KEYNote: I fib a bit on the timeline with someone's age, but hey, it's fanfiction, just doc two years off his age in the first movie.

Chapter 3 - The Silence

Aashmi was starting to get nervous.

And not for the reasons she had expected.

She had been living with Luke for two weeks now and he hadn't pressed an advance, which was both incredibly polite and deeply confusing.

The man had saved her from a Hutt, freed her, and killed a rancor, then he had brought her home with him, providing shelter, safety, and food.

And he had asked for nothing in return.

In fact, she was having more issues with sideways looks from Luke's oldest brother Clieff.

But Luke, Luke was perfect, too perfect, and she was scared to push because he seemed to be so careful of her. He had given so much to her already. And when her period didn't come the following week, she wasn't sure how to confront him.

She wanted him, by the stars, she wanted him, and with a possible baby on the way, she wanted a father for that baby. She just didn't know if Luke wanted her still or if he would want his baby. Perfect men had to have catastrophic flaws, it was karmic law after all.

Aashmi waited for him in his room, knowing he would return with his father and brothers soon. She knew she should be in the kitchen with Gredda, but Aashmi was too anxious to pretend she liked cooking.

She put a hand on her stomach, she supposed she would have to learn to cook for her own child.

Stars help her, she didn't want to be alone for this.

She laid back on Luke's bed, thinking maybe if she had jumped him rather than cried on him her first night here things would be easier between them.

She hugged the pillow, when was he getting bac-

Her hand touched something cold and metal. Sitting up, her hand wrapping around the object, she lifted it toward the light.

Her heart stopped, no, it can't be.

She held it out, careful that neither end was pointed toward her, then flipped the switch.

Green light hummed to life.

Her mind was blank when Luke walked in, she gaped at him as the pieces fell into place.

"I can explain," he said.

She didn't know what to say to that as he approached her slowly.

The most dangerous weapon in the galaxy, and he kept it under his pillow?

No wonder the rancor didn't scare him. He was a freaking Jedi!

"You are Jedi?"

"Yes."

She tried to think of what that meant, and the only thing she came up with was: space wizard.

"Why are you here?" she asked.

"This is my family."

"You said you were a pilot."

"I am," he said, stepping closer. "Aashmi, please, just let me explain."

Explain what? And what did he mean he was a pilot, Jedi were Jedi, weren't they? Family? Jedi were family to themselves only. At least that's the way the legends had made it sound.

Oh stars! She was pregnant with a Jedi's baby! Would he take the child from her?

Aashmi pointed the light stick at him, the deadly humming light stick at him, "What are you doing here? Why would a Jedi be a moisture farmer?"

"Because I was only a Jedi for a short time, I spent the first nineteen years of my life on this farm."

"You're too perfect!" she yelled at him, finally losing it. "You're- you- you did everything right! You treated me like a gentleman, I was the one who took you to bed, then you introduced me to your family, and saved me from a hutt by killing a rancor with a flimsy knife! Who does that!?"

"The knife was surprisingly strong," he quipped.

"Shut up!" she yelled at him, shaking the lightsaber at him, "I have the glow stick! You are going to answer my questions! Why me!? Why save me!? Why when you don't even seem to want me?"

His face fell into confused lines, "Want you? Aashmi, of course, I want you. I like you, a lot, but… I didn't want to make you feel obligated. I freed you because I could, but I don't want you to feel indebted to me. If you liked me, I mean, if you felt anything for me in return, then I wanted you to like me for me not because I was the guy who freed you from a Hutt."

She could have cried, "Why are you so damn perfect?"

His smile was self-deprecating, "I'm not, Aashmi. I promise you, I'm not perfect."

She lowered the lightsaber, and he quickly stepped forward and took it from her. He had it deactivated before she could protest. She put her hands on his chest.

He wasn't an acrobat, he was a Jedi. A peace keeper, a warrior of old.

She couldn't look at him as she asked, "Right, name one thing that isn't perfect about you?"

