Chapter 43
The Game Is Up

"—who cleared you to fly?" A furious female voice, crisp and cold, cut the air in the corridor as the medbay doors opened.

"I don't do flight physicals." The reply was muffled but curt, accompanied by the hiss of an oxygen machine and the harmony of various monitor beeps. "This has never happened before. I'm sure it won't happen again."

Obi-Wan, the twins, and Ahsoka stepped into the bay as a blue-skinned Twi'lek medic in late middle age said, "You idiot! This will happen every time you fly. You have a Class III life support system. For your lungs to cope with those g-forces, you would have to be encased in a sealed suit equipped with armor plating to absorb the g's, and even then, you'd need a respirator pumping one hundred percent O2 into your lungs at a controlled rate. And a pacemaker. And it would still be ill-advised!" She rounded on the intruders. "Who are you? I'm having a confidential discussion with my patient. Get out."

"These are his children," Obi-Wan said feebly.

"In that case, they may stay if he agrees. Are you also family?"

"Ahh…What?...N-No." Obi-Wan stuttered, regret clawing at the back of his throat as he stared at the array of medical equipment.

"Yes," Anakin said, firm tone clear despite the transparent mask over his mouth and nose. He met Obi-Wan's eyes gravely. His own were piercingly blue as he said deliberately, "My brother and sister are the guardians of my children. They may stay."

Obi-Wan struggled for a breath past the tight band that had constricted his chest.

"Very well," the medic said tartly to Obi-Wan, oblivious of the momentous byplay. "Then perhaps he will listen to you. He informs me he is not officially a part of the Alliance, so I'm not sure why he's being treated in an Alliance medbay. Anyway, he insists I can't ground him. But his health is seriously compromised. Who thought he could fly combat?"

Obi-Wan rubbed the stubble on his chin helplessly, still reeling from all that had been unspoken in his exchange with Anakin. It was a struggle to focus on the medic's question. "He did. He's been doing it all his life."

"But since he's been on life support?"

"As I understand it, yes. He has flown combat regularly since he was injured."

"How?" The medic stared at Anakin, lekku twitching with perturbation.

"A life support suit, of course," said Anakin. It was difficult to tell under the oxygen mask, but Obi-Wan thought his small smile was bitter. "And it was much as you describe—armor plating, sealed, all of it. I haven't flown combat since getting out of it—well, once, but not in a fighter. I wonder if he knew…" He exchanged a speculative glance with Obi-Wan. Now the smile was definitely bitter. "Probably not, come to think of it. Force forbid I enjoy something…"

Uninterested in Anakin's ruminations, the medic prompted in an exasperated tone, "And what happened that one time?"

"I passed out after we jumped to hyperspace."

She grunted in vindication. "And that experience didn't prompt you to seek a medical evaluation? Perhaps consider the notion that flying in your condition was not a good idea?" Her sarcasm could have flayed a man with the tone alone.

"I assumed it was because my oxygen ran out about then." He sat up, checked his hip, and pulled off the oxygen mask.

"What are you doing?" The medic's face and lekku darkened to an apoplectic midnight blue.

Calmly removing monitor leads, he said, "Leaving sickbay, of course. I feel fine, and I have things to do."

She slapped her hand over the lead he was prying off his chest. "You are not fit to leave. I need to monitor you for a full standard day to be certain there are no ill-effects."

"I don't have time to lounge in medical. And I'm sick of hospitals. I've spent most of the past eighteen years receiving substandard medical care—"

"Substandard! My care is not substandard—"

"Anakin," Obi-Wan reproved in bemusement. Apparently some things hadn't changed. His former padawan—his brother (and he was still off balance from the shock of it)—even now had no common sense when it came to recovery. And no tact, either.

"What?"

"I know you didn't intend it, but you implied her care is inadequate."

Anakin inclined his head in a shallow bow. "My apologies. I'm certain your care is excellent, and I'm grateful you checked me over. However, I know that I am fine, and I do have things I must attend to. I am leaving."

"Stay in sickbay." Obi-Wan placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. "I already spoke with Dodonna. As well as Mothma and Organa by long-distance comm. We'll be rendezvousing with them both as soon as they can get here."

Anakin stilled. "Organa? And Mothma? Why?"

"Because the first squadron leader back to Geonosis had his astromech send Dodonna a recording of your little exchange with Tarkin. The general was understandably aghast that he didn't know your full identity and contacted Mothma." Obi-Wan slanted a wary glance at the medic. Anakin had no idea how precarious his situation was at this moment. "They shot an emergency message off to Organa immediately. I've managed to talk them down from taking any drastic actions until he arrives."

"You mean, like arresting me?"

