Anakin frowned as his datapad chimed. He was tinkering the design of the massive droid down below again. He still hadn’t thought of a proper name for it yet. Maybe he’d think of something good once he finally perfected it and had the final product in front of him.

  The datapad chimed again and he reached out and lifted it from his desk. Huh. A message from Elara?

  He’d been so distracted with everything happening over the last few months that he hadn’t even noticed that she’d stopped messaging him ever since the break in to the house. Anakin frowned. Actually, wasn’t that suspicious? The two things had been almost perfectly aligned.

  He opened her message and was confused at what it said.

  “Hi Anakin,” he read aloud, “I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve sent you a message. Over six months without even an explanation. I didn’t mean to drop off the galaxy like that, I’m sure that you’re wondering what’s happened. My parents took away my old datapad. Some Jedi from the Republic came and said that you were some kind of criminal and that I’d be in trouble if I talked with you anymore. But I don’t believe it, she’s wrong about you. It was hard to figure out how to send you a message without having your contact saved. I actually had to buy your information from a databroker, because I forgot your number even if I knew the right planet. It was pretty scary, but the man was able to get it by going through the old call records on the ships that I’d worked on. I had to sneak him in the ship so he could do his work… I hope this really is reaching you, Anakin, and that he didn’t scam me. I’d like to keep chatting with you. It feels like forever since we last talked. I've missed you.”

  Anakin put down his datapad, his brow furrowed in confusion. six months? Elara had sent him a message less than a month ago. He went through the message history and read through the message from a few days before the break in. A little cold and distant, but it didn’t talk about anything being out of the ordinary for her.

  He tried to think about what she could be doing. Shy would she make up something so ridiculous? He took over twenty minutes wrestling over the wording of his reply before finally giving up.

  “You sent me a message less than two months ago. What are you talking about?” Anakin wrote as he copied her second to last message onto his own and sent it back.

  He was unsettled for hours and had trouble falling to sleep after dinner as he tried to understand what Elara was talking about and what it could all mean.

  When he woke up, he immediately rushed over to the datapad and read the message waiting for him.

  “I’ve never seen that message before. I didn’t write it,” Anakin read to himself in shock, “Sorry for the late reply. I broke my hand punching the metal wall of my room and had to go to a med droid. I think it must be the Jedi who came and took my old datapad. She must have been impersonating me for some reason to talk to you. I knew that something was off with her! My last message to you was six months and four days ago. Nothing after that was me.”

  Anakin put down the datapad in shock. He numbly scrolled up through his message history to the last genuine message from Elara to him. Then below to what must be the imposter. The difference between them seemed so obvious now. At the time he’d thought that she’d just been in a bad mood or something. But the messages were different in tone. But a subtle enough difference that he hadn’t thought much of it at the time.

  He copied his whole message history including both the imposter's messages and his own replies to them and sent them along to Elara without adding any of his own text. He felt betrayed and oddly vulnerable that something that he’d thought was so real was an illusion for so long. That the person that he’d been talking to, awkwardly trying to flirt with, actually hadn’t been her.

  A few hours later as Anakin listlessly wandered around his lab, he received another message from Elara. He smiled as he read through the angry reply cursing out and ranting against the Jedi who’d been impersonating her. And a more detailed explanation of what exactly what had happened.

  Finally with that last bit of confirmation from Elara, Anakin made the call. It took over ten minutes before his call was answered.

  “What?” the Chairman said in annoyance over the communicator, limiting it to only a voice call, “There has been no progress on the investigation yet. You’ll be contacted if we find anything.”

  “I know. I’ve just learned something that might help with that.”

  He explained about Elara and what had happened, and the Chairman was silent.

  “I’ll pass it along,” the Chairman said reluctantly, seeming annoyed that he wasn’t able to dismiss Anakin’s information as unimportant, “Thank you for the information. Goodday.”

  The Chairman hung up the call, and after a moment of staring at the device, Anakin slipped it back into his pocket. This was a clue, something that could get more information. He should have guessed that it would be the Jedi Council behind all of it, not some other random Force user like everyone had all thought…

  — — —

  “He did it! Oh, Slarena he actually did it!” Mom said as she swept into the room and wrapped the surprised Twi’lek in a deep hug and started spinning her around.

  “What? Huh? Wait, Riktor?” Slarena sputtered, “He did? Just now? I’m guessing that you said yes…?”

  “Yes! Oh, I wish you had been there. It was so romantic, he had everything set up perfectly I nearly froze up in shock when he asked!”

  “Mom? What’s going on? What happened with Riktor?” Anakin asked cluelessly.

  “He finally proposed to me!” mom said, “We’re going to be married!”

  “Uhhhhhhh…” Anakin blinked a few times, stunned by the sudden reveal. What?

