WPRT (Updated 2021)

(A/N: Sorry for the delay everyone. The co-author had a major medical problem that required her to go to the emergency room at a hospital. She was there for a few days and it threw our schedule off track. She is still recovering mentally from the experience. Thank you for your patience. On a side note this chapter has a lot of recaps, but it has some scenes never brought up.)

Ch. 23

Of Reminiscence and History

Aaron:

Walking with Kit Fisto to the council chambers, all of us heard a voice behind us. Padmé was waving frantically to us while she was running.

Jo spoke to the tired looking senator, "What is it Padmé? Did something happen?"

She eventually caught up to us panting, "Yes, I just got permission to be there at your meeting. They said I have been around you enough to know the whole tale."

Jo was ecstatic, "That's great! We hoped they would let you after all you have done."

Padmé smiled more at Jo's remark.

Breaking away from the touching moment, Kit Fisto told us to move along so we wouldn't keep the council waiting any longer.

We walked into the Council's chamber after releasing our weapons to the jedi acting as a guard. The Jedi was a man with yellow face tattoos and dreadlocks, and was referred to as Quinlan Vos; Courtesy of Kit Fisto greeting the man. He seemed kind enough, but Vos had a strange look when we handed in our lightsabers. Especially our slug throwers, in which he seemed to be adamantly interested in my 1911. All the man did was stare at it absentmindedly.

I ignored his actions as we walked into the window filled room that had a wonderful view of the city. The chamber itself was filled with chairs that each held different races. More than half of them I remembered from the arena, while the others were even more foreign to me.

Is that guy a snake?! How does he go to the restroom?!

The yellow alien whom I had just thought of stared at us with an annoyed look. The others were having similar expressions to us, save for Barriss and the few from Geonosis. We had made it to the center of the room, and we could feel the pressure given off from these council members. It was what I assumed was a part of their powers at this point. Jo was shaking a little at my side, so I put a hand on her shoulder and she calmed down. When she looked my way, I gave her a nod as she gave me one. Kit Fisto then walked away from our group and rested his back on a wall near the entrance, eager to see what this meeting would bring about.

Then Windu spoke up for the council.

"Now that everyone is here, we can begin. Barriss you are dismissed."

Barriss bowed as she turned to leave. I could tell she was somewhat sad about it. The girl started to exit the room when I exclaimed, "Wait!"

She did just that and looked at me, I nodded her way and I turned back around. Windu was confused, "Is there a problem?"

"She may as well be here for this, Barriss has already been informed of our world so she could stay here and confirm what we say is true."

The council looked at one another, giving each other a glance that they used to communicate their thoughts.

Yoda was the one who broke the ice, "Very well, approve of this we do. The whole truth at this point deserves it, she does. And bring in Obi-wan and his padawan."

Barriss gave a sigh of relief as a few of the Jedi, the snake one included, were upset as if they were undermined from the order they had given.

There goes my power again, at least I didn't have a melt down like before.

The doors opened once more to reveal the Jedi duo. Obi-wan looked better than he had, and Anakin had a full length glove over his cybernetic arm.

If I didn't know that was robotic, I would have thought nothing had happened to his arm.

The two Jedi stopped right where we were standing and bowed to the Jedi masters.

"Greetings, Obi-wan and Anakin, glad we are, you being at this meeting. Foreigners are they, and the first Jedi they met were you. Coincidence, this is not."

"Yoda-?"

The yellow, snake-bodied Jedi firmly cut me off with the raise of one of his boney fingers and said, "Master Yoda."

I closed my eyes in annoyance and opened them as I continued, "Master Yoda, my sister and I were wondering where Jango is right now?"

The long-headed humanoid I helped at the arena answered my question.

"He is being held at the temple holding cells for his trial tomorrow. Another purpose for this investigation of you and your sister is to verify who you are so you can testify for him. That is what we all assumed you would want."

Boba sighed in relief, while Jo decided to ask a question of her own.

"Then what's the other reason aside from maybe helping us find our world? Couldn't your Republic do the same things that you said?"

The Small Jedi master spoke up again, "Perceptive, you are. Other reasons we have, some that the republic cannot help you with."

The stoic Windu continued, "This meeting is best left for us and not senators. Save for Miss Amidala here. She has not tried to exploit you in any way thus far."

Padmé bowed slightly.

"You are too kind, Master Windu."

I spoke up this time, "Not to be rude, you still didn't answer her question."

The members looked at each other once more. Master Windu began again, "Indeed, we would prefer to answer it after the questions we will have from your story. We can only really tell you after we know who you really are."

"Ok?"

"To start off, could you state your name and age for the council, just for the record."

The eldest of us went first, "Joanne Shepherd. I also go by Jo, but you're welcome to call me whatever you would like. I am 25 years old."

I nodded to Bossk, who probably expecting to not say a thing in the meeting.

"Oh, uh, I am Bossk of Trandosha. 21 years old and a bounty hunter extraordinaire!"

The female human looking master spoke up, "Oh we know all about you 'bounty hunter', it is to say that it is a surprise that you were allowed to even enter this temple without cuffs."

The trandoshan proceeded to pull at the collar of his flight suit nervously.

"That's enough Master Billaba."

"Sorry Master Windu."

I turned to the kid and signal him to speak up as well.

The boy cleared his throat, "My name is Boba Fett. I'm 14."

Master Windu answered, "Yes, Jango Fett's son. As you have heard, your Father is being held for his trial. After this meeting, we could take you to see him if you'd like."

A smile grew on Boba's face, "Yes, I would like that."

Windu then proceeded to signal me speak, and I did, "Aaron Shepherd. I'm 23."

Then the man started the meeting "Now we can officially begin the meeting-"

He stopped and looked in the direction of my sister. I then proceeded to do the same and saw my sister with her hand raised.

"You don't need to have your hand raised to ask a question, Miss Shepherd."

She put it down nervously and said, "O-oh, sorry, I just want to know what your names are. We know some of you but not everyone by name."

Yoda proceeded to laugh, "Alright, that is. We forget sometimes that not everyone knows the names of Jedi. Around the room we'll go and our names we will say. Yoda."

The Jedi master then turned to Windu who replied, "Mace Windu."

Then the next person was an alien with a metal mask in the place where you would expect his mouth to be, and metal pieces with holes where his eyes were, "My name is Plo Koon young ones, and my kind are referred to as Kel Dor."

