Coming Home (Luke, Anakin AU)--UPDATED 2/9

I just read your story and you are doing a wonderful job. need more soon

 

Oh, the possibilities ! This is starting very, very well. There's a promise of Dark Side beckoning, and Obi-Wan is acting coldly enough -- I always knew he was a Realpolitik advocate at heart...

 

JG, this is so awesome! It's truly incredible - you have such an eloquence in your writing. I love to read your alterate universe fics because they put my favorite characters, the Skywalkers, in new and different situations. Luke Naberrie...great twist of fate. Leia and Padmé's deaths were saddening, but hopefully we'll get to see more of Anakin's memories of them. That would be great, hint hint. You are doing an excellant jb as usual, and I love the way you have portrayed Luke, Obi-Wan, Siri, and all the others, but especially Anakin. I can hear the voice of middle-aged Anakin speaking to little Luke, and that just shows what a wonderful talent you have. Keep up the great work! UP!

 

Just caught up with this story. Wow like this is great stuff. I really enjoyeed reading this. Waiting for next post

Totally sucked in
Kithana

 

Chapter Two

Death...

The smell still intoxicates her after all this time, rich and powerful and dark. She leans her head back into the wind and opens herself to the Force as Dooku has taught her, to feel the terror and misery of this wretched world.

She had thought this world--her home world--had been a failure. It was to be expected on a first try. But the lovely virus has finally taken hold here in its proving ground, and Tazi Chandara revels in its stench. This is the power you tried to deny me, Father. This is the strength you tried to steal from me, Mother. Carry the burden of the legacy of which you robbed me!

She lets her anger rise, lets it flow into her blood and into the Force, drawing on the energy it gives to her. Maybe it is better this way. Dooku has allowed her to explore all her powers. The Jedi would have stifled this.

Still, the gift is hers, and should always have been, and she knows that she had a right to learn to use it. Keeping her here on this barren rock has been an injustice... but the injustice has now been rectified. Both of her thieving parents are dead.

Her reverie is broken suddenly by a loud, intrusive presence in the Force. She looks down from the precipice and sees a brown-robed human woman with short blonde hair coming out of the lab.

Jedi!

The woman looks up toward the place where Tazi is standing, and Tazi understands that she has been sensed, maybe even seen. Dooku will not be pleased with her. He has been speaking of taking another apprentice, has traveled in search of one. He will kill her if he decides she is unworthy.

The Jedi is alone. Tazi is almost certain of it. A larger Jedi presence would have been felt much earlier.

The solution is obvious.

Tazi moves slowly, to make her movement less obvious, then slips away into the shadows.

She must keep the Jedi from returning to Coruscant.

Or...

She smiles, knowing now how to please Dooku.

The Jedi will return to Coruscant.

And she will return with a small gift... a very small gift... for brown-robes in the Temple.

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

Anakin glanced down at Luke and promised himself for the fifth time that he was not going to break down, that he would remain calm, a Jedi... a Master.

It was what Luke required of him. With Leia, he might have had a few choice words for Windu, and she would have cheered him on... but Luke was not Leia. Luke needed him to be calm.

"You understand, of course," Mace Windu said, "that we have not established any proof of a connection to Dooku. Our evidence that the hemorrhagic plagues are manufactured is only strongly suggestive."

"Siri is certain that the illness is engineered," Obi-Wan said. "She is investigating now on Kedarou. But we have seen no trace of Dooku."

Anakin tightened his mechanical hand into a fist and closed his eyes, but that was no good. He could only see the last image he had of Padmé, the holo-comm image she'd sent up to his ship in orbit. She'd been bleeding from several small cuts on her scalp, and her lovely face had been a mask of blood. She had no news, she'd said. No instructions. Leia had wandered to another part of the infirmary while she waited for the comm-station and couldn't be found quickly enough to talk. Padmé only wanted to say she loved him and would miss him and then the power had been cut and he'd lost her forever.

Something small and warm touched his natural arm, and he looked down to see Luke standing beside him, holding the sleeve of his tunic and looking frightened.

Anakin put a hand on Luke's head and took a deep, calming breath. "And yet you suspect Dooku. Why?"

The Council members glanced at one another, and Anakin felt their nervousness. Yoda turned away and looked out the window. Anakin again forced his temper down. They already thought he was an explosive device simply ticking down to detonation. He was not going to prove them right, at least not in front of Luke.

