerialized, Obi-Wan felt as though he was buried deep, a dark crushing pressure weighing on him. Behind him, Anakin gasped himself. Obi-Wan forced himself to shake off the feeling, but when he turned to check on Anakin, he saw that his apprentice was not having as easy a time dealing with it. He was shaking from head to toe, and he'd buried his face in his hands. Luke seemed only slightly shaken by the switch in darkness, but he was kneeling beside his father, trying to see past his hands to his face.

"Are you all right?" Luke asked, taking his father's left arm and dragging it away from his face.

Obi-Wan looked at his student, who seemed slightly calmed by his son's worried face, "I didn't know the galaxy could be this dark," he said softly.

Luke didn't seem to know how to respond to that, so he stood up and hugged his father tightly.

"Where are we?" Obi-Wan asked.

"If I figured out how to use this thing properly, we should be back in our time, approximately, and near Dantooine, where we can find some information about where our current base is."

Luke released his father, who seemed almost calmed.

Han brought their ship closer to a nearby planet, landing at an old destroyed building.

"We use some hints in the ruble here to denote where our new base is. The Empire's already investigated here, so we think it's safe enough, especially because of the code we use. It's incredibly complicated," Luke explained.

"I still can't always get it," Han said, "But Luke's very good with it."

Luke blushed, "I just have a good memory for codes like that."

Anakin stood up, "We should go find this clue of yours then," he said, with an air as though he was just moving to keep himself from panicking.

Obi-Wan stood as well, and Luke led them out of the ship. He led them down to the rubble piles, and through a maze of passages, until they reached what seemed like a central command center of some kind, badly crushed in one corner. Luke hurried over and quickly dug in the pile until he revealed a couple of slips of durasheet, one of which was covered in code, the other a simple note in Basic. Luke turned his attention immediately to the coded letter.

"Have either of you got a bit of durasheet?" he asked.

They shook their heads, and Luke found an area covered in undisturbed dust. Obi-Wan noticed Anakin take the note. Luke sat down in the dust and started mumbling something about the code, writing in the dust with one finger. Obi-Wan watched in fascination as Luke decoded the message, a single name, of a planet, from the entire page of scribbles.

"Geonosis," Luke said, half proudly, half confused, "I've never heard of it."

"I have," Obi-Wan said, "I nearly died there."

"Oh," Luke said cautiously, "Well, I'm glad you know where to find it."

Obi-Wan turned to Anakin curious how he would react. After all, he and Padme had also nearly died there.

Anakin was too preoccupied by the note. Luke followed Obi-Wan's gaze, and looked at his father curiously, "What does it say?"

"Luke and Han," Anakin read from the page, "If it's you reading this, I'd like to tell you that you would be better off running away instead of coming back here. I've been going crazy not knowing where you are. Come back soon. Leia."

Luke laughed, "Oh, that's nice of her. I wonder how long we've been gone for. Come on, let's go tell Han."

He took the coded slip of paper over to the rubble pile and buried it again, then came back and kicked dust back over where he'd decoded the note.

Anakin passed him Leia's note, and he stuffed it into a pocket, leading them on out of the broken building, and back into the Falcon, and passed him the note. Han read it, and laughed as well.

"Guess we'd better get back quick. Where're we headed?"

"Geonosis," Obi-Wan said.

Han nodded, "All right."

"Won't the Geonosians be a problem?" Anakin asked.

"The Empire enslaved them," Han said, "Their cities were abandoned."

Anakin seemed to be struggling to decide between thinking they'd deserved it, and his usual quarrel with slavery.

Obi-Wan sat down, and the ship started. Han took it up out of the atmosphere.

"What do we need to do in order to destroy the Empire?" Anakin asked.

Luke blinked at him, "Well, we need to kill Palpatine."

"Again," Anakin answered.

"Yeah. We need to deal with Vader somehow. And… we need to get the Alliance into a position of leadership."

"All in a day's work," Anakin joked.

Han put the ship into hyperspace, and Obi-Wan waited patiently for them to revert to realspace. Luke and Anakin had also fallen silent, and Obi-Wan sensed that reality was just setting in for them.

At last, they came out of hyperspace, near the familiar grey brown form of Geonosis.

"Home One, hailing unidentified ship," a voice crackled over the com.

Luke leaned closer to the dash, "Hi, this is the Millennium Falcon."

"Hello, Luke," the voice answered, sounding slightly exasperated at his lack of professionalism, "You're cleared to land at platform 934."

