A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 121

Luna didn't know how long she'd been on the roof when she finally decided to go back inside. The sun had begun its descent on the horizon, and it was getting cold out. She was fairly sure that if Sidious were to attack her mentally and try to use what she had showed him to his advantage that she would be able to withstand it enough to protect her knowledge of the Star Wars universe.

Or, at least Luna hoped so.

Deep inside, she knew that it was hopeless. What she would need if Sidious were to attack her mentally would be a Jedi near her that would help her protect her mind or push Sidious away.

But the training would hopefully help her last longer were she by herself, just until help arrived.

Luna didn't allow herself to think about how unlikely help arriving was.

She looked at her comm, noticing that one of its lights was flashing with unread messages. Luna had put in on the equivalent of silent after she had left Anakin, wanting to be alone.

Luna already had a feeling she knew who has sent the messages. Anakin was probably looking for her by now. He may have even dragged Obi-Wan into it by now. It was obviously late.

Guess I'll have to go find him, Luna thought to herself numbly as she skimmed the messages, trying to get a gist of what he was saying. It didn't help much that she was unable to recognize a good section of the words. Basically the messages were asking where she was and to go find him. Anakin was actually the last person she wanted to see, but stalling wasn't going to help anyone.

Luna just hoped he wouldn't yell at her again. Or make her talk about it.

She just wanted to pretend it had never happened and forget about it.

It was always easier to do that.

She sighed as she walked down the corridors, past the nearly invisible Temple Guards and other Jedi focused on their own tasks.

Luna was so focused on how dejected she was feeling that it took her a few minutes to realize that she felt like she was being watched....

No, not watched, she was being followed.

Luna paused for a few moment in front of a window.

It wasn't to look at the view. The sun was still setting and whatever technology this world used to keep the window from being a mirror when it was dark outside had yet to fully kick in. Luna could vaguely see her own reflection in the window.

And she could see a Temple Guard a ways behind her pause.

Her imagination drew up the image of the Grand Inquisitor.

Luna started walking again, this time a hurry in her step. She needed to find Anakin.

Or Obi-Wan. Or Yoda.

She'd even settle for Mace.

And it didn't help that Luna had just realized that she didn't recognize this part of the Temple.

When she thought she saw a hall she recognized, Luna quickly turned down it.

Unfortunately, it didn't take her long to realize that she actually didn't recognize it. Worse yet, this hallway was practically empty. A glance behind herself informed her that the Guard was still tailing her.

And then she saw a second guard walking towards her. Luna started down the next turn off only to third find guard coming at her. She backed back into the previous hallway, realizing too late that she was trapped.

No.... No, no, no, Luna thought to herself, beginning to panic as she looked between the three guards, quickly reaching into the Force, trying to see if any of them seemed to be real Temple Guards.

Luna was met with cold.

None of them were real Jedi.

She subconsciously reached for the lightsaber on her hip as she looked in all three directions, trying to find an opening. Trying to find an Inquisitor that wasn't paying attention.

She noticed all three move to grab their lightpikes as they continued towards her.

I am very, very dead.

Luna ran through what she knew of Inquisitors in this time period, remembering that they focus on defensive moves rather than offensive until Vader got to training them.

The problem was that Anakin had been drilling defensive moves into Luna ever since she had gotten a lightsaber. The Inquisitors would still know more offense then she would, not to mention be better at it.

There was no way she'd be able to find her own way out of this one.

She had just began to grab her lightsaber when a voice called her name.

"Luna!"

Luna, along with the three false Jedi, turned to find Anakin jogging towards them.

"There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you," Anakin said as he came up to her, walking right past one of the Inquisitors. Luna tensed in fear, practically foreseeing Anakin being attacked from behind....

But it didn't happen.

Luna allowed herself to relax, just a little, as he made it to her side.

She then proceeded to mentally run through the likelihood of Anakin being able to beat all three Inquisitors by himself.

The results weren't that reassuring. It was about fifty-fifty. Sure, Ahsoka could defeat two of them at once, but it was Ahsoka and two Inquisitors after Vader had trained them. Vader would definitely be able to beat all three of them, time period undeterring, but this wasn't Vader, it was Anakin.

Luna just had to hope Sidious's directions included secrecy above all. They wouldn't risk revealing themselves in front of Anakin.... Right?

"What's going on here anyway?" Anakin asked, frowning as he looked in between the four of them, not failing to miss Luna's stance or her expression.

Luna decided to let whoever handle it, because there was no way she was going to come up with a good cover for this one, and she didn't want to be the cause of them deciding to attack.

Force be willing, the Inquisitors wanted a fight just as much as she did.

"Nothing, Knight Skywalker," the Inquisitor to Luna's left said. The one that had been following her the entire time.

Grand Inquisitor indeed, she thought to herself, recognizing the voice, shifting the slightest bit behind Anakin in subconscious preparation to hide behind him.

Luna saw Anakin glance at her out of the corner of her eye. Mentally, she realized that she was probably projecting quite a bit of fear and proceeded to try and fix that particular part of the situation.

"If that's the case, we'll just be going then," Anakin said. Luna could hear the undercurrent of suspicion in his voice as he place a hand on her back and began to gently lead her away from the group.

Luna was almost convinced that they were going to get away when the Inquisitor they were walking by put a hand out and stopped their progress, causing Luna to panic all over again.

"I'd suggest you keep an eye on the girl. It would be awful if anything were to happen...." The voice was feminine, but it didn't sound like the Seventh Sister. "There are rumors, as I'm sure you are aware of."

It was a marginally subtle threat covered by a suggestion that it wasn't them that were doing the threatening.

"Thanks for the warning," Anakin replied coldly. "We'll keep that in mind."

He's seeing through it, Luna thought to herself.

"Now, if you excuse us, we have a meeting with Master Yoda."

"Of course, we wouldn't want to keep the Grand Master waiting," the Inquisitor replied.