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Chapter 5

Anakin drove his speeder to the building at 500 Republica, leading the vehicle and parking it. Guards stood around, prepared for an intrusion and threat to the Senator's person. He stood up and walked inside, receiving respectful nods from all of them.

It was still an abnormal feeling to be able to breathe as regularly as he had done before, but 500 Republica smelt just as peaceful as he remembered.

That peace didn't last, however, for several individuals stood in the living room, including one he'd recognized from a lifetime ago.

A fair-skinned, tall man with dark hair was inside the building. He sported yellow tattoos on his forehead that signified his status within the society of his homeworld. His attire, reminiscent of his homeworld's warrior past, included boots and a tunic decorated to appear as if they were armored.

"I demand to see her!" the man exclaimed in anger, not giving the guards any peace of mind.

Typho looked seconds away from having his guards forcibly take the man out "Senator Clovis, we have already explained to you why that is not allowed."

Anakin approached. "Captain, is something wrong here?"

"Respectfully, Skywalker, we're trying to explain to the Representative of the Banking Clan why access to the Senator is limited," Typho answered with veiled irritation.

"I'll handle it from here," Anakin waved his right hand. Typho and the few guards with him moved back to Padmé's room, leaving the two men alone in the living room. He clasped his hands behind his back as he stared at Clovis coldly. "Senator," he greeted.

"I wish to check on the Senator to see if she's alrig-" Clovis began pathetically.

Anakin gave the man a strict look and stepped closer. "And access has been denied to you repeatedly, Senator," he stated with cool dispassionateness, showing a hint of Vader. "Under orders of the Chancellor, Senator Amidala is to be guarded at all times, thus very few are authorized to meet with her until she's transported to safety. This makes her protection my responsibility. Which, I should add, requires no contribution from you or the Banking Clans."

"Padmé is more than a friend to me, Jedi," Clovis' green eyes became angry.

"Is that so?" Anakin taunted, crushing a surge of fury from this scum. He was no Han Solo. When Vader tortured him on Cloud City, he discovered that Solo cared for Leia, even though Vader didn't realize she was his daughter at the time. To Solo, she was more than an item. He would take a blaster bolt and many more if only to protect Leia.

Anakin could respect that.

Clovis was different. He was a stalker, obsessed with fantasies of what he wanted. He didn't care for Padmé, but rather how she could benefit him personally, be it sexually or otherwise. He could convince himself he did, but he never would...

"Why hasn't she mentioned you?" He asked curtly.

"Because she hasn't seen yet that we're meant to be."

"I care not for your beliefs. She has not mentioned you once since our meeting, and your asymmetrical feelings are of no use to me."

"This is not your decision to make!"

Anakin's eyes darkened. "Mind yourself, I am not like Captain Typho. If I am to believe that you will hinder my or anyone else's work further, I will authorize personally for your placement under arrest."

And Anakin doubted that any of the guards would oppose putting the bastard into cuffs themselves.

A vein in Clovis's cheek throbbed, but the slightest fear illuminated across his face. "You can't do that..."

Anakin arched an eyebrow. "Can't I?" he challenged. "Do you wish to test that hypothesis?"

"I am the Senator of the Banking Clans. It is unlikely I'll even go to-"

"I sense many things inside of you, Rush Clovis, and I know that your obsession with the Senator is far from a normal infatuation," he dismissed, cutting off Clovis's would-be threat. He paced around the Senator like an Acklay and its prey. "Your position in the Galactic Senate has no involvement in the Senator being endangered. I can sense your desires. I know that you have heard the rumors circulating. Believe if you successfully woo her over after showing false concerns about her. Yes, you crave her in more ways than one. You wish owning her. When you kissed her and she referred to you as a colleague, you were angry, abandoning the Mid Rim Cooperation."

"Sir…" Clovis's lips curled as he found himself abruptly incapable of speaking, his jaw clamped shut and his tongue entrapped to the roof of his mouth. He pursed his lips helplessly but no sound came.

Anakin paced once more before coming directly into his face. "I'm not done," he declared curtly. "I have personal backing from the Chancellor, who is also Nabooian. Here are my declarations: You'll stay away from the Senator from now on. This is not arguable. The Banking Clans, under San Hill, are untrustworthy scum, and you're among that number. You'll no longer be in contact with her." Anakin indicated, releasing Clovis from the quietness that had been forced over him. "And if you find it wise to disobey, accidents occur. I'm sure you wouldn't want that, now would you, Senator?"

