The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

FAN FICTION : ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

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I'm Your What?
Part 1/3

by FernWithy, Moriah Organa, SithAbigail, Vee, Mr. P

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Prologue

Tatooine.

Anakin leaned over the pilot's shoulder anxiously as the ship approached the two warring figures, as if he could will the mysterious black-robed creature dead by focusing on Qui-Gon's every move.

He was not the only one. Both Padmé and a young Jedi stared intently, their faces knotted in worry and helplessness as the two lightsabers clashed amid the billowing cloud of sand.

The ship lowered, the ramp came down. The silence was palpable.

Suddenly, the pilot turned to the young Jedi, his face pale. "That other guy's on the ramp!"

Obi-Wan turned to the others, a ferocity in his voice. "Stay in the atmosphere," he commanded, then gave a lingering glare to Padmé. "You all stay here." With that, he left for the back of the ship.

Everything after that was a blur. Padmé called up security footage on a viewscreen and they all watched in horrified fascination as the two Jedi took on the creature -- each breath kept rhythm with the striking of beams of light, and time took on a distorted, unreal quality.

Storm's coming, Ani.

In that way that he'd always known things, with that ability that had afforded his current position on a royal starship, he again saw the dark wave from his dream.

A sandstorm.

But the silence was unbreakable, solemn, nearly religious.

On the screen, the dark creature drove one of his lightblades into the newly-installed hyperdrive as he collapsed to the floor.

Padmé's face fell, and she lowered her eyes. "I'm sorry, Ani."

"We're losing navigation controls," the pilot muttered under his breath, low and detached by the setback.

He didn't hear either of them. The knowledge was too much. "There's a--"

Before he could finish, they were all knocked to the floor and engulfed in howling and screeching, and an unnatural and sudden silence.

*******************************************

Lando was about to steer the skiff off toward the valley where the Millennium Falcon had been patiently waiting for... the Maker only knew how long they'd been on this dustball of a planet. Lando had lost track at a month. He would be glad to get off it, that was for --

Behind them, the sound of Jabba's barge going up had become a drone, but suddenly, the sound changed, became a roar, then the whistling sound of a crashing ship.

"Lando, turn around."

"Already on it," he muttered, and noticed to his chagrin that he was already on it. Since when did I decide to do the Brave Rescuer bit for a living?

As they swung around, he caught the glint of the sun on a smooth metal hull, rounded slightly along the oblong...

A Nubian! It was a Nubian! Damn, he thought. When he'd been a kid, he'd thought those were the finest ships in the galaxy, and he still wasn't sorry to get to see one up close.

Up too close.

He swerved at the last minute. The Nubian and the skiff barely missed each other, and the skiff was tossed to one side like a toy. It landed in a dune.

"Nice landing," Han cracked. "You didn't do this to my ship, did you?"

Lando turned to make a retort, and he caught sight of Luke Skywalker's face.

Luke's eyes were wide and confused, and Lando could almost see his mind trying to put things together, like sparks jumping around on a circuit board. He shook his head.

"I don't understand it," he finally said.

Leia also looked troubled, though she'd looked pretty troubled in Lando's opinion ever since Jabba put her in that ridiculous gold bikini. (Lando didn't have much problem with skin, but he could think of a hundred things more flattering. And had, though he knew better than to ever say anything of the sort.) "Where did that ship come from?"

Lando shrugged. "Orbit, maybe?"

Luke shook his head. "It was flying low. It wasn't coming in -- it was trying to take off when it crashed."

Han was already denying it. "Luke, my eyes aren't at their best, but even I would have noticed something that size coming through."

Lando agreed, but said nothing.

"Whoever they are," Leia said, they'll be in trouble if we don't get to them pretty soon."

On that point, there was little argument.

----------------

Amidala of the Naboo -- Padmé Naberrie, she corrected herself, remembering that she was still in costume -- was more than a little uncomfortable.

The ship finally came to a stop against something. The wind, so loud a moment before, had gone ominously silent. But that wasn't why she was uncomfortable. The landing had thrown her across the cockpit. She'd rolled around Ric Olie and landed against a panel with some kind of control that stuck out of it, and was pressing into her shoulder. Anakin, who had been standing beside her, had somehow maneuvered behind her, and absorbed most of the blow, but he was just enough shorter that he'd been clear of it. She was sure he had to be hurt worse, but the way the ship was canted, she was having a hard time moving away.

Finally, she rolled to one side, hoping that she wouldn't find the boy crushed beneath her.

He was smiling, but his eyes were faraway. "You all right?"

"Shoulder's sore. What about you?"

He pushed himself away from the wall. She could see that most of the switches he'd hit were, luckily, small. One had torn his shirt, and drawn blood, but he was all right.

"Is everyone all right?" she called generally.

There were murmurs around the cockpit, then Sabé -- Queen Amidala -- appeared at the door, holding on to it to avoid spilling down the slanted floor. "Eirtaé twisted her ankle," she said, not putting on much of a regal act. "But the rest of us are unharmed."

"And our... visitor?"

"Is temporarily stunned from his encounter with the hyperdrive, but I do not trust it."

With an effort, Anakin climbed the floor, and reached the door where Sabé was standing. He bowed a little bit, and Amidala was sorry to see that he looked frightened. "Your Majesty, may I see Qui-Gon?"

A voice called up. "I'm back here, Ani. I'm all right."

"Master, I... I feel something..."

Suddenly, the clash of lightsabers rang through the hull.

"Master!" Qui-Gon's padawan shouted.

Anakin disappeared around Sabé -- it was all Amidala could do to catch Sabé's eye and remind her not to jump in herself -- and then the clashing sounds stopped.

Qui-Gon re-appeared at the door. "Your Majesty," he said, panting, and Amidala noticed with some dismay that he was looking straight at her, and not even acknowledging Sabé, "we have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Sabé asked.

Qui-Gon answered, still looking at Amidala. "Our visitor cut through the hull. Wherever we are, he is loose."

----------------

Luke knew what it was he felt, but it didn't make sense. There was no doubt about it -- his father was on board that ship. There was a kind of resonance to Vader's presence that he couldn't mistake --

Aren't you jumping the gun? he asked himself. He might have been lying, trying to distract you with... with what he said...

It didn't do any good. He had, as instructed, searched his feelings, and known it to be true. He just didn't much like it.

Concentrate. Bespin is in the past. Keep your mind on where you are and what you are doing.

His father was on that ship.

The resonance was there, but... but it was different. He'd thought that what he felt around Vader was the cloud of hate and anger and

(desperation)

fear, but all of that was gone now, and still, it was unmistakable. The pulse of energy was surrounded only by a vague nervousness, a little sadness...

What was happening?

He was already off the skiff, and halfway to to the ship. Leia was close behind. Han's eyes weren't quite where they needed to be, even though he'd landed a few good shots, so he and Lando were a little further back, along with Chewie, who was wounded. The droids had stayed put.

A flash of light appeared near the rear of the ship, and a black form fell out of it. This time, Luke did feel a wave of terrible hate and anger, with none of the other things he associated with Vader. The idea that the thing might have been Vader, just by its cloaks and movements, didn't occur to him. He knew better.

The gangplank lowered, and before it even came close to the ground, a long-haired main in a tan poncho leaped out of it, somersaulting down to the desert floor with a lightsaber ignited. It was green, like the one Luke himself had just built.

A powerful surge went through the Force, and Luke understood, though he understood nothing else, that this man was a Jedi Master. A wordless request came to him, and he knew that his help was requested.

He ran to the other man, who had abruptly stopped and sheathed the lightsaber. A frustrated breath escaped him, then he turned, looking entirely unsurprised to see a Jedi. "I don't believe we have met," he said. "I thought I knew nearly all the older

padawans. I am Qui-Gon Jinn."

The name meant nothing to Luke, nor did the word he'd used. "Luke Skywalker," he said. He was tempted to say "Jedi knight," but bit his tongue. Yoda had not given him permission to use the title, and he'd really only used it to --

Jinn's eyes narrowed. "Skywalker?"

Two more figures were running down the gangplank, a younger man in long brown robes and a small, dusty boy... Luke's eyes widened as he again felt the distinctive surge of energy.

"Say nothing," Qui-Gon Jinn instructed him.

Luke felt he had little choice but to obey.

At any rate, Leia had crested a dune, and was also headed over.

The three of them arrived at the same time.

-------------

"Are you all right, Master?" Anakin asked. There was another man with him, a young man, about the same age as Obi-Wan Kenobi (who had introduced himself very briefly, in an irritated tone of voice). Anakin's eyes went to the new person, like metal to a magnet. He couldn't explain it, but there was something...

Then something else. A lady came over the dune, and Anakin felt the same thing.

Only he couldn't look at her. She hardly had any clothes on. He'd seen ladies looking like that at Jabba's place and it always made him feel like taking a bath, but this one... he couldn't look at her at all. It was like looking at his mother in one of those things. He took off his shirt, keeping his eyes averted, and held it out to her. "Here,"

he said. "You'll get burned."

"It's all right."

"Please..."

"It won't fit."

He realized she was right, and put his shirt back on, still looking at his feet.

Kenobi's voice came across. "Here, Miss. My young friend is right about getting burned."

Anakin saw a flash of dark brown cloth, and looked up with relief as the lady put on Kenobi's big robe. Now that he could look at her, he thought she was pretty, and that she really did look a little like Mom. "Hi," he said.

She smiled, amused. "Hi."

"We've lost him then, Master?" Kenobi asked.

Qui-Gon nodded. "I don't know how one becomes lost in this flat expanse, but he seems to have disappeared into the sand itself."

----------------

Amidala inspected the hole carefully, getting as close as she could without placing herself inside.

The door swooshed shut behind her and the distinct rustling of Sabé's costume came to a stop at some distance from her.

"Master Jinn knows," she admitted, her voice quiet, her eyes on the figures in the sand.

Sabé's voice was tinged with disappointment. "I didn't tell him or his padawan, Your Majesty."

Amidala rose to full height, and faced her bodyguard. "I know, Sabé. You served me well."

Their eyes wandered back outside.

Sabé motioned to the elaborate dress she wore. "Shall I change out of this?"

Amidala watched as a scantily-dressed woman accepted the padawan's robe, and frowned. "No, we do not know who these people ally themselves with -- it might be best to play these roles a bit longer."

"Does Her Majesty wish for her handmaiden to assist the Jedi?"

"Sabé..." She nearly corrected her for the formality, but sighed and came to terms with it. If they behaved as if the Master Jedi knew while in these others' presences, and let such small lapses in, they might slip in a critical moment. "Yes, she does."

Sabé grinned, and nodded slightly in obeisance. "I shall send Padmé immediately."

The Queen of the Naboo brushed past her handmaiden swiftly and outside into the sand.

-------------

C-3PO was very confused by this mess. How could a ship appear out of nowhere? It was impossible, except if the ship came out of hyperspace, or it had a cloaking shield. Cloaking shields didn't really work 'cause you couldn't see out of them, and the ship appeared too close to a gravity well to have been in hyperspace, threepio reasoned.

He decided to take a look around this ship.Oh, my goodness. What happened to their

hyperdrive? They won't be leaving here soon.

Stumbling around the ship, he ran into the astromech storage room. There, he saw a shut-down artoo, sitting on the rack, even though R2-D2 was supposed to be on the Falcon. He rapped the shell, and artoo suddenly started up, wheeling around.

"R2-D2. What are you doing on this ship?"

beep-dowip notship

"What do you mean, where did I get my shell? They must have given you a memory wipe, the Maker knows why."

kowowl

"I was not 'just functional' the other day! I have been totally functional for years, you twerp! Master Luke will have your hide-"

hwert-rong tyip wer nik

"What do you mean, 'Who is Master Luke'? Do you know who these people on this ship are? They might not be friendly."

jin-gon bon-b dol-a anasky

"But Master Kenobi is dead! I saw it with my own sensors! This is madness..."

-------------

In orbit above the Sanctuary Moon.

Vader sat in his meditation chamber aboard the Executor. He was meditating, he supposed, but he could find no single focus for his anger, no particular hatred to energize him. He was tired. So very tired.

It mattered little. He had a job to do, and he did it. He bullied Jerjerrod, and threatened the pathetic troopers assigned to outside construction, and had somehow pushed the Death Star back onto schedule. The Rebels could now begin using it as target practice at their leisure.

He shook his head. His thoughts had taken a morose turn -- and sometimes a disturbingly faithless one -- ever since Bespin, and he did not care for it at all.

Luke... He whispered his son's name into the Force, but nothing came back to him.

Join me, my son.

Nothing. Too far for Luke to hear him. The boy was still largely untrained, and Tatooine was a quarter of a galaxy away. And the boy was definitely on Tatooine.

Even through the current morass, Vader was pleased with himself about that

strategy. It was partly that he'd managed to keep several leaders of the Rebellion busy with their own affairs for several months, but on the main, it was more personal: whether Luke chose to join Vader or not, Jabba the Hutt was about to keep his longstanding appointment with a Skywalker and a lightsaber. This pleased Vader deeply, no matter what else came of it. Palpatine's treaty with the slaving worm wasn't going to be protecting him anymore.

He slipped deeper into his meditation, casting his mind toward Tatooine hungrily. He saw only glimpses... fires, and a gun, and Luke's lightsaber... and Leia Organa, her arms strained as she...

And was she dressed as a slave? Had Jabba actually dared to enslave the Princess?

Vader smiled. In his brief flash of vision, he saw her pulling a chain taut around Jabba's neck, and that was even better than the lightsaber, more fitting. The slaver killed by a slave that he never should have dared to take. He would have preferred someone tied to his own blood carry it out, but Leia had done quite nicely in the end.

The sweet energy of old vengeance came to him, and he was strengthening himself

with it when...

His shoulders straightened; his back went stiff as a corpse. He could smell something on the wind of the Dark Side, a presence both strange and familiar. Along with it were other impossible presences, but this one was the one that he needed to notice, no matter how distracting the others were.

He'd felt the presence only for a brief time. By all rights, it should have long since vanished from the universe. But it had suddenly appeared again, with

(amidala qui-gon obi-wan and it cannot be but it is...)

the others.

Maul.

Vader had taken some of Maul's memories into himself when he'd bonded with his Master, and he recognized the pattern.

The first apprentice Palpatine had raised up. The one Obi-Wan had killed on Naboo.

Vader did not especially care that it was Maul, only that another Sith had entered the galaxy, and if there was one thing he knew and counted on, it was that there could not be more than two. Palpatine would choose one of them to survive and the other to die.

Vader had no intention of allowing that choice to be made.

He would reach Maul first.

He offered no explanation when he commandeered a TIE interceptor, and set course for Tatooine.

It was time, at last, to go home.

-------------

The robe was made of some kind of coarse material, and it itched. Beneath it, the ridiculous metal dancing costume was pinching her skin in a dozen places, and deep-steaming it in even more.