He lifted her chin so that their eyes could meet, "I'm a time traveller who got pulled from the past to the future and back again, for an unknown purpose by some spirit guy named Will."

There was a beat of silence as she replayed what he had just said in her mind.

He was a crazy person.

But then she already knew that. Arching a brow at him, she said, "Circumstantially, what's actually wrong with you?"

His eyes lit up, "You believe me?"

"Time travel is not as weird as you appearing in my life, Luke."

And maybe she was crazy too, because when his boyish smile overtook his face, all she wanted to do was pull him down to her then push him down on the bed and have her wicked way with him.

"Well," he said, frowning slightly in thought, "I whine, and I have a temper though not as bad as my sister's, who turns out isn't actually my sister, and I can be an idiot at times… you really believe me, about the time travel?"

She nodded, sitting back on the bed, "Tell me, tell me everything so I can understand."

Sitting beside her, he told her about being a farm boy, about Old Ben, about a smuggler and a Wookie, about an Alderaanian princess, a space station that could destroy planets, the Rebel alliance he had joined to help take down an empire, training to be a Jedi in a swamp, the first time he had killed the rancor, and that his father had been a Sith Lord, the opposite thing as a Jedi Knight apparently.

"I'm sorry," she said, interrupting for the first time, "what did you say your name was?"

"Luke Skywalker."

And there was the bad thing, the catastrophically bad thing.

She fought for breath, she was going to have her grandson's baby! And her son was going to be an evil lord space wizard who was going to take over the galaxy and chop off his son's hands and blow up his daughter's planet.

Aashmi's granddaughter's homeworld!

What had she done to deserve this kind of karma punishment!?

"Aashmi?" Luke asked.

"Are you Luke Lars or Luke Skywalker?"

He tilted his head, "Luke Lars, I did a blood test and everything. I don't want to trust Will but, well, I can't prove him wrong yet."

"You've been to so many planets," she said, her head spinning, hoping against hope that she hadn't had sex with her grandson.

No, she hadn't just slept with him, she had taken his virginity!

"I guess," Luke was saying, "but is that really the onl-"

"We had sex!" she blurted.

His smile was unsure, "Yes?"

"Who knows what diseases you could be carrying around with you."

He flushed, "Oh, well, nothing I know of- I mean, I'm healthy so-"

She shook her head, "That's not good enough, I need to run a blood test on you."

"Okay," he said, sounding hurt by her tone, clearly not expecting that this wouldn't be what she reacted to. But at that moment, she had larger issues at hand.

"Now, Luke."

He stood awkwardly, looking around the room. Luckly, he had a med kit with an advanced enough computer to handle this. She didn't want him to see what she was doing because she did not want to explain to him that she was his grandmother! "Out!" she demanded as soon as she had his sample, then softening her tone, she said, "I just, I need time to take this all in."

He nodded, looking awkward as he stood by the door, "Dinner will probably ready soon, do you-"

"I'm not hungry," she cut him off.

He dipped his head, "Alright… Aashmi, I'm sorry." He left before she could say anything else.

Guilt swirling in her gut, she flicked on the mini computer. The thing's history showed that it had last been used for this purpose. The little lines showing a direct connection to L.L.1 and G.L to L.L.2. She rescanned Luke's sample again, and the line reappeared to L.L.2, unchanged. She took her own blood sample, and inserted it to the little device that would absolve or condemn her. No lines appeared between A.S. to L.L.2.

No relation.

Her next breath came out in a great exhalation of relief.

And then she clicked the next option.

Confirmed Pregnancy.

Tears spilled from her eyes, and she curled herself on Luke's bed.

She was pregnant, pregnant with a man who since the night she had met him, she had been falling in love with a little more each and every day afterward.

When Luke came back to her, the tears had dried and she had erased the history. He had said that he had wanted her to like him for him.

When she took his hand, it was in determination to show him that she more than liked him.

