Thank heavens...I got through this chapter. I had writers block because I wasn't sure how I was going to do all of this or how I would have the breakout go. But tonight I sat myself down and forced myself to write. The updates for this story should start being a little more regular now that I'm passed that. Yaaay!

I apologize for taking so long (I feel like that's all I'm doing these days) and in latter weeks I have no excuse, just that I lacked motivation and ideas. Though my motivation is back and I'm itching to do a lot of writing. Here I am, I'm back. Don't freak out if you don't have an update immediately, some of these stories have nightmarishly long chapters.

PLEASE review, I love the feedback, and sometimes it gets the creative ideas flowing, plus it serves as motivation to keep writing when I'm struggling. I hope you guys stick with me! I'm not giving up on any of my stories! I'm finishing all of them!

Enjoy!


"This mission just became a little more complicated."

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Padme, Luke, and Aria were all gathered around in Aria's and Padme's hotel room, sharing the information everyone had come up with. Obi-Wan had a small map of the town pulled up and zoomed in on the prison, and everyone was crowded around the single image in various poses of thoughtfulness. Obi-Wan had been the one to speak, and Aria couldn't help but agree with him.

"So are you telling me that the spy that came in was trying to rescue this contact's family, and he got caught too? Are they being kept in the same prison?" Aria asked.

"Supposedly, yes. At least that makes it a little easier in terms of not having to break into more than one prison, though on the other side that also means we'll have to spend longer in the one prison to get them all out," Luke explained.

"So do we have any ideas on how we're going to get them out? I know some of us are experienced in breaking people out of jails of some kind."

"Well, in the back there's a dumpster that could potentially hide a hole in the wall," Anakin commented.

"That may be so, but we don't know what's behind that dumpster. I think we need to get our hands on some blueprints or intel of some kind to actually know what we're cutting into," Obi-Wan added.

"And didn't you say there was only one guard for the parameter? Wouldn't they have at least two?" Aria asked. "At least, that would make sense to me."

"It could be possible—they may have been in the middle of the change of guard that we were there."

"And walking in the front door is definitely not possible—officer's clearance and all," Luke said with a sigh.

"Well, those blueprints…we could find someone who's been in the prison for information perhaps, and draw up some blueprints from what they describe if all else fails and we can't find actual blueprints," Aria suggested.

"Let's try to avoid that, someone might get suspicious if we start asking around for someone to describe the layout of the prison," Padme stated. Aria shrugged.

"It was just an idea."

"I'd say we do a little more reconnaissance now that we know what we're looking for. Maybe if we look in the right places, we can find something that will show us the inside of the prison," Luke stated.

"Makes me wish we'd brought Artoo," Aria muttered, causing Luke to smile if only slightly.

"Yes, well, I didn't think I'd need him. I should have known better."

"Okay…so our next goal is to try and find some blueprints of the prison. That shouldn't be too hard," Anakin said, standing at his full height. Aria suddenly felt very small at the action—she was only five foot six, like Luke.

"Does this mean you're volunteering?" Aria asked.

"Sure, someone has to do it," Anakin replied with a shrug.

"I'll go with him so he doesn't get into any trouble," Padme volunteered after a few moments of silence. "That way Obi-Wan can stay and continue to work with Luke."

"I'm up for that plan!" Aria said, crawling onto the bed and flopping down dramatically. "I'll stay right here and watch. Maybe do some studying and whatnot."

"Or answer questions. That would be nice as well," Obi-Wan said casually.

"Well, we'll leave you three to it and come back when we've found something," Padme said, already stepping around the two still on the floor, causing Obi-Wan to click off his map and Luke to lean out of the way.

"Don't be out too late kids!" Aria called with a grin, causing Anakin to scowl momentarily.

"Don't stay up past your bed time," Anakin retorted, and Aria stuck her tongue out at him before he left, turning to see Obi-Wan giving her an odd look.

"What? Everyone is allowed a little childishness every now and then," Aria said defensively, pushing herself back against the headboard of the bed. "So, what is it that you wanted to ask me?"

"I was wondering, the other day when you advised me to let Anakin go after his mother…that doesn't have anything to do with his fall, does it?" Obi-Wan asked, arching a brow at her as he rose to his feet, Luke close behind him.

"Yes, it does," Aria stated with a sigh. "If he doesn't get there in time to save her it becomes one of his first steps to the dark side. Or at least a major one, one that Sidious will use to manipulate him further. The classic, 'oh you did it this one time so why can't you do it now,' trick."

Obi-Wan nodded, expression serious. "And then earlier we were looking for your paper that has the aurebesh and the alphabet side by side, but we couldn't find it. We made do without, but we were wondering where it went."

"It's probably back in Luke's room," Aria said easily. "Some things it would probably be safer not traveling around with us, like the key to all this information I have on the papers."