She was decidedly uncomfortable.

Yet she found herself accepting the strangers' appearance with no discomfort at all.

They weren't here, now they are here, ho-hum, that's nice. And if there were two members of a nearly extinct order standing there as if they had every right and expectation to be there... well, once you accept everything else, are two Jedi really that much of a stretch?

Leia didn't think so.

Until the one who had offered her his robe said, "I am Obi-Wan Kenobi."

At that point, her mind kicked in. "You're who?"

Luke gave her a look that meant something, but she wasn't sure what, then offered Kenobi a conciliatory smile. "She means 'hello and thank you.' It took me awhile to translate it the first time, too."

"It certainly isn't an intuitive translation."

Leia was briefly annoyed, but realized quickly that they were simply bantering. And she had neglected to thank him for the robe. Itchy it might be, but she was glad for the covering. The little boy who had come out with the Jedi had glanced away so quickly that she'd realized how she looked, and become deeply embarrassed to look that way. She had swallowed the humiliation at Jabba's because she had no choice; Leia Organa, princess of Alderaan, had been made into a slave -- a cheap and tawdry one at that. The boy had understood this humiliation at once somehow, and when he'd offered his shirt, she'd thought it the kindest gesture she'd seen in a very long time, though of course an impossible one to take up. The Jedi's offer of a robe was one she could accept, but she would remember that he had not been the first to offer it. When the boy turned and smiled at her after she was dressed, she felt instantly more comfortable. More dignified. More herself.

She straightened her back, and turned to the man who claimed to be Kenobi. "I do thank you, sir. I was surprised at your name. I grew up hearing the name Obi-Wan Kenobi. You must have been named for him."

The young man shook his head, mystified. "To the best of my knowledge, I am the only padawan ever given this name. It is not the practice among the Jedi to create

duplication in naming."

The other Jedi turned. "We seem to have experienced a temporal dislocation," he said, as casually as if he were explaining a minor mechanical malfunction. "We'll need to be careful."

The boy moved toward him. Leia wondered if he was the Jedi's son, but didn't think so. "What do you mean?" he asked.

The older Jedi turned around. He looked over Leia's shoulder, and nodded as Lando and Han came into earshot. "Our hyperdrive malfunction had an unintended effect, Annie. We seem to have arrived at a point in the future."

Leia's mind tried to blank again -- ho-hum, so what -- but she didn't let it. Her eyes went to the Nubian. That class of ship hadn't been made for many years, yet it looked new and shiny. She could see a small figure coming down the gangplank, and beginning to walk toward them.

"Why do you think that, Master?" Kenobi asked.

"Reach into the living Force, padawan. The city is very different now than it was even a few hours ago."

"Perhaps it's the past..."

"No. I am almost certain of it."

Leia told him the year.

"That answers it, then."

"How far?"

"Thirty-five years, give or take. We'll need to return."

"Master Qui-Gon!" a high, young girl's voice called across the sand. "Her Majesty does

not wish for you to conduct meetings without my presence."

The girl, Leia knew at a glance, and her heart began to beat quickly and furiously.

She had dreamed of her, remembered her voice, felt her running in her own blood. She turned to look her mother in the eye.

---

The older Jedi tried to suppress a grin -- the Queen's persistence in maintaining the façade was admirable. The way she carried herself, even as the handmaiden Padmé, was far too in control, confident ... too regal for a peasant girl in Her Majesty's service.

Amidala gave a quick glance to

(Anakin's son?)

Luke and his companions -- a woman in her early twenties who returned the passing look with a transfixed stare, and two men who were maybe toddlers in Qui-Gon's own rightful time.

Her lips were pursed indignantly. "The Queen wishes to know what has become of our attacker."

He challenged her stare with calm, cool eyes. "Young handmaiden, we are presented with an unusual dilemma at the moment, one of which I'm certain the Queen is not aware."

"And that is?"

The rest of the group looked at one another hesitantly, a general feeling of uncertainty attached to exactly what he would reveal to the stubborn servant of a mysterious and absent queen.

Anakin was the one to play the messenger. "We're in the future."

"The future?" A pause. Her eyebrows arched in amused, detached disbelief. "Well, isn't this all wonderful?"

---

He didn't mean to do it.

He didn't mean to laugh in front of the ridiculous parade of his child-father and the young Old Ben, but the girl did first and it was infectious in the same the way one of Aunt Beru's chuckles were when Uncle Owen would let forth a string of frustrated curses with no direction. Then to his delight the boy began to laugh even harder than either one of them, but it was probably more at the way they stood in one place, two formerly-serious public servants trying to maintain some dignity in their postures as loud sobs of laughter dissipated into shallow breaths and silent exuberance, than at the absurdity of the situation.

It was ridiculous, unfathomable even. It relaxed Leia for them to laugh, he could feel it; she had tensed up the moment she saw the girl and for a fleeting moment it reminded him of his own reaction to his father's presence and a flash of something -- the girl's own words twisted into something more intrinsic, rooted within him.

The laughter was, however, short-lived, as the reality of the situation sank in.

The girl's dark eyes searched Luke. "You were the one that said this?"

Leia jumped at the opportunity to answer this, the anxiety turning to nervousness, her eyes avoiding the penetrating stare of the handmaiden. "That would be me," she said, very softly. "I confirmed the year."

----------

Anakin was glad of the chance to laugh -- everything had been so serious lately -- and he guessed maybe he did it a little too loud, but all this was so weird. It needed somebody to laugh. He was a little sorry when it stopped, but at the same time, he wanted to hear the future-people talk, especially the young Jedi. It was funny, but he thought that the man looked a little bit like Padmé, right around his nose and the way his cheekbones looked.

"I confirmed the year," the woman in Kenobi's robe said. She was staring at Padmé nervously, like she wanted to make a good impression. Anakin wanted to tell her that Padmé was good and kind, and wouldn't make it hard to do, but he didn't figure she'd appreciate it much. (The oddity of a grown-up lady seeking the approval of a fourteen-year-old girl occurred to him briefly, but he dismissed it; Padmé was just the sort of person you wanted to have approve of you, no matter how old you were, he figured.)

Padmé smiled at her. "Well, I'm sure we appreciate the clarification. I am Padmé Naberrie, in the service of her Majesty, Amidala of the Naboo."

The young woman offered a formal bow, which looked a little ridiculous in the middle of the desert, especially given what she was wearing, and said, "I am Senator Leia Organa, Princess of Alderaan."

The two older men showed up. Both of them looked a little the worse for wear. One was dressed like Jabba's guards. The other looked like he'd just woken up after sleeping in his clothes for a few days.

They all looked at each other. Anakin had a name for the lady -- Leia Organa -- but he didn't know the others. He figured maybe somebody ought to do something about that. Well, he guessed he could do it as well as anyone else. He shrugged, and said "Hi."

The one who looked sleepy gave him a wave, and the other one nodded.

Anakin started introducing his group. "This is Master Qui-Gon Jinn," he said, pointing to Qui-Gon, "and his padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. And this is Padmé Naberrie." He presented her with a bow, trying to mimic Leia's (Leia smiled at him, and he found that he liked that).

"And who are you?" she asked.

"Oh," Anakin said. He was used to introducing people in his position as a slave -- he was good at remembering stuff, so Watto had him keep track of names of people a lot -- which meant he needed about as much introduction as the kitchen table himself. It had been weird, yesterday, the way he'd wanted to make sure Padmé knew his name. It was almost like a secret he'd wanted to tell her, even though it wasn't really a secret. Most people knew who he was because they'd seen him fly in the podraces. He sort of liked that he didn't have to tell people who he was... he showed it.

But he still hadn't told these people his name, or showed it to them... his mind had wandered completely. He brought it back on track. "I'm Anakin Skywalker," he said.

Leia and the two older men all looked up at the young Jedi, just like someone had called him. Anakin turned curiously to see what the fuss was.

The Jedi was looking at his feet. Finally, he looked up, and looked straight at Anakin.

"You've met Leia," he said. "These others are Lando Calrissian and Han Solo."

He glanced at Qui-Gon, who rolled his eyes. "I'd thought to say nothing, but it seems a pointless strategy just now."

The younger man went on. "And I am Luke." He bit his lip. "Luke Skywalker."

It took a second for it to come into focus, but Anakin was good at putting pieces together to make them fit, and he liked this puzzle a lot. He felt a smile stretching across his face, but all he could think of to say was, "Wow." He reached up to Luke -- this grown-up man who would be his son someday -- and touched the cheekbone that reminded him of Padmé, fighting the urge to look back at her and compare (he thought maybe it would be better not to say anything about that quite yet; she'd been a little bit jumpy when he'd told her he was going to marry her in Watto's shop yesterday as it was, but he hadn't doubted it then, and he really didn't doubt it now).

Luke put a hand on his head, and mussed at his hair, giving him a grin.

Anakin did the same, then laughed.

If this was the future, maybe he didn't need to be so afraid of it.

-------------------

Darth Vader looked through his TIE Interceptor at the mottled view of hyperspace, contemplating his next move.

I do not want to confront Kenobi, he decided. Or the other Jedi, for that matter. I

only have a single-bladed lightsaber, with that I can only take on ONE Jedi.

I cannot also kill my former self, or I will die, nor make any sort of connection between myself or my former self. If that happens, I will not be trained.

That is it. I will first go to Yavin IV, build myself a double-bladed lightsaber, and then go to Tatooine and confront Maul. It should not be more than a day's delay. I should be able to find a new crystal there. I could also use a chat with Master Kun. Pulling himself out of hyperspace, Vader changed course to Yavin.

Can I face Luke again? I'm not sure.

-------------------

Young Anakin Skywalker snuck a peek at his grown-up son, as the adults talked in the ship's war-room, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with the hyperdrive and how it could be fixed. His nose looks exactly like Padmé's. And he has my hair, totally wizard!

He couldn't help the huge grin on his face as he looked at Luke.

"What's so funny, Anakin?" Padmé whispered, amused. The pair had snuck off towards the doorway so they could talk easily.

"I'm a Dad and I'm only nine!" He started giggling at that, leaving Padmé rather startled but she soon started laughing as well. His son, he had a grown son and the Princess seemed to overhear the friends and they both looked pretty happy for some reason. I wonder what that's about... The boy mentally smacked himself. Duh! Padmé's his Mother, 'course he'd be happy... But what about the Princess?

"Come on, there will be time later to laugh at you having a grown Jedi for a son. Right now we need to figure out how we can get home before any side effects happen."

Padmé sobered up and walked over to the group, leaving Anakin pretty confused.

Anakin walked quickly to Qui-Gon Jinn and asked quietly, "What did Padmé mean by telling me there's side effects here, Mr. Qui-Gon, sir?"

"Ani, we all have certain things we do in life, right?" When Anakin nodded, Qui-Gon continued. "Well, if we can't get home, we can't do those things and this world might have some nasty effects. We can only hope nothing will happen for a good long while."

A petite female technician rushed into the room a few minutes later looking kinda angry, Anakin thought. "Our hyperdrive's totally blown out, we'll need to buy a new one, I knew that Watto would try to cheat up that---" Here the woman inserted a few choice adjectives that made even Anakin blink and he had been around spacers and Hutts his entire life.

Obi-Wan looked at his Master, barely containing his glee. "I told you that I had a bad feeling about this!"

"Now isn't the time, Padawan. So, now what do we do? Any suggestions?" Anakin saw Qui-Gon look at his son and the Princess who looked kinda like his Mom, asking for help.

He also saw the sleepy man, Han, he thought, rub his eyes and then almost trip. "I don't know that much about temporal mechanics but I'd guess you'd need to use your old ship to get back. And finding a hyperdrive for an old Naboo ship is going to be a problem." Lando, that guy with the Jabba guard uniform, rolled his eyes, annoyed.

"It won't be that hard to find on the Black Market, if you have the credits." Han said, complete with a roguish look that really got on Anakin's nerves for some reason.

Captain Panaka started stuttering and Anakin had to hold back a smirk. "I will not let her Majesty's money go towards the Black Market thieves! We have Republic credits--"

Princess Leia bit her lip. "Old Republic credits don't do any good. Besides, we can't afford to buy things that bring notice like that out in the open."

"Why not?" Padmé spoke calmly, but with a hint of 'I-must-be-answered-now' in her tone. Anakin thought that when she then leaned against the metal of the doorframe and talked like that, she looked like a Queen. Queen Amidala, maybe.

"Because we're wanted by the current goverment." Anakin watched as Leia glared at the other members of the room, daring them to say anything. Okay, I think we're in just a little trouble now.

--------

Luke caught himself wondering if there was some way that his father would be able to get into... his father's... accounts, and stopped thinking that way immediately. He doubted there was a blood scan guard on them anyway. More likely some arcane series of letters and numbers.

And besides, do you really want to tell him... that?

No, he didn't.

Father, at any rate, seemed merely curious. "How come the government's after you?"

Qui-Gon Jinn looked at him. "Anakin, there are things it is perhaps better for us not to know. We might damage the timeline -- "

"Damage it," Han said, rubbing his temple after running into a low doorframe. "Hell, you can hardly do worse knowing than they did before."

"We know so little about how this might interact with..."

Padmé Naberrie interrupted him. Luke had gotten a brief glimpse of the Queen, and he didn't think she herself would interrupt a Jedi Master, but here was the handmaiden... and what was it about her... Leia certainly seemed fascinated. "Master Jinn," she said, "we need information on our current situation. The fact that it involves a temporal dislocation doesn't change that. We can't operate until we know the system we are operating in. And I would prefer not to do business with criminals, unless I know there is a good reason for their actions."

Leia's face fell as if she'd been struck. "We're not criminals," she said. "We're... we want to restore the Old Republic. That's all we're trying to do."

"Restore it?" Padmé asked, clearly confused.

Leia nodded. "It's about to fall. Fast."

Padmé gave her a guarded look. "It's hard to believe. The Republic has reigned for millennia... "

Father was beside Luke again, a small, warm presence. They sought each other's faces, then Father said, with perfect innocent interest that chilled Luke to the heart, "What did they put in place of it? Is it really bad?"

"Yes," Luke said, before Leia could begin a diatribe. "It's very bad. But Master Jinn is right. We don't know what you'll remember when you go back. It might be better not to tell you everything."

"Thank you, young padawan." Qui-Gon's eyes narrowed a bit. "If I might ask, who is your Master?"

Luke didn't answer in words, but nodded at Obi-Wan, who was engaged with the engines.

"Am I dead?" Anakin asked abruptly.

Qui-Gon looked at him. "Why would you ask that, Ani?"

"Luke acts like we don't know each other. But I don't feel like I'm dead."

"And how would you know what it feels like to be dead, Ani?" Padmé said, running a hand through his hair, and Luke understood, suddenly and with complete certainty, that she was his mother. He didn't know how he'd missed it up until now. The two of them... fit. He tried to imagine her beside Vader. He couldn't do it, but he could hear her in Vader's voice, in the way he put his sentences together.