Petrified and frozen, Clovis nodded barely.

"Good... now... you should leave us."

Rush Clovis practically fled the building after that.

While he didn't anticipate crossing Clovis this early, it was fortunate he did. If the fool saw Padmé, with the threat of Skywalker sheltering her, it was unlikely that she wouldn't be a victim to near death because of that imbecile's line of thinking.

Anakin began walking to Padmé's bedroom, a perfect mask of calm.

"So you'd chase him away?" Typho asked with a smirk of amusement.

"He have seen it fit to return to the Senate Building, Captain," Skywalker replied with a small grin. "As of why is classified."

A few guards snickered, including Typho.

The moment he entered the bedroom, he spotted her angelic face. Anakin folded his arms across his chest, looking at Padmé, who quite grumpily was sitting on the bed.

"Padmé..."

She startled and reached for her chest, "Kark, Anakin, don't do that. You could have just done the bounty hunter's job for them. How did you come in here without me noticing?"

"I'm a subdued individual," he replied simply.

Padmé glanced at him. She was wondering what happened to Anakin's short hair. She'd thought it was nice and neat. But she didn't give much emotion to this.

Time and time again, he found himself wanting to kiss her, conquer her, have her all over. He didn't think it was because he was just a teenager all over again. She wasn't even his wife yet. And it had been years since he had been captivated by this much lust, for anyone.

"I have finished over thirty minutes ago," She said. "Where the kark have you been?"

Anakin grimaced. "I never intended that I would always acquiesce to your wishes in a timely manner, Senator, but I feel that I am not the root of your frustration."

"I don't like this idea of hiding," she confessed.

"You're not necessarily hiding," Anakin declared, receiving a confused look. "I'm not going to lie to you, Padmé, I have an important matter."

"What?" Padmé stared at him, torn between alarm and uncertainty.

"First, I would like you to know that I am no longer a member of the Jedi Order."

Padmé's eyes widened. "What? Why? Did the Jedi expel you for taking control of your Master's investigation? I am going to bring this up to the Sena-" she started, her tone becoming more enraged.

He held up a hand, stopping her short of a tangent. "No, the Council didn't expel me and they wouldn't for that. I left on my own accord."

"That's bu-wait what?" Padmé asked, the realization of his words dawning on her.

"My mother is in grave danger. I felt it through the Force. And I'm done with following the Jedi Order and their rules." Anakin answered solemnly. In reality, he was hoping that a few days' difference could make a change, but even if it didn't, Luke proved why the current Jedi Order would never last. While Anakin no longer considered the Jedi enemies, he did consider their mindset a hindrance in the best of terms and knew that they weren't realistic.

"Your mother's in danger?" Padmé repeated the words, her eyes widening with genuine concern. "I thought she would be saf-"

Anakin waved his hand and shook his head, keeping his head lowered. "You don't get to live a bad life and have good things happen to you, Padmé."

"Ani?" Padmé whispered.

"It doesn't matter," Anakin shook his head, banishing the pessimistic thought.

Padmé wrapped her arms around him. "It does to me."

It only reaffirmed why Anakin was so attracted to her, and now Anakin had another reason after all these years. There was too much of Luke inside of her. Leia, in their short encounter together, did seem to have a lot more of his personality; tight-lipped and unrelenting. Luke, however, was the more likely one to be calm in stressful situations and more understanding than met the eye.

Of course, those two standpoints taken to the extreme could be a major character flaw for both of his children. Their undoing, as not everyone Luke would encounter would be as merciful in their approach as Vader was.

"You have grown into such a mature man," she pulled back, observing him, "sometimes it's hard to believe who you were ten years ago."

Anakin sighed. "Sometimes I doubt my own development, Padmé, and how far I have truly grown," he admitted.

"You shouldn't," she asserted. "You're flawed like everyone else, but you're a good man nevertheless."

Would she have said the same if she had known what Anakin would become?

Since Skywalker's insight and Wesell's quick cooperation, Kenobi was able to discover where Kamino was with utmost quickness. Near the Rishi Moon. It had truthfully disturbed him to know that a planet had been erased from the Jedi records. He almost didn't believe it was real, but this was Skywalker, and he seemed to be not taking it as one of his usual gambits.

