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

FAN FICTION : ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

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I'm Your What?
Part 3/3

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

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Sabé couldn't remember exactly how the party at the canyon had split up; she only knew that Obi-Wan and Ani's son had disappeared, then somehow or other, she was running with Calrissian again, back toward the ships, while the Queen went off with Leia, Ani, and Qui-Gon. She had a vague memory of Amidala looking straight at Lando and saying, "Get the Queen to safety" before running off. Lando had accepted no arguments on the matter. Hadn't he heard Ani call the Queen by her right name?

What game were they playing?

But it had happened too fast, and it would have made matters worse if Sabé had taken time to argue. She would get back to the ship, and get the whole crew to go in and rescue Amidala. And Ani and Qui-Gon and Leia.

And Obi-Wan and Luke.

Are Lando and I the only ones running here?

But of course, they were. He was saving the Queen by taking her away from the battle.

They'd made it partway around the city, and were headed into the open desert, homing in on Panaka's signal. Sabé's comm-link beeped. She didn't stop to answer it, though running through the desert was hard on her lungs. She brought it close to her mouth so that the wind wouldn't interfere. "Yes?"

"We're one hundred yards to your left, behind the rock shelf," Panaka said, and cut it off after that. Bless the man, he never did waste words.

"Come on," Sabé said, tugging on Lando's arm and pulling him after her. "We're stopping here. To regroup."

He agreed readily enough, and they swerved behind the rock.

Panaka and Olie were waiting, with the Wookiee who traveled with Ani's son. Panaka caught her, and sat her down on a low rock. "Rest," he ordered. "You're not going to be helpful if your heart explodes."

Sabé nodded. "The plan?"

"We're going to take the ship back first. Then we need to know where the remainder of the party is. We've been unable to locate them by their comm-links."

Sabé nodded. "Kenobi and Jinn were captured," she said. "Along with Leia and Luke and Ani, though he doesn't have a comm-link for you to have traced. They have escaped, but their equipment was taken from them upon capture, including the comm-links."

"And the... your handmaiden Padmé?"

"Was separated from them before the capture, but is now reunited. They have headed into greater danger, I fear."

Panaka swore under his breath. They had always anticipated that Amidala was headstrong enough to take matters into her own hands; they had never guessed that this would lead her into a battle -- it wasn't her style. But they should have known.

There was a downside to allowing her to escape into Padmé's identity. It took the target off of her, but she was perfectly capable of putting herself in danger without it. And I should have known. She has always felt guilty that we handmaidens take the physical risks. I should have known she would insist, if the time actually came.

"She knows better," Panaka said. "Her life is not her own to risk."

"She's doing it for Anakin," Lando said suddenly. "Something happened -- I don't know what, exactly; something about his now -- and she's hell-bent on sticking with him."

"His now?" Panaka was seething, and pounded a fist against his palm. "What the hell does that mean?"

"Some Jedi doublespeak," Lando muttered, disdainfully.

Panaka raised an eyebrow, and turned his gaze to Sabé. "What happened?"

"Anakin collapsed," she replied, easing into her act. "Jinn, Kenobi, and Luke coached him into breathing mainly through comfort."

"Why would that send Padmé into the hands of the enemy?"

"I'm unsure, Captain, but I believe she said that Anakin's older incarnation died to save her. From what the Jedi said, Anakin collapsed because he felt his own passing into the Force."

Lando's face became contorted with disbelief, and his speech came to him slowly. "No ... Leia said that Vader was dead."

Before this particular mission, Sabé had a history of making connections where they should not be made. While she was a flawless bodyguard, agile and deadly, she was no detective. She felt Panaka's critical eye scanning her, and felt a history of trust being dismissed because someone decades her senior had spoken against her.

She couldn't hold back. "The boy knew, Captain. Our most guarded secret. He said her name and suddenly we hear her calling for him. He must have guided her in some way, and the only explanation I can think of is that the child becomes a Jedi and dies for her. That may mean he becomes this Vader for whom Leia and Lando have such distaste."

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

Dritali led the way, though Kit didn't know how she knew any of this. Maybe she was a little bit Force sensitive. Or maybe she'd followed. He just wasn't sure.

Vertash and Kerea were with them, looking fearfully over their shoulders at every night sound. Kerea was holding Vertash's arm. Dritali seemed entirely unconcerned with the presence of the Empire, or of the normal desert dangers. She simply pushed forward, toward the flatlands where Kit could see the boxy shapes of two Imperial transports squatting like predators ready to pounce.

"This way," she said urgently. She led them toward the smaller transport, but Kit saw what she was headed for long before they got to it. She ran ahead when she saw a sniffing womp rat, charging the creature and kicking at its face. It snapped at her foot, but womp rats were skittish, and when it saw that she wasn't alone, it scurried off into the night.

Anakin lay in the sand, mask turned up toward the sky. Some cataclysmic heat had melted the circuits on his chest, and his hands were clenched in final agony. Beside him in the sand, something glittered. Kit bent down to pick it up.

Just a glass bauble, cheap and meant to look it. It had been set into Amidala's belt. She had been there. Kit understood what had happened without needing to be telepathic in the least.

"What should we do?" Dritali asked.

"We'll take him home," Kit said. "I'll need your help, children. Kerea, I know you have... "

But the Alderaanian girl slipped in beside Vertash and Dritali, and shook her head. Her short blond hair seemed almost white in the moonlight. She would not leave any man to be devoured by the desert beasts, no matter what side of the war he'd fought on.

Kit knelt beside him, partly in respectful mourning, but mostly to gauge how to accomplish this task. Finally, he looped his own arms under Anakin's, lifting him slightly. The robotics of the suit had gone stiff, which would make him hard to lift, but easier to carry once they had him. "You children are certain of this?" he asked.

They nodded solemnly.

"Very well," he said. "Dritali, you walk beside him, in the middle, and support him in the center of his back. Vertash and Kerea, hold his legs. It will be a long, difficult walk, but it is a kind and merciful thing you are doing."

Vertash smiled slightly. Kerea's shoulders straightened. Dritali didn't react, but the gift was mainly to her, and Kit knew she would be grateful later. If Kit had one point of pride, it was that the children he'd raised considered being kind and merciful a mark of honor.

The walk was long and difficult, but in the end, they brought Anakin Skywalker safely into Sanctuary, and laid his broken body in the garden. Kit and Dritali stayed to keep vigil until sunsup.

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

Qui-Gon was striding on ahead, following some scent in the Force that Amidala couldn't begin to understand. But he was going the right way, so it had to count for something. Of course, Palpatine was still fairly close to where they'd been held before, so that might have played into it.

She was afraid that they would pass poor Ani's body, but it was on the other side of the ships, she remembered now (getting out had been a strange and surreal experience, and she remembered little of it). It was, at any rate, mercifully out of sight.

Leia walked beside her quietly, sometimes glancing over at Ani, mostly keeping to herself. The pace was quick, and it wouldn't be easy to talk even about simple things, let alone the complicated tangle in the weave of their lives. Amidala touched her arm lightly.

Leia gave her a distracted look, then sped up her pace and ran ahead to catch Qui-Gon.

Ani squeezed her hand -- had she taken his hand, or had he taken hers? she couldn't remember -- and when she looked at him, his eyes were bruised looking and sunken. Not so very different from the way they'd looked under the mask. He pulled his hand away and stared ahead as they walked. His pace was quickening. Amidala had a sense that she'd done this before, then she realized that she had, not more than two hours ago. This time, though, his legs were too short to make her work as hard as she had then. She matched him easily.

"Up there?" he asked, when Palpatine's small, boxy transport came into view. "That's where they are?"

An arc of light sparked up through the night air, answering his question before she did. "What is that?" she asked.

Ani started to run. "He's got Luke and Obi-Wan!"

"Ani! Wait!"

"I'm going after them!"

"NO!" It was out before Amidala really thought about it, but she meant it. She didn't want Anakin Skywalker anywhere near Palpatine. Not now, not ever. She ran, overtaking him and grabbing him to one side. "Let Qui-Gon and Leia go. I need your help. He has my handmaidens... the queen's other handmaidens, Rabé and Eirtaé, and Jar Jar. We need to get them out and get them back to our time."

"But Luke -- "

"Has Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, and Leia to help him. The others need us more. Palpatine will be distracted by this confrontation. Maybe his guards will be less attentive than they otherwise would be. Or maybe not. Either way, we need to get them out. They can't stay here, and they can't die here."

Anakin looked from the electric sky to the darkness of the ship, his face showing his torn heart clearly. "Luke," he said again. "And Leia, too, now."

Amidala nodded. She knew. Every fiber of her being wanted to go in and save Luke,

and keep Leia out of the fight at all. But she knew there was little she could do in a fight between Jedi and Sith, and the need to rescue Jar Jar and her handmaidens had not been a ruse; they really could not be left here, and everyone else was so focused on the battle with Palpatine that it left only Ani and herself to do it. "They're strong," she said. "Let's show them where it comes from, okay?"

The words sounded false, and she heard her voice shake, but something in what she'd said seemed to reach Anakin. Of course. He was ashamed enough of what he'd learned that he claimed to be glad to die. He would be glad of a chance to prove himself worthy in the twins' eyes.

"Okay," he said. "What's the plan?"

Amidala brushed her hair back, trying to think her plan out as she spoke. "There aren't very many guards. I expect no more then two, if that. This really isn't that big of a ship, Ani."

"How do we stop them?" Ani's voice sounded very brave, too brave for his age.

I wish he didn't have to act so old. It would be nice for him if he could just be a child.

Throwing away her wistful thought, she sighed faintly. Ami knew she couldn't control how other's acted or the circumstances that lead to actions. All she could do was make sure she did all she could.

And right now she was going to do all she could to save her handmaidens.

Amidala held up a hand to make sure Ani stayed silent and tried to think. Her mind was mentally exhausted and she felt too tired to be creative.

"I don't suppose you have any ideas Ani?"

"This is my first time doing something like this." Ani did a smirk, something unnerving to see on a nine-year-old. Must have come from hanging around with so many spacers.

"Cute." Ami reached out and squeezed his hand to show she wasn't being mean. She let go after a little while, focusing on the problem at hand.

After a few seconds, she was able to think up a workable plan, using various ideas from the stories her Grandmother had told her.

Who knew those stories would have real life use?

"Ani, you are going to distract a guard. Make sure no one's around, just make the guard angry. I'll come up from behind and hit with something handy. We take his blaster and stun the other's."

"You make that sound easy, Padmé." Ani grinned brightly, the expression lighting up his face. "Now come on, we hafta go save them."

Walking into the ship, Amidala wished she was so confident about her plan.

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

Luke seethed inwardly at the Emperor, cradling his injured leg. He should have listened to Obi-Wan, he had been overconfident.

An inner voice breathed out, You weren't overconfident. You were ready. If it hadn't been to Obi-Wan's warning, you would have gone in their, lightsaber charging and won. Now look at you, on the floor with a leg injury that might never heal. It's all Kenobi's fault.

The Emperor had left soon after the leg injury, telling them he'd be back later. Kenobi had walked to the other side of the room a little while after mumbling apologies.

What good was an apology when he was a cripple? How would that help him become a full Jedi? How would he fix his father's mistakes now?

So caught up in his thoughts, Luke's brain didn't register the Emporer walking in and chuckling softly. Luckily for him, Obi-Wan did notice and promptly attacked the Emperor who was uncharacteristically holding a lightsaber.

"It's all--" Parry. "Your--" Thrust. "Fault!" Jump.

"Have I mentioned lately how much I adore anger from Jedi?" He laughed, and Luke's voice urged him to do something. Blasting Palpatine to smithereens was a nicer thought that came.

Unable to stand, (Luke winced at the bad joke) sitting any longer, he stood up slowly, using every Jedi pain technique he knew of.

The result was the leg didn't hurt but it was extremly numb. It gave him the feeling it was be extremly painful later to make up for it.

Luke stretched and spoke, smiling sinisterly. "We're going to kill you. As slowly as we can."

After all, I can always hurt Kenobi for injuring my leg after Palpy is dead.

As Kenobi and Luke both edged towards Palpatine, the Emperor's perverse grin faded.

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

Palpatine backed up nervously, waving his lightsaber a little. It was no supposed to go like this! They were supposed to fight each other. By the Force, where did my plan go wrong?

"You killed my father. Prepare to die." Luke's voice was deadly serious and Palpatine searched for something intelligant to say.

"It's all my bodyguard's fault!" he pointed over to the corner, gasping a little. "See that man? Drake, an Imperial Royal Guard. All his idea, I just went along for fun."

The guard eerily stepped out of the shadows, azure eyes flashing. "I'm afraid I can't take the credit for your brilliance my Emperor. It wouldn't be right."

Luke snorted. "Yeah, I'm going to believe that one, Palpy. A hyped-up stormtrooper thought it all up. Sure."

"With what I've heard and seen about stormtroopers, I must agree that they're idiots." Obi-Wan grinned and for some reason the exression just looked wrong on his face. It looked innocent, on an wicked face.

Unfortunately, the Jedi were right. Stormtroopers were perpetually stupid. Drake wasn't all stupid though, he just didn't apply himself. At all. Besides, the royal guard just looked ditzy with classic good looks and a small frame.

"Yeah, I guess most are kinda--Hey!" As Luke and Obi-Wan looked, then quickly looked away from the "stupid" Royal Guard, emabrassed. As soon as they were focused on Palpatine, Drake smirked.

It's possible I slightly erred in getting one of my Royal Guards angry at me.

As a last ditch maneuver, Palpatine took out a powerless comm and spoke into it. "Strike at the targets. Yes, you can kill everyone, even the Jedi Master."

Palpatine changed his earlier thought to: Many, many mistakes that must have been from Maul and\or Vader brainwashing me as Drake drew a blaster and spoke softly. "I could forgive you killing my Grandfather when you extinguished Jedi. I could forgive you destroying Alderaan and with it, my fiancée because there were Rebels there.

"I can put up with your lies. But I can't put up with you killing Queen Amidala.

"I am of Naboo, and we of Naboo stick together."

With that, Palpatine was stunned.

As he fell, his second to last thought was, At least Skywalker and Obi-Wan are showing Sith tendencies.

His last thought was, Did they have to do it at the expense of stunning me?

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

Leia followed Qui-Gon, not really knowing what she meant to do, only that she couldn't handle being in Anakin Skywalker's presence.

Her father's presence.

A thousand thoughts raced each other through her mind in narrowing circles, nipping at each others heels and making so much noise that she could hardly concentrate.

And yet, she felt oddly detached from it. Luke is my brother. My brother. Did I know that before?

(Yeah, sure, you knew it when you were kissing him on Hoth. And leading him on on Yavin. It was all right there, and you were just playing with him, right? Normal family games. But then again, with Daddy dearest hovering nearby, how could anything but blissful normalcy ensue?)

She tried to maintain the sarcastic tone with herself, but it wouldn't wash. The fact was, when Mother had called Luke her brother, there hadn't been even a moment of doubt or even surprise. And learning about Vader had been...

