Chapter Ten: Force Ghosts 1 of 2

Yoda's force ghost lingered long after Luke left, not quite manifesting into the physical world, but not disappearing into the force either. Becoming one with the force had revitalised him but he could still enjoy sitting peacefully before a merry blaze.

The great tree that had once housed the ancient Jedi texts turned out to be quite flammable. If Yoda hadn't been incorporeal he would have needed to move back to avoid being burned by just the radiating heat.

A tall robed figure materialised beside him. The faint blue glow of a Jedi spirit was washed out by the firelight. "Master Yoda," he began hesitantly.

"A question you have, young one?"

"I thought spirits couldn't affect the physical world?"

"Changed, things have," Yoda said thoughtfully, gazing into the flames.

"So...we can affect the physical world?" Came the cautious question.

"Set fire to a tree with lightning, could I, if it was not so?" Yoda grumbled, gesturing at the spreading blaze with his gimmer stick. Who knew the island grasses in such a humid area were so flammable?

The other Jedi lowered his head, admitting the point. "Thank you, Master," he said. "Excuse me, but I have some places to be."

With a grin, the spirit of Anakin Skywalker vanished.

"Put her down."

Rey went from being held high above the throne room to a collapsed heap on the floor in the time it took her to blink. She didn't know that voice and she couldn't see who spoke, but she could tell Snoke and Kylo were freaked out.

"But you're dead," Snoke gasped.

"Grandfather!"

"I'll get to you later, kid," the voice ordered, "I'm talking to the drama queen in the gold slippers."

"Darth Vader," Snoke said, glaring down at them from his throne.

Rey spun so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash and was almost disappointed to see a tall man in Jedi robes instead of the darkly armoured figure of legend.

"My name," the man said firmly, walking forward, "is Anakin Skywalker. Jedi Knight."

Snoke laughed mockingly. "Once a Sith always a Sith."

"But Grandfather!" Ben protested as the man walked past without so much as a glance.

"I will get to you later," Anakin told him fiercely. "Now be quiet while I deal with the creature you enslaved yourself to."

"I'm not a slave," Kylo Ren mumbled, kicking the ground.

"What was that?" Anakin turned to give him the full weight of his regard and Kylo backed down.

"Nothing."

"I thought so," Anakin turned back to the rapidly recovering Snoke. "That's a lie of the Dark Side," he argued, "but even if it wasn't...shouldn't you be more worried if I was still a Sith?"

"Force spirits can't affect the physical world," Snoke's sneer was almost as magnificent as his hand embroidered footwear.

By this point, Anakin was standing beside Rey and she finally noticed his faint blue glow. Did that mean something?

Anakin smirked and reached out with one hand. The lightsaber that had smacked Rey in the head when she'd tried to summon it, went directly to his hand.

"This is mine," he said.

Faster than Rey could follow, Anakin ignited the lightsaber and leapt forward. There was a humming blur of light and the next thing anyone knew, pieces of the Supreme Leader were falling to the ground.

"Poser," Anakin sniffed, his lightsaber already deactivated and back on his belt.

The praetorian guard chose that moment to react but a casual gesture made them slam back into the shiny red walls so hard they twitched but didn't get up.

Rey gaped. Kylo Ren's mouth was moving but no sounds came out.

"And now for you, Grandson," Anakin declared, stalking back across the room. Rey couldn't blame Kylo for his flinch. She was just glad she'd been pretty much ignored so far.

"Everything I did was for you, Grandfather," Kylo said quickly. "I wanted to finish what you started, I sacrificed so much..."

"You sacrificed?" Anakin scoffed. "What do you know of sacrifice? Who have you tried to save but lost anyway? What have you given up that wasn't eagerly tossed aside? How much suffering have you caused and reveled in?"

"You're supposed to understand!" Kylo backed away and Anakin started circling him.

"What I understand is that you dug up my remains to fondle my former helmet. What I understand is that you tried to kill your uncle - my son who brought me back to the light - , succeeded in killing your father and massacred the Jedi temple."

"What I understand is that you've set out to destroy everything my children built: the peace, the prosperity." He pinned his grandson with his glare, "I did not fall to the dark side for this! Everything I did was to protect my family and that's the first thing you threw out!"

"That just means I'm stronger than you," Kylo pouted.

Anakin's hand gripped the air and Kylo started to choke, grasping at his throat. Rey went very still; this was not a battle she wanted to get in the middle of. And Anakin made some very good points.

"I find your lack of common sense disturbing," he said, then released his grip. "Now you are going to order the fleet to call off the pursuit, and you," he turned to finally acknowledge Rey, "are going to get a copy of all Snoke's files. The Republic can use that intelligence to wipe out what's left of the First Order."

Rey nodded eagerly and hurried over to the console. She didn't even need any codes since it was supposed to be guarded constantly by the praetorian guard (and Snoke was nearby).

Kylo was bent over still recovering his breath and Anakin was muttering to himself. Rey thought she heard something about 'this is why they don't let force spirits get involved', but it didn't make much sense so she shrugged it aside.