Luke's room on the Executor. Best not to tell them that I purposely left it with Vader.

Obi-Wan's gaze narrowed at the half-truth he probably sensed, but he didn't push her. Luke decided to speak up then.

"We actually got pretty far with the English lesson. Still can't read it fluently, but I'm still pretty happy with the progress."

Aria nodded. "That's good to hear. Then you can start helping me shift through some of this information—it'll be good practice," she said with a grin. Luke rolled his eyes.

"Figures. You'll turn around and put me to work with something else as soon as I get a break," Luke said with a grin.

"Well, why not?" Aria said innocently.

"Or I could help you with your Force techniques, Luke, there are still those. I wouldn't say you have a break quite yet," Obi-Wan commented.

Luke seemed to repress a sigh, turning to Obi-Wan. "Right…I forgot about those for a moment. Let's work on that—it will save me the paperwork."

Aria snickered. "Should have known better than to ask a Skywalker for help with paperwork…"

Obi-Wan smiled but didn't comment, and within moments he and Luke were at work with expanding his sense of the Force, and Aria was simply shuffling through more papers. In the midst of her reading on the Clone Wars, Aria suddenly made a sound of disgust. "Obi-Wan, there's something wrong with you…"

Obi-Wan stopped in the middle of what he was doing with Luke—who had also stopped—and stared at her. "Excuse me?"

Aria blushed. "Oh…I ah…didn't mean to say that out loud…sorry."

"Where did that even come from?" Obi-Wan inquired further.

"I was reading, don't pay attention to anything I said, I can't tell you what I was reading," Aria said with a wave of her hand.

"Speaking of things you can and can't tell us," Luke suddenly piped up, coming to stand beside the bed. "Have you decided on whether or not you're going to show us the second movies in each other's series?"

Aria sighed, sitting back to lean against the headboard and playing with her highlighter. "I guess…you'll have to start watching without the others—they can't see the movies you're going to see now, since episode two is where they came from, though you can still see the next movie they're going to watch. Episode five has already happened for you."

Luke nodded, stepping away again. "That's fine with me, though Anakin might complain."

Aria snorted. "He'll just have to deal with it. And after he snooped in my computer, I think his complaining about retained information might go down some."

"I just hope they find somewhere that has blueprints," Obi-Wan said pointedly. Aria smiled.

"Well…you guys should focus on the present. I'm the one who has to think in terms of past, present, and future, while keeping everything up here organized so I don't mix something up and make a mistake," Aria said, tapping the side of her head with her highlighter before she stretched out, picking up her stack of papers to resume what she'd been doing.

Luke sighed, turning back to Obi-Wan. "Right…one thing at a time for us."


"Have you found anything?"

The quiet inquiry thankfully didn't echo in the rather empty library, and Padme looked up from her spot at one of four tables in a clear area. Anakin had emerged from one of the rows of shelves around them, a few data chip candidates for sources that may have something in his hands. Padme nodded, bringing up a projection of what she'd found.

"I think so…it's a little old, but it should be good enough for our purposes. Old maps are better than no maps," she said softly, showing Anakin the building that the chip she currently had projected. "And I had to do some digging in the way back, historical section to find it. But it's definitely what we want."

Anakin came to stand beside her, studying the building and highlighting a certain spot of wall. "This is where we were, the spot where the dumpster was. What's behind it?"

Padme shifted the image, bringing it to a view inside from above. "Stairs. Not the top of them either—there's a drop on the other side of that wall, and a steep one too."

Anakin zoomed in on the image, studying the drop-off and the rest of the floor. "It's not that bad. At least now we know that all the actual cells are underground. That makes it a little more difficult."

"Come on, let's just take this back to the hotel room so that we don't have to worry about someone finding us researching this. It's best if we don't raise suspicion early."

Anakin nodded, taking the chip from her to pocket and starting to gather up the rest of the material they'd unearthed. "Okay—we'll put this back and go."

"Agreed," Padme said quietly, gathering a stack as well before they split up to put everything away and then go.


Luke looked up from where he'd been sitting with Aria going over a little more English, his improving Force Senses tingling. "They're back."

Aria sighed happily, sitting up. "Oh goodie, that means a break from all this. If I would have known I was going to be over my head in paperwork I might have considered coming a little longer."

"Well, do you really have to be looking at all of this constantly?" Luke questioned. Aria shook her head.

"Not really…well…right now I'm trying to figure out the best way to take down the Emperor in the Prequel time, while trying to figure out how to keep us all alive in this time. Plus, I've got a few things I need to think of how I'm going to carefully go about. There are a few cards I've got that I want to play very, very carefully. Some cards that are going to backfire no matter what since a lot of people will be mad I kept them secret."