Expected.

As she pushed her way through the sand, her stomach turned lazily. Of course. She had never once asked her foster parents who her father was. That should have struck her as strange, because she asked about everything she saw or felt. But the question of half of her existence never came up.

Why?

Because she had a suspicion, or a whisper of an idea of a suspicion. And to ask it would be to acknowledge it, and to acknowledge it would be terrible. Unbearable.

Was she giving herself too much credit? Maybe she just plain hadn't been interested.

No. No, she felt the truth of it sinking in. That connection she had felt... it had been real, and she had known; she'd known it in her blood even if her mind had never put a word to it. She hadn't needed to ask.

Qui-Gon stopped suddenly. "They have engaged in battle," he said.

Leia nodded. "I'll go in. You can't risk the timeline by dying now. And I'll try to get Obi-Wan out first."

He shook his head. "There is something else here. Something unexpected."

"I've had enough unexpected things today," Leia said. She had no patience left for Qui-Gon's philosophy; she would take matters into her own hands, because her own hands were under her control. She moved on ahead of him, toward the storm-lit part of the sky.

He matched her step for step, and didn't try to stop her.

She drew her blaster as she entered the small circle, but found there was nothing to do with it.

One of the Emperor's royal guard was standing over a small, supine form in black robes. Luke and Kenobi stood with their lightsabers drawn, looking mutely at it.

"Very well," Qui-Gon said. "It seems your foolishness has corrected itself, padawan."

Obi-Wan glared at him, but lowered his lightsaber. "Yes, Master."

"And you, young Luke, must be aware of your error."

Luke lowered his lightsaber, but didn't say anything.

"He's moving," the guard said. "If you're leaving, leave now."

Leia shook her head. She hadn't registered that the guard was on their side. "Are you coming with us?"

"I will remain at my post."

It was a spoken suicide note, but Leia was too tired to argue. "May the Force be with you," she muttered.

"If he's not dead yet," Luke said, "I'll kill him."

"No, you won't," Leia said. "Because we have to get our parents, and then get them back in time, or you and I won't be here to kill anybody or anything."

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

Obi-Wan shuddered from the sudden desert wind. They had been walking a while, he wasn't sure how long, his chrono had long since been broken. The young Padawan seemed to be the only one to notice.

It was quite possibly as much in his head as the thought that Palpatine was going to kill Qui-Gon was.

Palpatine. The man had lied, told him Qui-Gon was going to die, sent him awful mental messages of all the Jedi Masters burning, his friends dying screaming out Vader, everything. Obi-Wan had tried to block it out, keep his mind separate from the Emperor's. He hadn't had the power.

When Palpatine had been stunned, it had just gone away. Leaving Obi not quite as cold, or alone or unhappy... But the memories and the anger had remained.

I don't want to be this angry. By the Force, I want to be who I was before any of this mess started!

"Padawan? Padawan? Are you okay?"

It was Master Qui-Gon. He was worried. "I'm fine. Just...memories, Master."

"It's okay, Obi-Wan. I will understand if you'll be a little distant for a while." Qui-Gon grasped his hand gently but within a second it was dropped. "Now please, walk faster. We are trying to get back to the ship, Amidala and Anakin are following as soon as they finish that mission."

"Mission? What mission? You let my parents go off alone? They're just children!" Luke just stopped and with him the rest of the group halted their steady pace. The young man's face held a mixture of anger and contempt for Qui-Gon.

"I'm sure they wanted to Luke. Some people have a sense of duty." Obi-Wan smiled sweetly at Luke, enjoying the pain on his face for a brief second.

"What are you saying?" Luke's stare was burning, Obi-Wan could almost feel the holes

in his skin.

"Yes, what are you saying? Luke may be many things but he has a sense of duty."

"Stay out of this sister dear. Go away." Luke paused, hurt appearing on his face.

"Maybe then I won't be able to hear your thoughts about how Vader and I being your family disgusts you. How we're full of anger, and are stuck that way."

Obi-Wan cringed. His own shields were up but he had been told it was very hard to block family. For Luke to have to hear Leia's venting thoughts would have been awful.

Leia walked tentatively over to Luke and put her arms around him, bring very careful to avoid bumping into his leg. "I'm so, so, sorry Luke. I didn't want you to hear that, I didn't mean it. I swear, I didn't mean it!

Please Luke, don't turn like Vader because of my thoughts! You're my brother, I don't want you to be my fault too! I can't let that happen with you, Luke. Please, just let go of the anger."

Leia's wails were getting a bit high-pitched and Obi-Wan looked away. He could still hear the please though but after a while, the sobs quieted.

For a while after Luke was murmuring, "It's okay Leia... It's my fault, it wasn't yours... Nothing's your fault, I shouldn't have gotten so mad. It's my fault, I need some help, I..."

The young man straightened, visibly winced and looking over Leia's shoulder softly talked. "I need to go see Master Yoda. I... I need some help controlling my temper. I don't want to turn out like my Father." He stopped uncomfortably. "Come on, we need to get a ship."

With that, Leia slipped out of Luke's arms and started following the young Jedi, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon not far behind.

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

"Okay," Padmé whispered to him. "You go and... do something... "

"I was thinking," Anakin said, "that maybe you should be the one to go up. You were with... me... earlier, and I was their boss, right?"

She sighed. "Yes, but I'm afraid that word may have gotten around about just what happened. They may be under orders to arrest me on sight." She didn't say it, but Anakin heard, very clearly, Or shoot me.

He felt his heart seize up. He could have gotten her killed, if she'd done what he said. "Okay. I'll do it." He bent down, found a rock about the size of his hand. "Here. Just do it quick."

She nodded. "May the Force be with you, Ani."

"You, too." They split. He saw her fade gracefully into the shadow of the ship. She was so pretty. He closed his eyes and thought of her face, then opened them and headed for the white-helmeted guard.

"Stop!"

Anakin stopped and squinted. "Hey!" he said, trying to sound like he didn't know what was going on. "I saw your lights from town. Is this really an Imperial war ship?"

"Not a war ship. It's just a transport."

"I heard the Emperor was on it. It's a rumor all over Mos Espa."

The guard cocked his head curiously. "I can't speak to that."

Anakin faked a pleased smile. "Wow, then, it's really true!"

"I didn't say that -- "

"Kitster and Wald are going to be really jealous if they find out that I saw the Emperor's ship -- "

Crack.

The guard fell to the ground, revealing Padmé standing behind him, the rock in her hand. She looked at it dully. "I was afraid the helmet would stop it."

"They don't seem to be good for much."

"Come on. Before he wakes up, or someone else comes."

He nodded, and led the way into the ship. Just like before, the halls seemed familiar, or at least perfectly sensible. "They'll be near the back," he said.

"How do you know that? Can you hear...?" She looked around nervously.

"No. Can you?"

"I did. When I first ran. But not now. I thought maybe he was... you know, talking to you instead."

"How come?"

"Because when I was running... well, maybe it's crazy, but I thought you said... I thought you called me 'Amidala.'"

"Why would I do that?"

"Because it's my name. You'll know it by the time you're... him."

"You're the queen?"

She nodded, distracted. "Rabé and Eirtaé might not be in very good shape. They may say something by accident. But don't tell the others. My bodyguard is -- "

They reached a blocked doorway, and Anakin held up his hand, only noticing partway through that it was silly for him to be telling a queen what to do. "Through here," he said. There was a button beside the door, and he pushed it. "You stay here," he said. "Really. I bet this door doesn't open up easy from the other side. Be really careful."

She nodded, and he went into the cell block. He was scared, but he didn't feel like stopping. Another door was closed near the end of the corridor, and he opened it.

"Ani!" Jar Jar said. "Mesa glad to be seeing you! Deysa hurting bad." He pointed to two forms slumped in the corner. "Wesa wasn't all together before, but den da men with guns bring them in here, saying wesa was gonna die together here."

"Well, you're not," Anakin said. He held his finger against the button and reached in. He was able to touch one of the girls. She looked up, and her face was covered with bruises. "It's time to leave," he said. "I have to hold the door. But I'll help you when you come out."

The girl nodded, and crawled out. She used Anakin's body to climb up to a half-standing position, and he braced her with his arm.

Jar Jar gathered up the other one, and picked her up. "Wesa going now."

Anakin and Jar Jar made their way up the corridor, where Padmé was waiting, her hand on the button by the door, her face a mask of worry.

The girl leaning on Anakin reached to her. "Highness," she whispered.

Padmé -- Amidala -- reached out and took over supporting her. "It's all right, Rabé," she said. "We're leaving now."

Anakin led them out of the ship by the back way -- just in case the guard had woken up -- and into the desert night outside. He helped Padmé support the girl Rabé, and they made their way into the open desert.

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

Threepio nudged his companion, making the droid look at him.

"Have you figured out yet why we're locked in the closet?"

Artoo beeped out a short answer, one that made the prissy droid gasp. "What do you mean it was my telling the guard that he should diet? I was looking out for his best instrests! And, as for the assistant pilot, there are techniques that help hair loss."

Artoo extended his arm and banged Threepio's arm.

How rude.

"Well, I don't care what you say, it isn't my fault we're stuck in the closet."

With that said, Threepio crossed his arms and continued yelling for people to let him out. Artoo switched into a hibernation mode, wishing he'd traded places with himself when he'd had the chance.

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

Lando shrugged as he tuned out Han's plan. Han had landed not long after Amidala's cryptic announcement of Anakin knowing "something".

The old smuggler had promptly demanded that Lando to get in the ship, they had something to do. Amidala had insisted, saying, "If it involves my friends, it involves me."

After a few minutes Han just let her on, mumbling things about royalty who talked too much. They were currently trying to find Leia because Han thought that she would know something.

Or something like that, Lando was too busy watching Han fly to listen. There was no way he was letting a formerly blind man fly without supervision.

Deciding to tune back into the conversation, Lando realized with a start that Han and the Queen were in a debate.

"It won't work." Amidala paused. "You need a better plan."

"Look Queenly, you're a kid. What do you know about grown-up things like these?"

Bad move, old buddy.

"More then you. Besides, what have you done with your life, little smuggler, that's so grown-up? Hiding from the law and delivering spice strikes me as a bit immature. And don't even deny it, this is a smuggler's ship." Amidala crossed her arms in a smug 'I'm better then you' fashion.

Was that a move that just came inherent to royalty? Or was there a class, 'How To Behave Like You're Better Then Everyone 101'.

Or maybe, 'Looks and Phrases That Will Get You Your Way Everytime'.

"Listen, I'm not a smuggler any more--" Han was interrupted before he could even begin to deny Amidala's claims.

"One, I don't believe you. Two, pretend that I did believe you, why would it matter? You still did the crime. See, no one said you were part of the Rebellion, so I'm guessing you quit when it got too tough but decided to use your old connections to your advantage. Seems like a Smuggler thing to do." The Queen's voice was angry and her face was blowing a little of her cool.

Lando grinned a little absently as he noticed that the two's body language screamed out, 'I'm extremly pissed, so watch out'. This was getting good.

"You don't know anything about me or my situation so just back off." Han's voice wasn't at his strongest but with all he'd been through in the last few days, Lando didn't fault him.

"Neither do you with mine. It isn't fun to be stereotyped, is it?" Amidala's voice had serenity again and the face had slacked to normal. It was eerie, the sudden change really reminded him of one of his contacts. A woman about five years older then him named Sabé.

Sabé had a thing for masks. Not real ones, figurative. She needed to keep people away for some reason, so she would just kide all her feelings under one. Pretend to be having fun, pretend to hate you, whatever it was, it was fake. No one saw the real Sabé.

Lando crinkled his brow. Now that he thought about it, Sabé was from Naboo. Also, her voice sounded remarkably similar to that of Amidala's. With a slightly more bitter twinge to it but that wasn't uncommon these days.

They seemed to be around the same height too, Lando knew that from his flirtings with Sabé. All in fun, of course.

It all added up. And what it added up to didn't make a mathematical equation. No, it added up to some bizarre TV plot.

Without thinking, Lando just blurted out his thoughts, quite uncharacteristically.

"Sabé?!"

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

Sabé glared at Calrissian. How far had she fallen in the world, if she was associating with someone foolish enough to --

He grinned.

Her glare had confirmed his suspicion. She chastised herself mentally, but not for long. She didn't intend to stay here one more minute. She drew herself up into Amidala's most regal stance. "Baron Calrissian, whatever conclusion you believe you've reached, I assure you, I have the full power of the throne of Naboo behind me."

"Oh, I don't doubt it." He shook his head. "I should have known you right off. So where's the real queen?"

"Real queen?" Han Solo asked. "Wait a minute..."

"In all likelihood, heading from one danger into another, trying to return to a ship which, in case you have forgotten, is still not functional."

Lando's smile faltered. "Damn. I did forget. They got captured before that miserable old Toydarian delivered the parts."

Han threw his hands in the air. "Great. I know where he's got 'em, but the Empire's

going to be combing the sand for anyone who was in there before."

Sabé sighed. "Baron Calrissian and I weren't in there before."

"Yeah. Sure. You tell us where the stuff is, we'll get in and out without making much of a fuss, and I'll con old flapwings into giving me the parts."

Han briefly gave them directions to Watto's shop, and told them precisely where the parts were located, so that Watto wouldn't be able to claim they weren't around.

Then he glanced at Sabé.

"Your highness, or whoever you are, that's not the most inconspicuous thing you could show up in."

Sabé glanced down at herself. The Queen's battle gear really was... conspicuous.

"Very well," she said. "Lando, I note that you're wearing a Hutt guard's uniform. Is there another available? Perhaps for -- " she blanked on the name for a moment " -- for Leia to wear? I believe we're roughly the same size."

Han shook his head. "Leia snuck in a different way. And she was captured. I don't know what happened to the bounty hunter costume."

"It's probably at Jabba's," Lando said. "But don't you still have that tin contraption he put her in?"

Sabé groaned, remembering it from her brief glimpse of Leia earlier. But it made sense... she wouldn't be inconspicuous, but she would look like she belonged in the company of one of Jabba's guards.

Lando shook his head. "I really am sorry, Sabé. I know it's not your style."

"Oh, all right," she said. "Don't get sentimental."

She reached over to where Han was handing her a small box, and took it from him. It shifted, and she could hear the dancing girl's costume clinking inside. She shook her head, and went into a small room to change.

"'I know it's not your style,'" she muttered, pulling it on. Who did he think he was, and how did he know her? The uncouth, overdressed...

She stopped, and rolled her eyes.

Of course he knew her. She'd spend the next few years thinking of a hundred poisonous things to say to him, and she knew herself well enough to know that she wouldn't miss an opportunity to say them.

She'd already changed Calrissian's world.

She didn't let the magnitude of the idea hit her too hard; after all, you couldn't very well walk through a world without changing someone's life, could you?

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

Lando blinked a little as Sabé came back into the cockpit. Wow. Too bad she's not a little older.