"Thanks!"

Han flew down towards the city. And Obi-Wan watched as he landed in the arena, which had, thankfully, been cleared of it's posts and beasts, and most importantly, battle droids. In fact, the stadium was completely empty, save for a girl who seemed to be about Luke's age, and a very familiar looking wookiee.

"Look, Father, there's Leia!" Luke said excitedly.

Han landed the ship, and Han and Anakin followed them. Obi-Wan watched as Han ran to greet Leia, and Luke was snatched into a bear hug at the last moment by Chewbacca. He fought to control his laughter as Leia hugged Han very tightly, then pulled away from him, looked at him for a moment, and punched him, apparently with every ounce of strength she possessed. Han staggered away, and Luke held his arms out to her, seeming willing to take the accompanying punch. Leia hugged him as well, though she refrained from punching him, despite the fury that was making her arms shake.

Anakin started walking cautiously towards her as she started in on her friends, and Obi-Wan followed him.

"Where have you been?" she asked Han, who was still rubbing his eye, where she had punched.

"We –," Han started, but she cut him off.

"Why didn't you tell us where you were going?"

"We –," Han tried again.

"Did you notice that you've been gone for a month? I save you from Jabba, and this is the thanks I get?"

"Technically," Luke started before he too was cut off.

"I should ground you both this instant!"

"You wouldn't dare," Han said, finally managing to get a word in edgewise.

"You think I wouldn't?" she demanded, whipping out a datapad, "Just watch me."

"You don't need to do that," Obi-Wan said in his most soothing voice, "What happened to them isn't their fault."

"And who, exactly, are you?" Leia snarled.

Although he'd tried to hide it with his first retort, Obi-Wan decided there was no point in hiding the truth from her. He held out his hand, "Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this is Anakin Skywalker."

She stared at him, then her gaze moved to Anakin, then back again. Well, he thought, at least she's quiet now.

"You're?" Leia asked, looking at him, "And he's?" her gaze finally traveled to Luke, "You mean to tell me that…"

Luke smiled, "Yeah."

"What happened to you? Did you get lost in the time stream?"

"Pretty much," Luke said

Leia stood and blinked at him a little longer. Then she said, "What was it? One of Han's modifications?"

"I'm not too sure," Luke said, shrugging.

Leia sighed, then hugged each of them again, "I'm glad you're back safe," she said softly. Then she returned to business, "Come on, we haven't got rooms set up for any of you."

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan, looking incredulously amused, "That's my daughter?" he asked, as soon as Leia had hurried ahead of them down the hall.

"She takes after you."

At the look on Anakin's face, Luke started to laugh, and Obi-Wan joined him. Han was trying to keep up with Leia, who was moving quite quickly in her fury.

"Welcome to my world," Luke said at last, "She's usually not quite this tightly wound."

"Good," said Anakin, still apparently struggling with the comment that that behaviour was reminiscent of his own.

As they walked, they encountered people of many species, most of whom Luke greeted by name. By the time they finally caught up with Leia and Han, the others had almost completed arranging one room, which they claimed had recently been empty, with two cots and a dresser.

"We'll set up the second," Luke volunteered.

Leia nodded absently, fighting with a bottom sheet and the mattress on one of the beds.

Luke led them next door, and showed them where to find the tidily stored beds and sheets, setting about making one of them up.

"Leia's room is just down the hall," he said as Anakin dragged out the disassembled dresser and began to put it together.

"How do you know?" Obi-Wan asked, setting about making the other bed with the Force, something that it had not occurred to Luke to do.

"She always is. That's why we're each going to be sharing rooms, she made sure that two rooms were kept empty for me and Han. But she wasn't expecting you, and I guess she thought it'd be best if we stayed together."

"She might be right."

"Maybe," Luke said, catching on and trying to make the bed with the Force before admitting that he didn't have the fine control necessary and returning to trying manually.

"Move aside," Obi-Wan offered, finishing with the bed for Luke.

"Thanks. We can go get you some uniforms now, unless you packed some of your clothes onto the Falcon while Father and I were… you know."

Obi-Wan smiled, "I did pack some. Let's go retrieve it, shall we?"

As they entered the corridor, Leia grabbed Luke by his collar, spinning him around. He turned to watch.

"Next time you and Han get lost in the time stream, find some way to tell me. Do you understand?" she asked dangerously.

Luke laughed, "Of course I will."

Then Leia turned to Obi-Wan and Anakin, "And as for you, the Alliance has some questions for you."