Anakin Skywalker and the Monster Books Part 3

"Damned Gremlin," Leia complained as she used the Force to shove a group of lightsaber wielding droids back so she'd have enough space to fight the droid that was swinging a purple lightsaber around like a maniac.

"It could be worse," Ahsoka teased as she danced between the droids, cutting limbs and heads off with a smirk, knowing Selena was going to complain about the damage.

"I am the Council Protocols engaged," the droid announced in a voice that sounded exactly like Mace Windu. 

"Kriff!" Leia swore as the droid she'd been fighting sped up and its stance shifted, going from a slightly dangerous enemy to an actual problem. She lashed out with the Force and nearly got her arm cut off when the droid spun out of the way of her Force push in a way that it shouldn't have been able to do.

"Don't worry, it's just a droid…" Ahsoka trailed off as a group of Force users appeared in the middle of the battle. "Anakin?" she asked in disbelief as she felt a familiar presence in the force that didn't have her friend's darkness.

"Do you need help?" Anna asked as she glanced around, taking in the situation.

"Yes!" Leia replied as she blocked the purple blade that seemed to be everywhere.

Ahsoka absently blocked a lightsaber then cut the droid's head off, trying to wrap her mind around the child that felt like her old master. "Have fun," she told them, curious about the strangers since they didn't feel like Sith or Jedi for that matter.

Anna activated her lightsaber and jumped into combat with a grin, hitting the line of droids like a blender of death.

Bella smiled as she drew her daggers and charged one of the droids that was moving toward Leia's back.

"Nope," Anakin muttered as he raised his hands and pushed magic into his gloves, sending a blast of lightning into the group of droids that had decided to charge them, causing them to spark and stop moving.

"Did you teach him Force Lightning?" Ahsoka asked warily, wondering if the blue skinned alien was a sith.

"It's just the gloves," Luna replied, keeping most of her attention on the children in case they needed the help.

"Surrender!" the knock off Windu suggested as he sped up, using his superior strength to press the Padawan.

Bella lunged forward and deflected the purple lightsaber up and then stabbed the droid's arm, using the Force to hit harder than she should have been able to.

Leia took the chance when the droid dropped its lightsaber and cut the droid's other hand off then tumbled as the droid used the Force to toss her back, shocked that the kriffing droid was able to use the Force.

Bella tossed herself out of the way as the droid used a blast of lightning.

"Die Sith scum!" the droid announced as its hand crackled with lightning.

Anakin raised his hands and blasted the droid with lightning until it stopped moving, not interested in playing nice with something that could toss lightning.

"Since when could droids use the Force?!" Leia demanded.

"No clue," Ahsoka admitted as she glanced at the droids that had powered down when the kid blasted the commander. "We're keeping that one."

"Thanks for the help," Leia told the girl who was holding two crystal daggers. "You're pretty good, how old are you?"

"Nine, you?" Bella replied, figuring the other girl was probably thirteen or fourteen.

"Fifteen," Leia replied as they headed over to her Master. 

"Where did you come from?" Ahsoka asked, fairly sure Kenobi would have mentioned finding someone with their strength in the Force.

"Another world," Luna replied, not seeing a point in complicating things by explaining about the book before the mission was done. "What's the mission?" she asked, wondering if she could get more details about the mission than she'd picked up from reading the story.

"They're doing a training mission that involves tracking down a pair of Sith apprentices, Darth Mechanus and Darth Sohn," Leia explained as the door in the wall opened, revealing their targets.

Anakin stared at the mostly naked girl with wings sticking out of her back that appeared to be made of flame and shadows then focused on the armored figure next to her.

"Auntie!" the girl called out cheerfully as she waved at Ahsoka.

The armored figure reached over and playfully spanked his companion's bottom. "You might have defeated our droids but now you shall face our wrath!"

"Oh, right. How dare you defeat my army!" the girl called out as she pulled her lightsaber off her belt and ignited it, causing a yellow blade to come out of the end of the lightsaber. "Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double!" the armored figure said as he moved into the room so he'd have room to fight.

"Don't forget to set your sabers to stun, we can't torture them with feathers and whipcream if they're dead," Darth Mechanus reminded her partner.

"True," the armored figure agreed as he set his saber to training mode.