  Slarena unpeeled mom who’d latched onto her and walked over to Anakin. Slarena reached out and put a hand on his head that was now nearly his height and started ruffling it violently. Anakin flinched and pulled back but the Twi’lek was relentless and trapped him in a headlock for a few seconds before letting him go.

  “Stop acting all surprised, Ani! We both knew this was coming eventually,” she said, “Go congratulate your mother already!”

  “Er, yeah,” Anakin said as he patted down his hair and still a little dazed by the news, “Congrats, mom. I’m happy for you.”

  “Oh, thank you Ani,” Mom said, her face having a dreamy expression and slightly flushed as she stared at nothing in particular, “It’s going to be amazing, I just know it.”

  “Y-Yeah,” Anakin said, still recovering from his shock at the sudden revelation. He’d realized that the two of them were close, but he hadn’t thought that anything like this was coming…

  “I’m happy for you,” Anakin said with more feeling this time.

  “Oh, Ani.” Mom walked over and hugged both Slarena and him at the same time in a tight grip, “Thank you, the both of you,” she said, “You know, we’ve been through so much together. The three of us. But these last few years have been wonderful. And with Riktor, maybe the next can be even better.”

  “Good job, Shmi,” Slarena said softly, “He’s a lucky man.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “And I’m a lucky woman. Oh! I didn’t even tell you about the proposal yet. So, it started out with us going to that fancy restaurant in town. He’d arranged it so we had the best seats and there were some fancy candles on the table…”

  Mom went through her whole story as the two of them listened to her.

  It still felt strange, thinking about Riktor dating and now marrying his mother. But it made her happy, so Anakin knew that he’d get over it. And Riktor was a good guy, Anakin was sure that he’d treat her right.

  He’d better.

  — — —

  The music played as Mom and Riktor took the first dance at the wedding party after the ceremony. Mom was in her elaborate white dress that Slarena had swore and complained about how hard it had been to help her put on. Riktor was in a worn but well fitted black suit as he held mom by the waist as they stood in the center of the circling crowd dancing.

  There were dozens of people here, many of them from Riktor’s family and seeming to be having a good time with the alcohol freely flowing from a keg in the corner.

  On Mom’s side it had only been Anakin and Slarena and a few more people that he’d invited from the CIS. He spotted Relira pass by, back from the first lab that he’d joined. The same one that had helped him after he’d been injured and organized his coming to age ceremony at sixteen. Scattered around were the six or seven others who’d chosen to take some time off from their busy work to come here.

  And one final person that Anakin had been very surprised had actually been able to make it.

  “Quite a rustic party,” Count Dooku said in an amused tone as he wore a clearly expensive and fancy robe with shimmering golden highlights, “I’m rather more used to the palaces of high society. But the drinks are stronger and company here more lively and unrestrained than any other party that I’ve been to before.”

  “Thank you for coming, Count Dooku,” Anakin said earnestly, “I know that you’re a busy man and that it couldn’t have been easy for you to take some time off.”

  “Not to worry,” Dooku said smoothly, “I was looking forward to some relaxation before things pick up again in earnest. And it is heartening to see the progress that you and your family has had in these last few years. A rather fortunate coincidence that things have aligned so well with the timing of that with your mother’s wedding.”

  “That’s lucky. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without your help. Just let me know if you need anything at all. I owe you more than I can ever repay, it feels like.”

  “Not at all, not at all. Actually… There are some matters I’d like to discuss with you sometime soon. But I will be on this planet for two whole weeks, so any time in that period will do. For now, we should relax and simply enjoy the party. It seems that others are joining in on the dancing as we speak.”

  Anakin glanced at the dancefloor to see that the crowd had pressed inward and started dancing as well with Mom and Riktor lost in the crowd now.

  “Enjoy the party, right,” Anakin said before glancing back at Dooku, “I’ll get to dancing then, I think. Talk to you later.”

  “Later then,” Dooku said with a thin smile and nodded and walked off.

  Anakin enjoyed the rest of the party.

  And at the end of the night, Mom and Riktor retired to the separate new house that Anakin and the droids had built for them right next to the old one. There was plenty of space within the property walls for it.

  So Mom and Riktor had their own place now.

  And they both seemed happy.

  — — —

  Riktor and Mom had gone off on their month long honeymoon off planet a few days after the end of the wedding. Anakin had been worried for them, but the CIS and even Dooku himself had assured him that they would be invisibly protected by CIS special forces the while time that they were away.

  Right now, Anakin was flying on his personal ship to the mansion and estate that Count Dooku was currently staying at on planet. Anakin landed and was escorted by some droids into a fancy sitting room to wait to see the Count. He was curious on what his sponsor might want to talk to him about. It couldn’t be about the droids. Anakin had already sent TC-04’s files to Dooku directly as well as the plans for his other larger droid design that he’d finally improved enough that he was comfortable in sharing it.