Shrugging off that thought, he still had to admit Sabé looked good. But, if she was anything like the Sabé he knew, she wouldn't take kindly to staring. Still... "Nice clothes."

"From a man with your fashion skills, I consider that a compliment." Sabé smiled sweetly as Han snickered.

Some old friend he was!

The ship came down with a jerk and Han pressed the button to release the doors. Sabé looked a little annoyed with the rough landing but she had enough sense to realize that Han's eyesight still wasn't 100%.

"Okay, we're as far as I'll go. 'Bout a ten minute walk if ya walk fast. You remember the directions, Lando?" Han's voice still had a trace of laughter in it.

Lando's eyes narrowed a little. "Yeah. I have a good memory for details," he brought his voice down a little. "I still remember how much you cheated me out of when you won the Falcon."

"Vent another time Lando. Look, as soon as you get to the transport, I'm expecting a call." Han was worried. About who, Lando wasn't certain but he was placing bets on Leia.

With a nod, Sabé and Lando left, throwing semi-subtle insults at the other for the first couple minutes.

"Nice hair style. Really, I didn't know that you knew what slave-girls did with their hair."

"And how would you know? Wait, let me guess, you were guarding the slave-girls at Jabba's."

Lando suddenly decided it would be safer if they started to plan. "So, what do we do?"

"Is it my job to think of everything?" Sabé rolled her eyes and gave a look that just radiated exasperation. Or it would have if she hadn't been in an outfit that was enough to make a Courscant school girl blush.

It was certainly making every other male on the street stop and stare.

"Well, what is a Pseudo-Queen's job?" He really wanted to hear the story on that. Later, when this stupid mission was over, Lando wanted to hear about it.

"To protect the Queen," she sighed. "I suppose we should just go in and tell him the parts are ours."

Lando raised an eyebrow uncomfortably. "Slave-girls don't really talk... Just stand and look pretty. We should just go in, say the ship is ours, Jabba's death probably isn't out yet and take it."

"Fine with me." The walked in silence until they came upon Watto's shop. The slimy little whatever the hell he was, was grinning.

"What can I do for you, good sir?"

"We need the parts for the Nubian fighter. You know what parts, I believe."

Watto's grin turned into an uncomfortable smile. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Lando took out his blaster and grinned. "Really?"

You betrayed my friends, you're messing with me. And anyone who has ever made that mistake will warn you not to mess with Lando Calrissian.

Watto flew over to some shelves and very slowly handed over the missing parts. Sabé grabbed them, glaring at Watto fiercely enough to kill.

"What does Jabba wants with these?"

Yeah, he was stupid enough to tell him that and have whatever answer he gave be all over the town by nightfall.

"You'll get what you deserve someday, Watto." Sabé smirked, giving her face a sinister feel. With that said, Lando and Sabé exited. I guess Jabba's death hasn't gotten around after all... That's good, that can probably be used.

Sabé turned to Lando, seemingly oblivious to all the stares she was getting. "So, what do you think the next step is?"

Lando was quiet for a few minutes, as he tried to think of something. "Fixing your ship. After that, let's leave the problem to the Jedi. They always have a plan, right?"

Lando was a little uncertain about that but it was a better idea then anything else he had come with.

"Right."

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

Leia watched as everything just seemed to unfold. It seemed that all she could do was watch.

It wasn't a very pleasant feeling.

"So, where are we going?" Obi-Wan's voice was carefully controlled, he probably didn't want to set Luke off. Well, if she knew her brother half as well as she would have said she did yesterday, he wouldn't like being talked to as a fragile doll.

Today.. Well, Leia wasn't so sure she did know him as well as she had but that would change. Soon.

"To the transport. Look, I can sense the other's nearby it and we need to get them out of there before the Emporer recovers and comes after them. I still have some friends on Tatooine who'll take them in. I hope." Luke gave a small smile.

"So we just send them off?" Leia raised an eyebrow though she took all the smugness out of her voice.

Qui-Gon spoke up, patronizing in the extreme. "Leia, it might be best in you stayed behind. After all--"

"After all, I'm just a leader in the Rebellion. After all, I'm just someone the Empire has on their Most Wanted List because I'm helping to win the war. After all, I'm just someone who was elected as Senator to Alderaan at eighteen. After all, it's only my twin brother who needs help. Is that it?"

I am so tired of being pushed around and not being taken seriously. I spent these last few months getting pushed around in the hopes that I could save Han! Now that he's free, I still don't get the respect I deserve!

"Leia--"

Obi-Wan interrupted his Master softly. "Master, I think it would be best if she went."

"Thank you, Obi-Wan." Leia sent a smile his way and with that, she started leading the group to the transport.

After all, you never got anywhere by just watching. It was about time that she remembered that.

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

Anakin looked at Amidala covertly as they shifted to help Rabé stand better. He didn't want Amidala to think he was a, ya know, a stalker or something.

But still... Amidala being the Queen? Wow! I'm friends with a Queen!

He knew what mattered most was that Amidala was a nice person, very caring and brave. But still... She was a Queen! How wizard!

"Look! The ship!" Amidala's voice broke into his thoughts sharply. He looked up and saw it was the transport. Plus, arriving at the ship from the opposite side was Captain Calrissian and the Other-Queen.

Ani adverted his eyes quickly. It was the same thing Leia had been in earlier and he hadn't liked seeing it on her either.

Softly, the girl that Jar Jar was carrying, Eirtaé he thought, spoke up. "Poor Sabé. Having to wear that must be awful.."

Okay. Sabé. I really should learn everyone's name... Maybe everyone can sit down and do a little 'name game' thing like Wald said they did at school?

"Wesa should justa be big-happy that she's alive!" Jar Jar nodded emphatically but made sure not to bounce Eirtaé around.

Amidala's voice was just a little annoyed. "You were tortu--" Then she threw a glance towards him and abruptly switched words. "Hurt by Palpatine and you feel bad because Sabé's in a shiny gold outfit?"

Rabé coughed a little. "Queen, what would you have us to do? Complain that we were hurt badly?"

"As we are on that subject, can we walk a little faster? I could really use some bacta pads." Eirtaé was trying to defuse the subject, it was the same tone Mom used when she was trying to stop a fight.

Mom...

After that, they walked a little faster and met up with Pseudo Queen Sabé and the Captain at the ship in a few minutes.

Sabé's eyes suddenly widened as she jogged over, handing a bunch of cool-looking parts to the Captain. "By the Gods... Eirtaé, Rabé, what happened?!"

Amidala broke in smoothly with, "Palpatine. Now what's that you were carrying, Sabé?"

"The missing parts for the ship." Sabé paused. "They know?"

Random but... Rabé. Sabé. Eirtaé. Padmé. The Naboo have a thing for fancy e's.

"They know. The whole point of the secret was pretty much ruined." Amidala tried to smile but it faltered after a few seconds.

Lando came up and spoke slowly. "Maybe it's just me but shouldn't we be getting the injured people inside? Here."

With that, Lando picked up Rabé and motioned for Jar Jar to follow him up the open ramp. They all followed them and Sabé and Anakin toward the back of the group.

Anakin couldn't help grinning as he heard Sabé mumble, "Is it just me or does the universe have it out for us?"

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

Amidala sent Sabé to the wardrobe room to change as soon as they were all on board the ship. Ric Olie and Captain Panaka had apparently gathered most of her party.

"Into what?"

"It doesn't particularly matter at this point. We are nowhere that such distinctions count."

"And are we returning?"

"We will. But I believe we will circumvent Coruscant."

Sabé raised her eyebrows. "Then you don't plan to confront Palpatine?"

"With what evidence? A trip to the future?"

"Ah. I was beginning to wonder who I was dealing with here. I had the oddest thought that you meant to attack. Physically."

"I haven't discounted the possibility." Amidala glanced over her shoulder, to where Ani was helping Lando and Jar Jar tend to the other handmaidens. "Palpatine will steal far more from me than I am willing to part with. I will stop him. Somehow. But if it can be done without an explosive confrontation, then it will be better. A war will cost us dearly in the end."

Sabé was shaking her head. "Your Majesty, we may not be able to avoid it. If he plans to take the galaxy..."

"To do it as he planned would require our continued acquiesence for the next few years, I believe. I will not cooperate with him. I will sign no treaties and I will not... "

She blinked. "I need to ask Leia what I originally did on Coruscant."

"Surely, you're not planning to bring her with us?"

"Sabé, we need to install the parts you and Lando have gotten us. We'll still need to find another safe haven to do so. Tatooine is no longer that haven. We do not know ourselves what the shape of the galaxy is now. We will still need their help to avoid flying straight into an Imperial fortress."

She nodded. "'Padmé''s battle uniform is still available. As your current disguise is perfectly functional, I would greatly appreciate the loan."

"Take it."

"Thank you."

Sabé disappeared into the changing room, and Amidala went to join the others.

Rabé was sitting up already, looking tired and ill-used, but all right. Ani and Jar Jar

were bandaging a burn on her arm.

Eirtaé was still lying down, and Lando was shining a light in her eyes.

"How is she?" Amidala asked.

Lando stood. "She'll be okay. But let her rest for awhile."

"Of course."

"Panaka?" Lando said into his comm-link.

The Captain's voice came back, covered with static, because the communications systems didn't sync up precisely. "Yes?"

"Head into orbit. We'll rendevouz with Han and lock the hulls. We can tow you into hyperspace if we decide we need to go."

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

Han sighed as he turned off his commlink. One of the Jedi must have had one and contacted him from outside his ship. He guessed his surveillance scanners were broken, probably from the neglect the Falcon had suffered recently.

Lando had been taking care of the Falcon since Bespin. And of all people who could've gotten it, Lando wasn't even on the top 100.

He tore away himself away from the thoughts of his ship and grudgingly let the door down.

Han's personal slogan about Jedi was, 'You want trouble, find a bunch of Jedi.'

He remembered enough about Corellia as a kid to know that much.

"Hey Han." Han's head jerked up at the voice.

"Leia! I didn't know you were with that bunch! Where ya--"

Before Han could finish, Luke entered the cockpit slowly, holding his leg. "Hey, Han, do you think that we could set a course for Dagobah? Please?"

"Why would you want..." Han trailed off as Leia shot a look his way. It wasn't one of her 'You are so annoying' glares or anything else he'd seen on her.

It was begging.

She's begging for Luke's sake. The proud little princess is pleading for Luke.

"Sure kid. That is, if you know the coordinates, I've never heard of it. What is it, some long lost planet where Jedi lived?" Not hesitating for a second, Han cracked a smile and moved over for the kid to sit.

Luke began punching in numbers. He looked completely zoned out for a few minutes so when he spoke up, it was a shock. "No, that's Coruscant."

Han mock-sighed, trying to cover up how worried he really was. By the look on Leia's face, it wasn't just him.

"I think I'll go get a med-pack for my leg. Obi-Wan has a few scratches, he can probably use something too." Luke stood up, winced and left holding his leg.

"Leia, you're going to tell me what's up." Han held up a hand before any outburst could start. "But first, I have to call the others, make sure everything's all right."

Leia tried to smile and failed miserably. "See if my mother's safe, will you?"

"Your mother? The Queen, err, Sabé, whatever her name is and Lando didn't mention you had a mother! Well, I knew you had a mother but not down there... Oh, you get it." Han was getting confused here. What was next, was Obi-Wan her father?

"The Queen's name is Amidala, Han. As for my mother, her name is Padmé. She's one of her handmaidens. I forgot you didn't know." Leia managed a shrug at the end but Han barely saw it.

Lando and Sabé had managed to say a few things after the truth was let out. One little tidbit was that the real Queen Amidala was pretending to be Padmé.

"Padmé is Queen Amidala, Leia. Your mother is the Queen of Naboo!" Huh. It didn't sound quite as calm as it had in his head.

"She's the what?!" Leia's eyes were practically glowing and her every motion screamed 'take that back'. At least he wasn't the only one shocked out of his mind.

Not only is she the last Princess of Alderaan, she's the last Princess of Naboo! At that point his thoughts started swirling, not becoming concise until, I'm dating a double-Princess... came along.

"Our lives are such a soap opera." With that said, Leia sank into her seat, covered her eyes with her left hand and motioned for Han to call the others with her right.

Turning on the communication system, Han had to agree.

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

The ships blasted into orbit simultaneously -- Amidala hoped that they weren't being tracked -- then Olie followed Solo's lead, heading into a part of the binary system that was in the planet's "shadow," as far as the sensors went.

Ani came and stood beside her as the two ships performed the mechancial lock that would allow deep space passage between them. The hulls were locked in several ways; the corridor stretched between the engine room at the base of the Nubian and the top hatch of the mongrel ship that Solo was flying. Ani was watching with interest on a viewscreen, and tried to tell her what all the gadgets attached to Solo's ship were for, but she couldn't concentrate, and after awhile he stopped talking and just took her hand, as he had yesterday when he was leading her out of the storm.

It's no big deal. That's how it works, isn't it? He just takes my hand, and I take his hand, and we both feel a little bit better for it.

Leia came up the ladder first. She looked like she might put her arms out for an embrace, then she held back. "Are you... is everyone all right?"

"We're all fine, Leia. Where is Luke?"

"His leg was hurt. And Ben -- Obi-Wan, that is -- has a few scratches. But they'll be fine. Luke wants to go to a world called Dagobah."

Amidala shrugged; she'd never heard of it.

"Yeah," someone cracked from the opening in the floor, "I think it sounds kind of fishy, too." Han Solo pulled himself the rest of the way in. "I got the rest of the coordinates, but we all better sit down and have a long talk before we decide where we're going. I don't know if you folks want to go to this mystery planet with us. And, maybe it's me, your Highness -- " he used the title pointedly, looking straight at Amidala " -- but I'd at least like to know who's really who around here."

"Is it true?" Leia asked. "Are you really the Queen?"

Amidala nodded. "Yes. There's little point in disguising myself here. I had simply... not found the right time to break my disguise."

"Great," Solo said, rolling his eyes and kissing Leia's cheek. "I thought she was bossy when she was only royal from one side." He kissed her again; obviously, her

"bossiness" was a running joke between them. Beside Amidala, Ani was squirming at the display, but he remained silent. He seemed to be picking up on a strong current of feeling from Leia -- Amidala herself could almost pick up on it -- that she would prefer it if she could simply pretend he wasn't there. Amidala would have to correct that, but right now, it was time to come up to the surface, and let things be for awhile.

She shook her head. "Alas, the bossiness is inborn. It doesn't come with the title, though it might lead to it." Solo looked puzzled. Amidala explained patiently; she'd had to do so many times. "Naboo royalty was hereditary long, long ago. But for centuries, the monarchy has been elected. My parents were farmers. My children, had they been raised on Naboo, would find their own places in society." She smiled at Leia. "Though you might have made a magnificent Princess of Theed. If I can get this fixed, would you like me to help you run?"

Leia laughed, then stopped, as if remembering that she wasn't supposed to enjoy herself, and said, "I prefer the Senate."

"Then the Senate it shall be."

