Anidala: Across the Stars

Chapter 26: Going Home

"Alright who's ready to head home?" Anakin said from his bed in the ship. A barrage of groans echoed from around the room. Anakin, Obi Wan, Rex, and Ahsoka were all on the ship back from Zyggeria. The last city had taken a week itself, and the team had barely slept in that week.
"I think I can feel my body melting into the cot." Ahsoka groaned.
"I don't think we've ever had to go without a break for that long." Rex agreed.
"Oh come on. It's part of the fun!" Obi Wan said, the sleepiness evident in his voice.
"You guys sound like you've gotten out of practice." Anakin yawned.
"I'm just thankful that we finally got the lights to turn off." Ahsoka said. The team had boarded the transport, and had spent the first 30 minutes of the trip home trying to figure out how to turn off the cabin lights.
"Alright General, 2 hours till landing." The pilot said as he walked into the cabin. The motion caused the lights to turn back on, and suddenly the cabin was filled with the shouts of protest from the exhausted group of friends.
"Sorry everybody." The Pilot laughed, on his way out, he waved his hand over a pad near the door, and the lights shut off again.
"It was right there?" Ahsoka groaned, "Right there and we spent half an hour trying to figure out how to turn it off? And we didn't even figure out there was a switch?"
"The galaxy's greatest heroes, and we can't even find a stupid light switch." Anakin agreed.
"At least the lights are back off." Obi Wan said. Shortly after that, a growling sound echoed across the cabin.
"What in the world is that?" Ahsoka asked waking up and looking around.
"It sounds like a dying gundark." Anakin said, also waking up from his sleep.
"Obi Wan, do you see anything?" Anakin asked.
"Negative." The man said sleepily, putting hand on his lightsaber. Ahsoka slowly got up and walked around looking for the source of the sound. The growling got louder and louder, and then Ahsoka yelped. Anakin our a hand in his lightsaber and blinked into the darkness as he saw Ahsoka slowly walking back toward him with a hand over her mouth.
"Ahsoka! Ahsoka what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Anakin got up. She sat down next to him shaking, her hand still over her mouth.
"It's Rex!" She moved her hand away from her mouth, barely, then out it back to hide her laughter.
"He's snoring." She whispered. Anakin squinted through the darkness to the pile on the floor that was indeed, Rex, snoring like a gundark. Anakin and Obi Wan started laughing too.
"Obi Wan. Obi Wan!" Anakin whispered through his laughter.
"Do you have anything to write with?" Anakin asked. Obi Wan's white teeth flashed in the darkness.
"I think I saw a pen over here." A rustling echoed through the darkness, and then an object was placed in Anakin's head.
"Hey snips, go draw a mustache." He handed it to her.
"Way ahead of you skyguy." She said creeping toward her friend. Ahsoka very lightly drew a line across the commanders face. He twitched lightly in his sleep and Ahsoka froze, but he didn't wake up. She crept toward Anakin, high fiving him and Kenobi quietly. The awake three crept back to their beds and cots. Anakin stayed awake a tad longer, staring at his holopicture gallery that he had taken to carrying with him. The first was a picture of he and Padmé holding Luke and Leia in the Lake house in Naboo. The next was a picture of him wrestling with the twins in the sand. Then there was Padmé, when she was pregnant, brushing her hair in the balcony of her room on coruscant. Then it was a picture of Ahsoka and Rex playing with the twins in their second birthday. He looked over at Ahsoka in the blue light of the hologram. He got up, and pulled her blanket over her shoulder. Ahsoka was he and Padmés first child. He cared for her the same way he cared about Luke and Leia, as did Padmé. At the very least, she was his sister.  He went back to his bed and looked at the last picture. It was all of them. He was holding Leia and looking down at her, who was looking up at him. Padmé held Luke and they both smiled at the camera. Rex and Obi Wan stood on either side of the four, and Ahsoka sat cross legged in the middle. It was the picture they had taken on the Beach of Naboo, before they had dinner with the queen. Anakin smiled, then put it back in his belt, and went to sleep.