"Something like that." Obi-Wan pressed him to lie back. Anakin resisted. "I think he'll be able to persuade them to let you carry out the rest of your plans. In any event, I'm certain those destroyers have already sent a message to Imperial Center about the Death Star. For once in your life, listen to Medic…?"

"Pran'ta," she said.

"—Medic Pran'ta, and get the care you need before chaos breaks loose again." Taking in the stubborn set of Anakin's jaw, he added, "Who's being the hypocrite now?"

"If that isn't the dianoga calling the rancor ugly!" Anakin threw his hands in the air.

Obi-Wan crossed his arms. He hated to acknowledge that he might also lack common sense when it came to proper medical care. There was no telling what Anakin would do with such a concession in the future. However, he wasn't about to pass up such effective leverage at this moment. "Very well. I'll make a bargain with you. You get back in bed and let the medic monitor you, and the next time I need medical care, I will remain as long as the doctors recommend."

Anakin glared at him for a long moment before he relented. "Fine," he said, leaning back against the inclined bed. "Just this once. But only if you give me a status report and explain why Luke and Leia are in flightsuits. Why they are here at all, come to think of it." He eyed them severely. "You're supposed to be at the Rebel base."

"Ah, yes." Obi-Wan dragged a chair up and sank into it. He couldn't resist the amusement and anticipation that bubbled up at the thought of Anakin getting a taste of his own medicine…Not to mention that needling each other had always been one of their favorite pastimes. "Well, it seems that your children have inherited more than Force sensitivity from you. You are now not the only Skywalker to have saved the day by blowing up a space station in his first battle. Though Luke, to be fair, is twice the age you were when you accomplished the feat. So you maintain some bragging rights, I suppose."

He settled back to enjoy the show.

Anakin stared at the twins. "You destroyed the Death Star?"

"Uh, yeah." Luke's sheepish grin was back.

"You flew in a space battle underage." Anakin nearly bit the words off.

"Um, yes." Luke looked more nervous than pleased now, but rallied. "But—Obi-Wan just said you did too…" He trailed off at his father's unimpressed look.

"Who cleared you to fly without a guardian's permission?" Anakin glowered at Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. "Unless one of you was so foolish as to sign paperwork for them?"

"Oh, no. We didn't," said Ahsoka drily. "Apparently, they persuaded the training officer to let them fly sims while we were analyzing the plans. And their scores were so impressive that when this mission came down, Red Leader agreed to let them fly, on the understanding that their eighteenth birthday is three days away."

Anakin's nostrils flared. He narrowed his eyes at the twins. "You persuaded him? Is that code for a mind trick?" His damaged voice grated out the words.

"Of course not!" Leia's cheeks flamed with indignation. "A mind trick just to get sim time is an immoral use of the Force. We wouldn't do that."

"Mind tricks are never a moral use of the Force," Anakin said sharply.

Luke and Leia exchanged puzzled looks.

"Why not?" Luke said.

"Because using your power to override someone else's will is equivalent to slavery, in effect if not in intent," Anakin replied.

Obi-Wan sat up straight. "That's a very strong statement, and I still think it's an oversimplification."

"But what about—" Luke started.

"Guys," Ahsoka cut in, "we can discuss philosophy and ethics later, when we have more time. This could go on for days and still not resolve anything. Can we get back on topic? You asked for sim time—without a mind trick—and…"

"And they said we could." Luke jutted his chin out.

"I think the officer on duty was bored and thought it would be fun to watch us crash and burn." Leia grinned a little shyly. "He was pretty surprised when Luke flew the first practice run perfectly."

"Yeah, he did look kind of like a beached fish when I got out of the cockpit." Luke slung his arm around his sister. "And then Leia had a turn. He wasn't too impressed that all her flight experience had been in atmo. But we flew the Boonta Eve course last week—"

"You did what?" Anakin turned his glare on Ahsoka.

"You told me to keep them on Tatooine. In a junk shop. With nothing to do." She crossed her arms and flicked her lekku. "What else was I supposed to do with them? I rented one of those tourist podracers—you know, the replicas they make of the famous racers' pods. They can't go as fast, but they give you something of the idea."

Anakin did not relax his glare. "G'hizu does not allow tourists to fly the pods. He has his own pilots."

"I…may have paid him extra to fly it myself?"

Anakin continued to stare her down.

She sighed. "And…maybe I let the twins take the stick once we were out on the course."

Anakin reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose [and bumped into his oxygen mask. He dropped his hand irritably]. "I told them how dangerous podracing is—"

"Podracing, Skyguy. There was no race. Just us, flying the course." She waved a hand at the twins. "Leia's been maneuvering through canyons since she was tiny, and I've made sure Luke has plenty of experience in all sorts of conditions—space and atmospheric. I knew they'd be fine. They're your kids, after all."

"It was great," Luke interrupted. "Best flying of my life. Well, until today, I guess."