So what is Leia's interest?

He set the question aside. There were enough other questions.

Father shrugged. "I just figured I'd know."

Luke settled for the unsatisfactory answer that was the only thing he was logically sure of (emotional certainty had been achieved already on the matter, but he thought logical answer would be the better one here). "I'm not sure," he said. "I was brought up believing you were dead, but I'm simply not sure now."

"I'm not." The words came out simply and flatly, as if he were discussing the time of day. Then he changed the subject. "Are we still near Mos Espa? I know where most of the good junk piles are there. Unless they moved them."

He went on chattering happily -- Luke wondered if there had ever been a point in his life that he didn't feel like narrating -- and moved to the hyperdrive beside Obi-Wan.

Luke looked to Qui-Gon.

Master, there are things he shouldn't know.

There are things none of us should. Yet he may learn them before the end. And, as your companion pointed out, that may not be wholly bad.

---------------

Amidala was finding herself increasingly agitated by the whole situation. Anakin Skywalker, naturally, was taking it in stride -- Am I dead? indeed, what kind of question was that (and why does it make me feel so sick to my stomach, anyway?) -- but then again, he took everything in stride. Maybe he was just used to people doing things with his life for no comprehensible reason. She herself was used to having control, and this was... not a situation that she knew how to control.

She tried to take his example, to just roll with the punches and see where she ended up. To find it funny to see his grown-up son.

(my grown-up son)

She tried to blink the thought away -- ridiculous, why would she and Anakin have the same son? He was so much younger than she was and...

A conversation she had once had with her grandmother, Winama, came back to her. It was shortly before King Veruna stepped down. Amidala had been Princess of Theed at the time, and had expressed the opinion that it would probably stay that way for awhile. Winama had raised one wry eyebrow and said, "Little one, haven't you learned yet that the future is not just a continuation of the present?"

She didn't think she believed that -- not completely; the future always grew out of the present -- but she thought she might understand what Winama might have meant. Her perceptions in the future might be different. She could provisionally accept the idea, intellectually, for the time being, if necessary. At least Anakin was kind and cared about her, and not everyone could say that.

And, anyway, she wasn't sure, not really. Luke had her nose, but was her nose really all that unusual? She could as easily say that Leia had her eyes, and...

Well, what is that staring about, anyway?

She shook it off. She didn't know why a princess of Alderaan was acting awed in the presence of a Naboo handmaiden -- it was strange, but no stranger than anything else. When she was ready, Amidala supposed she'd talk about it.

Anakin was hunkered down beside Obi-Wan Kenobi now, Luke at his side, as they examined the damaged hyperdrive. Han Solo looked like he wanted to be there, but he was rubbing his eyes, and Amidala was finally beginning to understand that he had some kind of temporary blindness that was driving him mad. She cleared her throat.

"It's not going to magically regenerate," she said, "no matter how many Jedi stare intensely at it. We need to find new parts. Quickly."

Qui-Gon glanced at her and smirked. "Perhaps you should suggest that the Queen give the order?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Perhaps we should just go back into town."

"That's what I think," Anakin said, getting up. "Is Mos Espa still there?"

What a strange question, Amidala thought, but it seemed a logical one.

"It's still there," Han quipped.

"In all its dubious glory," Lando added, rolling his eyes. "Podracing arena's gone, though."

Anakin's face fell piteously. "Gone?"

"There was some fighting here, during the slave revolt. Guess the arena was a small price to pay."

From despair to elation in a second. "We're all free, then?"

"Free as anyone else in the Empire," Han said. "Maybe a little freer, out here in the Outer Rim."

Amidala looked at Leia. The edge of her costume peeked through Kenobi's robe. "Then you're wearing that of your own free will?"

She shook her head. "Jabba has his own rules. The Empire didn't bother with him. But he's not a problem anymore." A grimace flitted over her features.

Anakin looked delighted, and Amidala half-expected a "Yippee," but one didn't come. "Let's go," he said. "I want to go back. I'll find you some parts. We'll find something to trade with the Jawas on, if nothing else..."

He kept chattering as he headed down the ramp, back toward the desert. He seemed not to care whether or not anyone was following.

But of course, they followed.

---------------

Han Solo squinted as he tried to look at the outskirts of Mos Espa, keeping a hand on Leia's shoulder as he did so. The one good thing about being blind is I get to touch Leia without her starting fights with me.

Han smirked at that train of thought, leaving Leia to give him an odd look.

"What's up, Han?" Leia seemed a little concerned, guilt, he thought, is very powerful. That's stupid, you know she does cares, she's not just feeling guilty because Darth ... did what Sith Lords do to people. She's gone through worse, so at least it's not pity.

He was about to answer when he realized something. I can see! His vision was a little blurry but it was clear enough to not trip over his own feet. Maybe trip going into a door, but not his own feet. "I can see, Leia! I can see!

Han picked her up and twirled her, just happy to be alive and that she was alive with him, not minding that the Kid and the Kid's Father (How weird was that? The kid's father is more of a kid then he is!) were smiling, happy for them. Leia giggled breathlessly, "Han, we need to...get the, umm, hyperdrive parts. Yeah."

He put her down regretfully but before he could speak, Anakin spoke up. "It's Watto's shop! Ooh, can we go in, can we?"

Anakin didn't wait for an answer and Luke scrambled after him, yelling, "Father, wait up!"

Ya know, it says something about this town that no one ever notices a twenty-one year old calling some baby-faced kid his father. Han, Leia and Padmé jogged after their friends, leaving the others who chose to walk at a much slower pace behind.

When Han ran in, Anakin was staring around wide-eyed. He was whispering something to his son and Han only caught parts of it. "Working.. behind the counter.. I... to clean.. Watto! Ha!" The small boy continued to laugh at the unfamiliar creature behind the counter.

"You buying anything..... Skywalker?!" The little non-human started babbling too fast in an odd accent for Han to pick up but Anakin seemed to catch it okay.

"You need to be clearer. Which Skywalker? Me or my son?" Anakin smiled serenely while Watto's eyes rolled simultaneously, he stopped beating his little wings and the little bug fainted to the ground. "Watto? Watto?"

Padmé drew herself up from where she was watching (Han realized with a start, that he'd forgotten she was even there, that girl was good at sneaking and listening!) and smirked just a little, a look that didn't fit her face at all. "Good. I do hope that little slave-master dies from the shock."

---------------

Padmé closed her eys as she saw Anakin looked at her with a bit a shock. What's the matter with me? Why do I get a funny feeling whenever he looks at me? Or hate it when I think he's unhappy? He's just a child!

"Padmé! You don't mean that!" Anakin's eyes were wide as he rebuked her.

She turned to Luke, where he seemed angry at Watto as well from the way he glared. She inclined her head, searching for an ally. He nodded, showing silent agreement and Padmé continued.

"You were his slave, Ani. His slave! Do you know what kind of person it takes to keep a slave when they know to the core of their being it is wrong?" She briefly heard the gasps from Leia and Han, but thankfully, the others still hadn't shown. "He doesn't deserve compassion or respect!"

"If I don't give it to him, Padmé , how will I know to give it to anyone?" The small boy's face was serious and it didn't escape Padmé's notice how Luke grabbed his hand, trying to offer comfort.

Padmé was silent and the group fell quiet as well, waiting for the small creature to wake up.

---------------

Anakin had been having some fun with seeing Watto, and introducing his son, because he'd figured it would confuse the Toydarian, but he hadn't expected the poor guy to faint dead away. Watto? He was tough as old bantha leather.

He bent over his old Master -- old Master... he'd been free for three hours! -- and tried to wake him up. As Masters went, they could be worse than Watto. At least Watto had let him race, and didn't beat him very much. And the quarters he'd bought weren't too awful. Some of the other slaves had it worse, anyway.

The old eyes opened and glared narrowly at him. "What are you doing here, pedunkel? I freed you. That farmer cheated for you, and won you."

"He didn't cheat, and neither did I. You feeling better?"

"Eh." Watto pulled himself up, and the wings started flapping again, pulling him up to the counter level. "You want something else from me, pedunkel? What else do I have left for you to take?"

Well, that was a weird thing to say. But Anakin didn't have any idea what Watto meant by it, so he just said, "The parts got fried on our way out, which is how we ended up here. I mean, how we ended up now. You got any Nubian parts around?"

"You better have something better than Republic credits this time. Can't do anything with them anywhere now. And you can't race for it either, that's a fact." He muttered something under his breath about revolts and wars and politics taking all the fun out of life.

Anakin thought of the racing arena, and was sorry it was gone, but that wasn't why he was here. He thought about asking after his mother, but the time ... and she wasn't right here ... he had a feeling she wasn't here, and a bigger feeling that he didn't want to know why. "I'll work for the parts," he said. "If you've got them. I'll work as long as you want, on whatever needs fixing."

Watto waved a hand. "So you think you gonna just walk in here and get what you want from me? You think, all these years I've got no one can fix an engine again?"

Anakin was silent, and let it wash over him. He knew perfectly well that Watto might have found a mechanic. But not one as good as me.

"Peh. It got none of that old stuff, anyway. Haven't made that kind of ship in years. What would I keep such old junk for anyway?"

"Maybe we could see what you do have," someone said, and Anakin turned to find Han Solo coming forward. "Could be we could rig something up. I know the Nubian ships were fussy, but maybe we could convince her to slum it for awhile."

**************************************

As Darth Vader's TIE intercepter soared through the skies of Yavin IV, the Sith Lord Exar Kun felt a disturbance in the Force, one he had not felt in a long time. Jedi...

Vader stepped out of his TIE in the hanger of what was once Yavin Base for the Rebel Alliance. When it had been abandoned, the hangers were not destroyed. Now, Darth Vader was not upset that Yavin IV hadn't been obliterated by the Death Star, but he wasn't happy about it either. He was upset that the loss of the Battle of Yavin had cost them the Death Star, but he had never really cared for it anyway.

Don't be too proud of this technological terror, you've constructed, he had told them. Tarkin had been a fool. He always had been.

Darth Vader knelt at the spire of the Great Temple, and began to speak in the ancient Sith Language, Sithi. "A hin hot ka Exar Kun, Sith Lord."

A blue ball of fire descended from the ceiling above, and came before Vader. It began to unwrap and expand at the same time, taking the form of an old man with sithly black hair and grey skin. "What have you called me for, Lord Vader? I do not like to be wakened from my slumber unless there is a great emergency."

"That there is, my Lord. There is a great disturbance in the Force."

"I have felt it. A weakling Jedi Master has appeared."

"That I know. I have identified him as Qui-Gon Jinn. He also has with him an apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. They are currently on Tatooine."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi...I vaguely remember that name being spoken of in this temple in the past tense. Interesting, most interesting."

"There is more, Master. There is now a THIRD Sith Lord. Darth Maul, who died at the hands of Kenobi. Even more dangerous, is young Skywalker."

"Skywalker...Luke Skywalker, a Jedi?"

"No, Master. Anakin Skywalker."

"But, Skywalker is dead."

"He is just a boy. I must tread carefully, or I may not survive."

"Yes, you will. Need a double-bladed lightsaber, you do. there is no need to build one. I have my special lightsaber hidden in another temple. It is a highly advanced version. No being has been able to yield it; they all killed themselves with it. I believe that you will be able to."

"It is the finest lightsaber ever constructed," He continued. "It was built by a Sith millenia ago, on the planet Byss. Come, let us see your new lightsaber."

Exar Kun led Darth Vader down into the bowels of the Great Temple, to a room that was in the core of the planet. Embedded in crystal were two double-bladed lightsabers, side by side. They were connected, somehow. Darth Vader picked it up, and there was a guage on the side. The turned it, and the hilts swiveled. He also noted that there was twelve buttons. There are twelve crystals! he could change the length of any one of the four blade at any time. A quadruple-bladed lightsaber.

------------------

Watto chuckled to himself, speaking (though he didn't feel reluctance he knew it was a great bargaining tool) slowly. "I have some old Laceran ships outside. I will let you see them. Come."

"Laceran?! Those ships couldn't be built worse if they were built by clumsy

Gamorreans on steroids!" A Jedi with a small braid stepped through the doorway, others following.

If he lost me a sale... Watto blinked and started fluttering his wings fast as he saw that farmer enter. In the name of Kammerick, what is he doing here?! What kind of farmer keeps company like this?

Watto gave the room a quick inventory, slowly realizing who was in this room, paying no heed to that smuggler yelling with Jedi about 'Millennium Falcons who had Laceran parts'. By Kammerick, I have a Jedi in this shop, that Rebel princess and Luke Skywalker who has one of the highest bounties on him in the galaxy! I can make so much money off of this, I could retire!

The small girl who had an aura of power hanging on her, spoke. "You may fight later. Now, we must get materials to repair our ship. Or do you wish to be stuck in the future forever?"

"Padmé is right. We should go look. The sooner we get this part, the sooner we can go sith-searching." The farmer inclined his head, getting others to follow.

Motioning for the group to step outside, Watto heard the dark man in Jabba's guardsmen apparel mumble, "You want the Sith that much, you can have Vader and Emperor Palpatine."

As soon as they were all out, Watto called up his linkup to Interstellar Comm from the counter. A staticy holo of Captain Kalara, his Imperial contact, came up and Watto spoke quickly. "I have the Rebel princess, Luke Skywalker and a Jedi in my shop."

"WHAT?!" The Captain's eyes were widened and he appeared to have trouble breathing.

"If I were you," And you don't know how glad I am I'm not you! "I'd get my people down here to collect my bounty. Of course, I could always call someone else..." Watto made a move as if to turn off his Comm.

"No! Look, I'll have people there in twenty-four hours. Make sure they stay on planet until then." With that the Captain shut his comm off leaving Watto alone to enjoy his victory.

------------------

Anakin Skywalker shuddered to himself, stopping suddenly and he could tell that Padmé was concerned. "What's wrong, Ani?"

Anakin could feel somehing pulsing around him, tugging on him. It was kinda liek teh feeling her got when he podraced, only scarier. Whatever it was had been doing that ever since he came, but he could ignore it mostly. But rigtht now it was giving hima funny feeling, like he had seen something but didn't know what. "Nothing, Padmé, nothing."

He didn't want to worry her after all.

To his shock, Padmé gave him a brief hug and he looked at her in surprise when she let him go. "It will be all right, Ani. I promise I will do all I can to make it all right."

------------------

It was a lot to process.

That was all there was to it. Luke couldn't justify the boy across the room with the man who had cut off his hand six months ago.

Except...

Except that he's proud of me, how's that for starters? Except that I don't have any problem at all figuring that this boy would want to 'end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.' Except that...

He didn't know how to express it, even to himself, but when Father had knelt beside the little creature who had owned him -- owned?! -- Luke had seen something that made him think of Vader. Some break in the armour... There had always been awful tales of things that Vader had done, and Luke had good reasons to believe them. But he'd never heard of Vader deliberately humiliating someone. He showed some respect to his enemies, even as he completely destroyed them. That was his reputation, and that was, as far as Luke could tell, the truth.