Anakin nudged Kylo into action with a frown and he reluctantly took his turn at the terminal, ordering the fleet to cease and desist all action. He shouted down all arguments, which worked and didn't raise any eyebrows because everyone knew Kylo Ren was always acting like that. The officers in charge just hoped he hadn't destroyed any more rooms of expensive equipment during his latest tantrum. They were still getting grief for the last time from the repair crews. (The First Order wasn't made of money and they'd just lost Starkiller base. They couldn't afford to keep paying for his outbursts.)

"What are you doing, Anakin?" A cultured voice asked and a moment later another faintly glowing figure in Jedi robes appeared, older than the first.

"Fixing things that shouldn't have been broken," Anakin said with a dark look towards his grandson.

The older Jedi gave Kylo Ren a long searching look that made him want to find a hole to hide himself in. He settled for folding his arms, avoiding eye contact and looking sullen.

"Hmm, yes," he turned back to Anakin, "but we're not supposed to interact with the living."

"We cannot interact with the physical world," Anakin corrected him.

"Except now we can," the other Jedi noted, looking around the room. They shared a long look and the old Jedi smiled, brushing a hand against his moustache and beard. "What are you up to?"

Anakin gave him an innocent look that didn't work considering he was surrounded by the remnants of exactly what he was up to. "Can you escort the family embarrassment back to his mother? There are a few more things I need to deal with."

"Very well," he glared at Kylo then turned to Rey. "I can correct Rey's misapprehensions regarding the Force on the way."

Suddenly Rey felt like joining Kylo Ren in shuffling her feet. Instead she asked, "Who are you?"

"Master Jedi, Obi-wan Kenobi," Anakin introduced his old master with a smirk. "Now behave while I'm gone," he ordered them both and vanished.

Meanwhile on the bridge of the Supremacy, two technicians were quietly arguing.

"Are we supposed to follow orders from Ren?" The first muttered, her hands busy on the console in front of her.

"He's the Supreme Leader's apprentice," the second replied, glancing around to check for eavesdroppers as he did his best to look busy.

"Hux wouldn't take orders from him," she retorted.

"Hux wouldn't take kolto from Ren if he was bleeding to death," he said.

"Where is Hux?"

"There's malfunctions all over the ship - maybe the fleet," he leaned over slightly as he shared the gossip. "He got called away to deal with it."

"What could Hux do about that?" She actually turned away to gaze at him incredulously for a long moment before she recovered her wits and turned back to her station. "The height of his battle strategy is the longest, slowest chase in galactic history. And what does he know about technical issues?"

"The mid level officers just want to bump it up the chain of command so they're not responsible when the Supreme Leader's looking for scapegoats," he shrugged.

"Office politics," she made the words sound like a curse.

"Ten credits says it's all due to something Ren broke in his latest tantrum."

"My ten credits says it's cause all the technicians are too busy fixing what he's broken to do normal upkeep."

An officer strode past and they both went quiet, focusing on their tasks.

On Canto Bight, Anakin was enjoying the chaos. For creatures so beaten and tamed, he was surprised when they didn't so much as balk at stampeding through the heavily populated casino, filled with bright lights and strange loud noises.

He wished them luck, but he was focused on ensuring the freedom of other beings right then. He stalked through the slave barracks and broke all the locks, removing the guards and slave masters with varying degrees of violence. He'd come prepared to deal with implanted bombs too but at most there was the odd shock collar which was easily dealt with by a master of the Force.

To his surprise and growing annoyance, very few of the newly freed slaves chose to so much as leave their quarters.

"You're free!" He shouted at them, "there's nothing standing in your way. You can go!"

People started cowering away from him and utterly disheartened he retreated to the beach to fume.

"Why won't they escape?!"

"Oh Ani, still trying to force the galaxy into order?"

"Padme!" He cried, spinning to face the shimmering form that had materialised beside him. "But you're not a Jedi?"

"As if I'd let that stop me," Padme Amidala said. "Freeing the slaves is a bit more involved than breaking some doors down," she explained. "It's like those poor animals the resistance freed; they'll just be rounded up again and the slaves who helped them punished."

"We have to do something, Padme," Anakin looked almost stricken, remembering his own childhood as a slave and how much worse it could have been. He had a rather accurate idea of what those punishments would entail.

"Don't worry, my love," Padme stepped closer and touched his face gently, "I've got this."

"Do you?" He teased gently, smiling down at her with admiration.

"It's simple," she said, shifting her attention to glare up at the casino. She'd always hated slavery and these war mongering would-be oligarchs reminded her of the worst of her political foes. "We start with those at the top."

Ten minutes later the casino was in even greater disarray and Padme had the ruling class of Canto bight exactly where she wanted them; over a barrel. Negotiating with an angry Jedi spirit hovering nearby was almost too easy but Padme wasn't going to complain.

The group had so much wealth between them that Padme extended her original plan to redistribute it between the local slaves to include slaves from further afield.

"Tatooine next?" She asked her husband as they watched the freed slaves leave on their new ships.

"I love you, my angel," he said.

"I know," she smiled. Taking his hand they vanished into the ether together.