"I received a message fr

 

Oh, wow. What more can I say? I did like the way Obi-Wan almost said 'get to know your son' and then slipped the word 'padawan' in there just in time. Whew!

 

I am really lovin' this fic. I like how you write Obi-Wan. It is sometimes hard to be a fan of Obi-Wan and Anakin and read fanfics. Many times Obi-Wan is portrayed in a bad light and vice-versa. I am very happy to see that this is not the case here.

 

*hugs Ani* My poor dear...

Wonderful post, JG! Absolutely awesome!

AQ

 

Oh, terrific. This is perhaps the first truly AOTC EU I've read, using the events of the screenplay very well. Anakin is still amazingly young here, isn't he? 27, 28? If Luke is nine? Or did he and Padmé wait a bit to have the twins?

Anyway, bravo!

 

I'm guessing three years, for the Ep2-Ep3 gap, so he's probably around 31 or 32. Pretty young widower.

I'm glad you like it!

 

I like it too!!! Though I cannot decide if I prefer "prequel" chapters to "sequel" chapters - a real SW fic, isn't it??? - well I guess both are important.

I can't wait to see if this story fits into the "Grand Design" of the Force- Palpy is gone, some sacrifices of the Skywalker family have been made, but at the moment no one really wants to start to reform the Jedi Order - not even Anakin (if he had given Leia to Kenobi she would have been alive now...).

Oooh, I think I'm too tired now and don't know what I'm talking about... Better go to sleep.

Great post!

 

I disappear for a week and JG goes prolific. . .

(I'm NOT complaining. )

Brilliant work. I loved the Luke/Anakin interaction at Dex's. Things like Anakin reached across the table and messed up his hair . The small touches (you bring them across so wonderfully)...gosh, you just make reading worth it.

Right. Moving on. LOVED the O/Siri. I don't know anything about Siri (I did read Family Portrait, however, so I really like her character) but you make her tough and smart and likeable, which is cool. Excellent descriptions of the plauge, too -- very real. I wonder if medical training is part of the Jedi's typical education? Siri seems well versed in it.

(Then again, I've gathered Siri is anything but typical.)

Obi-Wan on the Council? **falls asleep** Typical.

I like the name Tazi. I'm too dense to understand exactly what she's doing (re-reading will help -- unless you're purposely leaving us in the dark [face_shocked] ) but it sounds chilling. That whole BIT about her was chilling. Dooku always struck me as the dark side version of Alec Guiness, which was scary enough, but now, as this chemical warfare demon (am I sensing real life connotations?), he's TERRIFYING.

Oh, and it's pure genius that Ani's still afraid of the Council. They've always been awful to him, and still are. You understand his character like no other.

 

Thanks. The plague is based on congenital disease I've heard of, so it has some basis.

I think Siri may have some biomedical training, which is why she's there (that doesn't come from Watson, I'm making it up); I don't know if it would be regular training, though at least knowing battlefield medicine would probably be useful. As for Tazi Chandara, more will be made clear.

Glad you all are still liking it.

------------
The next week passed quickly for Luke, the days seeming like a relay race, each passing the baton to the next as smoothly as possible, each running as fast as it could to reach the next hand-off. When he had first met Master Anakin and sensed his deep sadness, Luke had been certain that time would go slowly; days in that fog would stretch into infinity, and he would be tired from feeling that pain from so close.

But he had been wrong. Any time Master Anakin caught him trying to read feelings, he built up a wall, and the only time he had been strict was when Luke had tried to breach it. It was during the second day, and he had grabbed Luke's wrist and said, "I am your Jedi Master, Luke, and when I give you an instruction, it is for your benefit or your protection. This directive is for both. I want you to learn to hear your own feelings and your own senses, so that you have some judgment of your own in crisis situations, rather than allowing yourself to be fully led by other people's feelings. And I don't want you to get hurt looking into my feelings. I miss my wife and daughter. You know this. But I want you to be happy. I want you to be comfortable and serene. Those feelings of mine are not going to help you."

Luke frowned. "I don't like it when you make that wall. No one else does that."

"I'll only block myself off from you if I am feeling something I don't wish you to feel or if you are trying to read me without my permission. The first is for your protection. The second is because it's rude to eavesdrop." He smiled faintly. "My wife used to scold my daughter for listening at doorways. It's not nice. And you might hear things you don't want to hear."

Luke, thinking it was something of a joke, asked, "What, are there sometimes you don't like me?"