Was that something of this boy that had survived?

He glanced over, and saw his mother give his father a small, sisterly hug.

"You listening, Kid?" Han asked.

Luke smiled. "No. Not really."

"Something else, huh?"

"Something," Luke agreed. He hadn't told Han -- or even Leia -- what Vader had said on Bespin. He didn't think there would ever be a right time for that, somehow.

"Laceran parts are worthless."

"They're adaptable," Han said, turning back to the conversation. "I can work with Laceran. More important, they're about the right size for a Naboo cruiser. Not too much paring down to fit."

Obi-Wan wasn't impressed. "It seems foolish to invest in parts we know well are not matched to the ship, in only the hope that you can modify them."

"He can." A high voice entered the fray, and Father took the small holo of the Nubian cruiser that Qui-Gon Jinn was holding. He hit a button, and the holo shifted to a

schematic. "It's not that hard. I can help."

To Luke's surprise, Han didn't make any cracks about it. He wondered exactly how long the old pirate had been fixing ships, to not be skeptical about a nine-year-old's help. The two of them started talking about what would need to be done, and Luke fought a stab of jealousy. He could do simple repairs with the best of them, but he'd never gone in for the serious stuff. His lightsaber was the most complex construction project he'd tried.

The old Toydarian appeared at the door of his shop, smiling broadly. "Come in, come

in," he said. "For me, it has been many, many years."

A barely perceptible shift in Qui-Gon's stance told Luke that he wasn't the only one who distrusted this sudden friendly shift. The Master turned to Watto. "Thank you, my blue friend. But I believe we will simply make our purchase and leave you to your business."

"What are you planning to make it with? The boy said he'd work for the parts! He can't do that in a few minutes, I think!"

"He's right," Father said.

Obi-Wan threw his hands in the air. "I'll think before I speak next time, Master. I seem to be doomed to stay on Tatooine for a very long time."

------------------

Life was extremely complicated.

When you're little, you assume everything just gets easier. All adults tell you this to patronize you, even though it doesn't work like that. From Leia's experience at least, growing up just made things harder.

If I had found someone from the past a few years ago, I would have told them about Palpatine without a second thought. Now... I'm in the position to tell two Jedi, a queen who I was told helped set up the Empire, and Luke's father what will happen. And I know I won't because I'm afraid of losing what I have. Of Luke never being born, of never meeting Han, not having my father be my father ... . Of not even existing because my mother stayed on Naboo.

So she sat in silence, watching Luke's young father play with various gadgets she had no name for, and do it with maniacal glee on his face. The others had left, excluding Anakin, of course, saying they'd be more useful elsewhere. She knew she wouldn't be more useful away and would probably have much more fun here. Watching Anakin work was strangely fascinating. But, she supposed, compared to convincing Mon Mothma it was important to stay on Tatooine for an extra week, anything was fascinating.

"It's easy, you know." Leia was so engrossed in her thoughts that when Anakin spoke, she jumped off the small speeder and knocker her foot. "Sorry!"

"It's all right.... Skywalker." She wasn't quite sure what to call him, Ani was much to informal, he was her good friend's father after all, and for some reason Anakin didn't stick in her mind. Skywalker worked well and that was just how she thought of him.

He grinned and waved her over to where he was working on a brand-new speeder. "Isn't she pretty? I never worked on this stuff back then," Skywalker made an expansive hand gesture and continued. "Guess he decided to appreciate me when I left."

Leia raised an eyebrow, she had noticed Watto seemed a little...eager, to give him easy jobs that didn't seem to get him as dirty as he could be. "Well, he probably missed you. You seem like a good enough kid... You're not blowing anything up."

"You haven't been around a nine-year-old for years, have you?" She flushed while Skywalker made some final-adjustment and shut the compartment.

"Does being around myself count?" Leia looked at her nails studiously while the young boy hopped up on the speeder.

"Nah. So you'll know, kids don't blow junk up 'til they get to be teens." With this he threw his arms apart and yelled, "KABOOM!".

Leia couldn't help the giggle that emerged and Skywalker's face lit up. He's such a cute kid.... Luke's lucky to have a father like this. She remembered with a twinge that Luke had never met his Father until today. At least her father, as much as he wasn't around, did show up when he needed a perfect daughter for his image. At least he got me into the Rebellion.

She was feeling suprisingly bitter today, which was no wonder with her birth Mother showing up. Leia shook her head and turned on a bright smile. "So Skywalker, what can I do to help?"

He pointed out a few things and Leia nodded and for the first time that day, felt useful.

The Princess was so focused on her work, she didn't notice Watto looking through the entryway and chuckling, very softly.

------------------

Kit Jarai knew more than he let on, and suspected more than he knew. He knew that the Luke Skywalker who had destroyed the Death Star was Anakin's son, because he'd been watching the boy for years, smiling to himself when he heard of a daredevil young pilot up near the Jundland wastes. He knew that Anakin had gotten himself into some kind of deep trouble near the end.

And he suspected -- in a mournful part of his heart -- just how deep that trouble might have been.

He laid out the afternoon's simple fare on a long stone table. There was no name for this hall -- it had once served some purpose for the Hutts, he thought, but it had long been abandoned when he and Seek had taken possession of it. Kit thought of it as the Sanctuary. Most of the children thought that was a stupid name, so he didn't use it often. He wanted them to feel welcomed here.

They began to come in, a few at a time. War orphans, for the most part. Some Rebel, some Imperial. There were occasional scuffles, but on the whole, they didn't care about politics. They'd all lost the same thing, and when push came to shove, they were each other's family now. He heard tales from all of them, and he had put together a picture in his mind that he didn't like at all, but couldn't shake.

The most disturbing was a ten-year-old girl with hair the color of midnight. Her name was Dritali, and she had come from Coruscant. She was not a war orphan, though her father had been an Imperial officer. What had become of her mother was a question Kit had not asked, because he didn't think he wanted to know. It wasn't that her tale was worse than the rest, it was just that it had ... unthinkable ramifications.

She'd arrived two years ago, her face scarred and one arm broken, and said that she'd been told about a place she could go.

"Who told you?" Kit asked.

Dritali had looked up with big, wounded eyes, and said, "Someone who knows." Then she'd held up her arm, and Kit had seen a bracelet, a woman's bracelet of the sort that had been popular in Mos Espa when he was a child. On Dritali, it reached all the way to her elbow, and immobilized her broken arm. Kit had last seen it on Shmi Skywalker. Which meant it had been given to her by someone connected to Anakin.

Except that there was no one connected to Anakin; they had all died in the horrible wars, except for the boy, and it had not come from him. Dritali said it had been given to her by Darth Vader, a high-ranking Imperial official whose undefined purpose seemed to be to strike terror into anyone who saw him. One of the Imperial orphans had said his father referred to Vader as "the dotted line on the command chart"; another had said that she'd heard him called "the Executioner," though there was some argument about whether or not that was a mistaken hearing of the name of his flagship. Without exception, the Imperial children looked at him with a baffled mixture of terror and awe. The Rebel children added "hate" to the list. He was apparently a very effective military leader.

At any rate, Vader had lived up to the terror of his reputation when he'd seen Dritali's father beating her with a strap. "I thought I was going to die," Dritali said. "Then... he showed up." She never spoke Vader's name again, after the first time. It was a superstitious dread, even deeper than the other children's. "He killed my father. Then he gave me this and said to come here and show it to you."

Dritali felt guilty that she was glad her father was gone. Kit tried to soothe her, and never asked questions about what had happened.

But the bracelet. And the whole thing. It was...

It was flatly impossible, except that it wasn't.

The dates were right. Vader had appeared just after --

No. Impossible. Couldn't be.

But it was unquestionably so. And the thought of what he had gone through, and what he put other people through, turned Kit's stomach.

Now, Dritali had mostly bounced back (she still had occasional bouts of melancholy, but the really frightening dreams had ended), and she was chatting amiably with a Rodian girl and a little boy who'd lost his parents when the Rebels had blown up the Death Star. He'd had a fight once with an Alderaanian girl, but now the two of them spoke frequently, and were trying to hammer out some kind of meaning. Kit envied them the ability.

Dritali still wore the bracelet. She would not allow it out of her sight.

Impossible.

"Hey, Kit, do we get anything real to eat?" the boy called amiably. "Or just this bantha food?"

"You'll eat what's in front of you, Vertash," Kit said, giving him a smile. The children's habit was to offer a token complaint. He didn't know when they'd gotten in the habit, and had once expressed hurt. But the Alderaanian girl -- Kerea -- had apologized, then told him that they'd never make that joke if they really thought he wasn't giving them enough to eat. He didn't understand their sense of humor, but as she explained it, the fact that they joked was to tell him that they were content. "Now," he said, "who will open the door to see if there's anyone hungry outside?"

A few hands went up. It was an honor to be the first to welcome a stranger to the

hall, and opening the door every night wasn't always an empty ritual.

Kit chose Dritali, and she ran to the large door, and swung it open. "Anyone hungry, come and eat!" she yelled into the desert.

"How kind of you," someone said on the other side. Then there was a laugh that chilled Kit to the core.

Dritali screamed, and ran back inside. Her arms wrapped around his waist and she peeked out from under his arm.

A shadow fell across the door, and Kit saw something out of a child's nightmare. The thing in the dark robes was patterned in red and black, and had sharp horns growing out of its head. Its eyes were yellow, and its very teeth were painted with arcane evil.

Still, Kit Jarai knew that hospitality in the desert was a matter of life or death. His offer was honest and true. But he thought he'd find some way to start sneaking the chidlren out while the stranger wasn't looking. That also might be a matter of life or death. "Welcome to my home," he managed to whisper.

------------------

Jar Jar Binks sat in the astromech droid room, his elbows on his knees, wondering if there was some way this all worked out to be his fault. He didn't guess there was, but he didn't feel any better about it.

Jar Jar was a creature who listened better than he spoke, though he didn't remember that often enough, and he'd picked up a lot about what was going on. He knew the basics. And he figured it might be just a little bit better if he didn't start messing around in future stuff. The only future thing he'd seen so far was Anakin's protocol droid, who was wandering around the ship looking confused. Someone must have memory-wiped him, because he didn't know Jar Jar at all.

"Are you all right?" someone asked.

He turned around, figuring that he would see one of the pilots, or maybe even Padmé coming back, but what he found was the Queen herself, in her black feathers and white makeup. She was frowning at him, looking concerned.

Jar Jar stood up too quickly and hit his head, knocking himself back down to the floor. "Yes, yousa Majesty," he said, trying to turn it into a bow. "Mesa just sitting and thinking."

"As was I," the queen said. She moved into the room, and stood staring emptily at the wall. Then, to Jar Jar's complete surprise, she loosened three buttons at her neck, and pulled off the headdress. Lank bits of brown hair tumbled to her shoulders, looking flat and lifeless after so much time confined. She reached for a rag that was usually used to clean droids, and wiped at her face angrily. She turned, and Jar Jar saw that furious tears were in her eyes. "I've had enough!"

He went over to her, and took the rag. "Here, yousa Majesty," he said, as politely as he knew how (you couldn't just talk any old way to a Queen). He reached out and lightly wiped away a smear of the makeup under her eye. She didn't yell at him, so he finished cleaning her face, since she couldn't very well see to do it herself without a mirror. "Wesa going to get you cleaned up, and then wesa going home. Deysa good at fixing things -- Ani, and Padmé, and Qui-Gon. Deysa get everything back in order in no time."

She sniffed, and waved an impatient hand at him. Without the makeup, she just looked like any other Naboo girl, or at least the way Jar Jar figured all Naboo girls looked. "I have to do something," she said. "Sitting here is driving me mad."

"But yousa Majesty, yousa shouldn't be going out where it might be dangerous."

The Queen shook her head. "Can I trust you with a secret?"

Jar Jar nodded. Physical things were likely to get broken around him, but he was good at keeping secrets. "Sure thing."

The Queen looked over her shoulder. "Her Majesty is out there where it's dangerous, and she has no reason to be. I should be the one taking the risks. I'm her bodyguard."

------------------

The Emperor sat in his throne room on Courscant, drilling holes with his stare. The not-quite-man was talking very quietly. "Darth Vader did what?"

A tall young man, wearing the uniform of one in Imperial Intelligence, shuddered at the cold look. "He...just left. Intelligence is looking for him as we speak but we have no leads!"

"Do you have any reasons as to why?" The Look said he had better.

"No, my Emperor." The tall man held up his hands though, a sif to ward off an attack. "There is other news though, that I am sure you would like to hear."

"If it is not good, I will kill you." Palpatine cackled as he spoke and his eyes glowed.

"A certain Captain Kalara has reported that Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo are on Tatooine. Also, a few people who almost certainly could not be there. Certain... aspects make me not doubt his story though."

"Explain." Palpatine tapped his fingers against his chair arm.

"He gave the name of his contact, not a very smart man, and.. It was Watto. Background checking shows he owned Anakin Skywalker as a child. Precisly the sort of person they would go to. One who cares little about laws would meet the needs of Rebels."

The Emperor's voice showed his annoyance. "Come out with it child! Who else is on the planet?"

"Anakin Skywalker. Queen Amidala, her bodyguards, two Jedi Knights, of the old kind. A Master Qui-Gon Jinn and Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. They could bring back the old ways, Emperor."

"This will not happen!" He thought for a moment and then spoke. "Set up my private transport. I am taking a vacation to Tatooine. Do pack the money for that miscreant who informed Kalara."

The Imperial's eyes widened briefly and he scurried off to set the plans in motion.

------------------

Darth Maul grinned as he ate his food in the Dining Hall, creating no small amount of shrieks from the children. Master ... You're coming!

Maul knew, intellectually at least, that his Master would be a very different person from who he had been a day ago. He just couldn't stop the dark joy that came of thinking of the man who had raised him since fifteen, taught him the Dark Arts and given him everything he had ever wanted.

The idea of his Master coming to Tatooine, presumbly to pick him up, was just a happy thought. It gave him almost as much joy as scaring the children. He wasn't going to permantly harm them, just scare.

Darth Maul stood up, bared his teeth at the smaller ones and brought out his lightsaber for a laugh. Kit ran over, gasping and still managed to say, "We do have rules against fighting in here!"

Right, I'm really going to kill dozens of children for no reason. Doesn't he know how easy it would be for some to get away and alert the Jedi about me? By the Force, these people are dense. Besides, this way I get to cause fear in the small ones.

"It's not time to kill innocent children until twenty-two hundred, basic." He stalked off, holding in a grin as he turned his lightsaber on, watching as the children gawked.

I think I like this time.

