The Real Rise of Skywalker VII (Patreon)

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“Remind me again.” Dooku said drolly as he sat beside Anakin in the copilot seat of the Revenant. The two had swapped out once more, but to Dooku’s surprise, they were heading for neither Naboo nor Serenno. “Why are we heading for Nar Shaddaa?”

Their business on Coruscant had wrapped up fairly quickly. Anakin had even met with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon again to see what they had told the Council about his kids and was gratified to find out they had kept it under wraps. He was even surprised to find both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan contemplating leaving the Order as well.

He wasn’t quite sure what he felt about that. On one hand, he could get far more mileage out of them if they did so and caused a Schism on their way out. On the other hand, he was nowhere near ready to take advantage of a Schism. He didn’t push them one way or another and merely wished them luck on their endeavors. He did have some fun winking at Obi-Wan while making oblique statements about a ‘lady friend.’ He left the young man mystified and bemused, wondering what Anakin actually knew.

But once they’d left Coruscant and swapped ships, Dooku had been utterly befuddled about their destination. “Because there may or may not be something extremely useful down there.” Anakin said cheerily.

“Yes, you’ve said that.” Dooku nodded agreeably, “But you’ve yet to say what.” He finished archly. “And for that matter, why have you not consulted the Force regarding it?”

“I have.” Anakin said cheerfully, “Force ain’t telling me shit!”

Dooku turned his nose up at the language. “So uncivilized.” He huffed.

‘I’d say that’s where Obi-Wan got it from, but I’m pretty sure he and Dooku never met before Geonosis.’ Anakin almost chuckled. “The reason I don’t know whether or not it’s still there is that it’s been over three thousand years.” Dooku’s eyes widened, “I don’t even know if the guardians are still around.” He shrugged. ‘Though I really doubt it’s been picked up. If the Sith had ever gotten their hands on it, we would have known about it.’

“Why in the world do you think this thing could have stayed safely hidden away for three-thousand years on Nar Shaddaa of all places?” Dooku asked him.

“Oh, believe me, Count…” Anakin smirked at the older man, “If it had been located, we would have known it.”

…

“There it is.” Anakin said, no longer feeling very cheerful as they looked at Nar Shaddaa. Like Coruscant, it was an Ecumenopolis. A planet-spanning city, and one with few if any real regulations. Oh, he could smell it already.

“Why oh why did I agree to accompany you rather than simply taking a ship to Naboo?” Dooku lamented, making Anakin laugh. The reason for his displeasure was the, in his words, utterly uncouth outfit Anakin had stuffed him into.

“Oh, you big baby. You look fine!” Anakin laughed for real this time as he maneuvered to the Industrial Sector. Once upon a time, their target would have been in the Upper Industrial Sector. Three plus millennia later, he had little doubt that they had quite a way down to go.

“I look like a complete ragamuffin.” The Count said acidly.

“Yeah, we’ll fit right in.” Anakin sneered, “Or did you want to walk onto Nar Shaddaa looking like a rich ass or Jedi? That would go wonderfully, let me tell you.” He skillfully landed the ship before turning to his personal PROXY, “Anyone tries to get on, take the blood tax.”

“Weapons are armed and ready, master!” PROXY replied cheerfully.

“Hmph.” Dooku followed behind Anakin, grumbling all the while. And when they finally left the ship (with the main hangar shield engaged so as to let no untreated atmosphere in) they were all but punched in the face. “Urgh.” The urge to hold his nose was intense. “This better be good, boy.” He snarled under his breath as the two made their way down the landing pad into the city.

Smog was practically choking them. It made Anakin wish that he had thought to grab some respirators. “Okay, this is worse than I thought it’d be.” He admitted sheepishly. He did not look at Dooku, who he knew was probably wanting to choke him. With his hands.

“Hold on there!” A man wearing full armor and holding a heavy blaster rifle stopped them. “It’s ten thousand credits to leave your ship here, fellas.” A group of men of different races walked up to them as well, chuckling ominously. “Especially such a pretty ship like that. If you can’t pay, we’ll have to impound you.”

“Yeah, the money is right over there!” Anakin replied cheerfully as he jerked his finger at the edge of the platform.

“The money is right over there.” The thugs suddenly began to drone back.

“You should take a running start.” Anakin said, grinning evilly.