"That's a wonderful confidence booster, Aria."

"You know, you two make it very difficult to meditate," came Obi-Wan's even voice from over by the window, and Aria smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, Obi-Wan. But you have to get up anyway because the others are back and we need to get to planning."

"I know that—I'm just trying to emphasize the principle," Obi-Wan said with a sigh, getting to his feet.

"Always in teacher mode, Obi-Wan," Aria chided with a smile as the door opened and Padme and Anakin walked in.

"Did you find anything?" Luke asked, and Padme gave him a gentle smile.

"As a matter of fact, we did. It's old, but we found a layout of the prison, at least enough for us to find a way in and out," Padme explained, taking the datapad off of the table and putting in a chip Anakin handed her into the device. With a few taps, she had pulled up the display for everyone to see, and once more everyone huddled around the datapad on the floor.

"I already pointed out that the spot where the dumpster is we mentioned is here, which has a drop on the other side as the stairs are there leading down into the compound," Anakin said, gesturing to the spot.

"Which means that the cells are underground. That makes this a little more difficult," Luke murmured, studying the top floor. "Do we have any way of knowing which cell our targets are in?"

"Not unless you get inside a security terminal…I'm guessing," Aria chipped in.

"Do we at least know what they look like?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yes, we do have a picture of the spy from the briefing, and Zeven Obath did give us a holo of his wife and child," Luke said, tapping the edge of the datapad. "It's all in here already."

Obi-Wan nodded. "We should all memorize what they look like before we act, just to be safe."

"We will, don't worry. Right now we need to focus on how we're going to get in and out, and who will be where."

"Does it show the lower levels?" Aria asked.

"Yes, but I'm not so confident in that information—they could have expanded or renovated since this was published," Padme stated.

"That part we'll have to take with a grain of salt—we may want to simply find the nearest security terminal, like Aria said, and go from there," Anakin suggested.

"So we're going in behind this dumpster, right?" Luke asked, pointing to the spot.

"I would assume so," Anakin replied.

"What about the security cameras, how are we going to deal with those without raising suspicion?" Padme pointed out.

"We could knock out the power for this section of the city," Aria suggested.

"Backup power generators," Luke countered.

"Then the security will have to be handled from the inside," Anakin replied easily.

"I can do that," Obi-Wan said with a secretive smile.

"Does that mean Anakin and I are going in to rescue?" Luke asked.

"You're leaving the girls out again," Aria sang.

Luke rolled his eyes. "We're going into the heart of an Imperial prison—"

"And I can't handle myself?" Padme asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well we need someone to keep an eye out on our entrance and someone to tell us if an alarm is being raised. One person might be suspicious, but two people simply hanging out together, that's a little less noticeable," Luke said pointedly.

"I actually don't mind being in the action without being in the middle of it," Aria admitted. "I'm not exactly a Jedi Knight/Master/Padawan or a kick butt Senator."

"Maybe you should take the time to do some training with us," Luke suggested.

"Maybe…"

"We're getting off track," Obi-Wan chided. "So, we're looking at Padme and Aria acting as lookouts, I'm taking care of security, and Luke and Anakin are conducting the rescues."

"That's what it looks like right now," Anakin said with a nod.

"What about getting out? What are we doing with our rescued members? Everyone's going to be looking for them, we've still got to cement the deal with Obath, and the longer we're here the harder it's going to be to get off the planet," Aria asked.

Obi-Wan leaned back, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "We could establish communications with Obath so that when we've broken out his family and are safely transporting them elsewhere, we can finalize the deal over the transmission. We may want to go there early if he wants something signed."

"Which would mean Luke and I have to go back before we break out his family," Padme said with a nod.

"Should we bring the three onto our ship? Or set up another way off the planet, maybe have the spy take them somewhere safe on a different ship?" Aria suggested.

"It'll be difficult to get them off planet in general with the security at all the landing bays," Luke admitted. "But we can get ahold of some hair dies, give some haircuts, and there's always facial putty to change their appearances so it's easier to get them past security. It should be at least a little easier since we're not trying to smuggle weapons."

"But still, should it be on a separate ship?" Aria asked.

"Probably—we might end up with people who recognize us and are wondering why we have three new people, and as slim of a possibility that may be, I'd rather not risk it," Anakin stated.

"Well, let's do some fine tuning before we head back to Obath so we actually have details to give him if he asks," Padme said pointedly.

"That sounds fine with me," Aria said with a sigh, getting up and flopping down on the bed. "I'll just listen from up here while you guys chat."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "Don't fall asleep."

"Don't worry, I won't."


Once the plans were laid out everyone dispersed to their own rooms, with Anakin and Obi-Wan receiving one room, Padme another, and Luke and Aria another as the hotel they were in only provided two person rooms. It was late, probably the middle of the night, and everyone was fast asleep.