  Dooku had assured him in a message that he’d done the right thing keeping the designs secret from his normal handlers, given how sensitive and powerful the two designs and sets of data had ended up being.

  But Dooku and Anakin did share messages on occasion to discuss Anakin’s work in the lab and some other small updates on his life. So whatever it was, Dooku didn’t want to talk face to face just about that.

  Was it the investigation into the Jedi that had broken into his house and impersonated Elara? Maybe. But that didn’t feel right either somehow.

  He’d just have to wait and see.

  After some time waiting, eventually he was ushered inside by the droid to what appeared to be a large study.

  “Ah. Anakin,” Dooku said and turned off the holographic display that he was reading built into the desk, “I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve called you to see me.”

  Anakin nodded.

  “It’s the unfortunate truth that the time is coming. The time for the CIS to emerge into the light. We are planning for it to happen within the order of months rather than years.”

  “Months?! What? I… It’s really happening so soon?” Anakin said, feeling lightheaded at the revelation.

  “Indeed. Our moment approaches. Do you remember all of those years ago? How I planned to use your story to sway some of the Jedi from the Council? That moment has come. I have a script here for you that I need you to memorize and record with my people. Let me know if you have any notes or ideas on the facts you may wish to include or remove. We will subtly share it with certain sympathetic Jedi and remind them of the Council’s misdeeds in case they’ve forgotten. Prime them to think for themselves for once after what's coming soon. The Republic is investigating several of our allied partners, part of a larger investigation triggered by the information our Jedi friend learned. We must act before we are discovered from the Republic.”

  Dooku handed Anakin a datapad with the speech displayed on it. He read it from start to finish. It wasn’t that long. He hesitated for a moment before looking back up.

  “Will this work? Will the Jedi break away from the Council?”

  “We can only hope. So, the speech is acceptable to you?”

  “It’s fine. I’ll say it. I just… Can we convince Obi-wan? Ahsoka, his new padawan? I know how devoted he is to the Republic and the Jedi. I don’t think he’ll leave if somebody doesn’t try to convince him face to face.”

  Dooku paused for a long time and stared steadily at Anakin.

  “I cannot,” he eventually said, “A year ago I visited the Jedi temple and made a copy of the entire Jedi archives, even the restricted files. All the Jedi's history, and explanations of the lightsaber forms and accumulated Force techniques. The Council likely knows that I was behind it and I may be detained as soon as I set foot in the temple.”

  “What… What about me? Could I go? Do you think that I would be able to make it out?”

  Dooku rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  “Perhaps. I would need to make some moves to prepare for the worst… But given your past the Council would not dare try anything too out of line even if you went to visit them. Yes, this could help the larger plan… But only if you’re willing to take that risk. No matter the preparations, going directly into the heart of our potential enemies always is something to only do at the last resort.”

  “I… I have to try,” Anakin said firmly, “I can survive if things go wrong. At least long enough to find a ship off planet. But I owe it to Obi-wan to try to convince him that the right thing is to sit out the war, even if he doesn’t join the CIS.”

  “Very well. This is a change of plan… But perhaps a good one. I will bring some CIS operatives to coach you. You must under no circumstances reveal any sensitive information when you talk to him, and unless it is determined that you can withstand proper questioning then you will not be allowed to go. Word of the CIS and the succession from the Republic can not reach the Council, Senate, or the Republic Chancellor’s ears early at any cost.”

  “Understood, sir. I’ll be careful. I know how important this is, and I won’t reveal anything that could ruin your plans.”

  “Good. You leave next month if you pass my operative’s tests. I suggest you say your goodbyes to your family with that time.”

  — — —

  “I’m sorry,” Anakin told Slarena, Mom, and Riktor, “This is something that I have to do. I’ll be safe. As long as you’re here, away from it all, then none of it will be able to hurt me.”

  “Be safe, Ani,” Mom said and hugged him before letting go, “As long as you’re sure that you know what you’re doing.”

  Slarena followed with her own hug.

  “You’d… You’d better come back, kid,” Slarena muttered, “I’ll kill you if you don’t.”

  “Sure. I promise.”

  Everyone turned to look at Riktor as Slarena let go and stepped back.

  “Well, ah. Don’t know exactly what’s happening,” Riktor admitted, “But best of luck Anakin. I hope your… trip or something, goes well.”

  “Thanks, Riktor. Hopefully I’ll be back soon. Stay safe all of you.”

  — — —

  Anakin looked down at Coruscant as he descended down through the atmosphere. This was it. The make or break moment. He had to convince Obi-wan to sit out the war. Or the droids that Anakin had designed might be the very thing that killed the man that he still cared for, despite everything else that had happened in the last few years.

  Release schedule for chapters after editing is completed?