"Mother... " Leia bit her lip. "Mother, if you 'fix this,' as you put it, it's possible that I won't be born at all. Or Luke."

Solo, who had been absently holding her, stood back as if struck. "What?"

Leia didn't answer him. Her question had been to Amidala, and Amidala had to answer it. She looked at Ani, who had been looking up at her, but looked away quickly, then looked back at Leia. "I will not allow that to happen," she said. "Some things are not an option."

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

Anakin rubbed his eyes. It was almost time for a new day to start and he was still up. Mom would be mad.

He brushed off that thought, it wasn't time to get homesick. He had to stay by Amidala and make sure she was okay. When she went to bed, he'd have to make sure she wasn't having nightmares. He was used to getting by on a couple hours of sleep, Watto made him do it when he needed extra help for stuff.

"So, your Queenliness, what's with the disguise anyway?" Han grinned, keeping an arm around Leia from where he was sitting on the floor. It was just Anakin, Amidala, Leia and Han, everyone else was sleeping or watching over those in the med-center.

They had gotten less serious a little while ago and Anakin thought they were just talking to talk.

"Protection. Back home, the Trade Federation wanted me to sign a treaty legalizing the destruction of my planet. They actually thought I would let them come in, boss my people around and ruin the environment." Amidala's voice was mocking but she squeezed his hand a little to make up for it.

Leia rolled her eyes. "At least they tried to make it legal, Mother. Plenty don't."

Amidala smiled. It wasn't just a smile, it was a beam of sunlight bursting into clouds.

"I like the sound of that."

"Of what?" Han drawled it out, he was a typical pilot. Anakin really wanted to talk to him later and find out more about the ship.

"The word 'mother,' of course," Ami's eyes danced. "Do you actually think that I like the idea of people barging in and doing whatever they feel like to Naboo?"

"Why wouldn't I call you Mother? Luke calls him Father, after all." Him was pronounced with carefully controlled anger. Things were easy for Leia. She just didn't like him because of the Other.

Han noticed it too and spoke up quickly, "Luke didn't have parents, Leia. He just had a foster aunt and uncle. You on the other hand, had--"

"A very busy foster king. Running a whole planet and managing good public relations takes time, you know." Leia's tone was wry but there was a little sadness in it too.

She was his daughter. He wanted her to have had a happy childhood, and she was radiating loneliness, to him at least.

"So, do you guys think Vader will come after us?" Han was changing the subject but not to a better one. Leia's eyes glazed over and Amidala's hands were shaking.

Anakin knew it was up to him to talk, the others couldn't. "He's dead. Really, really dead. So's the other Sith. Plus, the Emperor's unconscious."

"Nice summary. Why can't you all be so helpful?" Han playfully glared at the girls until it sunk in. "Dead?"

"One with the Force." Anakin nodded and decided to ask a question that had been bugging him a little. "Are you a smuggler? 'Cause this is a super-cool, way wizard smuggler ship."

Han smirked. "I'm an ex-smuggler. I'm with the Rebellion now and with Leia there, it'll stay that way."

"This is a smuggler ship?" Amidala just didn't have the appreciation he had for the Falcon, Anakin supposed.

"I'll think I'll be going to bed now. 'Night Leia. Sleep well on the smuggler ship, your Majesty. You too, Kid." With that Han scrambled down the ladder and Anakin giggled slightly at his expression.

"I'll be getting some sleep now, too. Good night Mother, Anakin." She left more sedately that Han, leaving Amidala and Anakin alone.

After a few seconds, Amidala squeezed Anakin's hand and scooted over closer. They just sat there for a while as they looked out at the stars.

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

When Amidala was very small, her grandmother, Winama, had told her a story about two little children, a brother and sister, wandering lost in the swamps. It had been the only story that she'd ever had nightmares about. They had battle opee sea killers and nasty land animals, but those fights never scared Amidala. They had won them. They had run across an old witch, but Amidala shrugged the witch off. The nightmares came from the middle of the story, when the children were lost and alone, and it was night time. They huddled together and held on to each other, and that was how they got through. For months after hearing the story, Amidala would wake up in the dark, drawing her blankets up around her, but unable to get warm. She would reach out, one arm braving the world away from the blanket, grasping at empty air for something she couldn't identify.

Now, truly lost in the dark and cold of space, she reached out, and there was the other, and that was good. He was a brother now, as the boy in the story had been.

They could protect each other.

He snugged his arm a little tighter around her. "I'm very cold," he explained, a little embarrassed.

She nodded, adjusting her position to shelter him a little better. "Space is cold."

"You can go to sleep if you want. I'll keep watch."

"I don't think we need to keep watch, Ani. We're among friends."

"Family."

"Yes. Family." Amidala spotted a tattered old tan blanket beside a chess table, and reached for it, dragging it to them. "Here," she said, handing him one end, and wrapping it around both of them. "That'll be better."

"You don't have to take care of me." Amidala didn't say anything. Ani moved his arm under the blanket, then drew out his fist. A leather string trailed from it. "I made this for you," he said. "I guess lots of stuff is going to keep us together and everything, so maybe I can get you something better someday instead, and I understand if you think maybe a queen should only wear better stuff..."

He opened his hand, a bit of pale wood dangled down from the string. Amidala took it, held it in her hand. It was lightweight, and arcane, mysterious symbols had been burned into it. Somewhere, in the middle of everything, he'd taken time to polish it to a shine. "It's beautiful," she said, and put it around her neck before he had a chance to say anything else. "Ani, things are... intense right now. Whatever happens in the future, you need to remember that it's the future. Right now, I'm just... "

"It's okay. I get it. I -- the other I -- did something nice for you, so you're being nice to me to say thank you for something I haven't done yet."

"No, you don't get it. I... Oh, never mind. I don't even know how to explain it."

They sat together without speaking for several minutes, just huddling under the blanket, looking across the gray room. Finally, from the corner of her eye, Amidala saw his head dip down. When he spoke, his eyes were directed at the floor. "I'm really sorry," he said.

"What?"

"I mean, about the stuff I'm going to do. And... well, that you have to stick with me, on account of the twins. I'm really sorry I wasn't someone, you know, better."

From anyone else, it would have sounded like a plea for attention. But Ani said it in an even, slow tone. He'd been thinking it. Really thinking it. And Amidala wouldn't have it.

She moved and turned him so that they were facing each other, the blanket pulled taught between them. "You listen to me, Ani. The future is the future. I am not resigned to it. I am not consigning myself to you in order avoid endangering the twins. Someday, we will love each other and we will be happy."

"But I'm going to -- "

"Why should you?" She sighed. "Ani, I'll watch over you. And I'll count on you to watch over me. And between us and the Force and whatever mercy there is in the galaxy, we'll stop... that from happening. But even if we can't, even if there's no mercy for us, I don't want to give up whatever it is we're going to have. When you -- the other you -- spoke to me, I heard so much... Ani, I am looking forward to our future. I hate how it's going to end, but I won't let that take the happiness we will be allowed."

He blinked slowly. On some level, he understood what she'd said. On another, he was a nine-year-old boy, and he was squirming away from the whole idea, and Amidala knew that she needed to back away now.

She reached up and pinched his nose. "In the meantime," she said, "you're not getting rid of me as the most annoying, overprotective big sister you ever had nightmares about."

Suddenly, he grinned, and the whole room seemed to brighten. "I can live with that," he said.

"Good. Now go to sleep. I'll be here."

He mumbled something about not needing to sleep, but she felt him shift under her arm, and a moment later, his breathing was soft and even, and his grip on her hand relaxed.

She kissed his forehead, and waited in the dark, to guard against whatever monsters might come up from the deeps.

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

Leia didn't end up getting much sleep.

First, there was the awkwardness of not knowing exactly where to sleep -- she'd been in Han's bunk for the last six months, but now he was there, and she wasn't quite sure she was ready for that just now. Before he'd been gone, she'd been in another cabin, but that had been taken over by some Naboo refugees before she'd thought to say anything about it. Maybe if she'd spent more time with him today, instead of being with...

Pointless. She had thought the excursion into town would be a short one, and she had the rest of her life with Han, and besides...

She was scared out of her mind. She had no idea what was supposed to happen next, or how this was supposed to work out. She wasn't even sure that he planned to stay with the Rebellion, and when she'd said she loved him, all he'd answered was "I know." She'd sacrificed everything to get him back to the land of the living. Now, the questions she'd left in abeyance during the crisis would have to be answered.

At long last, she had settled in beside him, and was glad that he was as nervous as she was. He finally drifted off to sleep, his arms comfortably around her, and she held his hand, hoping that she could do the same, but sleep only settled in occasional fits and spurts, and finally, she'd given up on it and slipped out into the quiet corridor.

She could hear voices in the cockpit -- Luke's certainly, probably Kenobi's. Jinn's? Panaka's? She just wasn't sorting them out too well yet. One voice was a woman's voice. She headed toward them.

As she passed the checkerboard, she looked down at the two small forms huddled together, both asleep beneath a blanket. Anakin Skywalker was clutching Mother's arm, holding it like a stuffed toy. Mother's head had dropped toward her chest, her chin coming to rest on Anakin's hair.

Leia loved them.

It came to her with no fanfare whatsoever, with no morbid turns of the mind, and with no conflict about Anakin -- Father -- in her heart. It was just a dull ache inside her heart that felt as if it had always been there, and she supposed it always had. It was the same ache that had flared up painfully on Coruscant, the day Vader had begged her not to join the Rebellion, the day he had almost embraced her.

I love my parents and I miss them, and for some reason, I miss them the most when they're right with me.

She went on to the cockpit.

It was crowded. All three Jedi were there, as well as Captain Panaka and Lando. One of the two injured handmaidens was propped carefully into Han's seat, Chewie was sitting at navigation, and the decoy queen -- Mother's bodyguard, Sabé -- was sitting on the floor at the handmaiden's feet. All were keeping their voices low, but there was apparently some kind of argument going on.

"What is it?" Leia asked.

"The Jedi are determined to go to Dagobah," Panaka said. "But Lando believes it might be safer to remain Tatooine with friends of his."

"And you?"

"My personal preference is to return to whatever remains of Naboo."

Leia shook her head. "It's deserted, but it's watched. Constantly. It would be a bad idea to go there."

"Have you been?" the injured handmaiden asked.

Leia mentally went through the list of the names of the other handmaidens. Her foster mother, Sache, had once been among them. This was the one with the accent, from far up country. Rabé. "Once. My... my foster mother's funeral was held there." Leia stopped short of mentioning why. She didn't want to upset them any more. "The Empire was present at all times."

"All right," Panaka said. "I suppose it was too much to hope for."

Chewie barked out a few syllables, and Leia was catching enough to know that his recommendation was to rendevouz with the Rebel fleet near Sullust. She shook her head. "It's a target, Chewie. I don't want to suddenly find ourselves in battle."

"The queen should be involved in this decision," Panaka insisted.

And that, apparently, was the true cause of the argument. The Jedi simply stayed out of it, and Leia had the distinct impression that they were planning to just head out to Dagobah no matter what the decision was. But Sabé's eyes flashed. "Her Majesty hasn't slept properly since the invasion. I won't wake her now to discuss

travel plans."

Rabé laughed quietly, then winced, and Leia remembered that she'd suffered a cracked rib. "Sabé," she said, "if you don't wake her, and we end up going without her permission, you will get a royal scolding."

"Clearly," Sabé said, "I'll survive it."

"Survive what?" a sleepy voice said at the door.

"Moot point," Lando commented, as Mother leaned in. Her eyes were bleary, and her arms were crossed against the cold after being under the blanket.

The situation was explained.

She considered it, the sleep falling away in stages and the adult weariness settling back into her face. "If we choose to remain on Tatooine, I believe Kitster will allow us to go back to Sanctuary. I got the impression that he is largely left alone. And yet, it would be helpful for the Jedi to have counsel on this matter from their own ranks. I'm afraid that my advice on this matter is not unequivocal."

Leia sighed. It was going to be a long argument.

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

Lando made a face at the Jedi unconsciously. They wouldn't say anything and they were the reason this debate was taking place. All they did was raise eyebrows and look all-knowing.

"Why don't we just split up?" Leia was rubbing her temples in an attempt to ward off a headache. The Princess was sitting next to him and had been steadily getting more annoyed as time went on.

Rabé spoke up in a soft but 'I better get my way or else' manner. "That would work. We'll just send the Jedi can go to Dagobah with whoever chooses to fly them and Amidala can stay back. Along with everyone else who chooses to do so, of course."

That's to easy to work. Way, way too easy.

Chewie grumbled out a reply. "Han and I can fly the Jedi to Dagobah. It is better then being here."

Obi-Wan crinkled his nose, the first sign of annoyance that had come from the Jedi. "I do know how to fly a ship." Glancing at everyone's mild looks of surprise he received, Obi-Wan quirked his lips. "I speak a little Wookiee."

"What is it that they teach in that Jedi Temple?" Sabé looked amused as she propped up her head on her hand. The girl was sitting with her legs folded on the floor, probably not very comfortable.

"That's top secret information," Qui-Gon paused. "I have no problem with you being our pilots. Anyone else wish to go?"

Lando threw a look Leia's way and noticed that she was obviously thinking it out. He leaned over and whispered, "Just go. I'll make sure your Mother's fine, Leia."

Besides, I'm outnumbered here. No one wants to be safe on Tatooine.

"I'm going." Leia's voice was sleepy but firm. She didn't want any arguing, she was going to watch over her twin. Or at least Lando thought Luke was he twin, gossip was getting a little out of hand on this ship.

It was a known fact that pilots liked to spread rumors. Out of boredom, thinking it was funny, whatever. The Naboo pilot refugees weren't exceptions to the rule.

Some of the funnier things being spread around involved Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon secretly in love, Luke being Palpatine's new second, and Chewie being pregnant with Leia's love child.

Amidala played with her long chocolate colored hair distractedly she spoke up. "Fine. You can fly off with the Falcon in the morning and the Naboo ship will remain here for repairs. I'm sure Ani will help. Lando?"

His head jerked up. "Sure, your Majesty." He looked around the room with a grin. "Right now though, I'm going to bed. I suggest you guys do the same. 'Night!"

With that Lando walked out, his head already starting to feel a little better.

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

Padmé -- Amidala -- had needed to wake Anakin up in order to get up and go listen to everyone, and he was sort of embarrassed to find out that he'd been holding on to her arm that tightly in his sleep. He watched he go, thinking that he'd like to listen to what everyone was saying, too, but not wanting to look like he was following her around.

The cold came back fast, though, and he couldn't seem to wrap the blanket tight enough to get warm. And it was kind of boring to just sit here, and the only good place to go was where everyone was talking. So after ten minutes or so, he changed his mind and followed her anyway.

The voices were low, but there were lots of them, including the Wookiee. Anakin had never met a Wookiee up close before and he was interested to see one, but he guessed it probably wasn't the time to ask questions (and besides, he'd lost track of where future-Threepio was, and he didn't speak Wookiee at all). Leia looked like she wasn't feeling very good, and someone had just let her sit down over by the naviputer. The fake queen looked mad at someone. Padmé looked like Queen Amidala.