Despite his being a crazy space wizard who had made a loop into the future.

oOo

A month passed, Aashmi had gained weight with a steady diet, but she was pretty sure that at least Gredda was aware that her growing belly was, in fact, a baby bump.

Luke, bless him, wasn't that perceptive.

She honestly had a hard time believing he was a Jedi Knight some days, until she remembered him jumping into a hole with a rancor.

She wondered if all Jedi were his type of crazy.

"Aashmi?" Luke asked as he walked into their shared room.

She had excused herself early so she could light the candles. Knowing what she was about to do was the epitome of unconventional, which just made her want to do it more. "Luke Lars," she greeted.

He came into the room, the door closing behind him, his face was suspicious but his eyes were sparkling.

The way he looked at her took her breath away.

"I love you," she said.

He smiled, crossing the room to take her hand, "I love you too."

She squeezed that hand, her pulse suddenly in her throat as he waited for her to speak, knowing her well enough to understand she had more to say.

"Luke," she began, placing her free hand over his heart, "will you marry me?"

His eyes widened, and then he was lifting her, spinning her around the room, "Yes! Yes, absolutely yes!"

She laughed, cupping his face.

He kissed her back, and she felt complete in that moment.

When they broke apart, she said, "And I want you to take my name."

"Alright," he said without hesitation, then he blinked, "I didn't even know you had a last name."

She grinned, "Skywalker. Aashmi Skywalker."

Dawning horror crossed his expression, and she laughed, "That was my reaction, but I did the blood test, we aren't related."

Pure relief slacked his expression before he smiled again, "That's good, and yes, I would be honoured to take your name."

She took his hand, brought it down to her stomach, "And Luke, I'm pregnant with our baby."

His blue, blue eyes went wide again, but this time there were tears in his eyes as he dropped to his knees before her, he looked at a loss for words.

"You're upset?" she asked.

He shook his head, gripping her hips, "No, no, I'm… this is the happiest moment of my life."

Her heart broke and was remade, and she thanked that Force of his that had brought them together.

Luke Skywalker married his wife at the setting of two suns, her crimson wedding gown and his pure white robes catching the last of the day's light.

He had never seen anyone so beautiful. The red complimented her dark hair and brown eyes, the red veil swept behind her in a desert breeze, and seeing her like this, he thought his heart would combust with what he felt for her.

He never knew love could feel this way, he never knew he could be this happy, nor that his life could be so full.

oOo

Anakin Skywalker was born at the rising of two suns, he was a loud baby and his parents knew that they would do anything to give him a good life and keep him safe.

oOo

Aashmi Skywalker reached her limit with Tatooine one midday when her brother-in-law tried kissing her while Luke was off changing Anakin's, an infant of three weeks, nappies.

She broke Clieff Lar's nose with a frying pan. Thus ending her previously cordial relations with the larger Lars family.

oOo

The Skywalker family of three moved to Coruscant the night Aashmi was accepted into a Medical Academy whose Outer Rim full scholarship she had been awarded.

"We don't have to move," she began for the hundredth time as Luke shouldered their trunk, they didn't have enough to require more than the one.

"Aashmi, you are not giving up this opportunity."

"But your parents," she argued.

"My parents have two other sons to take care of them."

"But our son-"

"I am more than qualified to take care of the baby while you are in classes and doing homework, besides, we can enroll Ani in a great school on Coruscant. He ought to know more than his old man does about the galaxy."

"But what are we going to do for money-"

"I told you I have plenty," he said, handling the paperwork with the pilot. The scholarship had included transport to Coruscant, and an apartment, but not enough funds to feed three people.

"But how, you're a moisture farmer," she remarked, feeling guilty about uprooting his life.

He turned to her, kissed her cheek then whispered in her ear, "You told me once I needed to win a bit with a Hutt, so I did some research."

It took her moment, "You gambled?" She should have been horrified, mostly she was just astounded that her goody-two-shoes husband had not indebted himself.

