Luke was actually looking forward to a day of rest. When Ahsoka first suggested it to him, he had his excuses all ready to go.
"I can't rest now. I need to supervise construction, sort the archives, check on the growth of the kyber crystals, update the parents on our status-"
But then Ahsoka threatened to send Leia after him and he had no choice. But now that he didn't have to worry about anything, and had full confidence that the others had everything under control, he felt he could finally relax.
He settled into his bed with a datapad and a cup of hot chocolate, deciding that this was a perfect day to catch up on his studies. Unfortunately... things didn't go as planned.
A splitting headache. Dizziness. Then his vision went black.
His eyes snapped open. He was in a dark throne room lit by strange blue lights, and on the throne sat an old man who was sitting in a meditative position. He slowly walked forward as he studied the old man. It didn't seem like he was dangerous... was this a vision from the Force?
"I'm afraid it's not," the man spoke, answering his thoughts.
He opened his eyes, making Luke startle a little. The man's eyes were blue, but the part that was usually white was now black, and they seemed to bore into the young Jedi's soul. Luke could feel immense power coming from him, power he had never felt before.
"Who are you?" Luke asked.
"I am Father."
He didn't explain any further.
"Oookaaay... what am I doing here?"
Father stood, making Luke step back in shock. Man was he tall, even taller than Vader.
"You must return to the past and save your father." He clasped his hands behind his back as he turned and walked around Luke. "I have spent all these years preserving my energy so that I may send you on this mission. You have saved your father once and you can do it again."
"Wait, but the prophecy was fulfilled; Ben and Master Yoda said so. If the prophecy was fulfilled, then why does it matter if he fell to the Dark Side or not?"
Father stopped walking and turned towards him with an intense gaze. "The prophecy has been twisted to fool the Jedi."
"So... you're saying the prophecy isn't true?"
Father did not answer his question. Instead he said, "The death of my children and I has left the Force unbalanced and unchecked, allowing the Bringer of Chaos to bend her will throughout the galaxy. This allowed your father to turn towards the Dark Side rather than balancing both Light and Dark within himself." He folded his hands in front of him. "This, of course, left the Force even more unbalanced and unchecked, allowing Abeloth to do as she pleases without consequence for many years. Preventing the fall of Anakin Skywalker will correct this issue. He was never meant to become a Sith."
If he could do this... if he could save his father from falling to the Dark Side, he could save so many other people. Alderaan. His aunt and uncle. Rebels who gave their lives. Innocent people who were killed. The Jedi. His mother.
"I'll do it."
"This is not a task you'll do alone," Father said as he approached Luke. "When you awake, you and a select few of your companions will be on Coruscant as your youngerselves." He placed a hand on the Jedi's shoulder. "I am sending you a year before his fall. Once your mission is completed, and all is healed, I will return you and your companions to the moment in time you should be in."
Luke nodded to show he understood.
Father raised a hand to his forehead. "May the Force be with you, Luke Skywalker."
He wouldn't get to rest after all.
When he opened his eyes, he was not in his chambers at the temple. Instead, he was in a decent sized bedroom.
"Holy kriffing hell!" A voice shouted that sounded quite familiar.
Luke slid off his bed and left the room to be greeted by a frantic looking teenager gazing at himself in the bathroom mirror. Except, this teenager looked a lot like Han. He was a few inches shorter - maybe 5'9 - and his brown hair held some curls to it.
Han looked over at him. "Kid, what the hell is going on!?"
Luke opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the door next to the bathroom opening to reveal a freaked out Leia.
"I was getting ready for a Senate meeting then I woke up to see that I'm fifteen again!" She exclaimed. "Luke, what's going on?"
"Well, I was resting in my room when-"
"Skywalker!"
Luke turned and saw a familiar redhead storming up to him. "Mara!?"
"I know you have something to do with this!" She jabbed her finger into his chest.
She was short. Way shorter than he knew her to be. Heck, even Leia was taller than her now. She stood at about 4'8 while Leia looked to be 4'11.
"Guys!" A young Ezra suddenly bounded down the hall towards them. "I'm fifteen again! This is crazy! What's going on!"
Everyone looked at Luke expectantly and he suddenly felt on the spot, something he had gotten used to, of course, with him being the Hero of the Rebellion and all.
"Okay, so, I was just resting in my room and catching up on my studies-"
"You were resting so you decided to study?" Mara asked with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.
"You rest your way, I'll rest my way," Luke replied. "Anyway, I was resting and catching up on my studies when I suddenly got this really bad headache and got dizzy then blacked out. I woke up in this weird throne room and there was this strange man who called himself Father-"
"Wait!" Ezra interrupted. "His name is actually Father?"
"Yes, pay attention. Anyway, he said that Anakin Skywalker was never supposed to fall to the Dark Side, and him doing so left the Force unbalanced and unchecked which allowed this Abeloth woman to do as she pleases without any consequences. So... we have to save him."
His friends were silent and looking at him wide-eyed.
"And if we fail, we'll be the ones dooming the galaxy to chaos."
"No pressure or anything," Han said sarcastically.
"Welcome to my world," Luke deadpanned.
"We can talk about this later," Mara said. "We have to go to school."
