Anakin Skywalker and the Monster Books

Anakin Skywalker dropped the cup he was taking to the sink when a blue and purple portal opened and a tall man with dark hair jumped out of it in the middle of his living room. "E chu ta!"

"Anakin!" Shmi snapped, not happy with her little boy cursing.

Mist glanced between Shmi and Anakin Skywalker, easily recognizing Shimi and her home from the movies though Anakin looked a bit different despite the fact that he was still blond and about the right age for the first movie. "Sorry about the portal, Dawn still needs to work on her aim."

"Portal?" Shmi asked warily.

"Dawn?" Anakin asked in confusion.

"Huh, different world," Mist mused as he pulled an orb out of his inventory. "Are you Anakin Skywalker?"

"How do you know my name?" Anakin asked.

"Magic," Mist replied with a grin as he pulled a glowing orb out of his inventory, curious if giving him a bit of magic while his mother was still around to help guide him would change his fate or if he was destined to go down the same path as the movies.

"Are you a Jedi?" Anakin asked excitedly.

"Not exactly," Mist replied as he gently tossed the orb to Anakin, causing the nine year old to catch it and promptly pass out as it started imprinting spells onto his soul. "He'll be fine but we need to talk."

Shmi rushed over to check on Anakin. "What did you do?!" she demanded.

"I gave him some spells that should come in useful, he's just sleeping," Mist assured her as he levitated the orb back to his hand, not worried about touching it as he'd already used it. "Anakin has a strong connection to the force which means he's going to need training."

Shmi sighed in frustration and relief. "You could have explained things."

"I have less than a minute left before the portal closes and I'm not getting stuck on this ball of sand," Mist replied as he put the spell orb back in his inventory and pulled the cube shaped testing device out of his inventory.

"Explain quickly," Shmi told him.

Mist pushed the button on the cube so it would start gathering data on the dimension. "One of the spells should give him the ability to conjure magical books that you can jump into. That should let him take people out of the pocket dimension, including a teacher. Just tell him to concentrate on finding a decent teacher for using the Force and a good doctor that can remove slave chips before he opens the book and you'll be fine."

"Can you take him with you?" Shmi asked, figuring anything would be better than leaving him on Tatooine.

"My world doesn't have the Force, he'd be cut off and in pain. Trust the Force, everything should be fine," Mist assured her then jumped back through the portal, hoping he wasn't lying.

Shmi watched the portal close then pulled Anakin into a hug when he woke up. "Ani."

"I had the strangest dream," Anakin said, finding it hard to focus on anything other than the strange formulas that seemed to be burned into his memory.

"About a Jedi?" Shmi asked, relieved that he seemed his usual cheerful self.

"Yeah," Anakin agreed.

"He jumped back through the portal," Shmi told him as she helped her son stand up.

"Great, how am I supposed to learn to be a Jedi if I don't have a teacher?" Anakin asked, fairly sure that the ability to conjure silk sheets wasn't going to let him free all of the slaves or even the ability to conjure gloves that could toss lightning as he wasn't bulletproof.

Shmi debated not saying anything for a couple of seconds before she got a feeling that she was supposed to tell him. "He said you might be able to find a teacher in the book that you can conjure."

"Right the…" Anakin trailed off as he realized that actually explaining how the monster books worked would result in his mother telling him that he couldn't use them, since they were dangerous and more than a bit naughty. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to get to the shop, don't tell Watto," Shmi told him.

"I'm not stupid," Anakin told her, knowing Watto would probably end up bragging about his abilities to the wrong person which would probably end up with him dead or sold to the Hutts.

"Are you alright?" Shmi asked.

"Would it matter if I wasn't? Watto isn't going to care," Anakin replied as he headed for the door.

"Stay safe," Shmi told him, knowing he had a point about Watto.

"I'll be fine," Anakin assured his mother as he left, already thinking about ways to leverage his new abilities. 'I'm going to need a way to hide the portal to the mine and get some mining droids, but I'm going to need to deal with our chips first,' he mused as he headed toward the shop, figuring he'd have plenty of time to daydream while he was fixing things.