Yoda then turned his attention to the man next to him with the long head, "The race I am from are called the Cereans. My name is Ki-Adi-Mundi, and I want to thank you Shepherd for helping Aayla and I at the arena."

I nodded to indicate that it was my pleasure as the alien with the horns protruding from his head from his side's down took over, "I am an Iktotchi and my name is Saesee Tiin."

Next was one of the few women in the room and to say that she was the most exotic person in there was an understatement. Like the young girl we met before, the woman had a shell of sorts like a headpiece instead of hair. It had two horn-like structures on top with tail extensions that had blue stripes across them, which were draped gracefully over her shoulders, "My people are known by the name Togruta and my name is Shaak Ti."

Beside her was a man who looked like a dwarf that had big elf ears that slouched down, and had a scar over one of his eyes. On the top of his head was what could be described as a pony tail that went over the back of his head

"My name is Even Piell. Our species are called the Lannik."

Next up was Grumpy Yellow Snake. His lower half was that which would be similar to that of a snake. The upper part was humanoid enough, save for his long, bony fingers. The hair on his head was extraordinarily long, as was his beard which covered up most of the face.

"Master Oppo Rancisis, my people are known as the Thisspaisians."

His prideful remark went unnoticed by most of the council as up next was one of the other women. She looked human enough, but what I had assumed was a hat was actually a scaled scalp that's associated with the milky white tendrils that dangled over her shoulders.

"My name is Adi Gallia, my kind are referred as Tholothians."

It was then the Jedi had a somber feeling around them when they turned to look at the empty chair next to Adi.

"Trebor Coleman, was he. Killed by Jango, he was."

The revelation Yoda had given hit us all. Bariss was now shocked at this revelation while the rest of us looked at each other knowingly.

Of all the Jedi he had to kill, it had to be a council member… wait?

"Did Jango tell you?"

Mace spoke up, "He did, and it's better this way that he confessed it himself. Though he said he did it in self defense, we can't just take his word for it. We hope this meeting can reveal the truth about the matter."

"Right…"

Up next was a man that had spikes on the top front half of his head while the back held long black hair. His face appeared to have ridges in his skin, the lines on each side were symmetrical.

"My name is Eeth Koth and I am a Zabrak."

And finally, the last councilman was the woman that made fun of Bossk. She had twin brown braids that met behind her head. It reminded me of traditional German hairstyles. She shuffled a bit before saying, "I am Depa Billaba."

With that, everyone said their peace. It was time. Mace went first.

"If there is nothing more, we can begin. Now Shepherd, we have been told that you and your sister are from another galaxy. "

"Yes sir, or well, so we think."

"Oh?"

"Well, my sister and I have thought it over and we think our world 'could' be in your galaxy, but the fact we have only met until now doesn't make it seem likely. On our planet 'Earth', our governments have been sending high powered signals into space for decades and have had no response."

This puzzled the Jedi immensely. Shaak Ti decided to ask the million dollar question.

"Then how did you end up here?"

Rancisis hastily interrupted, "Are we really going to believe something like this? Beings outside of our galaxy? The force flows through our galaxy alone. The mere idea of life outside our own is preposterous. Look at your armor Shepherd. Clearly it comes from our galaxy."

I cleared my throat, "I can only answer that later in the meeting. If you will let us, we can tell you what happened prior to us waking up on Tatooine, or what we remember at least. It may be the best first step for you to understand our… predicament."

"Very well, try to make it brief as we still have plenty of other questions."

"Yes Master Windu. It began with a camping trip."

XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

FEW HOURS BEFORE THE "INCIDENT"...

"...~The trees are the sappiest

~The days are the nappiest

~The dogs are the yappiest

~The kids are the scrappiest

~The jokes the snappiest

~And the folks

~The folks the happiest

~Way back home…"

"Aaron?... AARON!"

The sound of my sister woke me up from my restful nap. I stopped Bob Crosby's song and took off my headphones to answer her.

"Yeah?"

"We're a minute out from Turkey Run. So wake up sleepy head, we need you to help us set up for our spot some time today!"

"Yeah yeah I know, the trip was our idea, not yours."

"Yes, and I want to get it over with as soon as possible. We have class next week and I would like to spend my last spring break in bed at some point."

My friend Eugene pointed out to her, "But you will be in bed tonight."

"My own bed, thank you very much. I don't want to sleep on the ground. That isn't my idea of fun."

Thomas spoke up this time, "Don't worry about it JoJo, I choose the spot this year. We are going to make sure we set up on the nicest ground we can find."

"Somehow that doesn't reassure me Tom, and stop calling me Jojo."

"Only when you stop calling me Tom."

My sister sighed in defeat.

Not long after our discussion, we arrived. We had parked the SUV in a spot close to one of the hiking trails and started to unload our stuff. Even though our group had four people, we still had to make at least two trips with what we had with us. One for camping equipment, and the other for our laptops and homework.

Eugene stretched out his arms and yawned while saying, "Why do we have homework for Spring break? I mean come on, Spring BREAK?!"

"Hey we would have been done, if somebody hadn't decided to procrastinate their side of the project and hold us back EUGENE."

"Well EXCUSE ME, Princess. I just thought it would be nice to actually put thought into the trip this time. Unlike last year Jo!"

"Hey don't blame me, how was I supposed to know that we placed our spot next to a skunk's nest!"

"Three days Jo, it took THREE DAYS to get that smell out of my clothes!"

"I told you before, I'm not an outdoor person like you all are!"

Thomas decided to break it up, "Jo, Eugene? Can you please calm down? We're here."

All of us looked around. It was nothing special, all that it had going for it was a clear view over a cliff.

"Are you sure you want this spot Thomas?"

"Don't worry Aaron. This is a perfect spot for a little surprise I got for you all later tonight."

Ok?

"If you say so Thomas."

All of us looked around for a good spot for the tents and placed what bags we had with us down. I took a deep breath and exhaled before taking charge.

"Alright! So now we need to set up camp. Jo, Thomas? Could you go back to the SUV to get Homework while Eugene and I go get some firewood? I figured Jo doesn't want to pick up some old dirty sticks."

"You guessed right. Let's go Tom."

"All right JoJo."

Eugene instantly proclaimed loudly, "~JOOOJO!~"

I could hear my sister groan at the reference as they walked out of earshot.

"Good call on the split up."

"Yeah, I don't like it when you argue with my sister, Eugene."

"Well I can't help it if your sister is so annoying."