------------------

Anakin found himself bored with the fancy speeder pretty quickly. It wasn't banged up too bad, and didn't need much skill. Leia had taken to repairs fast -- she smiled and said she'd "had some experience with malfunctioning junkpiles" -- and between them, they'd almost finished the three speeders Watto had left him with. They worked smoothly and easily together, and Anakin almost never had to give her instructions (and when he did, she understood immediately what he meant, even if he hadn't said quite as clearly as he should have).

He liked her a lot, as much as he liked Padmé, but it was different. He knew it was crazy, because she said she was a princess and he knew that she hadn't been born yet when he lived, but he felt like he'd known her for a long time, like maybe she was one of the dusty kids he played with in Mos Espa. Being around her was like being around Mom or Kitster. He didn't have to tell her stuff, because she already knew stuff. Anakin felt perfectly safe with her. Which was more than he could say for Luke. He'd loved his totally impossible son right away, but Luke was keeping a secret, and he...

He doesn't trust me. For some reason, he looks at me like he's waiting for me to turn purple and start spitting fire out of my mouth.

"Hey, you awake?"

He turned to find Leia smiling at him. His hands were floating dreamily over an engine. He didn't know how long he'd been still like this. "I'm not sure."

She smiled back at him. "Me, neither. But we still better finish up. I'd rather not stay here too long."

"Right," he said. He nodded, and forced his concentration back. Luke was probably just jittery seeing him come back from the

(am i dead i'm not sure)

dead and probably figuring out about Padmé, too. Sure. "I don't want to ask Luke," he said, "because I don't want to make him sad or anything, but how did I die?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you that."

"Why, think I might try to prevent it?"

"That's a good point. You should know. I bet it would be better if you did. I don't know what he meant before about not being sure. I guess he's just a little unsure about it. They always told him you died in an accident, but just before I met him, he found out that you were a Jedi. And that you were -- " She swallowed and looked away. "Um, this is hard. You were murdered. And betrayed."

This was kind of interesting, Anakin thought. He wasn't nearly as troubled hearing it as Leia was telling it. "Really? By who? Do they know?"

"He's a high-ranking official in the Empire now. His name is..." She paused, some awful memory going through her mind. Anakin saw an image of something very big blowing up. "His name is Vader. Watch out for him."

Anakin tried to think of something to say to that. He didn't feel like anything had changed, so apparently he would forget stuff when they went back, or maybe he'd just forget over the years, or maybe Vader wasn't the first name he'd know for this person --

A cold icepick drilled itself into his conscious mind at this last. That was it, then. He'd have to watch out for someone, but the name wasn't really Vader, so he didn't know who he was watching for. He thought that "Vader" might have been a word in his mother's native language, which she spoke quietly to herself sometimes, and which he'd picked up a little of, but he didn't know what it meant, or even if he'd heard it right.

"Thanks for the heads-up," he said.

"Sure."

But it was unsatisfying, somehow. Maybe it was just because he hoped that if he had to be dead, it would be in battle, doing something heroic and brave, not getting stabbed in the back. But he didn't think so.

The answer about his death was unsatisfying because he was pretty sure he was still alive.

------------------

Darth Vader was entranced with his new lightsaber. Lightsabers, it should be called, he thought. He was learning to use it fast, and was doing well. Now, he was practicing with twenty rapid-fire training remotes in the Great Temple on Yavin IV.

As the remotes sent volley after volley of stinging fire against the Dark Lord, Vader used all four blades to his advantage, blocking every single shot. Originally, there had been forty remotes; twenty of them had already been deactivated. Darth Vader was feeling very confident in himself, and Exar Kun, the dead-spirit Sith Lord, seemed pleased with his progress.

"Mr friend, I believe that you are almost ready for Maul and your Jedi on Tatooine. Everyone else who had used this saber had killed themselves by now. There is just one last exercise that you need to complete."

"And that would be what, Master Kun?" anxiously replied Vader.

"you have to take on four HRDs."

" 'HRD'? I am not familiar with them."

"A HRD is a Human Replica Droid. They are an ancient Sith technology that died with me, as I never told anyone about it. I built many of them, to fight with lightsabers, like Jedi, for practice."

"Ahhh," replied Vader in accordance. Just as he was finished speaking, four creatures in Jedi robes appeared out of a hidden passageway. All brandishing lightsabers, they lowered their hoods.

As the fight ensued, Vader easily held all four off, at the same time aggressing them. When one lost its footing, he would take advantage of it, getting rid of the HRD, while still holding off the others. None of them had had any chance whatsoever to harm him.

"Good, good. You are ready, Darth Vader, for the Jedi."

As Darth Vader took off from the hanger of the Temple, he bid his farewell to Exar Kun, and headed for Tatooine.

------------------

Luke sat on the low sandstone wall, looking up at the familiar stars. He'd been so focused on finding Han and destroying Jabba that he hadn't really been home, not in any meaningful way. The stars were soothing.

The Force shifted around him, in the now-familiar pattern, and he didn't have to look down from the sky to see his father standing beside him. "I watch 'em, too."

Luke lowered his eyes. Father had taken a seat across from him, crossing his legs and looking up. "They look the same as they did last night." He held out his arm, which was bandaged. "Qui-Gon was fixing this. It's still cut. I cut it thirty years ago. Isn't that weird?"

"Yes, it is, Father."

He looked up at the sky. "Leia told me."

Luke's heart went cold. If he knew, then...

No. Leia didn't know. He hadn't been able to bring himself to tell her what had happened deep in the underbelly of Cloud City, at least not all of it.

"Told you what?"

"About being murdered and betrayed."

"Oh."

"It's not true, is it?" His eyes came down to Luke's, suddenly bright and intense.

"I don't know."

You can tell him, and he'll turn back. Or what if he likes it? What if he likes the idea that someday he'll be strong and powerful, and everyone will do as he says? What if it...

"Can I see your hand?"

Luke instinctively drew his mechanical hand toward himself, the freshly gouged wrist making clicking noises as it bent. "I'd rather not."

"How'd it get hurt?"

"Someone at Jabba's shot me in the wrist this morning."

To his surprise and relief, Father didn't ask how he'd ended up with a mechanical hand in the first place. Instead, he just raised his eyebrows. "Jabba? Jabba the Hutt?"

"Yes. Hadn't anyone told you that?"

"No. I mean, I saw Lando's uniform, and I thought about Jabba and everything, but I figured probably I was wrong, after all this time. How come you were at Jabba's?"

"We were pulling Han out of a bad situation. The Empire had sold him to Jabba."

"The Empire makes deals with Jabba?"

Luke allowed himself a smile. "Not any more, they don't."

"Good. But it's too bad it took so long."

You're the one who made the deal! You're the one who froze Han in metal for six months! You're the one who cut my hand off and dropped my life into a pit that I haven't hit the bottom of yet!

"You're angry at me."

The sudden barrage of Luke's thought faded quickly, and he looked at Father's earnest young face. "What? No."

"Yes, you are. Why?"

"I'm not angry." Luke noticed that his tone was making a lie of the words, and that made his temper roil up a little further. Where was this coming from? Did he just have this power? Is this part of what he can do, just make people feel these dark side things?

No, that wasn't fair. The anger was his own, and it wasn't coming from anywhere else, and it wasn't directed at this poor, frightened boy in front of him. He tried to imagine those bright eyes behind Vader's mask.

And succeeded.

He shook the image away, and held out his mechanical hand. "Here. It's pretty well put together."

Father looked at it with a mechanic's interest, poking his small fingers into the laser hole and moving some of the little levers around, making the fingers twitch. "Does it hurt?"

"Feels a little funny, but that part doesn't have fake nerves. They're in the skin."

"So why have the skin?"

Luke drew his hand away, not sure he was capable of having this conversation. "It's better to be able to feel. I mean, without the nerves, you wouldn't be able to touch anything, right?"

He looked puzzled. "But it would stop hurting."

"Does your cut hurt?"

"Yeah."

"Enough that you'd rather not be able to touch anything with that arm?"

"Oh. I get it."

Somehow, Luke thought, I doubt that.

Father's face had gone quiet and thoughtful, and Luke could see the man he might have been in it, if the Dark Side hadn't taken him.

He felt guilt for his own rising anger, and reached out to ruffle his father's hair again, feeling a confused echo of the affection he'd felt earlier, in the daylight.

Father smiled, and all the affection came back, and Luke realized helplessly that, Bespin or no, he loved him, and still held in his mind the completely contradictory images of the strong and heroic Jedi knight, the spice freighter captain who'd died for his crew -- the one Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen had introduced him to... and the tall, dark lord who had reached out one strong hand, and

(pleaded)

demanded that Luke join him.

Luke took that hand now, the small hand, and held it tightly, wishing there were some way to save all of the men this boy would become.

------------------

Leia stared off into the stars from the small balcony. The Jedi, Luke and herself had checked into rooms for the night at a small hotel while the others stayed on the transport.

Han had asked her if she would stay on the Millennium Falcon but she had said no, citing reasons against it, claiming she couldn't contact the Rebellion from the Falcon.

Now I wish I had taken him up on the offer.

She had gone into her room after she had caught a quick meal and contacted Mon Mothma through secure channels. The conversation hadn't been long but what Mon Mothma had said, spoke for itself.

"Another Death Star is in construction. It nears completion, we need you and Commander Skywalker for a last ditch effort. Han Solo as well, if he's up to it.

It was just like Mon Mothma to forget Han, she was always doing that. The woman didn't like him and had constantly told Leia to forget him and concentrate on the Rebellion. Even for something as important as a Death Star, Mon Mothma couldn't forget her pettiness.

Interrupting her thoughts, she heard a small cough. Obi-Wan was standing on the neighboring balcony, looking below. Following his gaze, she saw Luke and Skywalker talking quietly.

"I think we're not the only ones looking at the stars tonight, Princess." Obi-Wan smiled softly, his lips curving just a little.

"Just Leia. The world that called me that isn't... It isn't my world anymore." Leia caught her slip of the tongue just in time, she had forgotten he couldn't know about Alderaan.

She sighed, she was trying to get her mind off the new Death Star, not back on it. "I'm sorry. If you wish to alone, I'll leave."

Obi-Wan turned to leave and almost unconsciously, she reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't." Surprised at her own force, Leia continued quickly. "I mean, can we talk? I'd like to learn more about the Jedi. Most of what I heard growing up was Imperial propaganda. And most of that was about how you wanted to dominate the universe with your alien love-slaves."

Quirking a grin, Obi-Wan's eyes twinkled. "Let's see. Where should I start about my path to galactic-domination?"

Looking at him, Leia decided she didn't really care what they talked about, as long as they talked. He seemed like a nice guy, one she would regret not knowing if she just went inside. "Can you tell me about Qui-Gon?"

As Obi-Wan talked, Leia leaned on the balcony rail separating the two. After a good half-hour of idle chatter, Leia grabbed his hand just paying attention to his voice and not her actions.

She realized what she had done when the young man gave her a look of surprise, one she decided she liked and would try to get again sometime.

I have to say one good thing for Father. He had good taste in allies.

------------------

Amidala had watched Ani come inside with Leia, before he'd headed out to talk to Luke. They were both smiling, looking pleasantly tired, and...

Alike.

Not in any physical way, except a vague similarity in their smiles, and a shared roundness of features. But there was something about them, about the way they moved, about their expressions...

She tried to shake it off -- it didn't make sense -- but found that she couldn't. There was something about Leia, some secret, hidden thing. And that look. That look that occasionally came her own way, the look of someone who had a secret that she was desperate to tell, but forbidden. Amidala wanted her to tell, except that she didn't. Enough had happened today. She knew more than she wanted to, except that she didn't know nearly enough.

Her head was spinning, and she laid down on the small cot that served as a bed (not a place of luxury lodgings, Mos Espa, in any era). The ceiling seemed to turn in a lazy circle. She let her eyes close, but didn't slip down into sleep. It was just too much. She had a strange idea that if she just closed her eyes, she would wake up in her bed at the palace in Theed, and the blockade wouldn't have happened. Sure. This was all a dream, and she was having it the night of her coronation.

It was a comforting idea, but she knew it wasn't true, and she'd better not start acting like it was, or she'd end up dead, the children with her.

Her eyes opened wide, and the room had stopped spinning.

Children.

Both of them. They are both my children, and Ani's. Luke and Leia. But they don't know it.

"Logic," she whispered out loud. Somehow, she'd made an intuitive connection, and she knew it was right, but the logic of it seemed suddenly vital. Her children, raised separately from one another, and not with her, though Leia ... Leia might remember something.

They never knew Ani, and Leia doesn't think she has any connection to him, or that I have any connection to Luke.

Separated from each other, and from us. Why?

It had to be some kind of danger, because Amidala was sure enough of her own nature to know that she would not simply abandon either of her children, and at the very least, she'd left Luke before he remembered her. And where was Ani? Dead, except that Luke said he wasn't sure.

Nothing she thought of made any sense of it. Maybe there was a threat against them, in retaliation for something Ani would do before he died? Or maybe...

Maybe.

It would always come back to maybe.

And maybe it would be better if I just don't find out. Maybe that would be better for everyone.

But complacency was not in Amidala's nature. Questions were meant to be answered, otherwise they would not be asked. But there was no one here who would know --

Unless...

She sat up. It was possible, anyway. He might have survived, and if he had, he might know.

She slipped out unnoticed, and began to ask around after Kitster.

------------------

Darth Vader mentally sighed as he landed his ship in the Mos Espa spaceport. He had been hoping that at this hour, the spaceport would be close to empty. No such luck.

With extreme dignity, Vader exited his small ship and took a look around, trying to find a quick way outside. Scanning the crowd, he cursed silently. "If any of you take a holo-picture of myself, you will wish you had not. You have my word."

"Someday, Vader, we will get our freedom back from your violent reign." A young reporter with bright blue eyes and auburn hair spoke with disgust plain in his voice as he stared at Vader.

Vader hesitated for moment, an inner voice whispering to him. He looks like Obi-Wan did. Before.... Before everything started.

"You should be careful with who you speak such things to, young one." With that he left to pursue more important things, like finding Maul.

Searching through his mind for suitable place to go, he remembered Kitster. His old childhood friend had renovated an old Hutt lair for young children and other sorts who were homeless. I could stay there. Less public at any rate and my staying there would prevent any nosy reporters from finding me.

Renting a small but fast speeder, he arrived at The Sanctuary soon enough. Walking up the door a little uncertainly, the Sith knocked. A very small child answered and wide eyed, she let him in. "Sir? Are you really Darth Vader?"

No, I dress like this so I can go out on the town and enjoy myself.

"Yes, child, I am..." Abruptly, Vader stopped speaking as he felt the Force twitch nervously. He knew who it was, who it had to be, to make the Force react like that.

maul...killer...he started me on my path...turned me into a monster...

Vader clenched down on the small part inside that always rebelled as he turned to see the Sith who had started him on the path to ruination. "Darth Maul."