0o0o0

Anakin couldn't help the smile on his face as he closed and locked the door of his home, happy that his shift at the shop was finally over since it meant he could test his spells. He dashed through the house and dropped onto his bed in the cubbyhole that doubled as his room. He pushed the strange energy he'd been able to feel since waking up into the formula for the monster book, creating a large book that was only about an inch thick.

"Yes!" Anakin squealed, relieved that the spell actually worked. 'Okay, I need a trainer and a way to get the slave chips out. What else do I need? Water? Food? Money? A way to heal people? A way to hide so I can help people?'

Anakin took a breath then let it out, figuring there were a lot of things he wanted but only a couple that he actually needed. 'I need a teacher and a way to get the chips out.' He held that idea firmly in his mind then opened the book.

"Bella Skywalker and the Gemstone Mines of Kaz'norgoth?" Anakin muttered as he read the story title, fairly sure he'd never heard of Kaz'norgoth. He stared at the picture of a cavern filled with glowing crystals that seemed to shimmer on the page for a couple of seconds then focused on the strange spiders that he could see scattered around the cave hiding behind crystals or in the darkness. 'I'm going to need a blaster.'

He skimmed over the short story that mentioned Bella walking into the cavern with her teacher and pulling a crystal sword out of a stone so that she could prove herself worthy to claim the crystal she'd use to forge her blade. "That's probably how the Jedi get their swords."

He skimmed over the rest of the page about Bella fighting the spiders then flipped the page, revealing a picture of a naked blonde girl about his age using a crystal sword to fight a cloaked figure that was holding a lightsaber while a naked woman with pointy ears and blue skin watched. "Why are they naked?"

He glanced at the other picture that showed the girl forging a crystal sword on an anvil while the blue skinned woman watched. 'I guess that means she won.'

"Oh," Anakin muttered after reading the part that talked about challengers doing the trial naked because it was part of the ritual. "This would be a lot easier if she was wearing armor," he muttered as he read about the girl's fight with the ghost of a Sith apprentice. "Kark," he swore when he read about Bella stabbing the Sith in the nuts before she cut his head off, causing him to fade away.

"Nasty. Bella stepped up to the forge and touched the orb of knowledge then started crafting her blade, a blade that would grow with her legend and shake the galaxy in the wars to come? Yeah, because that's not freaky. At least it's just a story."

He flipped the page and stared at the picture of the nearly naked teenager that was covered in glowing tattoos and holding a red lightsaber in her right hand while she used her left hand to kill a Hutt with lightning. "The Death of Anna Skywalker, the Breaker of Chains. At least someone is freeing the slaves."

He shivered as he read the short story about the girl that started a crusade against the Hutt empire that ended with the Hutts arriving with an armada of ships and obliterating an entire city to put an end to her defiance.

"Kriffing Hutts," he complained as he flipped to the next story, not even sure how to fix things unless he could sneak in and then get out of the city before it was destroyed.

"Bella and the Sith Hunter…" he trailed off as he saw the picture of a brown haired girl that looked like an older version of Bella having sex with her teacher and a busty red haired girl next to a fountain. 'Yuck.' He flipped back to the first story and touched the picture of the cave.

Anakin shivered as he found himself in a rather cold cave looking at the hilt of a crystal sword sticking out of a short stone pedestal.

Luna pulled her attention away from the spiders that were crawling around the crystal filled cave when she felt another presence appear in the crystal cave and focused on the young boy with a connection to the force that rivaled her student. "Let me guess, you're here to take the trial?"

Anakin turned around and glanced between the blonde girl that was about his age and the naked alien that was probably six and a half feet tall and looked like she could have been a professional dancer. "I'm just here to find someone that can teach me how to be a Jedi."

"Jedi," Bella muttered with annoyance, not particularly impressed by the cult that refused to train her because she was too old to buy their shit.

"Why do you want to be a Jedi?" Luna asked.