"Hey, don't forget that it's that same sister who decided to bring you food while you were in that hospital when your parents were out of state and not able to show up."

This got Eugene to shut up, "Alright, I get your point. I'll try, but she doesn't make it easy."

I laughed, "She never does…"

The rest of the time we were quiet as we gathered up dry sticks and branches. After a few minutes we had enough for a fire for the night and started our trek back to base. As we walked along, I decided to ask a question to my long time friend, "So, what do you think of the site Thomas chose? Kind of plain, don't you think?"

"He's a plain guy."

"Yeah, he's plain, but not like this. What did he mean that he has a surprise for us? I mean he said that it had something to do with the place he chose."

"Who knows what it is? The mind of Thomas is an enigma."

You can say that again.

"Yeah…. Hey, about our guns-."

Eugene silenced me with his free hand, "Shhh, keep it down! Jo could be in earshot, we'll talk about it later. If she knew what we had she would flip her lid."

After my friend removed his hand, I decided to whisper to Eugene, "I know, but when will we trade, and how do we get to try out our weapons with Jo around."

"The three of us are going to go on a hike while your sister stays at camp."

"Dude, you're a genius! Jo hates hiking. Man, this is going to be great!"

Eugene' s ego grew from my complement and proceeded to brag like he normally would, "You bet I'm a genius! I bet I could outsmart old Einstein in a Math Bowl-."

As the Genius was talking, he failed to see the branch that hit his head. It caused him to fall on the ground with all of the dirty sticks flung all over the place. The scene reminded me too much of something you would see in a Looney Toons cartoon. I laughed so hard I bent over dropping my sticks. Eventually, Eugene started laughing too. We laughed together like brothers would.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We beat my sister and Thomas back to the campsite and stacked the spare wood off to the side while using the rest of the wood to start the fire. When they did make it back to the camp, they caught us putting the finishing touches on the tents. In their hands were the homework bags and marshmallows.

Nice…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was dark now, and the fireflies were out and about. It was a sight to behold with all of the stars visible. It was the perfect condition for stargazing, which is what we were doing.

"There's Orion's belt, and right there's the Little Dipper."

"So that would mean that's the North star at the top of it?"

"That's right Jo. You're getting good at this."

"Well I'll never be as good as Eugene when it comes to knowing that stuff."

I laughed, "That's why he's doing that for his part of the project."

"Run by me again what our theme is."

"The Universe, the solar system, our world, recent history."

"Yeah, but what's the theme?"

"Everything."

"...Right."

We said nothing for a while, crickets in the distance and the cackling of fire was music to our ears while we laid in our soft sleeping bags.

We were about to fall asleep, until Eugene asked one thing, "Hey Thomas, why did you want to pick this spot?"

"Oh I'll show you later. Maybe around 3:00 or 3:30 AM? That sounds good?"

What?

"Sure man, whatever you say…"

That is such a Thomas thing to say, 3 A.M. my butt. What's he up to?

Any other train of thought was stopped by a snap of a twig nearby.

All of us shot up to look around for the source.

Jo nervously asked "hello" and waited for a response. A few moments later a little squirrel ran by, making us all sigh in relief.

Eugene then got up from his bag and stated, "Well, I'm going to hit the sack. You're all welcome to join me."

Only Thomas agreed and followed after him leaving Jo and I alone.

"Well, day one of our trip's activities are over. What's the plan for tomorrow?" Jo asked hesitantly.

"Sleep."

"Good."

With that we settled in our spots for the night. I checked my phone to see that it was 10:00 P.M.

Now… I know I'm forgetting something, but what?"

I ignored that thought and closed my eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"... Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men will plunder?..."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

PRESENT:

Oh… now I remember. I forgot to turn off my alarm for bed, but it saved me ironically. We only slept for an hour, so why did we wake up face first in the sand? I only have one answer to this problem and it's beyond what I can prove. Well, now is as good a time as any time to say it.

"We believe we were teleported some time after we fell asleep…"

None of the council members said anything, and neither did our new friends. The council all appeared sceptical, even Master Yoda had a look of doubt. Our friends however were more worried for us if the council believed us or not. Nothing was being said by anyone else, so I continued,

"It's the only theory we have. When we woke up we were face down in the sand on Tatooine in the middle of nowhere, and there were some burns and scrapes all over us. We didn't crash a ship because there was no wreckage of any kind except for the stuff we brought with us, and our friends were nowhere to be found."

Ki-Adi-Mundi spoke up, "They could have crashed somewhere else on that planet. You said so yourself that you and your sister were face down in the sand. You could have fallen from a falling ship."

"We wouldn't have survived a fall like that if it was a falling ship." I stated as a matter of fact.

The man was puzzled, "Really, I would have assumed with your… potential… you could have cushioned your fall and you both just simply have amnesia."

Potential? What exactly are they hiding?

I spoke again, "Well, I don't know what 'potential' you are speaking of, but I do know we would not be able to do something like that if it was a falling ship, plus I think I have a good memory of my life up till now."

All of the members in the room were giving each other a surprised expression, and once more… my power activated on them.

"They don't know…"

"Know what?" I whispered to myself.

This did not go unnoticed by Mace and Yoda, but they chose to ignore it for now.

"And besides, our people haven't even made it to one of our neighboring worlds when we have sent probes outside the solar system."

Shaak Ti asked a question this time, "Solar System? That's your system's name?"

My sister and I sighed as I went on, "Yes, our system is called the 'sun' system and the world we come from is called Earth, which means a clump of dirt. "

My sister then interjected, "Not to mention when we woke up we thought we were in the middle of the Sahara desert, which means desert."

Mace proceeded to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose, "We are getting off topic of your arrival to our galaxy. Now, you said your people haven't left your system, do they not know how?"

I sighed in disappointment while scratching my head, "Only theoretically, but it would require a lot of our people to be behind that project. For that to happen they would need a good enough reason, either global threat or money. I would say the latter really, but don't take it the wrong way. There's an effort to have interstellar travel. It's just that it would probably take a few more centuries at the rate they're going."

To everyone's surprise, Anakin asked a question, "What is the method if you could leave your system? Our Starships manipulate hypermatter around our crafts to enter an alternate dimension of sorts."

Obi-wan proceeded to put a hand on Anakin's shoulder in a way that told him that he spoke out of turn as the council were the ones asking the questions; however, none of them seemed to mind as Mace moved his hand out in a way to have us answer the question. We did.