------------------

Kit went forward warily, and put a hand on Vertash's shoulder. Vader -- Anakin, and Kit had absolutely no doubt of that now; Vader might have known of Sanctuary, but Anakin would have thought to come here -- had suddenly looked up, straight over Vertash's head.

The mask was disorienting, an expressionless death's head, but Kit thought he could see the expression beneath it in his mind: eyes narrowed, brows pushed together. Lips pressed hard against each other. The "I-know-its-here-somewhere-and-I'm-not-leaving-'til-I-get-it" look. Kit knew it well.

"What are you looking for?" he asked.

"If it is here, Kit, and I know well it is, then you have no reason to ask that."

Of course. The other one. "I can't just hand you my guests, however much I would like to."

"Then Lord Vader is my guest!" a high voice called, and Dritali appeared. Her eyes were wide and her color high, and Kit could hear the tremor of terror in her voice... but she came forward anyway. The last piece fell into place: the girl looked like Amidala. Not enought be a sister -- or even a handmaiden -- but enough that it would have driven Anakin mad to see her beaten. "He can stay here. Right, Kit?"

"Hush, Dritali. He has always been welcome here. He was here at the beginning." Kit raised his eyes, to see Vader's reaction. There was none -- but there was certainly no denial. Anakin had been with Kit and Seek and Amee and Wald (how the names all came back, in a terrible rush) when they'd discovered this place, and first used it as a sanctuary during the slave uprising. "But both he and the one he seeks must abide by the rules of my house. If there is a conflict, it will be outside."

"As you wish," Vader said.

Kit looked at the mechanical respiration suit with a caretaker's eye. "Have you any medical needs?"

"None that need be immediately indulged, and I will not be staying long."

------------------

Amidala made her way through the desert, the night wind cool and refreshing on her face. It hadn't been hard to find out about Kitster, or to get directions to Sanctuary, at least not once she'd gotten someone's attention. Apparently, a high official in the Imperial government had arrived. Amidala had caught a brief glimpse of him -- flowing black robes, masked face, and some sound that she couldn't identify in the crowd.

She had time to think, The poor man, before epithets were hurled, and whispers started around her about the things people had heard of him doing. Getting attention for more mundane questions had been a real exercise. But finally, she had found a man who looked about what her age would really be, and asked if he'd known of someone who'd been called "Kitster" as a child.

Oh, you mean Kit Jarai... sure, everyone knows Kit...

And he'd given her directions. She didn't have any money to rent a speeder with, but the walk was only about six kilometers, and she was rested.

Some animal hooted in the night, and another answered with an eerie scream, but Amidala was not afraid of them. For one thing, she was simply not given to fear of nature. For another, she'd -- well, borrowed -- Leia's blaster (brought from a ship apparently berthed not too far from here, along with something more comfortable than the ridiculous dancing girl's outfit), and she was a good shot.

She passed a spray of gravel in the sand -- a speeder had been through here recently, going at a good clip. She looked down the trail it had left, and thought she saw a light, glimmering down near the end of it. But distance was deceptive in the desert -- it could be Sanctuary, or it could be another city, halfway across the Dune Sea.

She would have to find out.

And the dark was strangely pleasant.

------------------

Vader preferred to stand in company, and the spot he chose was in a shadowy corner of the Sanctuary, where he could observe all of them. He was gratified that the girl Dritali had found her way here, but distanced himself from her quickly. That business had been strange and disorienting, a sudden, righteous fury -- almost like the old days, when the raw anger had drawn him to the Darkness in the first place -- but he was glad it had happened. He was not likely to receive accolades for his own parenting skills -- he could not shake the image of Luke, holding his mutilated wrist against his side -- but even he had never stooped to attacking his son before Luke was old enough to defend himself... and even then, he would have preferred a less confrontational meeting, had it not been far too late to think of such amenities. Dritali's father had simply bullied and pushed, and, in Vader's opinion, forfeited any right he had to be treated as a sentient citizen of the Empire. Still, he had been the girl's father; it was inappropriate to allow her to show gratitude to the man who had killed him.

Maul was near, but he'd slipped out of the building. It was temporarily acceptable -- certain complications had occurred to him in the quiet of Kit's home (well, relative quiet -- with twenty-odd children in the room, it was not precisely silent, but it was calming, in its own chaotic way), complications that could have vast consequences. Maul's presence in the past, detestable as it was, had served an historical purpose. If he killed Maul, it would set off a chain of events that would cause... everything to be different.

The thought had its appeal, as he listened to the slow, miserable pulse of the pneumatics. How he hated the suit! How he hated the way people gawked at him! (Children, at least, tended to get used to it quickly. The orphans had stared frankly at him, and a boy had asked if it hurt, then they had gone back to their routine, only glancing nervously at him now and then. Adults tried to pretend they weren't looking, but they looked longer.)

But what else might go with it? It could easily complicate other matters, and there was Luke to consider. And...

Her face floated up unbidden his mind, and he sent it back where it came from easily. But could he as easily erase the memory from existence?

And do I want to go back to being that weak child, pushed and pulled by a bitter old Toydarian? And would the old hypocrites on the Council have changed their minds about training me if obstinate, rebellious old Qui-Gon had demanded permission, instead of their golden boy Obi-Wan?

Highly unlikely.

Perhaps Palpatine would still have found him. Perhaps...

"Welcome back," Kit said, coming into the shadow.

"I am not interested in pretending a social event, Kit."

Kit, who had not lost his ability to assimilate to any odd idea, given a moment to get used to it, just shrugged, and looked out the back door, toward the small field that was used for moisture farming. It produced just enough to keep the more traditional farm underground irrigated. Maul had slipped out into those fields. He was waiting there, for an opportunity to strike. Kit did not need to be told; he intuited it. "Who is this man?"

"One who has no business being here. He must be sent back to his... home."

To his death, tomorrow, at Obi-Wan's hands.

After he has killed Qui-Gon.

And now, I will be responsible for that, as well. The one thing in my life for which I bore no guilt. Very well. So be it. What is one more murder, after all the others?

"Anakin?"

"That is no longer my name. It has not been for many, many years."

Kit shrugged. "Vader, then. I'm not picky. Are the children in danger from this man?"

Vader shook his head. "I doubt it. Unless they get in his way. Or present themselves as targets. If they are intelligent, they will simply give him a wide berth when he returns. They do not interest him."

"Where has he gone?"

"Into the desert." He looked out, his inner eyes scanning the desert. "He is -- "

He stopped, as his mind found another pattern, another impossible presence. On the road. Walking toward Maul. His prey.

"Amidala," he whispered. It was the first time he'd said the word aloud in more years than he could remember, but he didn't even notice that he'd said it.

He headed out into the night, saber at his side.

------------------

Dritali waited until Kit was looking away from the door. Then she followed shadow into shadow, and disappeared into the dark.

************************************

Leia noticed that her mother was gone an hour after she came back from Watto's shop.

She'd cleaned up, meaning to go and talk to her, but she'd gotten distracted talking to Obi-Wan. Truth was, she was nervous, frightened of tipping her hand, and she didn't know why. She'd finally screwed up her courage, and gone to her mother's room to tell her everything...

Only to find the room empty.

She'd slipped away.

"Luke!"

She ran out onto the balcony where Luke and his father were speaking quietly. "Luke, hurry, she's gone!"

"Who's gone?" the younger/older Skywalker asked.

"My m-- Padmé!" She heard tears in the back of her voice. It wasn't fair. Why hadn't she said anything?

"What is it?" someone said behind her. Qui-Gon Jinn entered, straightening his poncho. Obi-Wan was a few steps behind, looking concerned.

Anakin Skywalker's eyes were wide and terrified, and Leia realized that he thought of her mother as

(an angel)

something special and fragile... that he loved her, simply and unconditionally.

How strange, a calm, distant part of her whispered. How strange that Luke's father cares so much for my mother, but neither of us ever knew it.

There was not time to ponder it.

"Please, we have to find her."

Qui-Gon nodded. "Yes, immediately."

Luke put a hand on her arm. "Leia, are you all right? Why are you so -- ?"

Leia shook her head. "I told you I was adopted. She's my mother. We have to find

her. Please."

Luke's face went blank with shock, then suddenly he kissed her forehead. "We'll find her," he said. "Then I think we need to talk."

Anakin Skywalker was staring at her, mouth open. Then, abruptly, he ran for the door. Whatever shock it had been passed, and instead of saying he was going to go, he just did it.

The others followed.

As they reached the door of the lodging place, they stopped suddenly.

In a semi-circle in the dusty street were at least twenty stormtroopers, blasters drawn. Standing -- or rather, hovering -- beside the only officer, was Watto. "You see?" he said, holding out his hand for a reward. "I told you they were here."

------------------

Lando woke up to the sound of yelling, in the middle of the night. Rubbing his eyes, he overheard bits and pieces of a heated conversation.

"He's.... Chewie! We have to."

"Young one... You must not..."

"No! I have...."

Then he heard a crash and Lando rushed out of bed, almost glad that he had fallen asleep in his clothes. He took off for the cockpit, pulling on his boots as he ran, a skill he had learned from being an Administrator on Bespin. Seconds later, he found an unconscious Han and an irritated Chewie. Lando put up his hands, backing away ever-so-slightly from the angry Wookie. "Chewie... Want to explain?"

"Han wanted to go after Leia. He actually tried to push me so he could leave. The boy has a death wish, I think. Is there some self-help group for that? I could sign Luke and Leia up as well."

"Actually, there is one. I looked it up for Luke once and..." Lando trailed off when he saw the stare Chewie was giving him.

"Anyway, Chewie, why is Han unconscious?" Lando smiled nervously, hoping Chewie wouldn't take offense.

"He fell wrong." Chewie's eyes bored in Lando and he gulped silently.

"Okay, how did he fall?" Lando forced himself to take in a deep breath and not let himself be intimidated by the tame Wookie.

"I hit him." Never mind. There's definitely no such thing a tame Wookie.

"So... Why?" Lando was getting a little confused, he almost thought that was Chewie's point. But the Wookie wouldn't be that devious, right?

"He was about to go after Leia." Chewie spoke with all seriousness, sending out no signals that he was trying to be funny.

"Now why does he want to go after Leia?" Lando was getting a little frustrated but he knew better then to show it. All showing frustration did what get others angrier then they already were. Not that smart a thing to do with a Wookie.

"Darth Vader is on planet. Han is afraid for Leia. I told him if Darth Vader saw him gallivanting around, not only would he be captured, so would Leia, Luke, the Queen, you and the Jedi Knights. He would not listen."

"So you knocked him out. Great. Chewie, didn't your Mother ever tell you violence only helps?" Lando realized what he had said and cursed his sleep fogged brain. "HURTS! I didn't mean help! Violence doesn't help!"

Chewie was growling softly at this point, his version of a chuckle. "I know... I just don't know what to do with him. I couldn't let him go out and get himself killed."

With that Chewie lifted Han onto his shoulder, intending to carry him to the bunks. Lando called after him, thinking out loud. "Should I call the Queen's transport? They deserve to know about Darth Vader so they don't go venturing out.""

Chewie nodded a yes and Lando turned to the comm. After a minute of trying to get though, he came to a realization. "Communications are being blocked!" He knew what this meant, big trouble.

Lando stood up and found Chewie was suddenly right behind him. "We need to go find them now, Lando."

Lando couldn't help but wonder 'them who' but he kept his mouth shut, picked up a blaster and followed Chewie outside. "Ya know, Chew, it just figures Han would find a way to get out of a fight like this."

------------------

Sabé peeled the black dress off, guiltily relieved to be free of it. She didn't have time to enjoy the cool air coming through the cotton undergarment, though... she had to put on something more practical. Rabé was rifling through the wardrobe containers, looking for anything that it was remotely possible to move freely in. She finally found the maroon uniforms that were made for military parades, somewhere under a strange gray and white concoction with a stripe on the hood.

There was a battle dress for the queen, as well. Eirtaé held it out, the padded headpiece resting on top of it. Sabé sighed. She should not have broken rank with Jar Jar Binks earlier; it was time to get back to work. She looked wistfully at the more comfortable uniform, then reluctantly took the queen's dress. Though why the queen should need ceremonial battle gear...

Not Sabé's business. She'd already fixed her makeup, and she slipped into the new gown and high boots while Rabé and Eirtaé put on the maroon velvet. It looked a bit fancy for the desert, but easier to maneuver in than the flame dresses. Sabé hit the button beside the door, and Panaka, Olie, and Jar Jar came in. Behind them, the nervous protocol droid from the future was hovering, one hand slightly raised.

"This could be dangerous," Ric Olie said. "You've never been on this planet before, let alone in this time, and there may be things we don't know."

Sabé put on her best regal voice -- there were advantages to being the queen -- and said, "Captain Olie, you have a remarkable penchant for stating the obvious." He gave her a baffled look; she didn't pay attention to it. "Now, we have lost contact with the other ship, the ship from the current time. We have been given good reason to assume that is a prelude to something worse. We will all leave this ship, because it has clearly been identified, and not by friendly agents. If I am to be in danger, I should prefer to be in danger in a vast open desert to being in danger trapped in precisely the place where my enemy expects me to be."

"Her Highness is right," Panaka said, gathering handing out blasters efficiently (and if anything ever should have tipped people off about the identity switch, it was that Panaka often agreed with Sabé on security matters, but had yet to agree with Amidala). "This place is no longer safe, and we can't risk altering the timeline by allowing ourselves to be attacked at this point."

"If it's all the same to you," Eirtaé said, "I don't particularly want to be attacked at any point, and the timeline isn't my first priority."

The party gathered, insisting that the pilots and mechanics rescued in the hangar join them as well. They were about twenty-five strong when they set out across the desert.

Sabé led the way, alongside Panaka. Jar Jar Binks walked beside her clumsily, sometimes tripping over rocks strewn in the sand, but he didn't let himself fall behind. He looked terrified... but he stayed his ground.

Two kilometers from the ship, they saw approaching figures. There was no place to hide such a large group, so Sabé signaled everyone to stand at guard, with blasters at the ready. Panaka stepped in front of her.

A chilling howl broke the night, then shattered into sharp barking. Sabé clutched her blaster tighter, then remembered that one of their new companions was a Wookiee.

"Chewbacca!" the protocol droid said, throwing his hands in the air. "Oh, at last. I seem to have -- "

The man with the Wookiee -- Calrissian, Sabé remembered -- cut the droid off. "We need to get into town. How many of you are there?"

"Twenty five," Panaka said.

"The Empire has sent agents for my friends. And yours, I'd bet. I don't what Luke was thinking letting Kenobi go into town dressed as a Jedi. That's like putting a homing beacon out. People see a Jedi, they know they're going to get money from the Empire for reporting it."

Sabé didn't quite understand it. Certainly, Jedi were not everyday visitors, but there were enough that it shouldnt' cause such a stir. But there was no time to wonder about such niceties. "Very well. We'll come to your aid."

"Great," Calrissian said. "Let's just hope they didn't send a very big landing party."