"I want to help people," Anakin told her.

"Interesting," Luna mused, curious about the child that had appeared out of thin air. "Tell you what, if you can survive the trial, I'll train you to use the Force and to fight like a god of battle."

"What do I have to do?" Anakin asked eagerly.

"You have to fight your way through the spiders in the cave then you have to fight the ghost of a Sith apprentice," she explained, well aware that the spiders weren't particularly dangerous as they were only projections of the cave and the poison only stunned people. 'If he's not willing to fight for his desire, I'll just teach him the basics and let the Jedi finish his training.'

"Can you even use a sword?" Bella asked the boy.

"The pointy end goes in the other guy, right?" Anakin asked, trying to hide how nervous he was about the entire experience.

"Generally," Luna agreed with a smile. "If you defeat the ghost, you walk into the next room and touch the rune of knowledge, that will give you the knowledge to forge your own blade. Once you have the knowledge, you have to select the crystal that feels right and forge a blade."

"How do I start?" Anakin asked.

"You should start by stripping, pulling the sword from the stone destroys anything you're wearing and heals you completely so that you can take the knight's trial without anything holding you back," Luna explained.

"Do you want to do the trial first?" Anakin asked Bella as he started stripping out of his clothes, not wanting to lose his second best set.

Bella glanced at her teacher. "Should I go first or second?"

"Second," Luna replied, knowing her apprentice was ready for the trial, which was more than she could say for the boy.

"Okay," Anakin replied and quickly finished getting undressed. 'They're just spiders,' he told himself as he walked over to the pedestal. He grabbed the hilt of the sword and pulled the crystal blade out of the stone before he could change his mind about the entire thing.

"Good luck," Bella told the boy as half a dozen cat sized spiders started crawling down the wall toward him.

Anakin swung his sword as one of the spiders darted toward him faster than he could run, barely managing to hit the nightmarishly fast critter, more by luck and the grace of the Force than by any skill on his part. He glanced at the dead spider then shivered when two of the spiders rushed him.

"How long do you think he'll last?" Bella asked as she watched the boy try to frantically stab the spiders without getting bit.

"Maybe thirty seconds," Luna replied, rather impressed with the child's conviction even if she was going to have to work on his common sense.

'Frag this,' Anakin thought when he managed to kill the two spiders that had been attacking him and six more started advancing toward him. He used his Black Gloves spell, conjuring a black glove on his left hand. He raised his hand and unleashed lightning on the spiders, causing them to shriek as they died.

"I could be wrong," Luna admitted, rather impressed since she couldn't feel any hint of the dark side in the boy's attack. She glanced at the pedestal where another hilt had appeared when they weren't paying attention. "Grab your sword, we need to keep up."

Bella giggled as she ran over to the pedestal. She pulled the crystal blade out and started making her way toward the other end of the cave as a small army of spiders crawled down the walls intent on blocking her path.

Luna smiled slightly as she levitated their bags and the boy's clothes and followed the children at a distance, thinking back to her own experience with the trial. 'At least they didn't freeze.'

"Let's go!" Anakin hacked one of the spiders apart that almost dropped on him then blasted a path clear and sprinted for the other side of the cave, trusting that Bella would follow him.

"Okay!" Bella called out as she used the Force to boost her speed a touch and sprinted after the boy.

'At least they've got the teamwork part down,' Luna mused as she followed the children into the next cave, easily avoiding the dead spiders. "Now you just have to deal with the Sith."

Anakin glanced around the cave at the glowing crystals then turned his attention to the platform near the rune covered door when a cloaked figure appeared, sending a shiver down his spine.

"I am Darth Monologue, I shall de-" whatever else the Sith ghost had been about to say was lost when Anakin raised his left hand and blasted him with lightning.

Bella snickered as the ghost vanished with an annoyed expression on his face, causing his lightsaber to drop to the ground. "Nice."

Luna shook her head, having a hard time keeping the smile off her face as she walked over to stand next to her students. "So much for tradition," she mused as she used the Force to collect the lightsaber.