"There is one thing on the top of my head, Einstein-Rosen Bridge, or what is also referred to as a wormhole."

Nobody dared laugh at the theory, but it seemed unbelievable.

Saesee commented on my theory, "That's a bold thing to assume if it's true. The amount of power, let alone having the exact coordinates to perform such an event would be astronomical."

Jo spoke up again,"That's the thing. We woke up head first in the sand, and the stuff we had that wasn't in our bags was destroyed and scattered all over the place. It was as if it was all crushed, fused, or broken into little pieces beyond recognition. That doesn't sound precise."

Rancisis asked in unbelief, "So you are saying it was a random chance that you landed there? Do you understand the odds of you landing on that world by what you said is almost next to impossible?! And you honestly expect your friends to have a similar fate elsewhere?"

"I didn't say we thought that about our friends. They could be dead as far as we know," she mumbled quietly as she looked down, worried more for our missing friends.

I spoke up in a way to comfort my sister, "There out there Jo, we know it."

My sister looked up and gave me a thankful smile.

Yoda could see that no side could come to an agreement.

"Until we can investigate their claims, neither side should argue who is right or wrong."

Mace sighed in disappointment, "So let's keep the matter closed for now."

The rest of the council bowed a little to say they agreed for now.

The Bald Master went on, "I think we now have a picture of where your people are in terms of technology development, but now this matter brings up some new questions. What is your world like? Are they something the Republic should be worried about?"

Most of the members nodded their heads in agreement while Yoda elaborated,

"A description of your system, we would need. And appreciate it, we would, if you tell your world's history. Abridged, best would be. The matter of your time here can wait for now."

We did just that. With their permission and Anakin's help through R2-D2, we took out our laptop with the pictures and presentation we had prepared. With it we found a way to show what we wanted with their display with some technical work arounds. We explained what other planets we had in our solar system in great detail. As well as going over history from a little before WW1. Each Jedi asked many questions and were amazed that a world like ours could exist. From what we understood, it was very unusual for worlds that have life to have multiple biomes vastly different than the other. Like the previous world's we were just on, the whole planet was one environment. Most of their hearts skipped a beat when we mentioned the amount of nations Earth held. The amount of questions only grew as we went into "The Great War."

"So all of those nations made alliances without considering the consequences if it interfered with another alliance?"

"Yes Master Windu, and that ignorance led to the war breaking out when an assasination led to a conflict between two diffrent nations. So one nation attacked another and it then involved nearly every nation that held alliances. Eventually, It broke up into two factions, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. The War brought on by both sides led to a long stalemate war with neither side truly having any advantage. Both sides just had most of their men build trenches and charge enemy lines with no real cover or protection. The gap between these lines became known as 'No Man's Land.'"

As I was telling them all of this, a video from WWI was playing in the background showing the soldiers at the time. It showed them doing what you would expect them to be doing. Digging trenches, marching through muddy ground with heavy equipment, men putting on their gas masks on in a hurry, and soldiers charging the battlefield with artillery being fired from both sides. Alongside this video, we showed the aftermath of the conflicts with pictures of the wounded and the dead. If the council members and Obi-wan, were appalled by what was shown, they didn't show it on their faces. Our friends were different, Padmé had a look of terror as she probably thought back to the incident on Geonosis with the charred corpses in that hanger. Anakin, Barris, Boba, and Bossk did nothing as they took in what they saw in shock. At the time I was surprised to see Bossk act the way he did at what he saw, but I later remembered he had never seen this on a large scale in his life. Nobody in their galaxy had in a long time. They were at the end of a peaceful era. Now was the time for war.

Do we dare show it now, our biggest shame?

I turned to look at my sister as she knew what was to come soon in our presentation. She gave me a firm nod as to actually show it when the time came. The video I showed was similar to what I showed Anakin back on the ship. We started out by showing pictures of the Great Depression and some other events that had happened in the time between the two wars. Following that, we talked about the causes of World War II, and how it was caused by the unresolved problems that World War 1 made.

"All of what we have shown leads up to this one conflict. Nazi Germany invading country after country and the nation's constant disregard to what was asked of them. Diplomacy was not working for the World's favor. Other nations began rising to power and following the example of Germany and started to become a problem for everyone. The world called for action and it was taken."

Pictures and videos from D-Day and other battles on all other fronts across the globe were shown. All of their eyes were glued to what they saw, but what we showed next broke the council's "Unbreakable Emotion."

"The darkest event in our world's entire history happened some time after World War I and ended in World War II. It is what we call to this day, the Holocust."

I then showed what I had presented to Anakin. Padmé seemed to almost faint at the scenes shown before her. Anakin stood nearby to catch her if she fell. The rest of our friends stared at the disgusting images, unable to look away. The council members seemed to be all in confusion and disbelief, thinking something like this was impossible for a living being to do this to another. Let alone for so long. Yoda and Windu on the other hand looked at each other knowing what we were showing them was no joke.

"After all of this, the war was practically over when the Americans dropped two atomic weapons on the nation of Japan. Thus ending, from our point of view, the war."

Everyone in the room was shocked as some of the council members shot out of their seats at the mention of the bombs.

Master Piell yelled aloud, "They DIDN"T?!"

But his question was answered with the video of the bombs dropping and the aftermath. The members who were standing then sat back down, some put their hands to their foreheads. Most likely because of the headaches from the amount of what they had learned thus far, as it all went against the Jedi's and Republic's ways.

Yoda decided to elaborate everyone else's reaction to the bombs, "Weapons such as that, on such a scale, haven't been used since the Mandalorian Wars… not even their own world, dare they use them."

I looked to Boba to see him in thought at this revelation. I then asked myself this question.

How much do I really know about Mandalore?

Following all of that, we went into the Cold War and the advancement of society through the rest of the century. Finally, we ended with the era of desert warfare, Terrorism, and the biggest leaps in computers and space travel.

A part of the speech John F. Kennedy made was played for them,

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,..."

Near the end of the discussion, everyone was silent as nobody would ever think such events and progress could ever be made by one world alone. A little fear overcame some of them as our world could pose a problem to either side if our world is found.

Mental note, do not mention the Tzar Bomb or any other weapons of mass destruction we have or have not made yet. I'd rather not go into a debate on ethics anytime soon. On another matter however...

"When I first met Dooku, something told me that we should not reveal too much to him of our origins, so we gave him proxy names in case my sister and I decided he was untrustworthy. Which turned out to be true in the end. He would have made slaves out of the both of us and tried to make the same out of our world."