Anakin didn't know where that thought came from -- she was dressed the same as before and she wasn't saying anything, and she was just leaning over a display, but she sure looked like she was the one calling the shots.

Luke held up one hand, and everyone stopped talking.

"Hi," Anakin said. "I couldn't sleep. What are we talking about?"

"We're talking about where we go from here," Padmé said. "The Jedi want to visit -- "

Luke touched her arm. "We want to have a council with a remaining Jedi on another world. The rest of you... I think maybe Lando and Mother are right. You should remain on Tatooine and fix the ship."

"But I want to go with you." Anakin winced. He sounded like he was whining. He hated it when he sounded like that. But he'd never get to know Luke later, and this was the only chance he'd get, and he couldn't understand why they should split up the group unless... He lowered his eyes. "I'm not supposed to find out who's alive and where he is, right?"

A large hand fell on his shoulder, and Qui-Gon said, "Look up, Ani."

Anakin tried, but couldn't keep his eyes all the way up. Qui-Gon turned his face up gently. "Ani," he said, "you are blameless right now, and have no reason to lower your eyes. But we must think practically."

"Yes, sir."

"Ani, I mean it. You are blameless now. And it hurts me to take this precaution. I do not wish it."

"Thank you, sir."

"Besides," Padmé said, "I need you to help Capatin Olie fix my ship." She sighed. "I will say, I dislike splitting the group at all. If we need to leave suddenly... "

"We can set a rendevouz point."

The Wookiee grumbled something, and Leia shook her head. "No," she said. "That's another place I'd just as soon keep secure. If you need to take off suddenly, go to..." She turned away. "Go to Alderaan's coordinates. We'll find you there."

"Is there someplace you want us to land?" Sabé asked. "I'm not terribly familiar with -- "

Luke was shaking his head rapidly to get her to stop, but it was too late. Leia looked like she'd been stabbed right through. But she stayed cool. Somehow, she stayed cool, even though she said, "There is no longer a place to land, Sabé. Alderaan no longer exists."

Dead silence.

Anakin felt like someone should do something, but no one seemed to be, so he went to her, stood behind her, and put one hand on her shoulder.

Her back went stiff and straight, and she brushed his hand away like it was a creepy-crawler that had dropped on her from the roof of a cave.

He stepped back. He'd forgotten that she hated him. When he'd first come in, she hadn't said anything at all and --

Her hand came out, fingers wrapping around his wrist. She put his hand back on her shoulder, and covered it with her own.

He didn't know exactly what it meant, except that she was going to let him try to comfort her, and that was good, so he left his hand where she put it, and squeezed her shoulder a little bit, like Mom did when she stood behind him while Watto scolded him for something. She still looked like she was thinking of

(no you can't, alderaan is peaceful, we have no weapons... )

something else, some other time when his hand was on her shoulder, when it hadn't been for comfort, but she was a good person, and she

(loved)

was going to be nice to him anyway.

"Okay," Padmé said, getting over the shock of it first. "Probably nothing will happen. You three go and talk to your associate. We'll get the ship fixed here. I think Kitster's place is probably the safest, and I know we can trust him, though I will hear Baron Calrissian's suggestions when we reach the surface as well."

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

Luke had little to do while the ships prepared to separate, and for once, he was glad of it. He stood beside Leia, facing their parents at the base of the ladder between present and past. None of them had gotten much sleep, and Mother's attempt to freshen up by changing into an orange and red dress like the handmaidens didn't have any noticeable effect on how tired she looked.

This would be the last connection undone, and Han and Lando had agreed to do all the navigational programming first, to give the family some time together. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Jinn had made excuses about studying the charts, and Mother's entourage had already settled themselves back into the Nubian.

No one was talking. Luke couldn't think of anything to say. In all likelihood, it was the last time they would be together, the last time they could say anything. But what?

He supposed he should have guessed that Father would break the silence, but the soft, high voice still surprised him.

Father opened his arms. "Can I... could I... I'm never going to get to hug you guys when you're little. I guess maybe you won't want me to. But could I...?"

To Luke's surprise, Leia answered by kneeling before him, placing her head on his shoulder, and wrapping her arms around him. "Please," she said.

Father's arms moved slowly, in a kind of wonderment, as he crossed them behind her head, and petted her hair with his small hand. Luke could see a kind of light behind his face, a serenity that was beyond his years.

He felt a hand on his own, and turned to find Mother beside him. She was not offering an embrace, but she leaned heavily on his arm, and he pulled her to his side. Father reached out one hand, and Luke took it. Leia grasped for Mother's hand and found it.

Luke didn't know how long they stayed like that, the four of them, just holding on to one another. But it ended. Leia drew away first, and stood up. Her eyes were dry, her face calm and peaceful. "Thank you," she said, looking at each of the others.

Father squeezed her hand. "I kind of wish I thought we'd never see each other again..."

Leia shook her head. "This is probably my last memory of you. I'm glad it's a better one. I hope that it ... that it's your face I'll remember."

"Stop it!" Mother let go of Luke's hand and stood at the base of the ladder, brown eyes flashing. "I won't hear about this never seeing one another again business. Both of you listen: we're going to fix this. And we'll all be together. For a long time."

Luke kissed her cheek. "Goodbye, Mother. Just in case. I'm glad that I'll finally remember you."

She pushed him away in irritation at the sentiment, then pulled him fiercely to her, her arms around his neck. Luke thought she might say something, but she didn't.

Behind them, Lando cleared his throat to announce his presence. "We need to separate," he said.

Mother pulled away, nodding, and wiped her eyes. "Yes, Baron Calrissian, of course. And perhaps all this was for nothing. Perhaps we'll see you when you return from -- " She almost slipped. " -- from your conference." She took Luke's hands, mechanical and real, and kissed them both, then did the same with Leia. "I will see you again," she said. "At least in my time. And I will give you as many kisses as I'm allowed."

Lando came by, and touched her shoulder. "We need to get moving, Your Highness."

Mother nodded, but didn't move. Father touched Luke's face, then Leia's, then said, "I'm really, really sorry." He turned without saying anything else, and scampered up the ladder. Lando followed him.

Mother stood there for a moment longer, then smiled softly at both Luke and Leia. There was no challenge, no fierce defense. Just beauty and love. "My children," she whispered, and the smile broadened. "I'm really proud to be your mother."

She turned and started up the ladder, and Luke thought that she planned to say nothing further... but just as she was about to cross into her own ship, she stopped and looked down, a cool, intellectual curiosity on her face. "Leia... you said you knew me before I died?"

"Yes..."

"How did I die?"

"I was very young. First you were there, then you weren't there. Later, my -- well, my foster mother -- told me that you jumped from a landing platform on Coruscant."

The distanct, puzzled look deepened. "I don't think I would," she said firmly, but, Luke thought, mostly to herself. "I really don't think so."

"Mother?"

"The last thing your father said to me was 'You're still here.' Does that make sense to either of you?"

It didn't.

Mother shook her head, and pulled the hood of her gown up over her hair. Luke could see only her chin and mouth. "I need to go," she said. "But I'll always be with you. I promise."

At the top of the ladder, she leaned over the hatch, her half-hooded face remaining visible until the airlock separated them.

Luke turned to his sister, not knowing what to expect at all... and expecting what he got least of all. Leia's face mirrored Mother's, the look of analytical confusion cooling the depths of her eyes. She left the room without saying anything.

Luke stood between them as deep space filled the void between the ships, and wondered what mystery they were pondering.

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

Tatooine, just before dawn.

Dritali had fallen asleep on vigil, curling up on the ground beside Vader's body like a cat. Kit had tried to tell her to go inside to sleep, but she wouldn't have it.

How does he inspire that kind of loyalty, even now?

But Kit had no answer. He was, after all, still here as well, waiting for the light of the suns to touch Anakin for the first time. He had taken the stone from Padmé's belt and placed it Anakin's hands, and when the vigil was over, he planned to free Anakin of the wretched suit, then clean him and see to a funeral pyre. Compared to that, the girl's choice to sleep outside was normal. But he couldn't think what else there was to do.

Inside Sanctuary, he heard the children beginning to wake up as the first sun rose. Vertash, as always, was up first; apparently, the night's work had not made him sleep any longer than was his habit. He announced himself to the day by leaning out his window and singing a few phrases in a language Kit didn't recognize; Vertash refused to comment on the ritual or explain it, but he had a pleasant voice, and the other children didn't seem to mind waking to it.

The song was about halfway through when Vertash stopped singing. Kit heard footsteps thundering down the stairway, and was already standing up when Vertash burst out into the garden. He averted his eyes from the body. "Kit, I'm sorry to, you know, bust in, but there's a lot of people coming through the desert. And that girl from before is with them, the one who was talking to... " He gestured at the body. "You know."

"Stay here with Dritali," Kit told him. "I don't want her to wake up alone here."

Vertash nodded, and took a post beside Dritali. When push came to shove, Vertash -- like Anakin -- was a caretaker, taken to sometimes absurd extremes. If Dritali awoke upset, he would be able to calm her.

Kit went out to meet his guests.

They were approaching from the Nubian, which had landed in the shadow of a rock face. Amidala came first, walking beside a man about Kit's own age, dressed in the uniform of Jabba's guard. Behind them...

Oh, the faces. Their beautiful faces. Sabé, Eirtaé, Rabé, Panaka, Olie... Kit smiled, and ran forward, heedless of the arthritis that had started paining him a few years back. Most of them didn't know him yet, but he knew them, and seeing them made his heart light again.

"Kitster?"

Kit blinked. Anakin Skywalker stood before him, a dusty slave child with a scrape on his arm. "Anakin," he said, then amended it to "Ani."

"Hi."

"Hi." Kit sighed. "I... welcome back to Sanctuary, Amidala. You and your friends are welcome. Go on inside. The children are waking up, and Kerea will help you. I need to talk to Ani for a minute. And Amidala? Don't go outside yet."

She nodded, and led the group inside.

"What is it, Kitster?"

Kit smiled. "I've been Kit so long that I'll forget to answer to that."

"Okay. Kit, then. What is it?"

"Ani, I don't know how much you know about what's been happening here..."

"I know I'm the bad guy, if that's what you mean."

"It isn't. Did Amidala tell you that you're... "

"Dead?"

"Yes."

"Mm-hmm. I'm okay with that."

"This is a very strange conversation." Kit looked over his shoulder, toward the main door. Through the hall, he could see the door to the rock garden, slightly askew. "Ani, last night, three of the children who live here helped me... bring you back here. I didn't want you to discover that by accident."

Kit waited for Anakin to either shrug and go inside or beg to be shown his body, because it would be wizard to see something like that. The latter seemed the more likely reaction. But instead, Anakin just looked at him steadily, and said, "You did that for me? Carried me back through the desert?"

"Yes. With Kerea and Vertash and Dritali. But you mustn't tell them -- particularly Dritali -- who you are."

"Can you say thank you to them for me? I mean, later? That's... a really, really nice thing to do."

"I'll tell them when they're ready to know. Come, welcome to Sanctuary, Ani. You'll be here again." Kit turned and started walking, expecting Anakin to follow.

"Kit?"

He turned. Anakin had not started walking yet. "Yes?"

"Thank you. I really mean it. Thanks. That's way past the top."

Kit couldn't think of anything to say except, "You're welcome."

Anakin brushed past him, and disappeared into Sanctuary.

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

Obi-Wan looked around dubiously at the swamp, pausing for a second. "This is one of the worst planets I have ever seen, Master."

"Don't say that, Padawan. You know as well as I, nothing will compare to Byzantine." Qui-Gon grimaced in remembrance of that awful trip.

"Unless we both manage to get drugged, married and dropped off into the jungle, no." Obi-Wan let himself have a grin at the expression on Leia's face. It really was a funny story looking back. Not something he would wish on anyone, excepting the Emperor but it was amusing all the same.

"It's just like I remembered." Luke was reminiscing, off in his own little world. There was no sign of him paying any attention until he suddenly sprinted off into the distance to a small hut.

Obi-Wan and the others followed him at a more leisurely pace. As he understood it, Yoda was Luke's Master, they might like a little time to catch up.

Besides, Yoda enjoyed hitting Padawans with that stick with a passion. Afte twenty years without any Padawans to hit, he did not want to be the first one Yoda saw.

"Qui-Gon? I think you're too tall to enter." Leia paused, as some emotion crossed over her face. "You might be able to, Obi-Wan, but ... I'd like to speak to him alone about a few things."

"Like what?" Qui-Gon furrowed his brow, questioning her motives but Leia had already entered the little hut. He couldn't Force-check her either, Leia was -- well, he wasn't quite sure. Her feelings and thoughts were closed to him and his Master had said the same thing.

A thought drifted through his head before he could clamp down on it. I wouldn't want to be Yoda right about now...

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

Sanctuary.

So she fits right there, with her head on my shoulder, and my hands fit on her hair, just so.

Anakin blinked. It was weird. Leia had been gone for over two hours now, and he could still feel her, just exactly as if he was still hugging her there on Solo's ship. She had her own spot, and she knew where it would be. Anakin had never thought of particular people fitting particular ways, but he guessed that Mom had a spot too -- bigger than he was, her chin touching his head -- and Padmé was sort of starting to get one. Padmé's was right beside him, face to face. Which he guessed was okay, considering.

He wondered where Luke would fit. He'd sometimes seen fathers and sons in Mos Espa (not often; it wasn't a place for family holidays), and sometimes the father would hook his arm around the son's neck from the side and mess up his hair, and they'd both smile and laugh. Maybe that's how Luke would fit. Anakin wanted to know.

But the business with Leia... that had been so strong it was almost scary. And when she'd stood up, he felt like something was taken away from him, and he kept catching himself looking around for her. It was confusing, and his head felt like he'd been standing beside a Hutt's water pipe and breathing the smoke for an hour or so.

Kitster had a pretty neat place here. Hutts built it, but he'd cleaned it up pretty good, and there were lots of kids around, some of them Anakin's own age. A few were closer to Padmé's. Many were younger than both of them, and it was to a group of these that Anakin had gravitated as soon as he'd come in. Little kids never wanted much, just to be played with and stuff, and he felt like he could handle that. And he liked the way they looked up at him.

"Fix-fix," a little girl said, holding up a toy sandcrawler whose cargo hold had broken open, showing its mechanical guts instead of the broken droids she'd been pretending. Anakin took it, and tried to find where the panel fit in. No place was obvious. He thought he'd need to make a wire to connect and he didn't want to ask Kitster for...

"Here."

There was a thump beside him, and Kitster was hunkering down to watch. He'd put down a beaten up old tool box.

My toolbox. He's got my toolbox. And I guess it doesn't even look that much worse than it did yesterday.

"Thanks, Kitster."

"No problem. I should have sent this to Luke, but I'd lost track of him by the time I found it."

