A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 31

Luna slowly awoke to someone shaking her awake. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up, her vision taking a moment to focus on Padmé.

"Where were you?" Luna asked with a yawn, slowly sitting up. She still felt tired, but it wasn't as bad as it was before.

The main thing that she noticed was that she was hungry.

"Just walking around. It's getting late," Padmé informed her, showing Luna her ipod. It took a moment, but Luna got the message. Her eyes widened.

"Holy Sith!" Luna said, mixing Earthan and Star Wars cursing together, as she usually did when she cursed, before groaning. "It's past dinner time."

"You need to get back," Obi-Wan said.

"Yeah, I do.... Why didn't you wake me when you got back?" Luna asked as she packed up her things.

"You looked like you needed your sleep," Padmé replied, frowning as she thought. "Hold on, it's past dinner, are you going to managed to get something else to eat?"

"Probably not.... And I skipped lunch today, that's just perfect," Luna muttered under her breath sarcastically, mentally cursing herself. She was going to go to bed hungry, going to break a promise she had once made, and she hadn't even spent that much time with Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé.

Maybe Luna would participate in the next morning's breakfast frenzy to make up for it....

Or sneak down to the fridge in the middle of the night.... That actually wasn't that bad of an idea, and Luna would be keeping her promise. She just couldn't get caught.

"Why don't you have some of ours?" Anakin asked, having heard everything Luna had said in perfect clarity despite her attempt to not let anyone else hear.

"I really shouldn't. You need your food. I'll be fine," Luna replied, saying no despite how appealing it was to stay for dinner. It got all three of her problems fixed

"We have enough, and you need to eat," he argued.

"Okay, I'll have some," Luna said giving in as she put down her bag. "Are you sure Master?"

"Yes," Anakin said, smiling as she came over. "Also, I believe I speak for everyone when I say you can dispense with the formalities."

Luna beamed as she snitched a french fry.

***

It didn't take long for all the food to be eaten and Luna to be sent on her way. While she insisted that she could probably stay longer, all three of the adults had argued that she needed to get back to the house in case she was missed, so here Luna was, walking back to the house in the quickly fading twilight. She had felt the anxious feeling return the moment she had left the hideout, not having noticed it's absence when she woke up, yet here the feeling was, back again. The same one that had been following her around all day

Luna couldn't shake the feeling, and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

But when she saw the lights were still on on the bottom floor of her house, she began to wonder if she was picking up on herself about to get in trouble for being back late.

Then Luna saw the car in front of the house. Her stomach plummeted.

She entered the house, dreading what she'd find.

"Luna! Where have you been?!" Jessica yelled before the door had even closed.

"Sorry, I was at the bookstore and lost track of time," Luna lied quickly as she pulled down her hood and walked into the kitchen where the adults were. She assumed that the other kids were upstairs.

"Don't do that! You need to tell us when you realize that you're late! Use your phone for heaven's sakes! We've tried to call you a million times!!"

"Sorry," Luna said, deciding not to remind her that Luna's phone had died in June, and that Jessica and John had forgotten to get her a new one. Not to mention they shut her down every time she tried to ask them for another. She looked at the other adult in the room.

"She is correct, it was very irresponsible of you. We were about ready to call the cops," Mrs. Dana Clovender said in a sickly sweet voice that always made Luna feel like a baby or a dog. Mrs. Clovender was Luna's agent and she practically ran Luna's life, deciding which foster home she was in, when to move foster homes, what classes she took, it annoyed her to no end.

Luna didn't like her, but it wasn't like she could ask for another agent. She had learned to deal with it over the years. Besides, a visit from Mrs. Clovender was the definition of rare.

Another reason Luna was getting increasingly worried.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut it," John practically barked. "You could've been hurt or—"

"John!" Jessica cut in.

And that's when the fear rammed into Luna.

She had hoped she had been wrong, but as soon as the words left John's lips, she knew.

"He's come after me again, hasn't he?" Luna asked, her voice weak but unwavering as her face paled. She vaguely felt something brush against her consciousness as she instinctively shrunk into herself, her mind not even completely registering the feeling.

"We have word that he is in the area," Mrs. Clovender confirmed.

"You're telling her this? She's too young," Jessica said as she glared at Mrs. Clovender.

"Luna is well aware of what her father does. As you know, this isn't the first time this has happened."

"How close?" Luna asked, her voice small as she tried not to let the fear grip her.

"Five states over at last sighting, but we don't want to take any chances. You have two days before you are moved."

Luna nodded as her brain processed what that meant as it shoved the fear to the back of her mind so she wouldn't freeze up. The first thing that came to mind was that she couldn't go trick or treating the next day. The second was that she'd be going to a new school within a week or so depending upon if they had already found a new foster home for her or not. New classes, new teachers, new schedule, new people to get used to living with....

"You may not leave the house for anything except for school, and you've got to keep your phone on you at all times," Mrs. Clovender told her.

"I don't have a phone," Luna replied monotoned. "I haven't since June."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Jessica asked, surprised.

"I rarely ever need it and I know all the numbers so I thought it would be fine," Luna mumbled. She already knew from experience that telling the adults that she had said something wouldn't get her anywhere.

"That can be amended later. Besides, her school's only a few blocks away. She is in no danger, yet," Mrs. Clovender said.

"If you don't mind, I would like to go to bed," Luna said.

"Of course deary, you already know the drill."

Luna nodded before going up stairs. She was in bed quickly, and that's when she remembered something.

There were currently two Jedi and a Galactic Senator that she was responsible for helping.

Somehow, she found herself dressed in black, climbing out the window, onto the roof, and down a tree before she began to flat out sprint to the hideout, taking a different route than she normally did.

I'm definitely crazy, Luna thought to herself. I could always just leave a note.

But, she couldn't. She knew in her heart that she had to say goodbye, and she would do that in person. This would be her only chance. She knew the drill, and it involved her every action being monitored.

This was her last chance.

Her last chance for so many things.

Luna didn't know what she would do when she got there, but she knew that as much as her heart wanted to, she could not go with them.

Tears began to fall.