He supposed the cause of a serious situation had forced Anakin to re-evaluate the situation, but calling out the Jedi as he did and criticizing their decision threw Obi-Wan off-guard even more than Anakin's disobedience of his orders in 500 Republica and finally leaving the Order.

Damn... why would he do-

Nevertheless, Obi-Wan had a mission. He reminded himself, and he spotted the form of Siri Tachi with a Feeorin exiting the hangar. When she saw him, the Jedi Knight smiled slightly. He sensed that she held a certain fondness for the Feeorin.

"Why, thank you, Nym, for bringing me back here," Siri said.

The Feeorin, Nym, nodded, looking at the bearded Jedi who came closer. "Take care of her, Jedi. She's very useful to the Lok Revenants."

Oh, that was a story Obi-Wan would have to dig up at a later date.

Siri poked him in the ribs, almost playfully. "As I was saying, thank you, Nym, you can go now. Don't make me tell the others to replace your cybernetic arm."

Nym rolled his red eyes before walking off, murmuring something about Jedi women being as impossible as others before it was just them.

"Obi-Wan..."

"Siri..."

"Judging by what I feel around you, I wonder what did Skywalker do this time?" Siri asked, with a level of fondness. She was much more lenient with Anakin on occasion. "The usual?"

"Afraid not," Obi-Wan grunted. "This act by my idiotic Padawan is the icing on the cake, Siri."

Siri furrowed her eyebrows. "Do I want to know?"

"Probably not," Obi-Wan sighed.

"You might as well tell me. Someone has to clean up after the both of you." She jabbed, grinning.

He sighed, saying all too cheekily, "My old Padawan decided that the Jedi Order was no longer his home and decided to follow the lesson of yours."

"Ouch, I didn't see that one coming," she grimaced. "Let me guess, the Council has its pants tied in knots after that."

"One way of putting it," he mumbled.

"Are you okay?" Siri asked hesitantly, the conversation suddenly shifting from its previous state.

The mullet Jedi sighed, feeling any biting remark die when she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm still shocked by his decision and don't know how to feel at this point."

"Skywalker must have his own reasons, like Ferus did," Siri said softly, her eyes falling to the ground.

He was hit by an impulse to embrace her—to hold her in his arms and allow them to weep out their agony together. But he knew that such thoughts would be unbecoming for a Jedi. They had been far too close before, falling into the trap of their emotions, and had been forced to break away.

"But I respect his decision nevertheless," she said, her voice regaining its previous vigor.

"I sometimes wonder where I went wrong with that boy," Obi-Wan replied, and dull anger took claim. "Why would he leave us like this?"

"Well, maybe his upbringing had something to do with it," she said.

"It was wrong. He's a Jedi! He was being selfish as he belongs with us!" His shoulders flexed, and a collective sigh exited him. "He's one of us."

"He has the right to make a decision, Obi-Wan," she asserted. "Labeling him selfish is not going to change his decision."

Obi-Wan gripped on the fury in his chest and let it go. "Let's just... focus on what's ahead. How have you been?"

"Peachy," Siri answered honestly, not seeming pleased with him changing the conversation like that, but she'd decided not to make a fuss about it.

"Well, we might be apprehending a Mandalorian."

Siri groaned. "Whoa, didn't see that one coming either. How many other surprises are there today, Obi-Wan?"

"You tell me," he remarked with sarcasm, "I guess I am still the Council's reliable negotiator. Of course, you think with your lightsaber, just like Vos and Anakin."

"Don't compare me to either. I still can't tell when you and Vos are flirting or not." Siri sniped back. "I'll go ready up the ship."

"It's not flirting!"

Siri smirked at him devilishly, and for a moment, Obi-Wan wanted to see once again how she would look if her lips were parted. Disregarding those thoughts of a life that would never be, the Jedi Knight moved over to the Delta, seeing that Siri was starting the ship up. An R4 unit was helping her with the process.

"Blast, do you have to fly again?" Obi-Wan asked, coming next to Siri. "Your piloting is as suicidal as Anakin's."

"Do you ever think it was just you instead of either of our flying abilities?" Siri snarked.

"No. I'm hoping one day that neither of you don't drive us into an asteroid."

"Oh, stop your complaining and get in already. We don't have all day, Obi."

Obi-Wan wondered what in kriff he had done to deserve such insolence from Anakin, Siri, and even the Jedi Council at times, but obliged with her requests nevertheless, hoping that the blonde Jedi's encounter with him wouldn't be the last.