Anakin didn't answer, because he was going to keep his promise about not letting anyone know that he was *lots* older than they were. He found a pair of micro-pincers, and started threading wires back and forth between the panel and the main part of the toy. Kitster held it steady.

"So, this is a good place."

Kitster nodded. "It is. I think you should just rest here for awhile."

"No, I need to go help with Padmé's ship soon."

"I think you should both rest here for awhile."

Anakin looked up at Kitster. Kitster looked like he was thinking of lots of things.

"Done?" the little girl asked.

Anakin glanced at the toy, and was surprised to see that it really was finished. He gave it to her, and she kissed his cheek, which made him feel about ten feet tall.

"Wish I could, Kitster," he said. "But I -- "

"You have to run off somewhere. Save the galaxy. I know." He stood. "You should stay," he said again, then left.

A moment later, a boy Anakin's age came over, introduced himself as Vertash, and then proceeded to introduce all the little kids. Anakin occupied himself with learning their names. He saw two girls his own age hovering nearby, one blonde and elf-y, the other dark. The dark one would have looked something like Padmé (though not as pretty), except for having a scar on her face. He wondered how come they didn't come over.

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

Amidala wasn't sure what to do with herself. Ani had gone and found a niche already, and she liked watching him there, but the older children seemed to want her to play cards with them, and were offended when she didn't, so she played a few hands, and won them quickly enough that they stopped thinking she was bragging. Amidala didn't gamble a lot... but she had the galaxy's best poker face.

After awhile, she saw Kit get up and head out the back door. She made her excuses and followed him.

She stopped when she saw what it was he was headed for. Ani's body, clad in its black armor, the suns glinting off his helmet. "You carried him back," she said.

Kit nodded. "I have to clean him up and... I should wait until you leave to have the pyre."

"Yes. I'll help you clean him."

He looked like he might argue, but in the end, he just sighed. Between them, they carried the heavy body into a small shed. She hoped Ani wouldn't take it into his head to follow her.

"I told Vertash to keep him busy," Kit said, not needing her to explain what she was thinking. "I didn't tell him why, but Vertash is good about that. The girls suspect." He started to study the way Ani's helmet was attached to the suit.

Amidala remembered watching the robots take it apart last night, and found the tiny hinges they had used. She pulled the helmet from his head, and started working on the mask.

"Please tell me what happened," she said. "You told me that you'd tell me if I asked."

Kit smiled sadly. "I want to. But when I saw him again... when I talked to him a few minutes ago... The truth is, Amidala, I never understood what happened. Everything followed logically on everything else. Until something snapped. I don't know how else you could handle things."

"Maybe some of the things that were 'following logically'?"

He shook his head. "I could tell you to look out for Shmi, to keep her safe, and maybe to suggest that someone other than Obi-Wan train him... "

Amidala looked up from where she was loosening a bit of the shoulder plate. There was a complex nest of wires and flesh under it. "Obi-Wan?"

"It's not that he's a bad person, or that he and Ani didn't come to love each other a lot -- eventually anyway. But it was a bad match, just by their personalities..."

"No, Kit, that's not what I mean. Why not Qui-Gon? It's Qui-Gon whow wants him."

He touched her hand gently, then occupied himself with some of the workings of Ani's right arm. "Qui-Gon is going to die," he said softly. "I think maybe that was the first part of it. I think maybe Vader was born when Qui-Gon died."

Amidala felt strangely cold and rational. Maybe she had to be, considering what she was doing. Or maybe it was a calculating sense that was starting to put pieces together. "How did Qui-Gon die?"

"The other one, the Sith Lord, with the red and black markings... he killed him during the battle of Naboo."

Amidala stopped working entirely, an energizing, buzzing feeling in her head. "Kit," she said, as calmly as she could, "the Sith apprentice is dead. He's never coming back to Naboo. He can't kill Qui-Gon there."

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

The little children had to take a mid-afternoon nap, and Anakin was left to his own devices. Padmé had gone off somewhere, and every time he tried to follow her, he got sidetracked by the two girls his own age -- Kerea and Dritali -- until he figured out that they were supposed to keep him from following. He just shook his head at them.

The boy, Vertash, laughed. "They're not very good at being subtle. Girls."

Anakin returned his smile cautiously. "I always figured girls were better at that stuff."

"You don't know my girls."

Two stuffed beanbags came flying at his head, along with indignant demands for an apology. Anakin wasn't sure which side to be on -- there was a certain boy-loyalty, but he thought the girls were right -- until he realized that Vertash had just been joking and that it was a normal joke with them. He didn't fight very hard, and it wasn't too surprising when he and Vertash fell under a rain of beanbags. Vertash issued a string of apologies so exaggerated that it got the girls laughing, and Anakin almost forgot that he wasn't happy right now.

He played with them for half an hour or so, but when he caught himself starting to recite There's no harm in playing, I'm a kid in his head to alleviate the guilt that was startig to build up, he realized that it wasn't fun anymore. He thanked them for being nice to him (Vertash and Kerea looked confused; Dritali beamed and said he was welcome), and went outside to the ship.

Calrissian was sitting in the shadow of the gangplank, examining a scorch mark on the underside of the hull. "This isn't a lightsaber mark," he said when he saw Anakin.

Anakin shrugged. "I wasn't with them for the firefight. I guess they had some guys shooting at them when they left Naboo. That's how come they lost the parts in the first place."

"Sure, yeah. The Trade Federation blockade. I sort of remember it being in the news."

"Are you the same age as me?"

"Right about now, I'm thirty years older than you, and don't you forget it."

"I won't. I was just wondering."

He shrugged. "I guess I am. Maybe a year or two younger, but not much." He stood up, and Anakin could hear his bones popping. "Come on, kiddo. Padmé tells us you can fix anything."

Anakin blushed furiously -- Padmé was saying nice things about him behind his back? -- but Calrissian didn't notice, because he was already walking up the gangplank into the ship. Anakin could see a few of the others hunkered down around the spare parts.

He took a deep breath, and went back into the Nubian ship.

If Padmé thought he could fix anything, then he supposed he'd best get to fixing it.

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

"Maybe I was wrong," Kit said. "Maybe it wasn't Qui-Gon's death, maybe it... "

"You weren't wrong," Amidala muttered. Ideas were forming in her head at a rapid pace, ideas she didn't entirely understand -- but she had not been elected Queen at fourteen by shying away from disquieting ideas. She simply needed to sort these out, make a pattern of them, make sense of what was happening. She steadied herself by cleaning Ani's face with a cool cloth. His skin was so fragile!

"But we're still here. Nothing changed."

"I think... I think we need to go back. And I think the future we make will be different -- but you'll still be here."

"I don't understand."

Amidala tried to explain, but that idea hadn't found words for itself yet. In her mind, she saw a branch of light, suddenly forking and going in two separate and different directions. For awhile, it would seem to be the same branch, but the further the forked twigs grew from one another, the more they seemed like entirely different entities.

NO! her mind cried. I'm not going to fix this and not have it be... be the real reality!

A strong hand closed around her wrist, pulling her own hand away from Ani's poor face. Kit led her away from the body, to a small bench in the workshop. "Amidala, I know you don't know me, not yet, but I know you. Something's coming together, and you don't like it."

She shook her head. "There's nothing I know how to do to fix it. Not for real. If I succeed, it will just... split." The cold rationality broke away from her in a torrent, and she threw her arms around Kit. "I can't do anything! It's not fair! Even if I make it right, it will never be real, because this will still be here and everything will break on knowing it and..."

Kit shushed her with the gentle touch of long experience. "Of course. You can't make the change without knowing this happened, but if you make the change, this didn't happen, you wouldn't see it here, and you wouldn't know to make any changes."

"So we just go off in totally different directions and..."

"Maybe. Maybe for awhile. Maybe until ... now." Kit shook his head. "I don't know. This is beyond me. I'm an ex-majordomo who works as a housemother these days. I'll leave metaphysics to you and the Jedi. I'd be more comfortable just leaving it to you."

She sniffed. "I don't see how..."

"I don't see how, either. But you've got thirty years or so to work on it."

"But you'll -- "

"Have a war, and have the orphans, and Vader will prowl the starways. I know."

Amidala looked over at the dark form on the table. She couldn't just leave Ani to that fate. Not forever. "I'll speak to the Jedi," she said after awhile.

"I hope you find a way."

She stood and started out of the workshop, then turned. "Kit? What do you suppose Ani meant? At the end... he said I was still here. Do you know? Leia said I killed myself, or that she was told that when she was old enough."

"That was the story I heard."

"Did you believe it?"

"No. The last time I saw you, you were sadder than I ever saw a sentient creature look, but you were still Amidala. Still rock solid."

"When was that?"

"You'd come here looking for something of Ani's. I'd guess it was for Luke, though I didn't know about him at the time. You were very determined about something, but you wouldn't tell me what. Why? What are you thinking?"

"I'm not thinking yet. Just questioning. Seeing what I have to think with." She shook it off, her mood going to a middle ground between high emotion and cold calculation. She wondered if this was the place most people spent their emotional lives. "I need to go back to my ship and contact Qui-Gon," she said. "I'll help you... finish... later."

"I'll look after his present, Amidala. You look after his past and his future."

She hesitated, not wanting to leave the job to Kit, but shamefully grateful that he would do it.

Then again, the living Ani needed her more than the dead Ani did now. She nodded her thanks, and headed back to her ship.

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

Vertash balanced himself on one foot slowly, reaching dusty fingers inside the bandage on his ankle and scratching the skin beneath gently. It didn't seem to be doing anything anymore; he'd thought about taking it off, but he didn't want Kit to rewrap it.

It came to him like an obscure fact suddenly remembered. Kit just was too sad to care about the stupid bandage.

That bothered Vertash more than anything. Why should Kit -- who had once, secretly, indulged Kerea's nurturing impulse by allowing her to give shelter to a stray pitten during a sandstorm -- mourn someone who had borne witness to the destruction of Kerea's planet? Of the Death Star? Why should he mourn someone who had contributed to Kit's own hardships and not allowed this fact to affect him?

But Kit always had a fondness for the stubborn ones.

Dritali stood on a built-in bench, to the side, peering out the window at the ship in the garden.

"It's him," she said, happily, to herself.

The itching had persisted.

"Who's who?"

"It's him," she repeated, glancing back at Vertash only to roll her eyes.

"I don't understand what you mean."

She jumped down onto the floor and sat smugly on the bench. "Junior Master Kit, the master of *subtlety*" -- Vertash tilted his head playfully -- "doesn't know how to listen in properly?"

He sighed impatiently. "Get to the point, Dritali."

"Anakin." She looked around, knowing full well they were alone, but unable to say it loudly. It was a grand secret. "And what did Kit call Lord Vader?"

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

Kerea felt a strong desire to wash her hands where she'd touched the boy Anakin during the bean bag fight. It had been one thing to help carry his body back -- that was an honorable thing to do, and no one deserved to be eaten by womp rats -- but *playing* with him?

No. Sorry, but no.

"Kree?" Vertash said, shaking her shoulders overenthusiastically. "Come on up for air. Swimming around in the muck in your head's just going to make you dizzy."

It was a Vertash-ism, and she put up with it. She'd drawn a knife on him when she found out his parents had been on the Death Star; he'd just said "Rugged knife," and been done with it. He didn't really *get* the way her temper ate at her sometimes, but he knew how to make it stop, and that was good enough for Kerea. "Vader," she said.

"Dritali," Vertash answered.

Dritali turned primly away and looked out the window again. "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you see Lord Vader in the rocks in Beggars Canyon."

"Kit called him Anakin. I heard it."

"And there can only be one Anakin in the galaxy?" Vertash asked.

Kerea pursed her lips. "It doesn't seem likely that... I mean, it's not that common a name, and they *do* both know that girl." But she wanted to be convinced. "But it's more likely than the other, right? I mean, are you really talking about time travel? It's supposed to be impossible. And anyway, he's just like us. You know... just... "

"Lost," Dritali said thoughtfully. "Alone."

Kit looked to the heavens, then rolled his eyes toward the garden, where the girl was coming out of the shed. He put his hands on his heart sarcastically. "May I be as alone as he is! With such a heartless -- and ugly -- friend..."

Kerea shoved him playfully, and he grabbed her into a wrestle hold. She didn't pretend to be physically strong (Dritali sometimes did; she fancied herself a heroine, like in the shows they watched on the holoproj, though she'd never admit it), and she gave in easily. Vertash messed up her hair with his knuckles, then released her. His heart wasn't in it.

"Maybe they all were friends," she said. "And maybe we're being really crazy to talk about time travel and stuff. Maybe he's just someone's son. Maybe he was named after Vader. Maybe Anakin is Vader's first name... I think the 'Darth' part's a title or something."

"It's him," Dritali insisted. "I can feel it."

Vertash rolled his eyes. "Great. Now, she thinks she's a Jedi."

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

Obi-Wan drifted away from the hut. Leia was good at blocking but Luke wasn't and he really didn't want to eavesdrop on this particular conversation.

Master apparently had no such qualms. He remained right by the door, arms folded into his sleeves, heavy brow knit. Maybe he wanted to be at hand in case Yoda needed help.

Obi-Wan wandered along the shore the nearby mere, keeping a wary eye peeled. A planet like this would be crawling with voracious and dangerous lifeforms. He wondered by Yoda had chosen to hide here of all places - shrugged a little. Maybe it reminded him of home? Nobody really knew where Yoda'd come from. Maybe this was his home!

"Things have gotten very complicated." The voice, mellow with a smooth Coreworlds accent, spun him around one hand going automatically to his sabre then dropped away as he saw who'd spoken.

Another Jedi, a Master by the balanced feel of him, white haired and bearded and surrounded by a shimmering blue aura.

Obi-Wan stared in awe and disbelief. He'd heard stories of this, whispered by other acolytes and confirmed by hints in the archives. Supposedly there was a way for a Jedi to refuse union with the Force and remain active in the sphere of the Living manifesting as a blue-auraed Force apparition -- like this. He'd never really believed it was possible and even if it were why would anybody do such a thing? condemn himself to a half-life caught between states of being and forever seperate from the Force.

The apparitional Jedi was looking at him, eyebrows slightly lifted, waiting for a response. "Yes," Obi-Wan stammered, "very complicated."

"The future is always in motion," The Master continued, "but now it's in turmoil." A sigh. "What will become of us all?"

"I don't know, Master. We must return to our own time but if we do with what we know now..."

"You may change what happens, change this present." the Master agreed. "For the better I hope."

"From what I've heard it can't get much worse."

A rueful, somehow familiar smile. "No, it can't." The Apparition seated himself on a stump, gave Obi-Wan a stern look. "Confronting Palpatine was foolish, more foolish than I'd have expected even of you. You could have gotten both Luke and yourself killed."

"With both his apprentices dead Palpatine would never have been more vulnerable," Obi-Wan argued defensively.

"You faced him in a spirit of anger and vengeance." the Master retorted. "You should have known better, Obi-Wan!"

"Luke's supposed to be a Jedi Knight," he shot back, stung, "He should have known better."