Sabé smiled, remembering how Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon had cleared a hangar of battle droids in less than five mintes. "It shouldn't be a problem," she said, and led the way toward town.

------------------

Luke watched as Obi-Wan held in a smirk and brought his lightsaber out within a second. "I confess to not knowing much about this time but I do know when someone is breaking the law---"

In a flash of an eye, Obi-Wan was down, shot by a Stormtrooper standing on top of a nearby building. A second later, so was Leia and Master Qui-Gon.

NOOO! Not again! Not again! Luke's mind screamed at him to move, to do something. He stood frozen until he saw a 'trooper aim at Father... "No!"

Luke Force-swung the blaster away, but it did no good, someone else just took the 'troopers place and Father was down. Luke raged out, knocking as many troopers down as he could manage before he found himself in handcuffs.

The Imperial Captain laughed cruelly and collected the various Lightsabers. "Don't worry Commander, your friends are not dead. My orders currently stand not to hurt anyone before the Emperor's arrival." The Captain spoke this name reverently, as if he was awed at the very name. "Believe me, you'd be stunned too, if it wasn't the Emperor's wish you stay awake."

Luke twitched and tried to open his handcuffs, with no visible success. The Captain spoke conversationally, grinning. "Force-proof. Nice little bit of technology from the Old Republic to help keep Jedi scum in there place."

The young Jedi kept quiet as he was pushed along the road, trying to block out Watto complaints about not getting his money right away. Walking, he noticed how the Stormtrooper carrying Father was cradling Father in his arms, unlike the others who were all but being dragged by the hair. That's something to remember.

Finally, they reached the outskirts of town and were greeted into the Imperial-class ship. It was large but not excessively so. The Captain's eyes brightened as he looked at Luke and Luke himself questioning the Captain's sanity. "You get to be taken to the holding cells. Have fun!"

You know, there are some days I feel everyone's out to get me. The rest of the time, I know.

------------------

Qui-Gon woke in a small, dingy cell on the hard floor and feeling sore all over. Obi-Wan? Are you alright?

Yes Master. It seems they just put everyone in cells, to be left alone until some Emporer comes. I have been conferring with Luke and he refuses to tell me anything of importance because of the timeline... Maybe you can convince him, Master? Obi-Wan's voice was tinged with worry and a little fear, not for himself but for his Master.

Closing the communication with Obi-Wan gently, the Jedi Master contacted Padawan Skywalker. Luke? Can you tell me more of this situation?

But the timeline, Master...

Qui-Gon got up and stretched, trying to get rid of the soreness that came with being stunned. Young Skywalker, the timeline is shot to Sith anyway. We can just hope we don't remember anything when we go back.

He could almost hear Luke's mental nod, Fine. We've been taken by Imperials. We did say we were wanted. Watto, apparently, knew that and turned us in for cash. Now, the Emporer is coming to interrogate or kill us. Well, whatever makes him happy, right?

Ignoring the sarcasm, Qui-Gon crinkled his nose in thought. Does he think he can really handle a Jedi Master and two Padawans?

Why not? He and Vader killed all the rest. He heard a small mental chuckle. Did I mention they were Siths?

Qui-Gon cut off the communication quickly, he needed to meditate on this. He sat down and let his mind drift with the Force.

A fire filled the Jedi Temple, smoke was everywhere. The creche leaders were panicked, trying to get the babies out with the Initiates helping. All Padawans and Knights were helping to fight the men in white armor while the alive Masters concerned themselves with the Sith Lords.

A young female Master fell, electrocuted leaving the temple with a horrible death scream. The Sith Master laughed, enjoying the power that came from her death and killed another. He killed until all that was left was screaming Padawans and young Initiates, too scared to have left.

Then he and the Sith apprentice exited the scene to enter another, apathetic to the pain of those remaining. The only time they stopped their path of destruction was when the apprentice picked up a small blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy who was about to be killed in the chaos.

The Temple burned and the infants wailed, the Initiates screamed and the Padawans clutched their heads in agony.

Qui-Gon broke out his meditation hours later, sweating and feeling as though he had lived all it. Vowing to tell Obi-Wan not to seek visions in this time, he went right to sleep on the small bunk.

------------------

Amidala had fallen into a fantasy as she walked through the desert -- she often daydreamed as she walked, though few people knew that -- in which she was stranded here on Tatooine, charged with finding a precious artifact which only she could locate, and she had to find it before the Trade Federation got to it. Silly, she knew. She had enough real worries. But the fantasy helped; after watching Ani race yesterday, she was having a lot of fantasies about going out and taking action on the matter. It seemed like a good thing to do, though of course, Naboo had no army, and she simply couldn't run a war -- negotiations and Senate censure were her only hope. But how she wanted to take it into her own hands!

"Hello, Your Highness."

She looked up.

Daydreaming or no, she'd kept her ears open, but she hadn't heard the black-robed man approach. The attacker from before. From her own time. His face was covered with nightmarish tattoos, and horns grew sharply out of his head. He had a lightsaber on his belt, but it was not drawn. At his size, he hardly needed it to intimidate her.

"Who are you?" she demanded, then remembered to add, "You seem to have mistaken me for the queen."

"My identity is not your concern, Your Highness, and we're both aware that I've made no mistake." He reached out a giant hand toward her --

Then a bright red light split the air in front of her, barely missing that hand. The robed man stood back, then drew his saber -- but he wasn't looking at her. He looked up at the nearby mesa.

Amidala became aware of another sound, a soft, horrible sound that she associated with hospitals and dying. The hiss-shush of a respirator. She looked up. Standing above her, dark cape blowing back in the wind, was the Imperial official she had seen earlier, the man with the death's head mask. Lights on his chest went up and down with each breath.

Dear Maker, she realized. It is a respirator. He's wearing one.

She didn't have time to register much more, because he was flying down from the mesa, landing with great force between her and her attacker. "You must leave, Your Highness," he said. "Immediately. This does not concern you."

"It seems to me," she said, "that it concerns me a great deal."

"Amidala," he said, with slow, deliberate patience, "leave now. Follow this road until you come to Sanctuary."

"I don't know Sanctuary, and I don't know you." But the second part felt like a lie.

"You will come to know both. Walk away."

The attacker laughed, a cold, knifelike sound in the dark. "If you have replaced me, my Master's standards have been lowered. If she is in your way, cut her down!"

"I intend to kill neither of you, but you must both return to your own time."

The voice that came into Amidala's mind was loud, intrusive, and commanding. Go to Sanctuary. You must survive. All depends on it.

Before she had a chance to answer -- or even comprehend what had been said -- the Imperial official

(vader but no not vader amidala please GO!!!)

pressed an attack on the man who had tracked her in the desert several hours -- or thirty five years -- ago.

Red sabers crossed, lighting up the desert night. Amidala backed away, not wanting to leave, but needing to avoid those deadly arcs.

She felt a small, warm hand on her own, and looked down.

A little girl, with a scar across her nose, was tugging at her. "Come on, he said to come to Sanctuary. He said." She put the emphasis on "said" in her voice, but in her eyes, the emphasis was on "he." Those dark eyes flickered momentarily to the duel, to Vader, then turned away in terror, then back in fascination. Finally, she shook it off. "Follow me. I'll get you safe."

------------------

Anakin woke up in a soft bed, a blanket wrapped around him. He could smell something delicious cooking nearby. He did not entertain the thought that he might be waking up from a dream. Never in his waking life had he been in such a comfortable place.

He opened his eyes, and was disappointed. This wasn't some rich room from a holoproj program. It was cold and made of steel, and the droid that was doing the cooking was a single-purpose, half-brained drone (one of the reasons Anakin had liked working on Threepio was that the protocol droid -- just on account of what it was supposed to do -- had to be able to do a lot of things and think in lots of ways). He sighed, and pushed the blanket down.

A door slid up, and a man in an olive green uniform came in. "Good evening, Master Skywalker," he said. "We're under orders to watch over you well. You've fallen into poor company. We barely had time to save you. Who knows where the rebel scum may have taken you, if they'd gotten you out of Mos Espa?"

Rebel scum ... anger rose in Anakin's throat, until he was sure he had to sick it up. Luke was his son. And Leia... had she said what he'd thought she'd said? Was she his, too?

"They're my friends," he said, having no desire to explain the situation to this man.

Soft bed or no, there was something wrong with this place.

"I note you share a name with the Jedi. He is, perhaps, your father?"

Anakin didn't answer. He didn't recognize any of the insignia on the man's uniform, but he did notice that there wasn't much of it, and Anakin talked to enough pilots to know that the higher the rank, the more buttons and ribbons went along with it. This guy was probably not much more than a lieutenant.

"If so, he doesn't deserve to have a son, not a man who would abandon you to the streets of Mos Espa, and only come to collect you when you got big enough to start to be useful."

"Where are they?"

"They have been placed under arrest. They'll be taken to Coruscant for trial."

"Why are you being so nice to me? I was with them. You should put me where they are."

"We are under orders to see that you come to no harm."

"Why?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it. Why not have some nice soup, and get some sleep?"

Anakin narrowed his eyes. He didn't like it when people thought he was stupid. "I want to know where my s- my friends are. I want to see them."

"It's not possible."

"Let me talk to someone who can make it possible."

"Someone will be coming soon enough." The officer went through the door, and it slid shut behind him.

Anakin thought about threatening to run into a wall and break his nose, then blame the officer for doing it when whoever it was got there, but he thought of Padmé right

then, about how reckless she thought he was, and he figured maybe she was right.

For a second, he was gripped by a panic that she was in a cell someplace, then he remembered that they'd been leaving in the first place because she'd slipped away. It was Luke and Leia and Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon who were locked up. And these people with their soup and soft beds better not be hurting them.

What would she do? he wondered. What would she do if she was in a nice room while her (our) children were locked up someplace, maybe getting hurt?

Well, Padmé was with the queen, and she always spoke like she agreed with the queen. The queen was going to speak with someone to help her people. Patient and calm. Dignified.

He'd never be able to do that. He was no good at waiting. But he'd have to.

He looked around the room, trying to look casual, because he figured there'd be spy stuff in the walls. There were no free vent shafts -- the grates were actually cut into the wall, not removable. The door was locked. There was nothing to cut with. And the droid couldn't even talk, let alone be convinced to do something not exactly in its programming.

He had to think of something. He had to get Luke and Leia and the Jedi out of here (the idea that he'd be rescuing Jedi might have been funny, if he didn't have to figure out how he was going to go about it).

He set about looking for something he could use to break the lock.

------------------

A young Imperial ensign, Saryn Zoron, paced back and forth in the prison section. He had been ordered to make sure the Jedi didn't escape and was growing increasingly bored.

The only reason the captain put me here is so if they do get out, I'll be killed first.

Snickering at an earlier joke, Saryn realized he had the sudden urge to check that younger Jedi's cell. What had been his name?

He couldn't remember. Whatever it was, it wouldn't be important if the prisoner had escaped somehow ... What's-His-Name was a Jedi, maybe he used some Jedi trick to zap himself away. He'd seen that in a holo once, as a kid.

"Don't be stupid, he has to be in there." Saryn rolled his eyes disgusted at himself but he couldn't shake the feeling that the prisoner had escaped.

After a half-hour of standing there, running through all the nursery rhymes he knew including 'Little Boy Jedi, come blow your Sax' and 'Little Ms. Yaddle, sat on her tuffet.' (What was a tuffet, anyway?)

Of course, one couldn't forget:

Yoda's gimmer stick sat on wall,

'til Yoda's gimmer stick had a great fall.
All of Yoda's knights and all of the Chancellor's men
Were glad they couldn't put the gimmer stick back together again.

Still, he couldn't put the feeling the Jedi had escaped out of his mind. Well.. I suppose opening the door for a second wouldn't hurt.

Keying in the intricate door code, he saw the Jedi kneeling on the floor, meditating. Saryn breathed a sigh of relief and turned around, hoping he hadn't disturbed the Jedi.

Before he could exit however, he was slammed on the head. Right before the blackness took over, Saryn saw the Jedi, (Obi-Wan, his mind supplied at last) leave, closing the door behind him.

------------------

Leia sat on the edge of the hard cot, glad that she'd been brought more comfortable clothes than the metal bikini before this happened. Hearing metal scraping on metal every time she shifted on the uncomfortable surface would have driven her mad by now.

She wondered if all the cells were this small, or if this had been given to her especially because she disliked small spaces. There was room here for precisely three paces in each direction, and turning usually involved hitting her hip on something. She'd finally giving up, but her mind continued to move, back and forth, over and over.

We should have told them everything before we went into town, they'd have been more careful, we'd have left sooner, they should have known Watto wasn't to be trusted...

And so on.

She heard a sound outside her cell door, a brief scratching, and she jumped to her feet, reaching instinctively for a blaster that had been taken away. She'd been out of the loop for six months and didn't have any vital information

(The rendezvous point at Sullust...)

that they would want, but that wouldn't stop them from pulling out the interrogator 'droid. Vader himself had used it sparingly and with distaste -- that had been bad enough, thank you -- but other Imperials were known to enjoy the devices a bit more than was good for them.

A muttered curse on the other side of the door, then a scrambling sound at the lock-pad to the side. The door rose. A brown-robed figure ducked inside, then closed the door again, jamming the lock mechanism with a piece of tan cloth.

Obi-Wan Kenobi turned to her. "Good to know it's one of us in here. There's a guard at the end of the hall. Hope you don't mind a moment's company before we get out of here."

Leia shrugged. "Not at all."

Kenobi gave her a grin, a rather dashing one, and she found herself returning it. She tried to call to mind the brief glimpse she'd caught of him as an old man, with white hair and a beard, falling beneath Vader's assault...

His eyes widened. "I die like that?"

She blinked. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to send that to you at all. I didn't realize you'd see it. That's the only time we met before. And we didn't exactly meet."

"Hmm," he said, and said no more.

He pressed his ear to the cell door, and closed his eyes. Leia could see his brow furrow in concentration. Then he moved decisively, opening door, and stepping out into the corridor. He signaled for Leia to follow him.

------------------

Vader flipped out of Maul's reach, and hooked his old saber onto his belt, drawing the new one in the same motion. It would not have been effective as a throwing weapon, but as a duelling weapon, it would outmatch Maul easily.

The X-shape of the red beams lit the air in front of him, and he saw Maul ignite the other half of his double-bladed lightsaber. He attacked first.

Maul met his offense with graceful fury, using his weapon in smooth, precise arcs that met the pulsed energy of the crossed beams and used it as a repulsor. Vader was forced back a step.

"You always fought well," he said. "But your time is over, and has been for many years. You must return to your own era."

Maul didn't answer. He twisted his saber in a cartwheel, catching the edge of Vader's blade and sending it down. The old apprentice used the opportunity to somersault over Vader's head, putting himself closer to Sanctuary, further down the road. "I am ordered to retrieve the queen. The era in which I find myself doing so is of no concern."

