|| Uninvited || An Anakin Skywalker Story

Chapter One

I'm not supposed to be here. 

But yet here I stood in front of a stack of ancient scrolls with the cataloguing droids humming softly behind me. I reached up to touch one of the weathered pieces of parchment but quickly withdrew my hand back to my side. Technically, I do no have authorization to be in the temple library. Someone like me shouldn't have the need for knowledge. That is a luxury only afforded to our Jedi knights. But the temple was empty, everyone was outside, and there was no one standing guard.

My heart quickened slightly at the thought of being alone with all this information. Jedi don't know how fortunate they are. But then just as quickly, the shame took over. It would be mortifying to be caught here. To be called out as someone less than, someone unimportant. Someone who shouldn't be here.

I sighed and started to turn around, running straight into something...someone solid.

"Oh sh—" I mumbled, immediately flustered at being caught. But when I looked up and saw a familiar face, I let out a sight of relief.

"I thought you were outside with everyone else." My friend, Payto said with a smirk. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave me a pointed look.

"Payto...you almost gave me a heart attack." I said and looked around nervously. "And I was just on my way." I quipped and began to walk past him and back out the library doors.

"Oh, and you just so happened to take three wrong turns and end up in the very off-limits library?" He fell into step next to me.

"Look, there was no one here and I just wanted to take a small peek." I sighed.

"I get it." He said with a small chuckle. "Got to take advantage of an empty temple, right?"

"It's not like I was going to— wait, what were you doing here?" I stopped and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Looking for you." He said and pressed his pointed finger into my shoulder.

"Well...you found me." I rolled my eyes as we continued to make our way to the grand entrance of the temple.

"Always on your own schedule aren't you, Kels?" He asked with a laugh, earning a smirk from myself.

"Come on," I said and grabbed his elbow as I quickened our pace to a light jog. "We have a show to put on."

Payto scoffed and rolled his eyes. We quickly made our way to the temple's outdoor entrance and took our places amongst the crowd of Jedis, droids, temple staff and Coruscant's finest. There were already banners being flown and the opera's horn section had begun to play a triumphant song, signaling that the returning Jedis were due to walk through the doors any minute now.

Every time the temple's Jedi's returned from a particularly noteworthy victorious battle, they were always given a hero's welcome. Which don't get me wrong, they completely deserve all the appreciation in the galaxy, but these grand celebrations were starting to grow stale as the war continued to wage on. To me, it started to feel like we were just celebrating loss of precious life. Because more often than not, the group who returned was always smaller than the group who departed.

I stood on my tip toes and craned my neck towards the courtyard entrance just as I felt something swat my arm. My head snapped in the direction of Glynn, my boss.

"Stay in line, Remlik." She said in her gravelly voice as her long arm fell to her side and she straightened her apron.

I bit my lip to keep the retort from rolling off my tongue and returned to my position. I gently elbowed Payto who I could hear chucking next to me.