"I was rather lucky, one might say."

It dawned on her and she hissed in a low voice, "The Force?"

"Not enough to draw too much attention, but enough that we don't have to worry about this move."

"You cheated," she whispered.

He smirked, "Can you really cheat a cheater?"

She shook her head, holding her sleeping four month old to her chest, he wasn't usually so sound a sleeper, but somehow in the chaos of moving, the babe had found dreamland, "You know what, you're right Coruscant has to be better than Tatooine.

Their guide smiled at them, only having heard the last thing the uniformed woman said, "That's the spirit."

Aashmi scowled at the woman who clearly thought they were two small town hicks.

She was going to be a healer, and her husband was a Jedi Knight, and their baby was the cutest darn baby that had ever babied.

Coruscant was not prepared for the Skywalkers.

Luke and Aashmi had been on Coruscant for not even a full month, but she was already loving her classes and the new clothes that she had bought for herself. Luke was ecstatic that she was so happy and he was perfectly happy being the primary caregiver.

There were only two things he didn't like about Coruscant, first, was the traffic, second was the Jedi Temple being so close.

He had thought the Force had felt different when he first time travelled, but here, it felt incredibly different.

And not wholly good. He felt the other Force users like bright shooting stars.

But he also felt the darkness.

He finally understood why Will had laughed at him when he said that remembering the identity of the Emperor would be important.

Currently, he and his wife were in a speeder, Anakin held in her arms. Anakin was an extremely fussy baby, and they had found that one of the only ways to get him to sleep was to ride around in their speeder. He seemed to find the noise and wind soothing.

How his baby found this so Luke would never understand, he had needed to put black out currents in his and Aashmi's bedroom to be able to sleep.

Though all things considered, it was still better than Hoth.

But then, as a desert boy, Mustafar was preferable to Hoth.

"Are you even listening to me?" Aashmi asked.

He shook his head, "Sorry, love, I was just-"

"Listening to the Force," she finished for him, "this is what I get for marrying a saint."

"I am not a saint," he said.

"According to Samar, Jedi don't marry."

Luke raised a brow, "Neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda ever told me I couldn't get married."

"I think they had bigger problems," she quipped, "but as I was saying, I don't need this." She held up the offending object.

"Aashmi, I would feel better if you had it."

"I'm going to be a healer, do you know how much damage a taser can do?"

"Significantly less damage than a lightsaber," he pointed out.

"Luke!" she chastised.

He shook his head, "I can't always be with you, Aashmi, I need to know that you have some protection."

"You worry too much."

"I thought with your history, you would want something for self-defense."

"The academy isn't four kilometers from the Jedi Temple and our apartment is less than five. Having to lug around a weapon with me does not make me feel like I am safe, when I am."

"We are also within the Senate circle, politicians are scum with a few rare exceptions, and from personal experience, being a Jedi attracts trouble, not the other way around."

"You can't even let me have the illusion can you?" she asked.

Luke didn't respond to this. Since her freedom, Aashmi had had extreme ups and downs with her self-worth. Some days everything was wonderful, and nothing, and he meant nothing, could unseat her from her happiness. Other days, she saw an attacker in every shadowed face, a trick in every smile.

He understood this, his own nightmares from the war had left him content to stay up with Anakin through the night even if he could only take catnaps in the day.

"Luke, I don't mean to be ungra-"

"Stop," he said, as he manoeuvred their speeder to circle the Jedi Temple, Anakin still fast asleep, "we aren't having that discussion again. This is about keeping what we have and that means keeping ourselves safe."

"Yes, but really, what is a taser going to do against someone pointing a blaster at me?"

Luke didn't have time to answer this as his attention had been snagged by one green and one red beams of light sparking against one another outside the Temple walls.

"What did you see?" she asked, turning to look up at the two lightsabers they were a few yards from passing under.

And then the red one powered down as black figure fell toward.