Vader engaged him in a parry, trying to reverse their positions. "Whether or not your capture Amidala, your Master's vision will be fulfilled. She is incidental to him and to you."

"Then why protect her now?"

Vader tried to formulate an answer -- in fact, his protection of Amidala was as pointless as Maul's aggressive stance toward her. Whether or not Maul captured her, she would set Palpatine on the road to Empire. And whether or not Vader protected her now, she would die later.

But not until after Luke was born. He could not allow the despair over her death to stop him from keeping her child alive. Luke was destined to be his apprentice, his heir. Luke had to exist.

"The timeline," he finally said. "Consider it, Maul. Your Master has all he dreamed of in this time. All you both dreamed of. Will you risk it to change fate?"

Maul looked at him with loathing. "I care nothing for this timeline, and if you are apprentice now, then clearly I am not here to enjoy my Master's success. Perhaps I will change that."

He began another parry; Vader met it.

The duel rang out in the night.

------------------

Amidala let the girl lead her down the road, her eyes only drawn back to the brightly lit duel every ten steps or so.

"Come on," the child said, tugging at her arm. "He said to come to Sanctuary."

"Who is he?"

"He is Lord Vader, and you should do what he says. He wants what is best."

Amidala knew that the proper response was to reject it entirely; from what little she'd been able to glean about the current situation, she didn't think anyone in the Empire really wanted what was best. But she couldn't shake the sense that Vader, at least, wanted what he thought was best for everyone -- whether everyone liked it or not.

"My name is Dritali," the girl said, becoming conversational as soon as Amidala started to walk again. "I live at Sanctuary. Lord Vader sent me here, after he killed my father." Amidala felt a chill at the casual way Dritali said it, but she let the girl go on.

"He said that Kit would take care of me, if I just showed him this."

Dritali held up her arm, and Amidala saw a bracelet that reached most of the way to her elbow. It was cheap and not at all elaborate, but she thought it was an oddly attractive piece of jewellry.

Or at least that's what she'd thought when she'd seen it yesterday, on Shmi Skywalker's wrist.

Dritali smiled. "Kit looked like that when he saw it too. He won't tell me why. Will you?"

"I haven't the faintest idea," Amidala said thinly. She no longer felt the urge to look back at the fight. "Let's move on to Sanctuary. I think I need to talk to Kit."

------------------

Anakin had gotten tired of trying to break his lock subtly. So, he had just broken the kitchen droid and started smashing the door open. Five minutes later, he was done.

I should have done this in the beginning. Much easier!

After exiting the nice prison cell (And if that wasn't at opposites, he wasn't sure what was), he starting running. He never got why people on holodramas and stuff would just walk when they were escaping. That just made it much easier for them to get caught. Maybe that was the point.

Slowing down as he passed a corner, he saw a small room with a partially closed door. Peering in, he saw a gnarled old human holo talking to that captain.

The captain was kneeling and kept his eyes on the ground, something that Anakin knew meant the old guy was important. Whenever Watto was especially mad when he wrecked a pod or something, he just keep his eyes on the ground and called him Master. Worked every time.

Straining his eyes, he overheard Old Man saying, "I will be on Tatooine soon... Two days at the most. Just break in the prisoners. No food and no sleep should work for now."

"Of course, my Emperor. And young Skywalker?"

Emperor? Luke and his friends are in it bad if there's an Emporer after them ... .

With a small flinch the boy realized, And now I'm in it too!

Walking away, he resolved to find the Jedi and friends if he had to look through the whole compound.

------------------

Obi-Wan left the room, feeling a little depressed. I die struck down, not willing to fight ... how fun for me.

After a few more minutes on this train of thought, he found a hand waving in front of his face. Catching it didn't require Jedi reflexes but holding in his blush when he figured out it was Leia's did.

Leia spoke calmly, a trait of a diplomat. "What about Qui-Gon and Luke?"

Obi-Wan could have told she really was concerned about Luke without the Force. Her voice tensed a little and her hands clenched. Irrelevant, but he had gotten good at noticing little things after Qui-Gon's focus on the Living Force.

"They have better locks then you." Obi-Wan gave a quick sardonic grin and turned out of the hallway.

"Should I be happy or insulted that I got a bad lock?" Obi-Wan glanced at her expression and had to put on his stoic-Jedi face to keep from laughing.

"If I were you, I'd be happy." As an afterthought he added, , she could imagine very well."Besides ... people are always paranoid about what Jedi can do. Some holodrama I had to watch in the Jedi temple had Jedi teleporting and fighting entire armies without even trying to get peace! Can you imagine?"

From the blush on Leia's face, she had believed the movie's portrayal of Jedi too. When I get back, I'll ask Master Yoda what he can do about Jedi PR.

"So, instead of getting to break them out the easy way, we need to find a computer accessable to the keycodes so we can break them out that way." Obi-Wan paused and took a quick glance to make sure the corrider was empty.

"It'd be easier to just find the code to open all prisoner doors at once, Obi-Wan." The statement was punctuated with a stare one expected from a Gamorean wrestler, not

a petite young woman from Alderaan.

"Or we could do that."

------------------

Anakin slipped out of his room (he tried to think of it as a cell, but found that he couldn't), makeshift club in hand, and out into the clean corridors of the ship.

For a ship, it most definitely was. Grounded at present, but vaguely aerodynamic. It looked like it could get places, and Anakin was vaguely curious about how it would be put together... but not as curious as he ought to be. Something told him that nothing about this ship would surprise him a lot. Things would be where he expected them to be.

He was right.

Down a staircase, into a hexagonal hallway. This would be

(the detention area)

where the prisoners would end up. Sure. Not anywhere close to the bridge -- which would be up several levels, if they were smart -- but not close enough to the bowels of the ship for an escaped prisoner to easily cause damage.

That's where I'd put it, if I were putting a prison on a ship.

The thought came quietly, with no fanfare, and Anakin accepted it without any sense of portent or premonition. It was a sense of mild discomfort that he might agree with the engineers who built this, but that was all.

Yet the odd little thought did linger, along with the more troubling question of why they'd put him in a nice room and tried to "save" him from his children and the Rebels, instead of just tossing him in a cell, too. Leia had talked a lot about the Empire when they were working together, and he didn't think they were the sort of people to just feel bad for the poor little kid.

The prison wing had one main corridor, and a second, smaller one that was perpendicular to it. There would be another corridor, parallel to the main one. Anakin didn't know how he knew this, but he did.

A guard appeared out of the smaller corridor, and Anakin barely had time to duck back into the place he'd come from.

Cautiously, he looked around the edge of the hall. The guard looked over his shoulder at the short corridor, as if he'd heard something, then shrugged and continued his route. He stopped by one door, kicked it, and said, "Comfortable, Jedi?" Whoever was behind the door didn't answer, and the guard, smiling now, did the same to another cell door across the hall. Also no answer. But Anakin had observed, and counted the doors, and noted which ones the guard had stopped at. He ducked back around the corner, and closed his eyes to call the image back up. Two on the left, three on the right...

"What are you doing here?"

He opened his eyes. The guard was glaring at him, weapon drawn. "Just looking around," he tried.

"You're not supposed to be down here. They said you might try. Go back to your room."

Anakin hadn't read a lot of stories -- who had time, with all the work to do? -- but he'd devoured every story about Jedi that he could find. And he knew from Watto that they really did try mind tricks from time to time. "I'll go back to my room," he said reasonably, and even started to turn. Then he called out mutely into... was it really the Force?... and pushed his mind out heavily at the guard. "And you will return to the bridge, Lieutenant."

The reaction was startling. Anakin had hoped that maybe it would work a little bit. He'd been prepared to be laughed at. But the guard staggered back, holding his head as if dizzy. Then he straightened up, a dreamy, distant look on his face, and he said, "Yes, m'lord" and walked away.

Anakin watched after him in gape-mouthed silence, and vowed to never use that trick again. It made him feel like he needed to wash his hands for about an hour, like he'd jumped in refuse and would stink of it for days.

Nevertheless, for now, it had worked. He took his club, and went toward the door on his left.

------------------

"What do you mean the Jedi are gone?" The Queen's voice was tightly controlled but a hint of anger had leaked through.

Lando shrugged and took a small look around the town's entrance. It was late now, late enough he would have to guess that it was almost dawn. "I meant what I said, Amidala."

He had never been one for formality, except when it suited him. Or when he was flirting. Besides, a fourteen-year-old who wore face-paint really wasn't his type.

Threepio sputtered out a nervous apology. "Ohh, Captain Calrissian doesn't mean anything by it. He's not a rude person, I promise," He paused, "please don't have me sent to the droid piles, your Majesty! Send Artoo!"

Chewie growled out a threat about what he did to droids who talked too much and Threepio shut up, scared straight.

Lando let out a chuckle as he saw proof that unreasonable fear wasn't just a Threepio trait. Several of the Naboo guards and that Gungan court jester were walking as far away from the Wookie as they could.

Yeah, Chewie's really going to just decide he doesn't like someone's hair color and rip

off their arms. Makes perfect sense.

Amidala was tapping her foot, he realized. She obviously expected him to say something. "Um ... hey, let's go find those Jedi, huh?"

The young Queen's eyebrows crinkled, but she motioned to her troops. "Spilt up into group of two or three. If you find anyone, you will take them back to the ship. We shall reconvene back at the ship in twelve hours, that should be more then enough time."

Lando started towards Chewie but the child-Queen grabbed his arm. "You, Captain, are coming with me."

Before he could even protest, he found himself being dragged off by the Queen.

Aggressive. Really, it's too bad she's not older.

------------------

Qui-Gon felt a surge of anger and annoyance flood the Force like a tidal wave, followed by intense self-loathing.

It's my father, Luke said to his mind.

Ani?

A chuckle, not at all in good humor. Ani. Yes. It's him.

There was no time to discuss the matter further. Metal clanged on metal at Qui-Gon's cell door, and the anger came back ... but it was a cleaner anger, maybe even an anger that Anakin wasn't aware of. Still not good, but at least not being consciously drawn upon.

The lock popped, and the door slid up. Ani smiled, purely relieved, and ran to him. "Qui-Gon! Sir, are you all right?"

Qui-Gon embraced him, and smoothed the mop of blonde hair that fit surprisingly neatly at the base of his own chin. "I'm all right, Anakin. You have lost your temper."

Anakin pulled away and looked down. "I have to get Luke out. And Obi-Wan." He was out of Qui-Gon's arms and across the hall before Qui-Gon could answer him, so he just followed.

Ani took his metal club -- which Qui-Gon recognized as some part of a droid, and smashed it against the locking mechanism.

"Ani," he said. "Someone will hear."

Anakin looked back guiltily. "I think maybe they won't come right away."

The door rose, and Luke was sitting there in a morose parody of meditation -- Qui-Gon was more generous than most masters, otherwise he might have considered it a pout. The elder/younger Skywalker (or was Luke the younger/elder?) simply looked at his father with resigned love -- and perhaps a bit of anger -- then stood and came into the corridor.

"Ani," Qui-Gon said, "I am glad to be free, but you mustn't use your anger like that."

Anakin simply gave him a puzzled frown. "I'm not angry."

Qui-Gon gingerly took the club away from him, then knelt down as he'd seen Shmi do earlier. It was a gesture that he thought Anakin would understand. "You have bludgeoned these doors open, and I imagine you did the same in your own cell -- "

Anakin flushed hotly at the word "cell," and averted his eyes.

Qui-Gon got that strange sense of shame and self-loathing again, but didn't let it distract him. He didn't sense that the boy had been hurt, and whatever reasons this future Empire had for its treatment of him were, in all likelihood, in his future, not his present. He glanced up at Luke, who was looking in any direction except Anakin's.

Interesting.

But the present was Qui-Gon's concern, and at present, he had a frightened nine-year-old boy with a lot of power inside him, who had used it in a way that felt personally wrong to him. "Ani," he said again.

Anakin's eyes found their way back to him.

"Anakin, you cannot just bludgeon your way in and out of situations -- "

"But it worked!"

"It always does," Luke said dryly. "And we don't have time to discuss philosophy."

"I couldn't agree more," Obi-Wan said, appearing from the short corridor. Qui-Gon had to suppress a grin; generally, Obi-Wan was willing to discuss philosophy at the point of gun, while Qui-Gon had to urge him out of it. "There are guards everywhere."

Leia was beside him. Anakin looked up at her hopefully, and was rewarded with a smile. Qui-Gon could almost feel the way the Force calmed around the boy at the sight of it. "Obi-Wan is right," she said. "It's time to get out of here."

"We'll need our weapons," Qui-Gon reminded her. "They should not remain in this time."

------------------

Maul finally made the mistake Vader had been waiting for. He counted on his finesse against the brute force of the four-blader, and it didn't work. Vader hadn't had to handle finessed saber-work for some time (he was, honestly, tiring), but this was the break he needed.

Maul tried to swing a quick double arc, feigning advance while executing a brief strategic retreat. The blades of the lightsaber dipped into a slight angle, just the one Vader could use to capture in the gaps of the x-shape of his own weapon. He twisted with all his strength, and Maul's weapon went flying into the darkness, creating a pinwheel of flaring red. Vader used the Force to call it to himself, and deactivated it. He advanced on his enemy, wondering in some far corner of his mind how exactly to end this fight without damaging the timeline irreparably. He couldn't kill Maul, and he had no idea how to simply send him back in time.

Kill him. Change the time line. One last murder to pay for all of them, and erase at least some of them.

The conundrum was too much. It made his head ache dully. If he killed him, and it changed everything, then he wouldn't be here to kill him and change everything.

So, you blow yourself out of existence. Is that really so bad? I mean, really? Amidala was before everything went bad. The children will still be here...

Vader cut off the unproductive line of thought. He'd only taken two threatening steps toward Maul. "Retreat," he said. "Return to your own time."

"I go where I please!" Maul spat. In a flash of speed unbelievable after a duel, he practically flew into the desert.

Vader debated following him, but realized that he still didn't know what to do if he caught this particular quarry. He supposed he should consult with Palpatine, but couldn't bring himself to do it. He assumed Palpatine's response would be to let the two of them fight it out, and see who was left standing. It was the Sith way.

Meanwhile, one thing was clear -- Maul knew where his quarry was, and what he intended to do with her. And Vader would not allow that to happen. He didn't bother making up an excuse about the timeline, or Luke.

He'd seen her again. He would not allow her to be harmed. Whatever it meant and whatever had happened, he discovered two things. The first was that he still loved her, and the second was that he didn't mind discovering that at all. It didn't even call to mind his weak former self (in fact, where Amidala was concerned, there was no former self, just the continuous sense of perfect symbiosis that had never left him). It was a simple constant, an instinct, and if he'd learned one thing that carried over between Jedi and Sith it was to trust one's instincts.

He sheathed his weapon, and headed for Sanctuary.

------------------

--->continue to part 2

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