Rebel Pilot: A Star Wars Story

Chapter 3

Upon getting in the ship, Luke immediately said, "So now that we're out of there, now can we talk about the fact that you're probably my dad from the past?"

"I'm trying not to think about that," Anakin said. "It isn't working." He looked over at the very, very old version of his master beside him, who was still staring at him in shock. "Look, did I grow a second head or something?! Yes, I time traveled, and given the fact that my... that Luke doesn't know me, Han keeps talking about me in the past tense, and you look like you're seeing a ghost, I have put two and two together and am aware that I'm dead in this future. But can you at least stop staring at me?"

"Right. Of course, Anakin." Obi-Wan looked away. "It's just... as you said, you're dead, and I haven't seen you in a very long time." He paused. "I've missed you."

While that part rang true in the Force, his repetition of Anakin's deduction that he was dead felt more like one of The Negotiator's half-truths. Interesting.

"Well, I'm here now, somehow," said Anakin.

"Yes, yes, it's all very touching," Han interrupted gruffly from where he was flying the ship. "Should've known better than to let two people claiming the names Kenobi and Skywalker on my ship. Now I'm tangled up in some Force mess."

"You believe in it now?" Luke asked cheekily.

Han grunted. "Don't see how it's possible for me not to. That's Anakin Skywalker, alright."

"You grew up during the Clone Wars, during the height of the Jedi, and didn't believe in the Force ?" Anakin literally could not believe this future. "I mean, you yourself aren't Force sensitive at all, but you had to at least realize what the Jedi did was real."

Han shrugged. "All kinda seemed too supernatural for me." He paused. "You wanna be co-pilot for a minute?"

The wookie complained.

"Oh come on, Chewie, you know you're my co-pilot, but I've got a chance to fly with a Clone Wars veteran and I'm not about to pass it up."

Anakin's eyes lit up at the prospect of flying a new type of ship. "Awesome! I've never gotten to pilot a ship like this before." The wookie, Chewie, reluctantly gave up his seat in the cockpit.

Luke was still starry-eyed at the idea of meeting his father, which Anakin would admit definitely made him feel proud. "Obi-Wan said you were the greatest star pilot in the galaxy!"

Anakin looked back at Obi-Wan, raising an eyebrow. "Greatest star pilot in the galaxy?" He smirked, crossing his arms in triumph. And after all those quips about his inability to pilot without crashing...

"I was feeling sentimental," Obi-Wan grumbled. "And yes, Anakin, your piloting skills were - are - certainly some of the best, even if you did repeatedly crash."

"The fact that I was able to steer the crash into good landing positions and came out of all of them alive should mean that I'm a good pilot, master."

Using the title for Obi-Wan came completely naturally to him, but it seemed to make Obi-Wan wince. "What's wrong?" Anakin turned his focus back to the controls of the ship, which weren't unlike that of some other freighters he had ended up in the cockpit of over the years, but he heard Obi-Wan sigh.

"Nothing. It's just... I've missed the days when you and I were close."

"How touching," Han grumbled. "Listen, I just want the credits I was promised - save the heartwarming time travel reunions for after I've been paid and you're off my ship."

"You're not quite off the hook yet, Solo. Like it or not, you've gotten involved with the Rebellion." Leia looked back. "Anakin seemed to confuse Vader enough that we haven't run into much trouble escaping, but I'm sure they'll track the ship so they can find the Rebel Base. They were obsessed with it, wouldn't stop asking me to give it away. I didn't." She looked down. "They even used the Death Star on Alderaan. It's gone."

Anakin's eyes widened. "It can really do that?" He said softly. "Destroy an entire planet?"

"We tried flying to it to bring the droid there." Even Han managed to sound somewhat sensitive about this one. "Found nothing but an astroid field."

"Droids?" Anakin wondered. "I haven't seen the droids."

"Oh," Luke said. "I asked R2-D2 to turn off C-3PO when we got on the ship. I figured I would find his chattering a bit distracting while we tried to deal with the time travel."

Anakin sat up straighter. "R2-D2 and C-3PO?!"

Luke looked surprised. "You know them?"

"I - I built C-3PO! And Padmé gave me R2-D2."

"Padmé?" Leia asked, eyes widening. "Like Senator Padmé Amidala? Champion of the Republic, the voice of democracy till the very end?"

Anakin beamed at hearing someone give his wife the praise she deserved. "That's her."

"I heard stories of various heroes of the Republic from my father, Bail Organa," Leia explained. "I didn't know you knew her, though."

Anakin shrugged. "There's no point in really keeping it secret in this time, I suppose. We're married." He nodded to Luke. "She's almost definitely Luke's mother."

Luke glowed at the mention of his mother. "Really?"

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan's face was doing something. "Married?! Anakin, I knew you were in love with her, anyone with eyes, no matter how blurry their vision, could see that . And upon learning of the pregnancy, I do admit I was surprised you had so little control over yourselves. But marriage ? When did you and Padmé even have time to get married?!"

"After Geonosis," Anakin explained.

"What was she like?" Like asked eagerly.

"She's an angel," Anakin said simply. Then he noted the past tense and his eyes narrowed as he looked over at Obi-Wan. "Hang on. Please tell me Padmé is alive."

Obi-Wan looked away. "She died around the same time as you."

There was that strange feeling in the Force again, that sense that Obi-Wan was speaking in metaphors or skirting around the truth. Still, Anakin didn't press it, too upset at learning that his angel had also died.

In fact, the reality of the galaxy was just now beginning to truly settle into Anakin's mind. The Jedi were mostly dead, his wife was dead... Anakin didn't seem to have an option of slowly adjusting. There was too much that had changed. So he bluntly asked, "Someone care to explain why all the Jedi are extinct?"

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a look he couldn't read, which made him slightly uncomfortable. And then he said, "A Jedi fell to the dark side and killed almost all of the Jedi. We didn't see the betrayal coming. He became right hand to the Sith emperor. And the clones... they had chips in their mind that could be activated to make them kill all the Jedi."

Anakin's eyes were wide. And he was angry. Very, very angry. "You mean the clones had chips in them that could control them and force them to kill people against their will? That's no better than slavery. This made him recall the chips inside him, his mother, and his friends on Tatooine that would make them explode if they ran away. But they still had the choice to run. "Actually, it's worse, because they don't even have an option of refusing and handling the consequences." How dare this Sith emperor do that to the clones. Hatred rose inside him for the Jedi who had betrayed them all.

Obi-Wan's face changed again. Again, it was a strange expression, and Anakin couldn't tell what was going on in his mind. "Yes. I suppose... the clones were certainly used, against their will. Very similar to slavery."

"Was the Darth Vader guy the Emperor?" Anakin asked, already plotting a painful way to kill him.

"Darth Vader is the apprentice," Obi-Wan said, his words careful, and knowing his master Anakin was reasonably sure he wasn't getting the whole truth... but he was certainly getting enough to completely shock him. "The Jedi who turned to the dark side, betraying us. The Emperor is Darth Sidious."

"I didn't know that name," Leia admitted. "I wasn't sure if Emperor Palpatine was actually a... Sith, an anti-Jedi, or not. He claims not to be Force-sensitive."

Anakin blinked. Coincidence, coincidence, who is to say there aren't lots of people with that name, or maybe it's a relative... still, he couldn't quite keep his voice steady as he asked, "Palpatine?"