Luke could have swerved out of the way, but they were approaching a cross section and he might have caused an accident so he shouted to his wife, "Red is Sith!"

The figure, a man cloaked in black, with long black hair, and a broken circle scar under his one eye, landed on the back of their speeder.

And Aashmi tased him.

She tased him repeatedly.

Luke steered the speeder back home as he asked, "Don't need it, huh?"

"I hate you."

He grinned, leaning over to kiss her cheek, "Love you too."

Aashmi tased the Dark Lord slumped on the back their speeder one more time for good measure.

Anakin stayed asleep in his mother's arms through it all.

Council Member, Jedi Master Mace Windu was not having a good night.

First, the Temple had been stolen from, then vandalized, then one of their initiates had been turned to the Dark Side by a Padawan -almost Jedi Knight, who had fallen to the Dark Side years ago, another initiate had been mortally threatened, the initiate who had fallen had died, and then the Temple had nearly been bombed because their security system had been by previously mentioned fallen Jedi Padawan.

And that, that, was just the start of it, because not only was that fallen Padawan, Xanatos, one of Qui-Gon Jinn's proteges, the Master's whose Master was Count Dooku who had been one of twenty defected Jedi Masters, but Qui-Gon's other student, Kenobi, had been the one to help save the Temple.

Obi-Wan Kenobi had saved them all, even though not months into his apprenticeship with Master Qui-Gon Jinn he had defected from the Order to help stop a civil war in Melida/Daan, breaking the trust between himself, his Master, and the Order. As it was, Obi-Wan Kenobi had also been a part of initiate Bruck's death. Now the boy was on probation and was almost certainly going to run off to Telos with his once Master, Qui-Gon Jinn to hunt down Qui-Gon's fallen Padawan, Xanatos.

None of the Council members thought for a second that they wouldn't do this, nor that Qui-Gon wouldn't take Obi-Wan back as his Padawan, but none of this was sitting particularly well with Mace.

And his night did not improve when he felt a presence stronger than he could ever recall approaching the Council room.

And then, all people they had just dismissed not fifteen minutes ago, Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Master Tahl, and initiate Bant, waltz back into the Council chamber followed by a young blonde man with Xanatos's unconscious body swung over his shoulder.

He dropped the Dark Sider unceremoniously on the ground. And smiling, the young man said, "I found your Sith Lord."

The room was rendered silent.

Did he just say Sith?

Mace exchanged a look with Master Yoda.

Tonight was going to be one of those nights.

Luke wasn't sure what he expected to find when he returned to the Jedi Temple after dropping Aashmi and Anakin off safely at home.

He certainly hadn't been expecting to just be able to walk through the Temple unhindered until he got to the spire where he could sense Master Yoda.

He also hadn't expected to run into a blind Jedi with beautiful auburn hair and a young Jedi Calamari girl, followed by another Jedi with long brown hair, a tall build, and a young boy who Luke thought he should know.

The only one who had spoken to him had been the blind Jedi who had asked, "You have Xanatos?"

Luke had answered, "If you mean the guy who was fighting with a red lightsaber who landed on my speeder, then yes, I have Xanatos."

She had nodded and motioned for him to follow. The young girl had just stared at him mutely, as did the next pair, and as did the ring of seated Jedi Masters after he had plopped down their baby Sith Lord, who was -at least in Luke's summation, not nearly as scary as Lord Vader or the Emperor.

Luke waited, about a minute passed after his proclamation before he put his hands on his hips and met Master Yoda's gaze directly. It was almost funny seeing him like this. Yoda's robes were clean, his wrinkles nowhere as deep as they had been and his hair was not a white uncombed mist it had been.

Hard to believe Luke had run around with the little guy as a backpack through the swamp.

But it wasn't Yoda who spoke first, it was the man with dark skin and with a drawl to his voice that informed Luke that not only was this man unimpressed, but he was convinced that Luke meant trouble.

Luke decided that the man had good instincts.

"And who might you be?"