"Tradition is overrated…" Bella trailed off as another Sith ghost appeared wearing a black robe and holding a lightsaber with a red beam.

Darth Vara raised her hand and absorbed the lightning the boy sent her way, rather amused by his attempt to defeat her.

"Kriff," Anakin cursed as he stopped trying to blast her as it obviously wasn't working and he could feel his magic pool draining quickly. 'Hopefully I didn't kriff something up by being here.'

Vara kept her hand raised in case she had to absorb another blast of lightning. "You've won your challenge Anakin, give your friend a chance to win hers."

"Alright!" Anakin called out, not wanting to get cut apart with a lightsaber and a bit nervous since she knew his name.

Bella smiled as she walked forward with her sword held in front of her, looking forward to testing her skill with a blade since she'd been practicing for years.

"Is she going to be alright?" Anakin asked Luna as Bella blocked the Sith's lightsaber with her crystal sword.

"She'd be fine, the ghosts aren't trying to kill people, they're just trying to push them," Luna explained in a whisper as they watched the duel.

'This is awesome!' Anakin thought as he watched the fight, fairly sure the cloaked figure was taking it easy on Bella since she wasn't pressing the height advantage.

Bella shoved the Sith's lightsaber blade down with her sword and kicked her, causing her to take a step back and off the platform.

Vara sighed when she glanced down and realized that she'd stepped off the platform which meant that she'd lost. "Nice duel."

"Thank you," Bella offered, recalling her teacher's lessons on politeness. She sighed in relief when the Sith ghost vanished and the doors behind the platform swung open, revealing an old fashioned forge. "I was expecting a bit more trouble."

Luna laughed. "You're nine, don't expect the next Sith to take it easy on you."

"I won't," Bella assured her. "How come she didn't drop her lightsaber when she vanished?"

"You only won because she stepped off the platform, Anakin won because he electrocuted the first ghost," Luna replied with a grin.

"Makes sense," Bella admitted as she walked into the forge. She touched the rune covered sphere that was floating in the air at chest height, instantly freezing in place as knowledge started flowing into her mind.

Anakin followed Bella into the forge and glanced at the shelves filled with crystals that lined the wall of the forge. "What happens if I choose the wrong crystal?"

Luna smiled as she remembered asking her teacher the same question. "Then you'll just have to try again and we'll give the sword to someone that needs it."

"That's it?" Anakin asked warily, not wanting to get into trouble for messing up.

Luna knelt down so that she could look Anakin in the eye. "Life isn't a game, it's messy. It's filled with mistakes and triumphs, heartbreak and passion. Sometimes what can seem like a mistake is a blessing and sometimes what looks like a blessing can end up being your greatest failure. The important thing is that you keep trying and that you learn to live with your choices or learn to make choices that you can live with."

"That sounds simple enough," Anakin said.

"Simple doesn't mean easy," Luna replied with a grin as Bella stepped away from the orb and headed over to the nearest shelf to start looking for the crystal she wanted to use. "Just touch the orb, it makes more sense once you've seen the vision."

"Alright," Anakin replied as he reached out and touched the orb, not sure what to expect. He blinked a couple of times when his dream of forging a purple and blue crystal into a pair of blades ended and he realized that he knew how to use magic and the Force to forge and duplicate crystals with the force. He glanced at the forge where Bella was already at work forging her own blade using a hammer and the Force then walked over to the shelf where he'd found the crystal in the dream.

Luna grinned as she felt the Force pulse when the boy touched one of the fist sized crystals, letting her know that the blades would be amazing. 'At least Bella will have someone to spar with once I get Anakin up to speed.'

Anakin turned and watched Bella using the Force to work the crystal, finding the process a bit strange since she wasn't using magic to help like in his dream. He spent a couple of minutes watching her turn a chunk of crystal into a blade then walked over to the anvil and got started on his own crystal, using the skill he'd picked up from the orb to transform his crystal into a pair of daggers, knowing they'd grow with him as he fed them more magic.