A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 127

Luna was in hers and Anakin's shared room in the Temple when a message suddenly bleeped on a comm. Anakin just so happened to be out of the room for the moment when it happened.

She looked at the message, trying to read it. Ever since Yoda had left for Kashyyyk, whenever new messages or summons came to Anakin, Luna always tried to figure out who they were from. Anakin had of course noticed and asked her why she had been not so inconspicuously looking over his shoulder. Luna had told him she was seeing how much she could manage to read.

It wasn't the full truth. Luna had always been trying to check to see if there was a summons to a certain Opera House in the messages

It didn't make much difference though because Anakin believed her and even helped her. Thanks to that, she had managed to find out how messages from the Council and messages from the Chancellor's Office looked and their differences, not to mention how to work the messaging systems in a comm better.

This particular one was from the Office of the Chancellor.

And if she was remembering the characters right, it was a summons to....

The Opera House.

Okay.... Where in the Nine Corellian Hells is that delete button?

It took a few moments for her to find the right button, but it wasn't a moment too soon. Less than half a second later, the door began to open. Luna quickly rushed into her room, jumping onto the bed before getting out a datapad and attempting to look like she was very involved in it.

"Luna?" she heard Anakin.

"Yes?" she quickly replied, looking up as he walked in and leaned on the doorway to her room.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing much," Luna told him with a shrug, quickly analyzing him to see if he thought she was actually up to something else. "You look really stressed."

Anakin chuckled dryly: "Is that something new?"

"Yeah, stupid statement," she muttered. Okay, the message is gone, but to make sure, I'm going to need to get him out of the Temple. Palpatine will get suspicious if he doesn't show up soon. "Is it true that there are illegal podraces in the Underlevels? Could we go see one?"

Anakin looked at her in surprise.

"You want to go see a podrace?" he asked for clarification. Luna nodded. "Why?"

"Well, I'm bored, you're stressed, watching sports is supposed to be relaxing, I've only ever watched the one you won, and while that was great, I sorta already knew who would win which kinda takes the thrill out of it. I also don't really fully understand how it works, so....are there?"

"Yes, there are...." he said slowly, thinking over her words before grinning. "Okay, I'll take you to a podrace, on one condition."

"What?"

"This is our little secret. Obi-Wan frowns upon this kind of stuff, and Padmé would probably kill me for taking you."

"Deal," Luna said, grinning as she jumped off the bed before racing up to him to begin dragging him out the door. "What are we waiting for? Come on, let's go!"

"Hold on! Let me see where the races are, alright? We've got to find that out first," Anakin replied, smiling at her enthusiasm even as he went into the other room to grab a datapad.

It took a few minutes for Anakin to find the right place on the HoloNet and then locate the races and times. After that, they headed on out the door.

Unfortunately, they had hardly made it to the speeder when Anakin's comm blinked to life. Luna simultaneously realized her oversight of forgetting to make sure he left his comm in their rooms.

She could only pray that it wasn't who she thought it was....

Her prayers, of course, went unanswered.

"That was the Chancellor, I have to meet him at the opera," Anakin sighed. "Apparently I somehow missed his first message. We'll have to do this some other time. Come on, I'll drop you off at Padmé's before I go see him."

"Why don't I go with you?" Luna asked, voicing the question even as she wondered if she was insane. Anakin looked at her surprised. "The apartment out of the way isn't it? I could just tag along."

"You sure? I thought you didn't wanted to meet with him again any time soon."

No, he's the last person I want to meet with. Ever. "We all have to overcome our fears eventually. Besides, it's not like he's going to kill me," in front of you.