"Luke Skywalker, the man who just caught your baby Sith Lord."

The long hair Jedi standing near him spoke then, "He isn't a Sith, he's just a Dark Sider."

Luke raised a brow, "Sorry, no one ever clarified that there was a middle ground between Sith Lord and Jedi Knight."

The man's brows furrowed but it was the seated Jedi who spoke first who asked, "I find that odd, as everyone in this room should know that the Sith have been extinct for a thousand years, just as I find it peculiar that a man of your age should been unknown by this Council."

Luke shrugged, trying to think of a way to not admit being from the future. He grinned at Yoda, being cheeky would probably confuse them some, "What can I say, my Jedi Masters were pretty lax when it came to history lessons."

"Masters?" a seated man with long black hair and trim beard that followed his jawline asked.

"I had two," Luke supplied.

"Who were they?" the first man to speak asked, clearly in the habit of taking charge.

"Two old hermits who both lied to me and died when I needed them most."

There was another silence.

And the blind Jedi said, "We are sorry for your loss."

"Thanks," Luke said, amused by how awkward they were all being. Maybe Aashmi was right, it was a Jedi thing to be awkward. "What are your names, by the way?"

The woman smiled, "The Council members you have spoken with are Master Mace Windu and Master Sifo-Dyas. I am Tahl, this is Bant, and they are Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Luke gaped at the boy who he had recognized, "You're Obi-Wan Kenobi?"

"Yes?"

"How old are you?"

"Thirteen?" he answered, clearly starting to worry about Luke's mental health.

"What's with the braid?" Luke asked curiously.

Now young Kenobi seemed experated, "It's a Padawan braid."

"What's a Padawan?"

Again, the silence.

And Qui-Gon Jinn answered, "A Padawan is a Force sensitive who is an apprentice to a Jedi to become a Jedi knight themselves."

At thirteen? Luke wanted to ask, but asked instead, "And the tiny ponytail?"

Obi-Wan flushed, "It's just a hair style."

Old Ben had been an adorable kid, he decided. Luke remembered then that Yoda had said Luke had been too old to be trained as a Jedi, and he asked, "How old are most people when they become Jedi?"

"They are inducted into the Order between the age of infancy to age five, then between age eleven to thirteen they can be chosen as Padawans if it is deemed to be their varies for some species of course." Qui-Gon said, seemingly the only one in the room understanding that Luke knew nothing about the Order.

Which was funny because Obi-Wan and Yoda had been his Masters. "How long does it take to become a Jedi Knight?"

"From initiate to Knight, approximately twenty years."

"Twenty years!?" Luke repeated, his gaze meeting Yoda's as anger roiled within him.

Four months! Four months of training if he was generous, but really it was more like three.

And Yoda told him he would be a Jedi Knight if he faced Darth Vader and the Emperor.

What a lie, they had used him! And if he hadn't been there then they would have put the burden on Leia.

Luke pointed down at the body, "So a Jedi Knight is someone with two decades of training and this guy isn't a Sith. Who would the Order send to take down a true Sith Lord?"

Mace Windu looked at him as if he was crazy, "A Master, likely multiple Masters, we wouldn't send a child or newly anointed Knight after a Sith Lord, who by the way, no longer exist."

"Amazing," Luke said, a bit awed at the man's arrogance, "everything you just said was wrong."

The man leaned forward, "Are you telling us, Mr. Skywalker, that you have met a Sith Lord?"

Luke nodded, thoughts spinning ahead as he looked between Yoda and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was thirteen, which meant in twenty years the boy would lose everything and everyone around.

Leia had told him the Jedi had been purged but he hadn't been ready to press for details. Now he wished that he had.

Absently he said, "Yeah, two actually, the one that lives is fond of lightning, which kind of feels like getting your soul roasted. Certainly he is to be approached with caution." Then, not pausing to let the silence ring, he asked, "How many Jedi in the galaxy, apromently?"