"Choose right, you did. Rich with resources and technology, your world is. Lure it will, eyes of the Confederacy."

This confused most of us, "Confederacy?"

Yoda became more somber, "The Confederacy of Independent Systems it is, what the separatists call themselves now, Dooku and his 'friends.'"

Mace spoke up to explain further, "We found this out from what was left of the files from the factories on Geonosis. There was almost nothing else in the files we found."

Ki-Adi-Mundi interjected an important question, "Speaking of Dooku, and moving away from your world's culture, how did you exactly end up in his 'Care?' I would assume it is a long tale as well?"

"Yes it is, like what we have done before, we'll try to be as brief as possible."

Jo started off with our tale on the desert planet and how we came across the sand people taking prisoners. Her voice seemed to soften when she mentioned the brutality against the boy while Anakin appeared to clench his hand in frustration. The action was noticed by Mace and Yoda, but they did nothing…almost as if they knew.

It was then that I took back over.

"So I came up with a somewhat thought out plan to get the prisoners out of that situation."

Shaak Ti smiled abroad and asked, "Somewhat?"

I smiled back, "It wasn't the best plan in hindsight, but it was all we had. In our eyes, time was short."

Oppo spoke up, "So what was your plan then?"

"Well, I noticed that when the War Raiders decided to have a meeting, the patrols were out of sink. They bunched up to one group. So my goal was to sneak into the camp and alert the attention of the camp with that Sand Skiff with the front cannon. While this would happen, my sister would have to sneak into the prisoners tent and free them. If the plan didn't work, we would not be here."

My sister nodded in agreement, "And to our surprise, the one who drove the skiff was Anakin's brother."

I put a hand to my forehead as she just said that.

We agreed not to bring that up...

From the council's reaction, I noticed Mace and Yoda were not as startled as the others.

Plo koon spoke what was on everyone else's mind, "I was under the impression that Anakin only had his Mother."

Anakin decided to pick up the slack my sister left and tell them a short version of what happened to the council, one without mentioning what he did to the Raiders. Once more, Yoda and Mace weren't surprised.

"They know?"

Master Windu and Yoda nodded their heads in a way to answer my question.

They KNOW!

I gulped

"Everything?"

Once more they nodded.

They knew what Anakin did to the raiders! Once more they know about my ability! This will help when I tell them… I hope so.

I calmly nodded back, and it was about this time that Anakin wrapped up his story.

"So I found her body and buried her."

Many of the council members accepted the story for what it was. They signaled my sister and I to continue.

Jo went on explaining that we stayed with Lars' family for the night and the morning. She went into detail about our conversation and how we got a ride into town so Owen could sell the skiff

"So while Owen went to the dealer, he told us to stay at a little cantina in Mos Eisley. We waited around a bit, but my brother decided to go exploring after a while."

She then motioned for me to take over.

"After I left my sister at the bar, I walked in the city for a while and I noticed a stage set up with people…"

The Jedi and senator had visible looks of sadness when I mentioned the treatment of the slaves. Moving from that, I talked about how I met Boba at a most opportune time for me and him.

"From my understanding they took people dishonestly, so I decided that the method that I freed them didn't matter. I was also short on time, so I gladly accepted Boba's help. We were leavening the alley when the Trandoshan woke up... "

As I moved through this part of our story, I noticed the reactions from Anakin and Bossk. Anakin was enthralled with my story on liberating slaves on such a scale that makes the Republic look bad. Bossk on the other hand was in thought when I was talking about the Trandosian. It appeared he was trying to figure out who it was that wanted Jango's place and why they would go to such lengths to make it so.

As I went over how we took out the guards' master, Billaba looked appalled by our actions, "Don't you think that was too carnal of an action to take?"

Some of the council gave approval of the master's question and waited for an answer.

"There's a saying among our people, 'Those who live by the sword die by the sword.' They were prepared to treat people the way they did, so it's no marvel that something like that would happen to them. I'm just surprised a rebellion hadn't formed against it a long time ago. Maybe that whole event could have been avoided."

The Jedi took it as a jab at themselves and their Republic. Most took it better than others.

Going forward, I talked about our escape from the Sand Skiff that was used against us. Anakin proceeded to put a hand to his head at the revelation at what his brother had inadvertently done to us.

I had Jo take over so she can reveal Bossk's and Jango's first meeting with us.

"So after the drunk Farmer got everyone's attention, Jango helped out by having the bartender pay us the bounty for rescuing their mostiture farmers. It was around that time a yell from two people came from outside the bar."

Jo passed it back to me.

"Boba and I were so close to making it to the bar after we had lost the Sand Skiff. It however came round the corner right when we were out in the open. The yell was more or less of frustration than fear."

Boba added, "Thankfully everyone else was in the bar to help us out, or they would have just shot us there."

I agreed with Boba on that.

Any longer and we would have been toast. Literally.

I took over again, "My sister strategically got herself and Boba out of there to gather our stuff while the rest of us fought…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Few days prior on Tatooine:

Nothing happened for a moment after they left. It was then that Jango took the lead and spoke to the slavers, and I still remember his words.

"Know This! You are not against simple farmers right now! You are against the best bounty hunters in the galaxy! Jango Fett and Bossk!"

The speech caused the slavers to shrivel back in fear. Then all of a sudden, Jango yelled "Split up!" as he drew the attention of all of the guards by flying straight up. All of us dared not disobey and jumped in different directions. When Jango had shot up in the air, he had thrown an EMP grenade into the skiff's gun barrel. It caused enough confusion for the guards for us to get away together. All of us started running down a nearby alleyway looking over our shoulders to see them start to set up their ride again. I took this moment to talk to the armored man.

"That was some fancy moves there Tex."

Whether or not Jango had found it humorous, he responded in a calculating voice, "I'm a bounty hunter. I get my job done however I can, no matter the cost."

I said nothing after that as we ran down the alley. Not long after Jango's proclamation, we had hit a dead end. We turned back to see if we could head back and make a turn to avoid getting caught.

It was to no avail, as the Sand Skiff was now in sight. We knocked over some debris and trash in front of us to set up some cover. After we stopped, Jango motioned with his hand to come closer. We did just that while keeping our eyes on our target.

He whispered, "If we get overrun, I can try to use my jetpack. However, I don't know if they would fall for the same trick twice."