"Are they serious?" Anna asked in disbelief, not sensing nearly as much rage as she would have expected from a pair of sith apprentices.

"They're actually pretty reasonable for Sith, we're just here so Leia can get some combat experience," Ahsoka explained, wanting to be clear that it was just a training mission.

"When I defeat you, I'm going to pound your ass!" Darth Mechanus told Leia with a smirk.

"I'm going to beat the stupid out of you," Leia told her as she set her saber to stun, not sure why Selena had an obsession with her ass.

The armored figure glanced at Anakin and Luna then focused on Anna. "I challenge you!"

"Bring it," Anna replied as she flipped her saber to its stun setting then walked toward the armored figure, getting into the spirit of things and seeing it as a good chance to blow off some steam.

"To the pain!" he shouted as he ignited his blue lightsaber and charged her.

"Are they always like this?" Luna asked, a touch surprised that no one seemed to be taking the training mission more seriously.

"Pretty much," Ahsoka replied with a grin as Leia narrowly avoided getting hit by one of Selena's wings. "They're in a bit of a love triangle, so they get a bit carried away."

"Do we need to worry about their master showing up?" Luna asked, trying to make sure the mission didn't go completely sideways.

"No, Vader's in another sector, dealing with a group of slavers," Ahsoka assured her.

"Why is a Sith killing slavers?" Luna asked.

"He used to be a slave and he hates them," Ahsoka explained. "He's calmed down a bit over the years but he's still a bit unhinged when it comes to slavers, Jedi and other Sith."

"Why does he hate the Jedi?" Luna asked, wondering if he had an actual reason or if it was just because of the eternal war that seemed to plague the two groups.

"They failed to stop the assassin that killed his wife. When he found out that Darth Sidious was responsible for Padme's death, he ripped a Star Destroyer out of orbit and slammed it into the Imperial Palace hard enough to bury the ship in the bedrock."

Luna shivered as she considered how much power it would take to rip a ship out of orbit. "What happened to the Empire?"

"He took over. He had all of the codes and the clones respected him because of his work in the war and he didn't trust most of the senators. He rebuilt the senate and put them in charge of managing the empire after getting rid of the worst of the corruption. He let them know that he'd just kill them if they decided to do something completely idiotic, considering the shit they'd been doing in the war, I can't really blame them. It took a couple of years to get things sorted out but apparently, it really helps cut down corruption when you have someone in charge that can sense when the senators are lying and doesn't have a problem with killing idiots as an object lesson."

"Are Jedi hunted?" Luna asked as she watched Anna and Darth Sohn's fight, finding it interesting since he didn't stick to one style or at least not a style she recognized.

Ahsoka shook her head. "No, he basically just stuck Obi-Wan in charge of the remaining Jedi and washed his hands of the whole thing."

"Can I bite your nipples?" Darth Mechanus asked Leia, causing the other girl to stare at her in disbelief for a second, giving her the opening she needed to yank her lightsaber out of her hand with the Force. "Hah! I win!"

"Damn it!" Leia cursed, annoyed at herself for falling for Selena's trick.

"You got distracted, you need to work on that," Ahsoka offered, making a note to grab the recordings from the security cameras.

"You'd better win," Leia told Anna.

"You'll never win!" Darth Sohn called out, hamming it up a bit.

"This is fantastic," Anakin squealed as he watched the fight, wondering how long it would take him to learn to fight that well.

"Yep," Bella agreed, looking forward to training with the new people.

"He's actually pretty good when he's taking things seriously," Selena offered, not taking her eyes off the cute girl as she fought her boyfriend.

Anna spent a couple of minutes sparring and having fun then used the Force to slide one of the deactivated droids into his foot when he took a step to the side to avoid stepping on a different droid. She used the Force to pull his feet out from under him while he was distracted, causing him to fall on his butt then brought her lightsaber down next to his neck. "Do you surrender?"

"That depends, can I see you naked?" Darth Sohn asked with amusement, ready to continue the duel if she tried to stab him.

"We'll see," Anna replied, curious what he looked like under the armor since he'd actually put up a decent challenge.

Anakin shook his head.

"I give up," Darth Sohn replied as he turned his lightsaber off.

"Seriously?" Selena complained, a touch annoyed that her boyfriend had given up.