Obi-Wan smothered a chuckle behind his hand. Fortunately, Anakin's attention was fully occupied with the three malefactors.

"Relax, Dad," Leia said in a patronizing tone that amused Obi-Wan. How things had changed in the past week. "It didn't even go as fast or high as the skyhopper, and I've flown that through Beggar's Canyon lots of times."

"Because podracers aren't designed to fly at altitude," Anakin gritted out.

"Only to be fast," Obi-Wan said in a placid tone. "I doubt they would have been in much danger. I seem to recall seeing race footage of a certain pod executing a rather daring recovery from exceeding its altitude limits just this week."

Anakin turned his glare on Obi-Wan. "Sebulba forced me onto that service ramp—I didn't do that by choice. And I was an experienced podracer when I did it."

"You were, as I recall, nine years old and had never finished a race. I don't believe that qualifies as experienced."

"I was more experienced than they are."

Obi-Wan waved a hand negligently. "I suppose. For a given definition of experienced. But we've gotten off the subject again. Weren't we trying to find out how they came to fly today?"

"Yes." Anakin turned steely eyes back to the twins. "Continue. You flew a pod through Beggar's Canyon." An arrested thought flitted across his face. Voice filled with untold loathing, he added as an aside, "I sincerely hope it wasn't Sebulba's pod."

Ahsoka laughed. "I am well aware of your feelings about Sebulba. No, I picked a replica of Soggan Vetric's pod. So…?" She looked at Luke. "What does that have to do with your foolhardy participation in this mission?"

"You saw her. Leia navigated the course perfectly at maximum speed. Well, the replica's maximum speed. So I suggested the training officer give her an atmospheric simulation with obstacles. He was skeptical, but he did it. And Leia aced it."

"Well, that one." Leia nibbled her bottom lip. "I was pretty pathetic in the space sims."

"Only the first few," Luke said. "You were just figuring out how to compensate for not having atmospheric resistance. Give yourself some credit."

"I guess. But don't try to tell me you didn't laugh when I kept running into the carrier on the landing sim. I heard you."

"Well, okay. We did. It was pretty funny. Especially your face that time you ran through two fighters and then hit the side of the carrier."

"Hey, it wasn't easy! The controls were way more sensitive than the skyhopper."

"I bet. But you picked it up fast. It only took you what—five runs?"

"Yeah."

"That's pretty good. So then he had us fly as wingmates against opponents—we hadn't flown any combat sims yet, just the ones to orient us to the fighter. And, well—"

"Let me guess," said Ahsoka, "you aced that too."

"Not exactly." Leia wrinkled her nose. "I mean, we did okay, but it's not like we had perfect scores or anything."

"Okay? Leia!" Luke protested. "We scored high enough to be on the leaderboard. They just didn't put our names up because we aren't actually part of the Alliance."

"We did?" She shrugged his arm off her shoulder to face him. "How do you know?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "I asked. There's always a sort of competitive aspect to these sorts of things. Rex told me when the vod'e were training—"

"Let's try not to go off on a tangent again," Obi-Wan suggested. "So the long and the short of it is that you both performed well in the simulators."

"Yeah," Leia said with another small smile. "At least until that TIE Advanced dropped on us. It was embarrassing how fast it shot us down."

"Yeah, it kinda was," Luke agreed, "but did you know the TIE was modeled on Dad?"

"What? Really?"

Both twins turned to gape at Anakin, admiration shining in their eyes. Obi-Wan was torn between dismay and delight. Oh, this was delicious. Maybe he could resign his post as perpetual Skywalker wingmate now, and Anakin could walk a kilometer—or fly a klick—in Obi-Wan's shoes.

Anakin cocked his head, vanity piqued, if Obi-Wan knew the signs. "The Rebels have sims of my TIE fighter? How'd they get that?"

"I asked the deck officer," said Luke. "He told me the sim was modeled on a battle at Lothal, the first time the Alliance saw the TIE Advanced fly. They studied the films and wrote it into the simulation. So—well, at least from a certain point of view—you could say it took Darth Vader to knock you out of the sky. Not bad, sis." Luke grinned at her and bumped her shoulder. The Force hummed contentedly between them, but Obi-Wan caught a glimpse of Medic Pran'ta's face. Oh, this was bad. Possibly very bad.

"You're Darth Vader!?"

Anakin looked at her solemnly, shields durasteel tight all at once. "I was."

She stared at him for long moments.

"Do you want me to leave your medical bay?"

She pursed her lips, sharp lines carving themselves beside her nose. "Yes. But you are a patient in need of care, regardless of what I think of you. I swore an oath to treat the ill and injured, and I won't break it just because you are a brutal, vicious, murderous, traitorous ball of scum." Grimly she began hooking up the monitors again and the chorus of beeps and hums resumed.