The man whispered nothing else as the guards were now in ear shot. The 'Leader' of this group of guards was different than the one I had shot the hand of. He appeared to be more muscular and had a wicked scar across his lips. The man laughed as he spoke from the skiff, "It's clear you are outnumbered and cornered 'Bounty Hunter.' Surrender now and you will be taken prisoner. If not, you can all die here-."

He wasn't able to finish his speech, as a figure on a nearby roof shouted with a gun aimed at the leader. I recognized it as my sister a second later.

Jo proclaimed in a masculine way, "Let my people go!"

I proceeded to facepalm and whispered under my breath, "Oy vey…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As I went over what happened, Bossk appeared to smile reminiscing over that small battle of ours. It was hard to believe that it was almost a week ago that it happened.

A week...

How long until we get back home? If we do-. No! We will. If not me, then "her." I'll make sure of it...

The Jedi continued to be intrigued by the story as it went on, as we mentioned that Jango offered us a ride to his next destination, Geonosis.

"And that's how you ended up with some equipment from our galaxy? He just gave it to you?"

"Sort of, Master Windu."

"And that armor?"

"Well… later."

"Didn't that seem strange to you that he would just do that for you?"

Jo quipped, "We did save his son."

Master Gallia shot back a response, "You did however have his son fight right afterwards."

I thought for a second before answering, "He wanted us to look like mercenaries when we arrived, or so I'm guessing. The man did mention to us before the meal we had with them that he gave the Count that backstory for us."

"So he just believed that you were there for a job?"

"Essentially, yes. We gave him proxy names due to the fact we didn't exactly trust them, like I said before. Not that we thought that he was necessarily evil, but just that he had a presence of suspicion from how he talked and acted. Maybe it was because my sister and I didn't live that kind of lifestyle he had and it set off alarm bells."

Mace acknowledged my response, "You were right not to trust him. We made that mistake when we let him leave the Order."

I noticed some pained looks among the Jedi in the room. It must have been a touchy subject for them. I would find out later.

Yoda gave some wisdom in this, "Dwell on what could have been, that man with, we should not. Only what we can do. Look for a solution, we must."

Mace agreed with Yoda and told us to move the story further along.

"It was at this little dinner party that we met most of the people behind the CIS..."

My sister took up from there. Going into detail who exactly was present at the dinner and our meetings with the senator and the two Jedi prisoners. Jo held her composure telling the Jedi of our revelation of Jango being the assassin. (It still is a bleak memory that is fresh in her mind). Jango asking us to take care of Boba if something happened was what tipped the iceberg of emotions for her. Again, she kept her emotions in check for this meeting, knowing what was at stake here.

"So this was a turning point for the man?"

Jo answers Master Windu's question, "Yes, we believe that's the case. Only after Aaron gave him a stern talking."

My face heated up from the staring I got from our friends. I leaned to my sister and whispered, "I thought we agreed that we wouldn't say it that way."

She rolled her eyes, "Well it's true…"

My sister then continued our story that then came to the arena. Going into specific details of the barbaric execution, as well as some of the things the CIS members talked about. Jo stopped at the introduction of Mace Windu's "This party is over."

I have to say, looking back, that is one of the coolest one liners I have ever heard.

Jo motions her hand over to me… it was the moment of truth.

I started rubbing the back of my neck for the first time, being truly nervous since the meeting began.

"Now, when Jango killed Coleman, he hesitated something with his blaster. I think he was going to do a trick with it before holstering it."

The council's reactions were mixed, I could feel some anger at this knowledge. Yoda and Mace were indifferent. It wasn't like they didn't care, just that they put their feelings aside. Jango's son seemed to recall that event as he was there for it. Bossk remembered just as well and was upset that I would bring up such an event. The rest were on that same boat, though not being there for it.

It's necessary for what I'm going to say next. Please trust me...

Yoda cleared his voice and tried to alleviate the tension that had entered the room, "Already know we did, self defence it was. Why reveal this to us?"

I took a big breath, "It would have been found out in some way or another, he needs your trust, and we need your's. It's only through that trust we even have a chance to help him. Besides all of that, it's Jango's hesitation in the matter. It was noticed by Dooku. The man began to 'doubt' Jango. It was then he was sent out to fight, Jango even hesitated to enter the battle."

The council was silent as I continued.

"When I talked with Jango earlier to get out of working for the man, he kept saying that he felt like he had no choice. He kept saying he felt like he was blind, or lost since working with the Count…"

It was at this Yoda asked a question, "A theory, you have?"

I nodded before asking, "Is it possible for your force to influence the decisions of others?"

Kit Fisto was the biggest surprise throughout all of this as he kept out of this whole debate. Though I could tell he had something to say a few times. He chose to speak then.

"Spot on."

Plo Koon didn't seem bothered by his disruption, "Forgive me young one. But for someone to have only heard of the Force mere days ago, you seem to have an adept analysis of what it is. One could say you have heard of this before."

The council wanted an answer from all of the looks they gave us. We had nothing to hide in this regard. But my reasoning behind the matter seemed too far-fetched. Seeing the Count made me think of the actor who looked like him. That following night I thought of the many roles he was in. Dracula, the Mummy, and one of his later roles, Saruman. If he could shoot lighting from his fingertips, then influencing someone's mind wasn't too unbelievable.

Instead, what I told the council was a half baked response.

"Our world has had unique storytelling to say the least. What our world call's "fairy tales" talk about worlds that have magic and power that heros or villians use against each other. They would train themselves to understand themselves. Stories like that aren't anything new. And there was always one common theme among them. They could only go as far as they would let themselves go..."

The council and others in the room seemed to accept this response for now.

After a few moments of silence, my theory was finally answered by Ki-Adi-Mundi, "You are correct on your assumption however. There is a force ability called Force Persuasion that describes exactly what you said…"

"But?"

Master Rancisis finished for him, "It is not as effective as it could be on strong willed minds. Men like Jango Fett hold discipline in high regard… Dare I say it..."

I ignored that last remark as he continued, "If it were Force Persuasion, it would have had to been done on him for a long time, maybe a decade or more."

Mace Windu finished up, "You said it yourself Obi-wan that the order for the clones was made around Master Sifo-Dyas's death. Sadly we do not know whether Dooku was present with Jango frequently during this time."

"That is correct, Master."

Boba surprised us all and chose to add something here, "I was part of the deal for my dad to work for Dooku for a long time. I remember when I was too little to go with him anywhere, a man in robes would come to the door and dad would go on missions from weeks to months at times. I was around four at the time when I saw who the robed man was…"

Yoda asked the boy, "Count Dooku?"