"She's hot," he defended himself as he used the Force to pull himself back to his feet. "And the soup should be done in like five minutes."

"Fair," Selena mused. "Thankfully, it won't take five minutes to beat her."

"You're right, it won't take five minutes, I'll kick your ass in two," Anna replied with a smirk, rather enjoying the fact that Sith was just wearing a pair of panties.

"Bullshit, I'll have you on the ground in one," Selena replied with a smirk.

"Promises, promises," Anna replied with a grin, getting into the spirit of things.

"Can I just hit them with lightning?" Anakin asked, only half serious.

"Not until you have more practice controlling the intensity," Luna told him, not taking her eyes off the 'Sith' on the off chance that they were more insane than she thought.

Selena gestured and stole her boyfriend's saber and went to town, forcing Anna to give ground until she drew her other lightsaber.

"Damn," Leia muttered as she watched the match, willing to admit that the new girl was better than she was.

"How much do they practice every day?" Bella asked as she studied the fight, fairly sure her teacher could take them without too much trouble unless they were fighting together.

"A couple of hours," Ahsoka offered. "We've been training almost since they could walk, it's nice to see someone that can push her."

"It's certainly useful…" Luna trailed off as Anna dodged a wing of fire and shadow. "What race is she?"

"Human," Ahsoka replied with a grin. "The wings are because of an artifact she found in a ruin."

"Interesting," Luna mused.

"Let's make it interesting," Selena offered. "If you win, I'll give you a combat droid and if I win, I get to spank your ass."

"If you want to spank my ass, I get to spank your ass if I win in addition to the combat droid," Anna told her as they continued trading strikes.

"Deal!" Selena replied without hesitation and started increasing the speed with a smirk.

Anna reached out with the Force and yanked her lightsabers out of her hands then stepped forward and swung at her head, knowing that she had to finish things quickly.

Selena jumped backward, surprised that the stranger had managed to brute force things since she was decently strong. "That's cheating!"

"Kiss my ass?" Anna offered.

Selena stared at her for a couple of seconds then laughed, deciding that it was her own fault for getting arrogant. "I'm Selena Kryze, otherwise known as Darth Mechanus, pleased to meet you."

"Anna Skywalker, nice to meet you," Anna offered.

"Kriffing Skywalkers," Selena muttered good naturedly. "That makes me feel a little bit better."

The armored young man pulled his helmet off, revealing a handsome face and blue eyes. "Luke Skywalker, otherwise known as Darth Sohn."

"My name is Luna," Luna offered as they walked over. "How did you end up Sith?"

"My father hates the Jedi code," Luke replied with a shrug.

Selena shook her head. "We're not exactly Sith in the traditional sense since we try to avoid using anger to boost our power but we don't have a problem using positive emotions and it drives my father up the wall."

"Your father?" Anna asked.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, he's one of the Jedi Masters," Selena replied with a grin.

"Leia Naberrie," Leia offered when Anna looked at her. "I've been friends with these lunatics for years, my mother knew Master Kenobi in the war."

"Anna Skywalker and my short friends are Anakin and Bella Skywalker," Anna said as she gestured at Bella and Anakin.

"I'm not short, I'm nine," Bella complained, glaring up at her sister.

"Thus, short," Anna teased.

"I'll get taller," Anakin grumbled.

"Named after your father?" Luke asked Anakin.

Anakin shook his head. "I didn't have a father, my mother just named me Anakin."

"So you're…" Ahsoka trailed off when she noticed a floating purple and black portal floating in the air in the middle of the hanger. "What the kriff?"

"Do you want the short answer or the long answer and do you have a medical scanner?" Luna asked when Ahsoka looked at her, figuring they probably had Anakin's DNA on file.

"Long, let's grab some soup," Ahsoka suggested as she headed for the door that went into Selena's workshop, having a feeling that the explanation was going to take a while.

0o0o0

"They're wasting water," Anakin muttered as he glanced at the bathroom door, wondering how long it was going to take before the girls were done with their shower.

"The water and everything else is going to vanish after we leave, they're not wasting it," Luna reminded him.

"Sorry," Anakin replied, still trying to wrap his head around the idea that they had enough water that they could just waste it and not care.

"Relax, you'll get used to it," Bella told him, having gone through the same thing herself or at least she remembered going through the same thing when she left Tatooine. "How much do you think Watto would charge to use the spare lot to store things until we can buy a ship?"

