Ossus
It had been quite the sight when Anakin and company brought back a contingent of armed guards for the Jedi facility on Ossus, not to mention bodyguards for Padme and the children. Rex was the first to ask the Noghri at the entrance of the nursery what they were doing.
"We are protecting the Son and Daughter of Lord Vader," they responded.
"I see." Rex was certain he developed a twitch at that statement. He decided it was time for some real answers and went off to find Master Skywalker.
Ben was with Yoda and the ancient Jedi Master Ood Bnar, a treelike Jedi who had been awakened by Master Yoda from a several millenia long Force induced cryo-sleep. They were exploring the ancient library and found, like most of the structure under the surface, it had been largely preserved from the weapons of the ancient Sith wars. Ben had placed the Great Holocron on the pinnacle where it had originally been housed millennia ago. The only thing missing was students. Rex walked in to find them all looking at a map of the galaxy that was housed in the archives and noting the similarities and differences of the entries with their own.
"A word, Master Skywalker," Rex said stiffly.
Ben winced since he had a good enough idea of what was coming and excused himself from the ancient masters. "What can I do for you Rex?"
"Lord Vader," Rex said to Ben.
Ben grimaced. "The Noghri titled him that based on their ancient word for father."
"How was that name, Han Solo, and the Falcon on a holofilm made over 35 years ago?" Rex said. "I want some real answers."
Ben sighed and pulled out a medical kit, he had anticipated this for some time. Master Tano had been clear that Rex would ferret it out of them sooner or later. He took a blood sample from himself and gave it to Rex. "Run a comparison of my blood with the senator's, Anakin's, and Luke's, then come see me."
15 minutes later
Rex was staring at the screen in front of him squinting as if it would make the results come out any different. The computer was saying Ben was the grandson of Anakin and Senator Amidala and even more ridiculous, he was the son of the infant boy who was in the next room over. It had to be some kind of force thing so he went looking for Ben again.
"Well?" Ben asked
"Well with either you're manipulating your DNA with the Force or you're a time traveler. And I checked my DNA just to make sure you hadn't played with the computer, Rex said.
"So, your conclusion?" Ben asked.
"Ridiculously, time travel. You act close enough to the general to make it all fit. General Kenobi was certain you were related from the start," Rex said. "Speaking of the General, has he asked?"
"No, I imagine that he figured it out and doesn't want to ask as our presence here would not foretell good things," Ben said.
"Wouldn't he want the information for a plan? Rex asked.
"Most of what I know was no good the second we escaped Coruscant. Time is moving in such a way that the past is no longer a good predictor of the future," Ben said, "There will be a foe much greater than the Sith to deal with in the future, but there is time to prepare."
"I don't want to know do I?" Rex said.
"No, but uhm, Master Tano said hello," Ben answered.
Rex smiled and walked away.
Vestara came up and sat down next to Ben and put her hand in his. Ben sighed.
"You're not looking forward to going back to a planet with spiders, but we have delayed that trip long enough," Vestara said.
"I'm afraid you're right. I think just us, Han, Anakin, and Obi-Wan should make the trip. Han's getting the teenager restlessness and Anakin needs Obi-Wan. Besides Yoda, Ahsoka, the troopers, and the Noghri would be overkill in the unlikely chance the Empire discovers Ossus. After, all they didn't even find it last time until years after Endor."
Attolan
Despite Ben and Vestara's best efforts, Padme had insisted on coming anyway leaving Luke and Leia with Ahsoka and the nursery on Ossus. To Han's chagrin, C3PO had followed R2 up the ramp of the Falcon and had come along on this trip, in spite of orders to stay. The Falcon's piloting, by this point in time, had almost been hijacked completely by Ben's very young uncle who had Anakin or Ben in the copilot's spot. So, despite Ahsoka staying on Ossus, the Falcon still had the same amount of people when it landed on the dusty planet of Attolan. To Ben's relief no spiders could be seen in view of the Falcon's windshields. It was a quick walk down the hill to where the Bendu was waiting on them.
"Ahh, you have shed your burden, Anakin Skywalker, Jedi knight," the Bendu said.
"Yes, I met my father. Seems Master Qui-Gon made a mistake," Anakin said.
"Depends on the definition of a mistake; however, one should careful when jumping to conclusions. If one does not have all the data, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts," the Bendu replied. "You have, however, stepped back towards balance, but you have yet to achieve it."
"What must be done to achieve it?" Anakin asked.
"You possess greater aptitude towards the living Force than to the cosmic Force. This tendency makes you naturally more impulsive because it moves rapidly and is more changeable, like a wave on the ocean, unlike the cosmic Force which flows more like a planet rotating its sun. Thus, your natural tendency to think before you act, you will have to work on but you will be prone to impulse for life."