"Yes, but he would go by a different name in front of the Kaminoans, Tyrannus. I didn't tell my dad because I knew it would be bad for him if I knew."

This caused an abrupt series of mumblings within the council…

Bossk cleared his throat before asking, "I'm sorry to be rude, but what does any of this mean?"

Mace answered the Trandosian, "It means that Dooku had not one, but possibly two aliases. Alongside brainwashing Jango Fett to do his bidding."

This angered the reptilian to heights he hadn't felt in a long time.

"When I get my hands on the nerf herder! I'm gonna-!"

Shaak Ti held up her hand to silence the man, "Please refrain from such vulgar language in our meeting."

Bossk proceeded to grunt in consent to her wishes, and looked down to the side, crossing his arms frustrated.

Yoda laughed a little before replying, "Long it has been since language like that was heard within these walls. Last I remember, young Skywalker did, after his first mission."

Some of the members rolled their eyes remembering that fiasko, while Anakin appeared to have blushed a little from the look of shock his secret wife gave him.

Mace Windu brought the meeting back to the topic, "Since the chance of Dooku brainwashing the man is extremely high, I would recommend we save this subject for the man's trial for further investigation."

Everyone agreed thankfully, but now came probably the hardest part of this meeting, or what I expected.

"There is something else we need to mention…"

Jo moved her hand to grab hold of my arm in anticipation.

Plo koon asked, "And what is that young one?"

I took a deep breath before responding, "I didn't just hear Count Dooku say he was going to say he was betraying Jango, or that he had a master. I heard his thoughts…"

I braced myself for the wave of comments and disbelief that I knew would happen from both sides..

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the time, I had no idea that right around the corner, a storm was brewing outside these walls...

End Chapter

(A/N: Next chapter will be similar, but continuing from Jo's perspective. But for now, enjoy a little background story to tide you over...)

Bonus chapter:

(Written in Co-author's absence.)

Tales from the glory days:

Aaron POV:

It was time. My first day of 1st grade. Again. (Long story for another day)

Up to that point, I had no friends. To add to that, almost everyone ignored me. Not that I looked like a weirdo, but my mannerisms and my lack of focus put a damper on my communications skills. I look back now realizing that I should have gotten a clue. The kids would call me a tattle tale, but I was raised from a different background. Morality was engraved in me at a young age. My parents would say I was special, as if it would encourage me from my lack of friends.

The effects from the actions I made harmed me more than I could have imagined. I was made an outcast by the other kids. I was left out of any jokes or discussions talked about. So I was robbed of any practice in communication. A speech class was forced upon me because of this. I had also developed a stuttering problem from my emotions that were starting to get out of control.

This was also the start of the bullying. Years later, they could get away with doing anything to me, be it name calling, mind games, and accusations of me stealing even. It was what seemed like the beginning of the end for me.

The bus had arrived at the end of the driveway. My mother gave me one more hug before I entered the bus. As I entered, I noticed kids from my kindergarten class and my first 1st grade class spread throughout the bus with some of the other kids. Walking through the aisle to find a seat, I heard some of the kids talking.

"Hey~. It's McStutter himself…"

"Oh no, it's that kid…"

"Talk about luck…"

"Don't talk to him Keira…"

Many conversations like that were heard by me, but I ignored them. No other spots were available except the back seat with a kid who was busy with a gameboy. I was no gamer at the time, but I knew what it was from my younger cousin because he had one. I sat next to the kid and looked over to see what he was playing.

What is- hey… is that?

"Pokémon?"

I hadn't realized I had said that allowed, and caused the kid to look up from his game.

"What?"

On instinct I backed off, "Oh s-sorry, I s-said n-nothing."

He looked at me confused, "Are you sure?"

I thought for a moment before coming clean, "N-no, I asked i-if it was Pokémon."

The kid eagerly replied, "Yep. I'm playing the blue version right now! I'm borrowing it from my brother."

"I-I didn't know that it was a Video g-game."

The kid said nothing but stared right at me…

Oh no, I did it again…

I turned away with my head bowed and my eyes closed, waiting for the laughter and the usual insults. To my shock, it never came. He just carried on the conversation.

"I thought the same thing too until a year ago. My older brother laughed at me for it, but I knew he didn't mean it in a bad way. The anime is so good so far, what do you think!"

I didn't know what to think. I only had more questions.

"What's a-anime?"

The kid face palmed and quickly said, "I'm sorry! I forgot not everyone has heard that term used a lot. My brother told me that it means a cartoon from Japan."

"W-w-what's Japan?"

"I don't know myself, but I think my brother said it's an island nation far west in the Pacific Ocean."

"Oh…"

"Have you seen other anime? Like Dragon Ball?"

"Dragon Ball?"

The kid gasped, "You haven't even heard of it?! It's on Cartoon Network."

I look down saddened, "We don't have cable. On-nly have local T.V."

I heard an "ah" escape his lips, followed by silence. Only the sound of the other children broke it. Suddenly the bus came to a complete stop. We had arrived and our bus driver got up and gave the usual rules. After the twenty minute discussion of what to do in case of an accident, we were dismissed.

As we were walking out, the kid came by and asked me something.

"Do you want to come over to my place after school?"

I hadn't been more shocked than in my entire life up to that point.

"W-what?"

"You heard me. If you do, I can show you that anime I was talking about."

I thought once more before replying, "I d-don't think t-that's s-such a g-good idea…"

"You can say that again Shepherd~."

Both of us looked to the source of the voice to see a group of kids standing nearby, all of them having big grins and laughing to themselves. The leader of the group came forward and pulled the kid under his shoulder away from me and started talking.

"I wouldn't hang out with stutter box over there. He would just tell on you when you want to do something fun."

The leader then took his arm off him as they were now in front of their group.

"Stick with us, friend. Shepherd can't get a clue."

With that, their whole group started laughing while walking away expecting the kid to

follow. I bowed my head in silent sorrow, believing that it was over.

Once more, the kid blew my expectations away.

"I'm sorry… do I know you?"

I looked up to see the group had suddenly stopped and looked back at the kid who didn't move an inch.

The leader spoke up again, "Excuse me?"

"I said,'' Do I know you?' Why should I take your word for everything you said?"

The group laughed as the kid continued, "Clearly you can see we're right. We have more people to back it up!"

"Why can't a group of people be wrong?"