Padmé Amidala's nose wrinkled at the stench of gaseous fumes, and she wondered if this adventure would be as relaxing as it was made out to be. When Anakin had all but recommended that they use unofficial transportation, she had awaited them using a modified-looking shuttle or a cargo/passenger carrier. Hell, a yacht wouldn't have been too bad an idea. Not whatever this... thing exactly was.

Looking at the HWK-290 light freighter, despite her usual cool, she couldn't help but exclaim what had been on her mind. "What a piece of junk!"

Both Anakin and the dealer looked at her with different reactions. Anakin's eyes flickered with distant amusement, clearly trying to filter out any sort of laughter.

The dealer, a rather sketchy-looking Dathomirian in his mid-20s with red and black stripes and orange eyes, instantly became angry. "Hey, she's been through many troubles, Princess!" He exclaimed defensively. "I'll have you know that these HWK-290 light freighters have many of my personal modifications and can make it 16-18 parsecs." He finished with an arrogantly prideful look on his face, turning to look at his ship.

"From what I've experienced, the YT-1300 light freighter can make it in less than 12 parsecs." Anakin snarked. Now it was Padmé who attempted to smother a laugh.

"Damn them to the nine Corellian hells!" he all but snapped in a fit of rage. "I ain't needin' those fancy ships of people thinkin' themselves to be the biggest and best of the galaxy. You want them? Go right ahead." He smirked faintly. "That is if you can convince them that you'll pay up."

Padmé's eyebrow arched yet again. "How much would it be?"

"Fifty thousand Republic Credits."

Anakin rolled his eyes. Stepping forward with a bag that had more than enough credits to purchase the freighter by a better man, he waved his hand in front of the Dathomirian's face and declared, "We believe this will be enough to purchase the ship and any supplies needed."

He blinked five times. With a sneer, the Dathomirian retrieved the bag and blinked in astonishment at just how heavy the small bag felt. He looked up with curiosity. "How much is in here?" he inquired.

"Fifteen thousand," he replied nonchalantly, ignoring the shocked look from Padmé.

The Dathomirian blinked in surprise before a smirk crossed his lips. "It's appreciated," he purred uncharacteristically, looking at the bag as if it were some sort of ancient relic.

Slowly, he walked off, shouting orders at his droids to load the freighter with supplies as he departed. When Anakin looked at her, he found himself face-to-face with a very indignant senator.

"What?" Anakin questioned.

"Don't you 'what' me, Anakin Skywalker!" Padmé exclaimed, gaining the attention of several workers. "You just spent fifteen thousand credits on a piece of junk ship that looks like it won't survive even lighting it up to begin with. And even if it does, what's stopping it from exploding and our bodies being blasted into oblivion?"

"The smuggler is untrustworthy, but he did not sabotage his vessel," Anakin answered. He would have sensed it by now. "He takes pride in his work."

But Padmé persisted, not taking that for an answer. "Not only that, but we now possess half the credits needed for our mission, and the supplies we require for this ship would take even more. This is stupid. Stupid, stupid. A big fat disaster—the waste of credits and money. And I fell for it like some dumb kid from a desert."

"Language," Anakin said back with a hint of sass. "I doubt anything that they possess would just be handed to me. The currency in the Outer Rim territories controlled by the Hutts is different from the standard Galactic Credit within the Core and Inner Rim."

Padmé blinked timidly before flushing slightly. A faint memory in the back of her mind surfaced as she directly recollected the irritation in Jinn's voice when he explained why they couldn't buy the T-14 hyperdrive generator.

"Oh, yeah."

Anakin's eyes became mischievous. "Not to worry," he replied. "Now let's go check out those supplies the dealers are giving us. I don't trust these lowlifes."

Padmé grinned. "It takes one to know one."

Anakin snickered, "Well, I guess that makes me the expert on lowlifes then. Stick with me, Padmé, and you'll never be on the wrong side of a deal."

Author's note: I'm not going to take creative freedom for a part of a story that wasn't mine. The end part of the chapter is based on another story called "Return of the Jedi" by Transformers g1's-Prime which has Obi-Wan traveling through time and a similar interaction.

I'm sorry that this takes so long. I have been focusing on other stories as well and am trying to weigh if this one is more popular than my Hope from the Future story. If it is, I'll focus on this as much as I can.

May the Force be with you all always.