"Rats," Obi-Wan muttered under his breath.
"However, that makes you susceptible to misunderstanding the difference between your feelings and the Force and that, my young Knight, is where your imbalance began, where you gave into darker impulses and allowed the darkness a corner of your heart. You didn't listen to the spoken warning you were given. However, you and a guide have already began the pain of healing that rift. Find the guide and return to the planet of the twin suns and only then will you find balance. Once this task is complete, the Knights of the Galactic alliance quest will be made more certain in their fight for the future."
With the audience over, the Bendu disappeared.
Kenobi turned to Anakin. "What did he mean?"
Anakin looked at the sand and answered slowly. "My mother was killed by Tusken raiders. I killed them- the entire tribe."
"Tell me you told someone and haven't been letting this fester for years," Kenobi said.
"I told the Chancellor," Anakin said, his eyes closed.
"Anyone other than a Sith Lord?"
"Padme and Master Hett," Anakin said.
"Let's go find him, then," Ben said.
The Jedi returned to the Falcon and Han punched in a course for the nearby system of Lothal.
In the back the tension in the room was noticeable even by the non-Jedi. Anakin was looking at the floor and Obi-Wan was lost in his thoughts wondering how he had messed up so badly. Obi-Wan had a long suspected who Master Skywalker really was and how he was related to Anakin. The fact that it would require time travel - a notion the order ago gave up long ago, due to uncertainties and risk of causing worse damage than whatever caused the future one was trying to prevent- showed just how badly things had gotten. He had finally managed a look at Ben's DNA results when the doctors had run blood tests in case Padme or the children needed a transfusion. Ben had thought he had destroyed his sample but Obi-Wan had swapped the labels on their vials.
The truth was he really didn't want to know, because he was afraid it would show just how badly he had messed up training Anakin. He had strived so long to be the stable part of Anakin's life. He had read many books to try to help with his young charge. As a teenager his form of teenage rebellion against Qui-Gon was to become the rule follower in part because it was steadier than Qui-Gon's "always in the moment rash impulses" that were never explained, but somehow managed to usually work. However, it left them reeling from one disaster to another. From his research and given Anakin's background, Obi-Wan believed that stability would best thing for someone who never was certain what would happen from one day to the next. Instead, what had happened- largely due to the Chancellor's interference, he now realized - was that the two had become the team of last resort and were constantly sent into the worst situations where, inevitably, instead of Obi-Wan chasing Master Jinn around, he was chasing Anakin.
Even when he asked the Council to lighten up on the dangerous assignments, the Chancellor showed up, requesting the help of the Sith Killer and the Hero of Naboo. As he considered this fact, an incident some years ago came to mind. Obi-Wan and Anakin had been temporarily assigned to the Outbound Flight Project, in part to monitor the unstable, in Kenobi's opinion, leader Jedi Master Jorus C'Baoth who was leading the project to expand beyond the known galaxy. Chancellor Palpatine had personally appeared at one of the vessel's preplanned stopping points to request his and Anakin's help for what turned out to be a rather mundane negotiation. For some reason the parties had personally asked for them to negotiate a settlement. Outbound Flight suffered some form of catastrophe within days of their departure. The Council had felt the deaths of the Jedi aboard the Flight, including C'Baoth but no search parties were ever able to find any trace of them. How long had Sidious considered Anakin a potential apprentice? It was a dark thought he never even considered before and it made him sweat. He shuddered, thinking about how long a Sith lord had been monitoring their every move.
The Tusken incident was so closely tied to other events that he never had time to really talk to Anakin about his mother's death. Geonosis, Anakin losing his arm, the beginning of the Clone Wars and, Obi-Wan's own capture by Ventress, after a physically exhausting campaign on Jabiim just weeks later, and the torment he suffered at Ventress's hands. When he got back, Anakin was almost immediately knighted and Yoda had Ahsoka's training placed in Anakin's hands. Now he wondered, along with everything in their life, how many of their situations happened because a Sith lord had them in his sights. Obi-Wan could only wonder why he hadn't been assassinated early on. By the time Kenobi had gotten released from Ventress's trap, Anakin had seemed much better. Now he knew Master Hett had apparently been helping Anakin. Hett had long been a friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, so he was glad an actual Jedi had discussed the issue, but still he felt that he should have made more effort to talk.
Author's note
I apologize to everyone that I forgot to upload a chapter Friday. So you guys will get two chapters this week. This chapter had the misfortune of being lost and I made a story change here and decided to make what would have originally been the next chapter a seperate short story in the future titled Ben Skywalker and the Shadows of Kesh.
Next chapter at the end of the week.
Ben