"Because that's silly! He is nothing but an idiot."

"Maybe you never got to know him. He seems alright to me."

A girl in the group spoke up, "He told the teacher that I stole his Pokémon cards. ~Obviously I didn't. I wouldn't have time for stupid weak cards like that. The teacher found them in the dumpster torn up. The creep tried to frame me for attention and nothing more."

The band of bullies laughed some more as they were starting to draw in a crowd with other students laughing along with them, not really knowing what's going on. The younger me couldn't handle the despair. But the kid who stood up for me didn't stop.

"Then how would you know that the cards are weak?"

The group looked at each other funny before the girl who spoke asked, "What?"

"For someone who doesn't care, you seem to know a lot about them. How would you know they were weak? Why would it matter if they were weak?"

The girl then became a nervous wreck looking the other way, "I-I just know they were…"

"I see. Well, while you try to get your story straight, I'm going to go ahead and walk away from this with my friend here. Thank you for the 'Pep Talk.'"

With that, My "friend" motioned me to follow him. I did just that as the other kids stared at us angrily.

We were close to the door of the building when I decided to ask him a question.

"W-why d-did y-you d-d-do that?"

"Hmm? Why not?"

"Y-you ruined your chanc-ces to be on g-good terms with them. Why would y-you do that for a s-stutterer like m-me?"

"You stutter? I guess I hadn't noticed."

What?

"Hey, are you sure you don't want to come over- uhhh what was your name again?"

"Aa-aaron S-shepherd…"

"Ok Aaron, do ya want to?"

I thought about it a little.

I don't have any real reason not to, he seems ok? But what if it's a trick? I guess I could take the chance. I don't have anything else to lose.

"I-I suppose I c-could, but I would need to head home before to get p-permission from my m-mom." (This was at least a decade before the era of smartphones.)

"Alright, let me give you my number."

He got out a piece of paper and wrote his number and his name, handing it to me in a hurry.

(Eugene Fisher: 773-****)

"I'll see you after the orientation. Hey! We may even get the same class!"

He waved goodbye to me as he ran off through the hallway.

The meeting came and went. I already knew he wasn't going to be in my class. I wasn't that lucky. Sadly I did not know how bad my luck was, my class was filled with bullies from before.

"Hey~ Shepherd."

What did Jo say? Shepherd's luck?

Thankfully the bullies were too distracted by the first day's information to care about picking on me. As lunch came, we were shuffled out the door to go when I noticed my friend exiting the classroom directly across from mine.

Eugene waved frantically proclaiming, "Hey! I guess I was close enough."

For the first time that day, I smiled a bit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was home now with the corded phone in my hand. I was unsure whether to call him or not. After all, I had just met him. We had talked at lunch, but I didn't really get to talk to him more until we had left for the day on the bus. Since I was the last one on the bus in the morning, I got off first in the afternoon.

It was then when it hit me that I really didn't know exactly where he lived, which made me believe it would pose a problem for us "hanging out". I had talked to my mom, and to my surprise she was all for me going over to his house. She was normally protective of me when it came to doing things on my own. But it seemed that recent events of going to school changed that, seeing that I could now make my own decisions.

Do I really want this? What if he tricked me?

I had done enough thinking. It was now or never. I dialed Eugene's number and listened to the ringing. The suspense left me in dread with each tone. A click on the line signaled someone had picked up on the other end.

"Hello, Fisher's residence. This is Mrs. Fisher, how can I help you?"

"H-hi, I am Aaron, Eugene' friend. Did he I-Iet you know ab-bout me?"

"Why yes he did, do you mind if you put your mother on the phone?"

"Y-yes ma'am, p-please hold for a second."

I put the phone to the side to get my mother. She came to the phone and held it to her ear.

"Hello… ah yes this is she… really?... Karen from college?! How are you doing?... Wow, that many kids already?... You married Benson?! Congratulations! How have things been?... That's good… Yes, my son does have that problem…That's great!... Well not for him- well you know… Five sounds perfect… Are you sure? We can feed him beforehand…Alright, if you say so... Yes he likes pizza… Sounds great, what time should I come by to pick him up…. Nine sounds ok to me. Thank you again for doing this. We will be there in thirty… Oh! Where exactly is your place?... Good, it's not that far from us. Thanks again! "

With that, my mother hung up the phone and turned to face me, "Alright, you're going to be there at five, so go ahead and take a shower and get dressed for it. You're going to eat there so remember your manners. Karen is a good friend of mine and I want you to be on your best behavior with their family."

"Yes Mom."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

My mom had just dropped me off. I turned to the car and waved to my mom one final time as she drove off. I started my short trip to the door and pushed the doorbell. Shortly after, I heard the sharp yell of a dog behind the door. As well as the voice of my friend, "Down, Johnny!"

The door opened showing my friend holding down the dog from going out the door while an older kid with glasses had opened the door.

Eugene was struggling to hold the dog down and said to me, "Hey Aaron, come on in before Johnny gets out!"

I did just that as I thanked his brother. The door slammed shut as the dog broke free of his restraints. Johnny proceeded to knock me over and licked my face. I couldn't help but laugh as they tried to force the dog off me. It reminded me of the time I had been swarmed by the dogs that lived with my aunt out of state. (She had five dogs!)

Both kids stretched out a hand to help me up and I gladly took them. They wiped off any fur on my clothes and I introduced myself to the older brother.

"H-hello, my n-name is Aa-aaron."

What I hadn't realized was that I was going to get the biggest shock of my life.

"H-hi, n-names John. Are y-you ok with watching Dragon Ball a-another time? I was kind of hoping to watch M-muppet Treasure Island tonight."

I did nothing but stare as my brain went on the fritz….

What!?

Eugene saw my confusion and answered my confusion.

"Oh, that's right! I forgot to tell Aaron that you stutter too John. Oh! Are you ok with watching that Aaron?"

"Uhh y-yeah. I watch that movie a lot with m-my sister-."

"Ok, then we can watch it after dinner, sounds good?"

It was then that my world changed...

I genuinely smiled for the first time in a long time, "Yeah…"

From there on...

A woman came around the corner. Obviously their mom, and she looked pregnant, "Come on kids, dinner is almost ready. Go ahead and put the dog in the back."

Both brothers called out to their mother while following her around the corner, "Yes Mom."

For the first time I knew…

"You coming Aaron?" Eugene had asked.

For the first time I knew, I had a friend…

I firmly replied, "Yep."

End Bonus Chapter