Well, Aria was, until she heard something from the other bed that woke her. She raised her head groggily, her first instinct—being in the Star Wars universe surrounded by Skywalkers—being to make sure no one was trying to kill them. When she saw that the room was empty besides her and Luke, and the sound persisted, she sat up a little more and squinted to see Luke through the darkness.

He wasn't tangled up in his sheets, but he wasn't sleeping peacefully either. Instead he seemed to be drenched in sweat, breathing labored as his head tossed from side to side, shifting restlessly in the bed every now and then. Slipping out of her own bed, when Aria came close enough she could see that he was still fast asleep despite all of the activity, though she stopped just short of the bed.

She wanted to be careful enough she didn't trigger some soldier instinct. She'd heard plenty of stories about PTSD, and if any Star Wars character had the right to have PTSD, it was Luke.

Or Obi-Wan.

Stopping herself from having any stray thoughts at the moment, Aria tried simply waking Luke from a safe distance vocally. "Luke…Luke…Luke, wake up," she said softly. Unfortunately, he didn't respond, and she sighed, getting close enough to shake his arm vigorously. "Luke, wake up."

Luke's movements became a little more animated for a moment, with him rolling onto his side and his arm moving like an overcooked noodle to bat her hand away, though now he was shivering, and Aria pursed her lips, watching him for a second before she went to her backpack, pulling out her portable speaker and her IPod, hooking the two up as she went back over to Luke's bed. She kept the volume low as she searched for the right song, and then the right part of the song, then placed the speaker on the nightstand right next to Luke's head, turned it up loud enough that it would definitely wake him, but not the people in the rooms next to them, and then hit play.

Instantly, the rock band Red was screaming 'Wake up!' from their song Faceless right by his head, and Luke's entire body jumped as he rocketed back to reality, looking around wide awake for the offender with chest heaving and eyes wide. Aria reached over and turned off the speaker, then the IPod.

"Sorry," she said sincerely. "I couldn't wake you up otherwise, and I didn't want to soak your bed with water or risk hitting you and you think you were being attacked."

Luke centered on her, still disoriented. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You were having a nightmare," Aria said simply. "It looked like a nasty one too."

Luke leaned over, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Next time just throw water on me, okay?"

"Got it," Aria said in mild amusement, sitting on the side of his bed. "So are you okay? With the nightmare, I mean…"

Luke looked up at her, shaking his head with a sigh. "Nothing I won't be able to live with."

Aria nodded, messing idly with her fingers. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really, no," Luke replied softly, an awkward silence falling between them. Aria allowed it to linger for a little bit, and then filled the silence with her own inquiry.

"It was about Bespin, wasn't it? Or at least the Executor…"

Luke intertwined his fingers, looking up at her and giving a silent nod, offering no words of confirmation. Aria sighed, looking down and allowing the silence to resume for a few moments before she spoke again.

"I'm no expert on it, but I'm sure…with time…it'll get better," she suggested.

"I hope you're right," he finally said, his voice barely audible. Aria nodded, looking back up at him.

"We can do that questions game again to get your mind off of it so you can go back to sleep," she suggested, and Luke smiled, even if it was a small smile.

"Sure…who starts this time?"

"I will—you need more questions than me." Aria chewed her lip, debating. "Least favorite planet?"

"Easy—Tatooine. Favorite song?"

"That's an evil question and you know it," Aria laughed. "I don't know; I love a lot of songs…Let Me Go by Avril Lavigne feature Chad Kroeger. That's an awesome song…maybe I'll play it for you one day."

"I look forward to it," Luke said with a smile, and Aria shifted to sit beside him on the bed. "Are you a morning or a night person?"

"Evening. It's not too early, and it's not too late," Aria said with a laugh. "Favorite sweet?"

"I'm actually rather fond of chocolate, the rare times I've gotten ahold of some of it," Luke said, lying back down. "What's your favorite Star Wars Movie?"

Aria snorted lying down as well a respectful distance away. "As weird as you may think I am for it once you've seen more, Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi…though I can't even stand to watch all of Revenge of the Sith."

"Fair enough."

"Okay…what's your favorite Force ability so far?"

"The mind tricks…definitely the mind tricks, though I can't do them that well yet myself. What about you?"

"This thing in the books called electric judgement. I don't know if it's a real ability, but if it is, then definitely that one. It's basically green lightning a Jedi produces."

"Wow…I didn't know about that."

"You used it in the books—you were rather proficient with it too."

"Really? I'll have to look into that…that would be a handy and cool skill to have…"

Back and forth they went with questions and comments, coming to know each other on a deeper level through the night until, eventually, they fell asleep side by side without any warning.

And neither of them suffered another nightmare.