A Long Time Ago, In a Galaxy Far Away

Chapter 144

Anakin woke up stiff. He blinked away sleep to find himself sitting against the wall in Luna's bedroom in the Temple with the teen curled up beside him. Anakin rubbed the sleep from his eyes.... He couldn't quit recall at which point dream walking had turned into actual sleep, but he felt far better rested than he had the past few nights.

Anakin groaned as he stood up, being careful to not wake Luna, before heading to his room.

***

Luna woke slowly. Once she was awake enough to realize that she wasn't in her room at Padmé's, she bolted up....

Only for the memories of the previous night to come slap her in the face. She didn't remember a good section of what had happened after Anakin had save her, her mind too tired to comprehend much and her body too tired to do anything but stand ready for what little of a flight or fight response it could muster. Luna remembered Anakin telling her they were going to leave and vaguely recalled walking to the speeder.

It amazed her hadn't she had any nightmares, and she did dream, although she couldn't really remember most of it....

There was this one weird dream Luna did remember. She and Anakin were stargazing somewhere, and she was pointing out the constellations to him and tell the stories behind each, theoretically meaning that they were on Earth.

The weird part was it was sort of twilight instead of night, and they were on a fairly abandoned looking Coruscant.

And Luna was, like, nine or something....

She shook her head, getting up and changing into a new set of clothes. Once she was ready, she left her room.

Anakin was studying something on a datapad when she walked in. He put it down when he saw her.

"Sleep well?" he asked.

"Surprisingly well considering someone tried to kill me last night," Luna replied with a shrug. "Not that I'm complaining.... You?"

"Better than usual," Anakin said with a small smile.

"So, what's going to happen to Aurra?" Luna asked.

"She'll be questioned and locked up. Maybe we can get a name for who told her to kill you."

"We don't need to," she muttered, remembering the feeling she had gotten at the last time she'd been in the presence of Palpatine. "I crossed a line at the Galaxies Opera. Sidious wants me gone."

"Why didn't you bother to mention that to me?!" Anakin asked in shock, his voice raising in anger. Luna looked away.

"Didn't want you to worry....and I didn't know if there was going to be an assassin or when it'd be," she explained guiltily. "For all I knew, it could have been set for yesterday, or next week."

Anakin took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "Next time you think someone may be trying to kill you, tell me."

"I can try, but at this point, I can't predict anything. I've been running on borrowed time with Sidious since the beginning. Considering Aurra failed, I don't know if that means there'll be a second attempt from someone else or if Sidious will bide his time. If she'd escaped, then I would be expecting a second attempt from her."

Anakin sighed, running a hand over his face. "So no clue of what he may be planning?"

"Well, there's two options," Luna told him as she sat down across from him. "Either Sidious will send someone after me, or he's going to tell Vader to do it. If he goes for the Vader option, we've got time."

"How are you so okay talking like that?"

"Despite everything, I'm still looking at the future from a Fourth Wall perspective," she replied with a frown. "Makes it easier to look at alternate options, especially when Vader's involved. Anyway, we should hope Sidious goes for the Vader option in opposed to the other one, 'cause that means he'll wait."

"The Vader option isn't ever going to happen," Anakin stated, his voice hard.

"I'm looking at it from Sidious's perspective and what will allow me the freedom to walk around without looked over my shoulder every three seconds," Luna replied. "I'm not saying it's the best plan for him to go for. In fact, it's probably the worst and least likely to work, but he doesn't know that....I hope."

Anakin just shook his head.