Luke blinked. He knew she was right, but he didn't know how he knew. In fact, he seemed to know a lot of things he hadn't known before: he was an orphan (obviously) living in Applegate Orphanage and their director was Ms. Applegate, his last name was Starkiller, he was left on the doorstep of the orphanage and he went to Coruscant School for Troubled Youth.
"I don't have school, I have work," Han said with a slightly disgusted look on his face. "I'm eighteen."
"At least you graduated," Luke pointed out. "I have to go to a school for troubled kids."
Ezra grinned. "Hey! Me too!"
Mara cringed. "I have to go with both of you!?"
"I guess I'm the only one going to a normal high school," Leia said.
Luke huffed. "Of course the only one of us with an actual education gets to go to a normal high school. School for troubled kids - I wasn't that bad as a kid!"
"Okay, this Father character obviously gave us some memories so we'd be able to know how to get around," Mara said. "Let's just continue our routine so no one gets suspicious and we'll talk about this later."
"We can probably talk at Dex's Diner since that's where I work apparently," Han said. He still didn't look too thrilled at the idea of having a job that didn't require endangering his life.
Leia nodded. "Okay, we'll all meet at Dex's Diner after school."
Luke nodded in agreement and the group of adults turned teens split to return to their rooms to gather their things. Now he was able to get a better look at his room.
There were several posters of ships on the walls. Closet doors were on the far wall to his left, and to his right was one window with a desk next to it. He had a nice view of Coruscant and all the speeders... and the Jedi Temple.
He stared at the temple. His father could be in there at this moment - and Ahsoka as well. He could be making a decision that could doom the galaxy. Or maybe he's just training his Padawan. Either way, no matter how much he longed to go meet his father, to know what he was like before his fall, he knew he had to stay away... at least for now.
He spotted a familiar yellow jacket on his desk chair - it looked like it had been carelessly tossed - and grinned. At least Father gave him his favorite flight jacket. He slipped it on and noticed for the first time he was wearing black fingerless leather gloves. Then he realized he had his hand back.
He opened and closed his fist then wiggled his fingers. He had forgotten what it felt like to have an actual right hand rather than a prosthetic.
His eyes glanced down and spotted a bag sitting on the floor next to the desk. He picked it up. It was one of those crossbody bags - he had one on Tatooine - that was tannish-brown sporting several patches: a V-19 Torrent Starfighter, the 501st battalion, the Galactic Republic Navy, and one with two hands and broken chains with the words "Free The Slaves" under it.
He opened the bag and dumped the contents out on the bed to see what he had. An imagecaster, datapad, a few power converters, a communicator, flimsipad, pen, and a small pouch of credits. But no lightsaber. He frowned. Well, he survived nineteen years without a lightsaber, he could do one more.
He gathered his things and closed the bag before putting the single strap over his head so it could rest on his side. He rushed out of his room and walked down the hall Mara and Ezra came from to find the stairs. His friends were waiting for him and the bottom - a few kids ran past the teenagers, laughing as they played.
Luke opened his mouth to speak.
"What are you five doing just standing around!?"
They jumped at the loud feminine yet strict voice and turned to the source: a tall woman with dark hair pulled back in a bun, fair skin, dark eyes, and wearing a simble long black dress with a turtleneck and long sleeves. Her expression was less than kind.
At first, Luke didn't recognize her, but then the answer came to his head. She was Ms. Hardwood, the strict co-director of the orphanage.
"All of you have places to be! I don't want to be getting another call because of your tardiness!"
Well, she seems like such a pleasant woman. Luke thought.
"GET MOVING!" She shouted when none of them moved.
The teens immediately rushed out, not wanting to face whatever kind of wrath the woman could unleash on them.
"We're on Coruscant," Mara observed as she gazed at the airspeeders, speederbikes, and tall sleek buildings.
"How are we going to get around?" Ezra asked.
Luke searched for an answer, then a came to him like a flash; from the look on the other's faces, he knew they had the same flash of memory. The orphanage had a garage for transportation.
They entered the garage and Luke walked up to an orange and white speeder bike that he knew was his. It sort of reminded him of his X-Wing, which he really missed right now.
"This is a piece of junk!" Han suddenly exclaimed.
Luke looked up to see his sister and brother-in-law standing in front of a crudely repaired airspeeder.
"It's no different than the Falcon, Han," Leia said with an exasperated look on her face.
Han gave her an incredulous look. "How dare you compare her to this... thing!"
Leia rolled her eyes and shoved him towards the driver's seat. "Let's just go! I want to get this over with so we can make a plan!"
Luke smirked in amusement at the couple as Ezra approached the speederbike next to Luke's.
"Cool!" He wore a wide grin as he got on it. "I used to steal these on Lothal. Except they were newer."
"We're twenty-five years in the past," Luke said as he got on his speederbike. "So these models are way old."
Han and Ezra started up their vehicles and exited the garage. Luke looked over at Mara, who was scanning the garage with her calculating emerald green eyes.
"You have a way to get there?" He asked.
Her slight frown told him everything he needed to know. "I'll figure it out."
"Get on."
She blinked and looked at him. "What?"
"Get on. We can ride together."
She opened her mouth to protest, but finding no argument against why she shouldn't ride with him, she pushed down her pride and got on the bike behind him. Her arms slowly wrapped around his waist, making his face heat up at their close proximity.
The bike hummed to life. Luke was dreading going to a school for troubled kids.