From the Dorms to the Junkyard, Monday Late Afternoon

[nonelikemesince]

In theory Anakin understood why his uncle had sent him back here, even if he didn't agree, but it was impossible to concern himself with things like classes starting up again this week when all he wanted to do was have a message come through on his comm telling him there was news and he was needed.

It was a relief when that message -- just a terse Cilghal has information. Get here as soon as you can -- actually came through. He couldn't possibly have grabbed his datapad and lightsaber (the only things of any value he owned in Fandom anyway) any faster if he'd summoned them to him with the Force . . . which he very nearly did, to be honest.

"Fiver, can you start plotting the fastest course back to Eclipse?" he asked his astromech droid, who was dutifully rolling along after him. Fiver beeped affirmatively, but then again, this time an insistent and mildly chiding sound. Anakin sighed and pulled out his comm to send a quick message to his relatives in Fandom: Heading home again. Not sure how long I'll be gone this time. "Okay, okay, don't blow a fuse! I know I've been bad about it."

It wasn't that long a walk from the dorms to the junkyard where his X-wing was parked, but for some weird reason, it felt like forever.

[OOC: Last (open) post for Anakin in Fandom, if you want to talk to him before he goes away, well, forever. Going to be slow until evening, but I will SP anything in this post as long as necessary.]

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[solo_sword]

Knowing Anakin was getting into the voxyn stuff, Jaina had been dreading messages like that. But when she'd gone through this, she'd had to go back for training for weeks, so maybe this was the same thing?

Or this was going to go down as her worst birthday on record.

Either way, she made a point to catch up to him, because she had to. "And where are you off to?" she said, trying to sound casual.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

It was sad, really. Anakin had not only been so eager to get back into action that he hadn't realized it was her birthday, but he took that casual tone at face value.

"Back to Eclipse," he told her. "Cilghal must've found something, because Uncle Luke called a meeting."

[solo_sword]

Did she ever not have a bad feeling about this these days?

The answer was no.

"You know, you don't have to go," she said after a pause, and she'd maybe been dying to tell him that for a while.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"I can't stay here," Anakin insisted, looking at her like he'd hoped she would understand. "Jedi are being hunted down all over our galaxy by these things. I can't sit out here in complete safety while their lives are all at risk. I've done that for long enough. How is that fair?"

[solo_sword]

It was fairer than he thought, actually, all things considered. "You don't know what you're getting into," she said, though it was probably pretty clear she knew she wouldn't change his mind. Even if she hoped he did.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"Everyone's told me that my entire life," Anakin said, still looking stubborn, "and I always make it out okay. Besides, how many times have you ended up in over your head? Or Jacen, or Dad, or Mom? I'll figure it out. It's what we do."

[solo_sword]

"You do remember who you're talking to, right?" Jaina said. "And if I'm saying it..."

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"Then you get to yell at me a lot for it if --" no, Anakin, with you it was always when -- "anything goes wrong, and when that happens you're usually the one who bails me out anyway."

That might have possibly been the worst thing he could have said.

[solo_sword]

Pretty much. He could probably feel that one sting, too.

"And that's why you should be listening to me," she said.

[momslilassassin]

Oh, what an amazing coincidence, Ben was heading through town too!

Or maybe the Force had given him a nudge.

"Where are you heading?" Ben asked.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"Eclipse Station. Your dad called," Anakin told him. "Cilghal asked him to call everyone for a meeting."

Fiver, who didn't share Anakin's ridiculous sense of drive, beeped a greeting to Ben.

[momslilassassin]

"Ho, Fiver," Ben said, touching the droid on the dome. "You just got back," he added. "Can't you miss this one?"

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"When I'm actually being called back instead of getting sent away again?" A little of Anakin's residual frustration leaked out into the Force. "No way."

[momslilassassin]

Ben tamped down his emotions so hard that he flickered in the Force for a second. "Big mission?" he asked casually. "I was so little that most of the war merges together for me."

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Anakin wondered if what little he did remember of the war was upsetting enough to cause that flicker.

"Possibly. Hopefully a really big one," he answered.

He was far too eager about this, in a serious way.

[momslilassassin]

And that eagerness made Ben feel very, very old. Three wars in eighteen years kind of burned the enthusiasm right out of him.

"And you want to be where the action is," he said with a fond smile. He wasn't basing his guess off of family folklore any more...and that's what was making this conversation so heartbreaking for him.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"I'm a Jedi," Anakin said, his eyes hard with determination. "I want to do what that job entails, like any other Jedi, and not get treated differently because of who I am."

Because of his name, because of his family, because of what people were afraid he might become. Maybe he was wrong about that, but it was how he saw it.

"I don't just want to be there. I need to."

[sith_happened]

Anakin was heading to Portalocity to make his final threats before class tomorrow.

"Hello, Anakin," he said with a tiny smile. "You seemed rushed."

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"When Uncle Luke tells me to get home as fast as I can, I don't think there's much room for creative interpretation," Anakin replied. (Except when he thought he had more important things to do, in which case he'd interpret as creatively as he felt like, but now was not one of those times.)

[sith_happened]

Anakin arched up his eyebrow. "There's always room for creative interpretation if it's something you don't want to do."

Because Anakin had found loopholes when there weren't any many, many times.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"That's the thing, though," Anakin said with a half-smile that suggested how often he'd looked for loopholes himself. "I've been waiting for this call."

[sith_happened]

Anakin knew that feeling of impatience, the need to be doing something useful, and smiled back. "What's Luke got in mind?"

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"That, I'll find out when I get there," Anakin replied. "Since we need to figure out where exactly we need to go, and I'm pretty sure that's what's about to happen."

[sith_happened]

"You've been on defense a pretty long time, huh?" Anakin asked.

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Turns out you can only do that for so long before it really wears you down." Anakin ran a hand through his hair. "And if we've got a chance to buy ourselves some relief from that . . ."