But Master Anakin had not taken it as a joke. His smile had faded and he'd said, quite seriously, "Promise me that you will never imagine such a thing again, Luke. There will never be a time like that. I don't want you ever believing there could be."

Luke had nodded, feeling foolish for making the joke, but schooling himself not to feel for Master Anakin's real response. In the two days since, he'd gotten a little better at it. Master Anakin had decided that a good way to teach the lesson would be to teach him to handle a lightsaber left-handed--so Luke could train himself to use something other than his dominant senses.

It worked. By the fourth day of their training together, Luke was getting the hang of using his left hand, and Master Anakin had even made a joke about how it had ended up useful for him... wiggling the mechanical fingers of his right hand for effect. Master Obi-Wan had been there and had asked in a concerned way if the mechanical arm was malfunctioning in some way. Luke and Master Anakin had just looked at each other and grinned.

By the end of that first week, Luke barely remembered what it had felt like not to be Master Anakin's padawan, and Master Anakin often laughed and smiled. The periods of blackness still happened--Luke could see it in his face sometimes, when some stray memory surfaced and reminded him of everything he had lost--but he fought them better, and came out of them more quickly. Life took on a routine that was both challenging and satisfying... training, classes, more training, trips to museums (Master Anakin was determined to expose Luke to all kinds of high culture for some reason), nightly meditation. And talks. About all manner of things, any time Luke felt like it.

Obi-Wan came to eat with them in the quarters they shared (there was a common room with t

 

JG, you aren't SERIOUS! Blazing Force! This can't be happening!!!!

[face_shocked] [face_shocked]

And here I was going to comment about the brilliance of the Luke-Anakin bonding...STARS! Siri was certain the infection had passed. She wouldn't have lied to Obi-Wan...

This sounds *exactly* like the nastiness Tazi had been planning. I'm not going to be surprised if it's traced back to her.

Gosh, if they want Anakin to fight Dooku for them, this is definitely going to be a influence...

I just can't BELIEVE IT! Obi-Wan AND Siri.

You know, I came to this kind of expecting the plot to go a certain way, but you've brilliantly managed to skirt around that yet again (AOTQ was the same way). I have no idea what you're going to do, and that's just invigorating.

Forget everything else I wanted to say...let it be known throughout that this post was AMAZING...

Almost forgot: Luke dreamed about Leia? That's interesting. I wonder if it was a foreshadowing of the plague. Or if it means she's alive. Or if he's drawing a connection to Anakin. **shivers** The possibilities...

 

Oh no!! Don't tell me that they are going to die there??

Hihi Love the idea of Luke dreaming about Leia... Poor Ani.. There's never a break from him.

Post soon!

Luv Cindy

 

Oh, wow. Being an Obi-Wan fan, I should be more worried about him catching this plague from Siri, but instead, all I can think about is little Leia. When I read what Luke reported about his dream, I thought she must be lost in the Force somehow, and unable to contact her mother, because Padme was not Force-sensitive. Instead, it's Luke who picks up on her signals.

I liked the gentle humour of Anakin teaching Luke to use his lightsaber left-handed, and Obi-Wan asking if there were something wrong with Anakin's mechanical hand. And the way it took Anakin several minutes to find his way back from the pantry.

 

Exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of my doubts are gone now- I love this story It's high time to start to trust Gala, isn't it?!
*shaking head* I'm silly, I know

It's a glorious fic!

I hope Luke and Kenobi are not mistaken about what to tell Anakin... We'll see.

Rootleaf stew?!?!? A useful masterpiece of gastronomy after having eaten too much turkey recently? Well, great idea...

It's funny to know that little Leia's eavesdropping ability is actually canon: I think in ROTJ novellization some "half-heard wispers" are mentioned... So great job Gala (and Sil, too, though it belongs to another story )!

 

What an excellent story. Thank you Jedi Galadriel!

 

Leia is alive!!!

... and Obi-Wan is in trouble...

Great stuff!

 

Leia...alive? I'm not so sure...

 

Wonderful story here! Love it! Anakin and Luke are both portrayed wonderfully!

 

Wowsy! Awesome post, JG! Very cool! Keep up the great work!

Obi-Wan and Siri...

*faints dead away*

AQ

 

Wonderful story! You really make me like Anakin... Can't believe I just said that...

Obi-Wan is infected... Please don't let him die!!!

More please!

Nicky

 

What in the worlds is this doing on page 10???