"Ten thousand," Mast Sifo-Dyas said, of all the people in the room seeming least phased by the idea of the Sith returning.

"Ten thousand," Luke echoed, looking at Obi-Wan, his heart breaking for the boy.

All his resentment about being trained as he had been melted away to sorrow. No wonder the man had seemed so much older than his years. Leia had said he had been a great general in the Clone Wars. A war that had harkened the end of the Jedi and the old Republic.

"Who is the Sith Lord?" Mace asked him.

Luke shrugged, "You would probably have a better guess than I do. All I can tell you is that he wants the Jedi dead in mass and is looking to dominate the galaxy."

"You sound awfully certain of that," Mace remarked.

Luke shrugged again, "Sorry I couldn't be of more help. But listen, I need to get back to my wife-"

"You're married?" he asked sharply.

"Yes," Luke said slowly, and people said he was weird. He was perversely pleased he could report to Aashmi, that no, it wasn't just him. "And I have to get home, our baby doesn't sleep through the night and she has classes in the mor-"

"You have a child?" The man interrupted again.

Luke frowned, "Yes, I have a son. His name is Anakin. What's your problem?"

"Is he a Force sensitive?"

Considering in a nonexistent alternate timeline their little Ani had grown up to be a Sith Lord, Luke could answer without a doubt, "Yes, he is."

"You need to bring him to the Temple," the man said with the utmost seriousness.

Luke laughed at him, "No, I don't."

Mace frowned, clearly not used to being laughed at, "It's against the Code for you to have a wife and child."

Luke arched a brow. "There's a Code? You know what," he said, holding up a hand to forestall an answer, "don't answer that. I don't care. Quite clearly my last Master lied to me about me being a Jedi Knight and if being a Jedi means turning my back on my family then I don't want to be whatever you people are."

He could feel that had offended them, but they had offended him first by saying he couldn't have a family.

"You would deny your son the opportunity to be trained?" Tahl, the first Jedi he had come across in this timeline asked.

Luke sighed. Would he stop his son from joining an Order that would face a genocidal extermination, that also might have been the place where his son had been pouched by the would-be Emperor to join the Dark Side?

Hell yeah, he would.

Luke pointed at the Dark Sider, "My wife was the one who got your villain with a taser. I suggest you send a thank you basket, and would I highly advise not threatening to take her son away from us." He smiled at the shocked expressions around the room, "Now if you would excuse me, I really need to be getting home."

"The Force is strong with you," Qui-Gon said as he was turning, "stay with us and complete your training and you might see things differently. To be a Jedi is to serve the Force, not our own interests."

Luke turned to stare at the tall brown haired man, "Do you know why I became a Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn?"

"No," the man said without guile.

"I became a Jedi because my Masters were too old and too weak to kill the Sith themselves."

The man's dark blue eyes widened, "Did you succeed?"

"I succeeded in turning them against each other. If what you all have told this night is true then I am not a Jedi, I was a poorly used weapon. I was powerful enough to survive, and that probably had more to do with luck."

"It was the will of the Force," Qui-Gon said, "by warning us of this threat, you have done much. You should stay."

Luke shook his head, "No. I'm going home." He turned to walk away and he wasn't stopped until he got to the door.

"Who trained you?" Mace asked.

He looked back, once more meeting Yoda's gaze who had yet to speak to him. Luke said a bit bitterly, "Told you much, I have, no more shall I say."

Green eyes widened, staring at him as if the little green Master had seen a ghost.

Luke left them to their silence.

KEYNotes: So yes, to all you EU fans, this fic will be starring Tahl, Qui-Gon, young Obi-Wan, Mace, Luke, and the non-Force sensitive female lead, Shmi. Anakin is my token cute baby who will doubtless become a cute kid, but the action will centre on pre-Phantom Menace characters whose plotlines I will completely scramble, so no worries to you readers who have not read the EU.

AN: Thoughts, ideas, reactions, or wily coyotes? Pretty please?