"At least twenty percent," Anakin replied. "We'd be better off renting a storage unit or just tossing everything through the portal and moving it to the mine."

"Mine?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin cast his Forgotten Mine spell, creating a floating silvery metal frame that contained a portal to a pocket dimension. "One of the techniques I picked up from the stranger lets me create mine themed pocket dimensions."

"How much space does it have?" Ahsoka asked as she studied the strange metal frame and the field of energy contained by the frame, surprised that she hadn't felt anything in the Force when he'd created it and still couldn't.

"I don't know, this is the first time I've actually used it, I was worried about Watto finding it," Anakin admitted as the bathroom door opened, releasing a cloud of steam.

"Yeah, he's a bit greedy," Anna said as she walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her hair.

Anakin turned and looked at Anna then shook his head. "Did everyone forget how to wear clothes?"

"Nope," Anna replied with a grin, not particularly worried if people saw her naked. "Selena said I could have some of her extra clothes if I gave Luke a show and my wardrobe is a bit limited right now."

"It's a good deal," Selena replied as she walked out of the bathroom, not wearing a stitch.

"I'm not complaining," Luke replied with a grin, enjoying the view.

Ahsoka shook her head, wondering once again what Padme and Shmi would think about the children since they were a bit intense. 

"What happened to your wings?" Anakin asked, surprised that she didn't have them anymore.

Selena smiled as she reached up, touched the large ruby in her necklace and fed it a little mana, causing her wings to appear along with her underwear. "They're part of my costume."

"Is that why you're not wearing a top?" Anakin asked.

"Yep, the wings burn anything I'm wearing," Selena replied as she dismissed her wings and her underwear and walked over to the couch where most of the group were sitting. "The transformation makes me immune to fire and resistant to electricity so I'll put up with walking around mostly naked, especially when I'm planning on fighting someone with a lightsaber."

"Don't believe her," Leia called out from the bathroom where she was working on getting dressed. "She likes running around naked."

"Details," Selena replied with a grin.

"You should probably avoid running around Tatooine without your clothes, you'll get sunburned and harassed and the sand gets everywhere," Bella warned her.

"I wasn't planning on it," Selena assured her, wanting to avoid drawing any real attention until Palpatine was dead and gone. "Just because I like having fun doesn't mean I don't know when to take things seriously."

Ahsoka glanced at the frame that was floating a foot over the floor. "Do you think the frame would fit through the portal or would the portals break?"

"It should be fine, you can take the frames into other frames so they shouldn't have a problem going through the book portal," Anakin assured them, fairly sure the stranger would have mentioned it if there was a problem.

"I'm not getting a bad feeling about it," Luna offered.

"In that case, let's figure out how much space we have in the mine, then we can start looting all of the droids and tools."

"Sounds good," Luna agreed as she stood up.

"Why stop at droids? We might as well take everything that isn't bolted down, including the experimental hyperdrive that Dad was working on," Luke suggested.

"Can you fit it through the frame?" Anna asked eagerly.

"We might have to take some of the frame apart but it should fit," Selena assured them.

"As much as I'd love to have a better hyperdrive on the ship we're going to pick up, we only have a couple of hours to get everything loaded before Shmi gets back and freaks out if she can't find Anakin," Luna warned them.

"We have a bunch of droids and the frame needed to be replaced anyway, I have a lightsaber," Luke pointed out.

"Do we have to leave at the same time?" Leia asked as she walked out of the bathroom fully dressed.

"No," Anakin replied as he turned to look at Leia. "But the portal will close as soon as everyone that entered it leaves, which means one of us has to be last."

Leia smiled as she realized they'd have time to take the ship's cloaking device. "That just means you need to leave in a couple of hours while we finish loading everything."

"Let's get to work," Anna suggested as she walked over and stepped into the mine. She glanced around the pitch black area then walked back out. "We're going to need some lights."

"We've got lights," Selena replied cheerfully as she headed toward the door to the shop to grab some lights, looking forward to exploring the Republic and seeing if it was actually better than the Empire. 'I'd grab you if I could, Dad but if they're right, you're just a memory,' she thought, trying to look on the bright side of things and not focusing on the negatives. 

0o0o0