"Luke has had only a few months training with me and with Yoda. You on the other hand have had twenty years of Temple discipline," the other replied crisply.

"A few months?" Obi-Wan gasped, disbelieving.

"It was all the time we were given," the Apparition sounded suddenly weary. "Luke is the last of the Jedi, our last hope."

Obi-Wan felt sick. "You mean it's just the three of you?"

The Master nodded.

"There were ten thousand of us," Obi-Wan whispered.

"All dead," was the quiet answer. Again that eerily familiar smile. "Including me."

Obi-Wan studied him uncertainly. This strange Master reminded him a little of Qui-Gon. Another maverick! but then he'd have had to be to do what he's done. "Do I know you, Master, in my time I mean?"

The look he got in return was openly amused. "I remember being reckless, and impudent, but not slow on the uptake!"

Obi-Wan stared. Old, so much older but those were his own eyes looking back. He could barely believe it. That he of all people would have the power and the knowledge to avoid union with the Force, much less the will!

He swallowed. "I saw how I died. Leia leaked the image to me. I - you - just gave up, surrendered. Why?"

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

"Poodoo!" Anakin Skywalker exclaimed, suddenly standing up beside the hyperdrive. He amplified it to "Bantha poodoo!" then looked guiltily over his shoulder at Sabé, and winced when he saw that the queen was coming up the gangplank behind her.

Lando Calrissian suppressed a grin. He liked this kid. "What's the language about, Skywalker?" he asked. "Looks to me like it's going in fine."

Anakin shook his head. "We almost forgot the biggest thing. We're not just taking off. When we did it last time, there was a lightsaber frying everything. We have to get it back in there, and even if it does work, it'll all be fried again, and we have to buy another hyperdrive."

"Bantha poodoo," Sabé said primly.

Anakin gaped a her, and Lando gave her a smile. He definitely needed to hook up with her later. As soon as this ship was in orbit, he thought he had a call to make.

Amidala just rubbed her temples. She looked so tired that it took most of Lando's playful mood away. "All right," she said. "We can find other things to trade, perhaps. Lando, is there anything left of Jabba's palace to scavenge for trade-goods?"

"I did some trading for Jabba," Lando said. "I have some ointments and silks in a hut not too far from here. I'll get them for you, just in case. But we probably have some time before the others get back. Maybe we can figure out how to do this without wrecking your engines again. What say, Ani? Want to get serious about this hunk of junk?"

The boy bit his lip, but as Lando suspected, he could no more resist the temptation of that kind of invitation than Han Solo could. He nodded, and unscrewed the cover plates on the hyperdrive.

After awhile, Lando Calrissian, who had never thought of himself as a rookie mechanic, just stood back and watched.

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

"It was my final lesson. Light is stronger then dark, if only because those of light have more to lose and must fight harder. I begun to drive it through his head with my death, Anakin never could realize light was stronger.

"As you can see, I am very much still here to help my cause win. Darth Vader is very much not," he paused. "Though he sacrificed himself for Amidala at the end and for that I am grateful."

He looked at his younger self with a blank face, wondering what to call him to keep things less confused in his mind. Hmm... He's just Obi-Wan. No doubt about that. Well, I suppose I can be Ben.

"Final lesson? What is that--- We taught Anakin didn't we?" Obi-Wan's voice was panicked and his hands were running through his hair nervously. "I taught the thing that helped kill ten thousand Jedi? I taught the thing that destroyed Alderaan? By the Force, why was stupid enough to let me teach a nine-year-old child when I haven't even become a Jedi yet?"

Obi-Wan slumped down onto a patch of land and promptly put his head in his hands. Ben had had no idea this was coming, he was never very good at feelings. He just waited patiently for Obi-Wan to stop cursing the Jedi Council under his breath and talk.

"This sucks. This just sucks." Obi-Wan briefly took his head out of his hands so he could nod emphatically.

"Excuse me?"

"Not only do I know my future, the future of everyone I know but now I know it's my fault. Very fun thing to know at twenty-two. Sith, I'm sure everyone wants to hear it. ‘Hey you, ‘cause of a mistake you made, everyone's going to die and an evil Empire will rise! Well, thanks for your time.' Right." Obi-Wan stood up and started to pace around the area in a fit of nervous energy.

"Well, now you can change it. You have a warning I wish I had every day. By the time I knew anything was wrong, my padawan was in a lava pit and had declared himself the Emperor's second. The boy I had raised since he was nine did that. And then he killed me, years later. How do you think I felt about that?" Ben stopped when he felt himself get increasingly bitter.

It's just that I miss the Anakin I knew. If I am bitter, it's only because he is dead. He was like my younger brother...

"I am sorry for that. It's different for you though, it has happened. You can think of a billion ways to change it and maybe they'll help, maybe they won't. I have to use them. If I do and he turns, it's still on my head only this time, I'll have had more then adequate warning." Obi-Wan stopped pacing and turned to look Ben straight in the eyes.

It was a brief moment but it was anything but brief. It was the meeting of the same two souls, trying to figure out where things took a turn for the worse. Obi-Wan looked away first, blowing out a breath softly.

"Well, if I could do it over, I'd get Master Qui-Gon to teach him, just don't be hurt if he does it. It's for the good of the galaxy. Support his relationship with Amidala. Get a girlfriend. Okay, that one's just for you but... Female role model?" Ben paused, considering something. "Actually, I overheard Luke's conversation with Yoda. That you wouldn't kill Palpatine while he was unconscious should definitely be considered a trial. Maybe--"

"Overheard?" Obi-Wan smirked slightly and the tension started easing from his frame.

"Jedi Masters do not eavesdrop, Padawan. Also, do not interrupt me." He grinned. "If I were you, I'd go see if Yoda would make you a Knight for that. Or maybe you should get the old Yoda to make you that. The one from the past I mean. Oh, this is too confusing."

"It is. Thank you very much for the advice, Master. I must go talk to my Master now and try to sort this all out. I hope to talk to you again before we leave." With that, Obi-Wan gave a half bow and left, holding his head higher then he had been.

I just hope he listens. Force knows that I never listened...

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

Coruscant, twilight of the Old Republic.

She should be here by now.

Senator Palpatine paced his quarters like an opee sea killer navigating the Core Spires. Something had gone wrong. This should be the hour of his victory, but instead, there was only a gnawing unease.

Maul had found her, along with the missing Jedi. They were preparing to leave whatever wretched Outer Rim depot they'd hidden in, and she should have arrived here, or at least contacted him, by now. The wheels of his plan should be spinning nicely.

And they were, they were.

That was the most frustrating part of this unbearable situation. He felt it like a flicker in his peripheral vision. She arrived, she behaved as he had anticipated, and she would leave him positioned for the galaxy to fall into his lap. It was happening, except that it wasn't.

Maul.

It had begun when Maul had vanished from the Force. Palpatine toyed with the idea that his apprentice had betrayed him, but discarded it. Maul was loyal, Maul was devoted to the idea of increasing his power, and Maul simply would not dare. He hadn't died -- at least not at the time he disappeared -- nor had he consciously blocked himself. He'd simply ceased being part of the fabric of the Force.

That was when the anxiety began, the elusive, sideways visions.

Something had gone very wrong. Something about the Queen.

Amidala was young and naive, as he'd told Nute Gunray, and she was easy to control... under most circumstances. At fourteen, she was only beginning to expand her view -- from her family to Theed, now from Theed to all Naboo... but Naboo was a small place, in the scheme of things, and the fact that she had not yet realized this in a meaningful way was what made her easy to manipulate.

But Queen Amidala was not Nute Gunray, or the mindless bureaucrats of Coruscant. She was intelligent, and if her gaze should widen, if she should ever stumble across the right questions... she would find the way to answer them.

She's a mere child. A girl, at that.

Of course, of course. Why worry over such an insignificant creature? This was a mere setback. He had been among the over-pampered dandies of Coruscant too long.

He smiled, and it was gentle, almost beautiful.

All of this would be his. It was just a matter of time.

But it wouldn't hurt to create a contingency plan.

Just in case.

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

Tatooine, the last days of the Empire.

Lando and Ani were working on the hyperdrive, or rather Ani was working on it, and Lando was watching with rapt interest and asking questions about what he was doing.

Amidala decided that she needed to learn more about ships and mechanics -- it seemed to please Ani vastly to talk about it -- but for now, she didn't know enough to follow. She supposed he would feel the same if she was talking politics.

She closed her eyes, and concentrated on the image that had come to her, the image of a forked thread. It was tied, then split, and the new ends spun in different directions. (She supposed that to anyone else, it would look like a tree branch, but she was the granddaughter of a weaver, and had learned spinning at an early age. Her personal stock of metaphors tended to have a textile base.)

She imagined herself, sitting here in the Nubian, poised far beyond the point where the branches split. The opposite branch was nebulous and unformed, a swirling mass of light -- it was unreal, because she hadn't spun it yet. It could become anything.

Maybe I can go back before the split.

No. She knew better. The split had occurred with the time disruption, and any other disruption would just cause another split. Better to get back to this one and travel the new path.

Maybe, when they were still close, she would be able to speak to her other self, or make contact somehow. Maybe she could --

The thread of the new line twisted. Nothing tight or useful, but the beginning of a shape. She imagined herself as one of the unformed light fibers, and moved it in her mind. Good. And Ani... the bright one beside it. She could almost hear Winama telling her to keep them together, to not let the fibers wander and thin as she spun.

Oh, but it was all imaginary. This thread wouldn't really be spun until someone was living on it. That was the only way to spin time. She would have to travel that thread now, and create time, and...

And wait.

Wait for now. For the time when the children could make her aware of what had happened, for the time when she could grab both strands, and begin to spin them together again.

You're still here.

Her eyes opened. Yes, she *was*. Ani hadn't known it before, but he'd sensed it at the end. She was here, and the thread could be re-spun, if she just had the patience to wait for thirty long years to do it -- and if the *she* who was here would have any inclination to.

Well, she'd believe it. She had to believe it, because there was nothing she could do otherwise.

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

Leia rubbed her neck, holding in a sigh. When she had entered, she'd been prepared to scream at Yoda, until her voice was sore.

Someone could have told me Yoda was about to die.

"Jedi you are, young Skywalker." Leia was sure Luke's face was going to bust from the grin that had erupted on his face. She hugged Luke and was about to congratulate him when Yoda continued, "Confront fears you did."

"Master, are you sure I'm ready?" Luke was shaking his head in disbelief, completly ignoring common sense that must have been telling him 'Don't change his mind!'.

"Skywalker--" Yoda's face was weary but full of compassion as he looked at the twins.

"Master, I want to be a Jedi because I've earned it not just because you're about to die!" Luke's dark hair was falling all over his face and she had a sudden pang that she had never had a chance to muss it up. Or do anything that twins do with him.

"Would not say you were if you had not earned it." Yoda's eyes closed but he talked on. "Datacards, there are to help you teach. Old system worked well, that you need to remember."

"Yes, Master. I'll make you proud, I'll teach Padawans. I'll do everything I can to live up to your memory." Luke's voice cracked and Leia grabbed his hand.

After a second, Leia decided to ask her own question. It could be her last chance, after all. "Our Mother, Yoda?"

"Alive she is. Prison camp, somewhere... Say goodbye to Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan you will?" With that Yoda faded away, leaving only robes and an black darkness for those who had known the Jedi Master.

With that, Leia and Luke slowly got up and left the hut, wondering what was next.

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

Dagobah. It was the final resting-place for Jedi Master Yoda. It was--

"Are we leaving any time soon?" Obi-Wan's voice broke into his thoughts with a slam and Luke looked up. "I know this hit you hard, Knight Skywalker. If it were the Yoda of my time... Master Yoda was the Master everyone played with when I was small, he... Still, we need to go."

"Yeah. I just have a few things I want to look at, I'll be up in a minute." Luke gave a sheepish grin and jogged off to Yoda's hut without waiting for any responses.

As soon as he reached the hut, he couldn't help shivering a little. It was where Yoda's presence could be felt most strongly, especially to those who had known him.

"I'll miss you, Master Yoda."

Miss you too I will, young Skywalker. Leave you should. Get them home you need. Take my stick, for luck you will?

Luke crinkled his nose in surprise but nodded all the same. You would think I was used to ghosts taking to me by now, he thought with a tinge of humor.

He entered the hut and carefully picked up the worn stick. More then anything, the gimmer stick was a relic of the old Jedi Master. It was an honor to have it. Quietly, he wasn't sure if Yoda was there or not, "Thanks."

Walking out, he took a quick last look around Dagobah, taking in the trees, the few visible animals, the muck and just the serenity of the place. He had been trained here, it had been home at a time when he had needed one.

After a few seconds of reflecting of time spent, he ran up to the Millennium Falcon. He just went on automatic, letting his mind try and shuffle through recent events until he reached the Falcon's common room. He smiled a little when he saw Leia was sitting with a smirk on her face and a stack of cards next to her.

"Up for a game, little brother?"

"Not with a smirk that big, Leia. Are you secretly a card shark?" He paused. "What's up with little brother? For all you know, I could be older."

He ignored the little voice saying, You're younger. Admit it and move on, choosing to sit across from Leia instead. After doing a quick check to see if they were marked, a force of habit from playing on Tatooine, he dealt. "With you, we're playing something easy. Gin rummy good?"

"It's fine. And I'm just older. It's why I did everything first. I became a Senator first, joined the Rebellion first, it's why I'm just so much better looking. See, I'm just oh-so-talented!" Leia struck a pose, grinning wildly. Luke wasn't exactly sure, but he thought they were bonding.

It was kind of nice.

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

The circuits and wires flowed under his hands as if the Nubian's hyperdrive were just an overgrown podracing engine. It felt like something else, or someone else, was doing it, except that as Calrissian asked his questions, Anakin always found that he could answer them. This is what I'm doing, and this is why I'm doing it.

He'd always been confident as a mechanic, but it felt good to really find out how good he was. He was making up a whole new part for this engine, and it was going to work.

Well, probably it was, anyway. No reason it shouldn't.

He strung a piece of wire down the middle of a tube, and looped it, so that the suspended magnet would help it form a small but powerful generator when the heat of the hyperdrive began to spin all the parts. "It'll make the energy, but the sheath around it's going to keep it from frying out all the parts on the way in."

"Are you sure it's the right amount?"

"Sure I am."

"How?"

Anakin frowned. That part, he didn't know. He just knew, in some unexplored part of his mind, that he was feeding the hyperdrive what it would need to make the time jump.

It's the same voltage as a lightsaber, with the amperage of the red frequency.

He blinked, and sat back, disappointed. He'd been cheating. His bad older self was doing something. He knew the voice, even though he hadn't heard it before.

He had a feeling that he could get mightily sick of it.

I explained. You already knew. Mind your pride, but trust your abilities. They will not fail you.

(when will you stop talking?)

There was no answer, which Anakin profoundly hoped was an answer.

"You okay?" Calrissian asked.

"Fine. Sure, yeah. Just talking to myself in my head."

Calrissian smiled. "Well, whatever you're doing, keep doing it."

"No." Anakin blinked. "I mean, I think it's done. I think we're set. I... I know it. Now, we just need to wait for the others to come back."

"Well, if you know it... " The older man grinned, then grew serious. "What are you going do, if it works? What do you think you should do?"

"I don't know. I'm nine." But the denial felt wrong in Anakin's mouth, and he waved it away before Calrissian could ask a question. "I guess I just... you know, stick with Amidala and Qui-Gon, and try to figure everything out. Maybe it's that simple." He looked toward Sanctuary. "And I think maybe I'll ask about helping look after the little kids on Coruscant, in the Temple, if they'll let me." He nodded to himself, and didn't bother trying to explain to Calrissian. He'd just felt really good playing with the little ones in Sanctuary, and he figured if there were some of those around and looking up to him, he'd be too ashamed to do anything really bad.

"Whatever you say. Just try not to make any more bum deals with city administrators, okay?"

Anakin smiled wickedly and held out his hand. "Deal."

Calrissian laughed, getting the joke -- Anakin didn't know why he felt like he could make a joke about it to Calrissian, but it seemed to have turned out all right -- then shook his hand. "Deal." Then the man grabbed at his throat and made a gagging sound, rolling his eyes as he did it.

"Very funny," Anakin told him.

"Hey, you started it."

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

Leia walked up to the cockpit, trying to look the calm she didn't feel. With a nervous smile, she tiptoed to the door, watching as Han worked at some datacard. "Hey."

He spun around, a cocky look in place. "Hey Princess. This was getting a little boring, I'm glad you showed up... What's wrong?"

"Who says anything's wrong?" She flashed him a smile, trying to project some serenity and peace. Hey, it worked for Qui-Gon.

Han motioned her over and she sat in the copilot seat, secretly pleased he wanted her to sit here. She shifted as he looked at her, trying to ignore the intensity of his gaze. "Something's up. C'mon Leia, it'll make you feel better if you talk about. Or do I have to bribe you?"

"Bribe me. You'll be amazed what a girl will do for chocolate." She let him take her hands in his, wondering why he always seemed to get romantic while they were on the Falcon.

"I'll remember that, Leia. Now come on, I'm your no-good smuggler boyfriend that both of your dads would have loved to hate. You can talk to me." Han grinned when she laughed, imagining both the Viceroy of Alderaan and Darth Vader looming in on Han.

"Do you believe in destiny, Han?" she paused. "I don't, that's what scares me. I always thought we made our own destiny, but now--"

He blew out a breath as a look of understanding came over his face. Han might be a lot of things but he wasn't stupid. The reformed smuggler stood up and gathered her up in his arms, holding her tightly.

"What if I'm not born, Han? Now that they know ... things will change! Mother might decide having us isn't worth it, Anakin might find someone else, one of them could die, she could get pregnant with other children ... or what if it's just me and not Luke? The possibilities are scary, Han." Leia tried but found she couldn't stop her voice from trembling.

"You just have to have faith, sweetheart. We all do," he lifted her chin, putting on a fake grin. "Maybe it'll even turn out better. Think of it, no Empire. Alderaan there, a Corellia that actually lets people visit. We just need hope."

Leia kissed him, trying to turn off her brain. She just wanted to stand here all day, and listen to Han tell her it would all be all right, and let herself believe him. U

Unfortunately, they entered orbit into Tatooine, blowing that plan into smithereens.

Han looked up briefly from the calculations he was entering . "We should go out, as soon as this is all finished."

"I'd like that." Leia grinned unable to keep a little voice from going, I have a date, I have a date. Yay!

"Sith! I'm guessing there's a problem, Leia." Han's voice and several beeping sonds broke into her inner cheer and she looked up, trying to see what the problem was.

The Nubian ship was hovering about ten feet above the ground. From the way the pilot was sending hails to the Falcon, they hadn't wanted it to do that. "Great."

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

When the Nubian suddenly lifted, Amidala was thrown across the conference room, slamming her shoulder into the curve of the far wall. Sabé fell to the floor and skidded toward the door, catching herself with an effort before she was tossed into the maintenance pit. The engine hummed loudly, then the ship righted itself, and Amidala scrambled to get her balance, then ran back toward the engine room.

Lando Calrissian and Ani were holding on to pipes near the engine, and the small device Ani had made from spare parts (including the hinges of two of her wardrobe containers) was lit by a pulsing green glow. He was shaking when he turned and gave her a sheepish smile. "It works," he said.

"Barely," Calrissian muttered. "Let's get back down."

"Okay." Ani waved toward the cockpit, where Rick Olie was apparently waiting for the signal. Amidala sighed with relief, and waited for the comforting sounds of the landing cycle to begin.

That was when the alarm went off.

"Damn!" Calrissian shouted. "Ani, what happens if you unhook that thing?"

Ani ran to the engines and reached out, but a spark flew at his hand. "No go," he called over his shoulder. "If this thing's going to get us back in time, we better not land 'til we get where we're going."

"I'm not going where you're going. And your buddies -- "

Another light flashed, and Amidala ran to the cockpit. "Who is hailing us, Captain Olie?"

"It's the Falcon. She's coming down into orbit."

"Tell her to fly low."

"What?"

"We can't land, I think. Something about the modification in the engine."

Olie started the hail, and Amidala went back to the engine room. "Ani, you're sure we can't land."

He turned to her, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry, I -- "

She put a hand on his arm, and gave him the most peaceful smile she could muster, which wasn't saying much at that very moment. "You did fine, Ani. But we need to work around it if we can't land."

"Okay, yeah. We... well, I wasn't expecting it, and I don't think it's going to hurt anything except this. The part just kind of, I don't know, integrated or something. So if we shut it down with the energy going through, it might fry, which is what we don't want. So we just keep flying, and we're fine. We land wherever you want to. Then maybe I can fix it again, but... I don't know if I can build the other thing without -- " He shuddered. "Without help, and I won't have it back home."

Amidala didn't ask for an explanation. She knew how their interests were being protected. "Okay," she said. "You stay here and make sure nothing goes wrong. I'll set it up."

Calrissian cleared his throat. "Your Majesty?"

"You're going to have to jump or come with us."

He raised his eyebrows. "Quite a choice there. If you can go low, I'll jump."

Amidala glanced at Ani who shrugged and nodded. Flying low was apparently okay. "I'll tell Captain Olie to drop to a hovering height. Jump when I yell."

"No problems giving orders in your family." He grinned.

Amidala, who couldn't remember a time when she hadn't felt comfortable in authority, didn't bother responding to his joke. "Then we're clear?"

Calrissian saluted, and went toward the hatch. He was lowering the gangplank when Amidala went back to the cockpit. She flipped on the security camera in the engine room to watch what was happening, then leaned over the comm-station, where the Falcon was answering the hail.

"Captain Solo!" she called.

"Yeah, here. What's going on?"

"No time to explain. We'll need to make the switch in midair. We're dropping low enough for Baron Calrissian to jump, but Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan need to come here. Can you get close enough for them to make the jump?"

She heard him shout something toward wherever the Jedi were, then grumble and stand. A second later, Leia's voice came across. "Mother, I... "

"We'll see each other Leia."

"I know, but I'd hoped... "

Amidala thought for a moment, searching for the serenity to say something wise and maternal, but she she couldn't find it.

Then Han was back, and Amidala could hear other feet shuffling along. Qui-Gon Jinn grabbed the microphone. "Your Majesty, the transfer shouldn't be a problem for us, but the proximity will make it difficult for the pilots. We should move quickly."

"Yes, of course." Amidala glanced at Ric Olie. "Let's move, Captain. Now."

As soon as Olie responded, Amidala fell silent, to allow him full concentration. She watched the engine room on the small screen, a soundless and grainy unreality. Lando Calrissian was crouched beside the open hatch, poised like a feline hunter. The altitude dropped to seven meters. They couldn't dare any further in the dune-strewn terrain. "Now, Calrissian!" she yelled back.

Calrissian didn't hesitate. He drop-rolled down the gangplank, and another monitor caught him falling into the sand far behind the ship. Amidala felt a curious and detached regret to lose the last piece of the future, but she still had to finish restoring the present.

The proximity lights began to flash as the Nubian and the Falcon drew close to one another. A third monitor -- set to automatically display objects that were too close, Amidala supposed -- showed the Correllian ship. A hatch on the Falcon opened, and she recognized the silhouettes of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Behind them was a formless shadow that she knew was Luke without needing to recognize the shape. She traced the vague outline with her eyes, hungry to remember all she could, even in her hurry.

The ships drew to their closest point, and a signal flashed on the control board. "They're coming," Olie said. "They're going to jump."

A second later, Obi-Wan dropped to the base of the Falcon's gangplank, then assumed the same crouch Lando had used. He waited, eyes closed, for something Amidala couldn't identify, then made a graceful, controlled leap. Amidala felt the shock of his landing, then heard footsteps thundering toward the cockpit. "Your Majesty, the Empire is out there. In orbit. They're on the other side of the planet, but we dare not go into lightspeed here. It will lead them to the Falcon and your children."

"Very well."

She looked back at the monitor. Qui-Gon was preparing for his leap. He looked up at the sky, troubled, then shouted something back. The shadow that was Luke disappeared into the ship. Amidala felt him wrenched away from her. Then Qui-Gon was in the air, and another impact pulled him on board. "Shut the hatch!" she heard him call, then there was the whine of the gangplank receding and the hatch closing.

I am forgetting something.

Obi-Wan took her arm. "Your Majesty, we should leave the system before we leave a hyperspace trail."

"Yes, we should." Qui-Gon entered, looking as calm as if he'd been meditating for an hour. "Han suggested heading out at sublight to the next system. I told him I would relay the idea."

"Yes, of course." What is it, what am I... She realized, and she felt her eyes open wide. "Captain Olie, is the hail still open?"

"Yes -- "

She didn't bother with formalities, just leaned over and called "Leia! Leia, are you there?"

"Yes, Mother! We're here."

"Good. There's no time. Find me. You have to find me here. I hope I'll know what to do -- "

"Mother, you're... "

"Find me. Get to me. I am still here. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mother."

Done. It's done. There's nothing else to say.

"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"I'll see you soon."

Amidala smiled. The connection was getting spotter as the ships moved away from one another. "Yes. Soon. I love you both."

"I love them too!" Ani shouted from the engine room. "But we have to get out of here!"

Amidala smiled slightly, and said, "You heard your father."

Leia laughed at the sound of it, then the connection faded completely as they broke out of the atmosphere. There was a burst of loud static, then the hum of an open communication. Amidala reached to turn it off, but just as her hand touched the control, another voice came through.

"Mother?" Luke said. His voice was firm and low, like Ani's had been... or would be...

"Yes?"

"You need to bring him back to us. We can't win without him."

Amidala heard a sharply indrawn breath and guessed that Leia had her reservations, but nothing else was said on board the _Falcon._ Amidala leaned forward and said, "I will. I promise." Then a solar flare cut the communication again, and Olie punched in a course to lead the encroaching Empire away from the desert world.

The link was broken.

No one spoke.

Amidala looked at the monitors that had been set to the outside. They were black and nearly starless.

The ship lurched violently, trying to go into hyperspace, and she heard Ani curse.

"We'd best assist him," Qui-Gon said.

"No," Amidala told him. "Let me."

She went back and knelt beside the engine. Ani directed her hands to the proper controls without speaking or looking at her. She could feel the conduits trembling like live things.

"Don't let go," Ani whispered. Then he looked at her, and his eyes were deep rivers of fear. "I think they're a little loose."

She tightened her grip, and said, "It's time."

He nodded.

A moment later, the Nubian made the jump to lightspeed, and disappeared from among the stars.

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

EPILOGUE

Kit Jarai did not want to let go of the torches. They sat solidly in each weathered hand, very real and tangible.

On Tatooine, the only certainty was death, and as the situation faded into his memory, he hungered for the certainty of the torches.

But he knew they belonged in the hands of Anakin's son and daughter. It was tradition; worldly goods be damned, every effort possible was made for the next-of-kin of Tatooine's deceased to light the pyre, no matter how poor the family. After all that had been denied them, he could not deny them this. Luke took the torch into his hands firmly, very familiar with the tradition. Leia hesitated, absently pulling on her shoulder as if to stretch her neck, then pausing with realization -- realizing what, Kit had no idea -- and smiling.

In a moment, Kit's hands were empty, and he thought they just might have always been that way.

"They need to be lit," he said. His voice was low and quiet, but it wasn't done purposely. The assembled group was too quiet for anything else. It occurred to him that he'd just said the first spoken word since they'd all gathered, but it wasn't worth mulling over.

"Here," Luke said, and carefully lifted his lightsaber to his eye-level, igniting the very top of the torch. Then -- again, silently; silence dominated -- he tilted his sister's torch toward him, and lit hers from his. Kit stepped between them, behind them a bit, and the group began to walk outside.

It was early, very early. The first sun was not due to rise for a standard hour, and the first etchings of orange were beginning to frame the dome of the darkest-blue sky. Kit found himself fighting back a smile -- there was an effort to be made in attending this particular pyre, beyond the psychological barriers they had. It was an inconvenience to attend, and they did so anyway. Vertash was up and about, dressed as closely as possible to the Imperial schoolboy uniform he'd have worn. He stayed close to Dritali, and the two of them followed Kit at a fair distance. (Kerea -- who slept late as a habit -- had made a point not to attend, but was wide awake anyway, Dritali had told Kit before the others arrived.)

Solo and Calrissian hung back behind the children, and that was it.

The garden, and the clear view of the body, were only seconds away, and Kit felt this was not something to be kept secret.

"Your father's respirator was very much integrated with his body," Kit whispered to Luke. "Much more so than I'd imagined. It was some sort of electrical disturbance and the circuits were fried."

"I understand," Luke replied solemnly, his eyes fixed ahead.

"No, I'm afraid you don't. It was very visible, and --"

It was too late.

The twins hesitated at the sight. They weren't at such a distance as to show all detail, but what they could see was a man dressed as a simple Tatooinian farmer, the only tell-tale sign that this man was in fact Darth Vader being the black boots and the gloved hands.

A childlike smile crossed Luke's face, and -- after taking Leia's hand to get her moving -- he began to walk forward again. They walked around their father (an action called the Last Considering, Kit would have to explain to Vertash later), memorizing the visible injuries, the serene expression, the eyes that Kit didn't know how to shut. Didn't want to shut.

They came around to his feet again and set their torches to the same spot. The flames grew, consuming, sending up tendrils of smoke into the earliest light, and they stepped back. Kit took the torches from them and put them out in the sand, thankful for something real to do again.

As he stood back up through a dull pain, he noticed that Leia's head had rested on her brother's shoulder, and he was close enough to hear her ask, "What will happen to us now?"

The smoke -- a dark wave, a stormcloud -- drifted up higher and higher into the darkest blue-black of the sky, where the stars still broke through. Kit thought that, perhaps, the biggest question was, what had already happened?

The End.

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