“We should take a running start.” They all took off for the edge of the platform, before flinging themselves off one by one.

“Ah, Nar Shaddaa.” Anakin snorted as he continued to walk unimpeded, “Maybe we should start calling it the Galaxy’s Anus instead of the Smuggler’s Moon.”

“You could have just knocked them out.” Dooku said reproachfully.

“And leave some other poor sap to get extorted?” Anakin raised an eyebrow, “Ten thousand credits to leave a ship on a landing platform? I guarantee those scum have enslaved people before.”

“Hmm.” Dooku said nothing more as he considered Anakin’s words.

As they walked, many people tried to get their attention. And it just kept getting worse as they started descending down into the bowels of Nar Shaddaa. Their goal was down. Way down. It started with salesmen wanting to either relieve or scam them of their money. Then it became prostitutes offering fifteen minutes of fun for five hundred credits. Soon enough, more thugs wanting to cause problems took up their time and started causing irritation…

All in all, by the time they reached three hundred levels down as the surrounding speeder traffic had almost completely vanished, both men were pretty annoyed with how things had gone. And then it started to get hot as the power plants supplying energy for the whole city started to ‘illegally’ vent into the lower levels. Thankfully, it wasn’t the entirety of the underground levels otherwise the heat soak would just kill everything really far down, but certain parts of the trip were nearly unbearable. Both Anakin and Dooku had to use the Force just to cycle the air around them for some relief. “How much farther is it?” Dooku was slathered in sweat from the climate. “Stars, this is so much worse than Coruscant.”

“Yeah… I’m almost wondering if we should have worn Envirosuits instead.” Anakin admitted, “And we’re only halfway there, I think.” He grimaced.

“Well, at least we’re not being attacked.” Dooku snarked at him. Ask and you shall receive. He ducked underneath the thrust of a knife aimed right for his neck. “I had to open my mouth.” He rolled his eyes as Anakin kicked the armored being in the side. Sound snaps rang out as armor and ribs alike shattered, and the being went down like a sack of rice.

“A Gank!” Anakin said in surprise, before he and Dooku drew their lightsabers. They immediately started deflecting blaster bolts as a dozen more Ganks tried their damndest to kill them. These were sentients who favored high-tech battle armor and who relished mayhem and massacre.

“There will be no talking our way out of this one.” Dooku sighed as he held his left arm behind him. His blue blade flashed as he spun and reflected a blaster bolt right between the eyes of one of the enemies. Anakin guarded his back perfectly as he drew his second blade. Black and white flashed mesmerizingly before he dashed, appearing in the middle of the pack and bisecting one of them. He beheaded another and then inclined his head back, avoiding an almost point-blank shot that just barely missed his nose. He made it look easy before his lightsaber pierced the eye socket of the yellow mask.

The Ganks shrieked in anger and started to fight harder as Anakin somersaulted and butterfly twisted his way back to the center of the street. Blaster bolts were flying around him as he moved between them, and then his sabers flashed again, reflecting another two bolts directly at the groins of two of the enemy fighters.

Dooku moved almost like a dancer, his speed belying his age. He dodged around a myriad of shots from the blasters before slashing one in half and stabbing the Gank through the neck in one smooth motion. He then moved his lightsaber behind his back to melt another knife while using Force Push to smash another in front of him into an old, abandoned storefront. He turned languidly and sliced off the head of his last enemy.

Anakin only had three left himself and just stuck his hand out. Black and gold lightning flashed out and turned the final three Ganks to ash. “Yeah, that’s more of what I was expecting.” Anakin deadpanned.

“Are you certain that this item of yours is worth it?” Dooku asked him, not looking tired but vaguely weary.

“Oh yes.” Anakin said, “In fact, now that we’re so close, I can feel it. We continue on.” He said, as they continued to make their way down. Another hundred levels passed, before a large being barreled out of an alleyway. It had four legs ending in spikes, another pair of arms looking the same, and a chitinous, burnt orange exoskeleton. It snarled as it tried to impale both of them on its sharp upper claws.

“A Colicoid!” Dooku exclaimed as they dodged. “Stop. We do not wish to harm you!” Despite their appearance, these things were supposed to be sentient and intelligent. In fact, they had even designed the Droidekas that the Trade Federation had used to great effect during the Naboo Invasion.

“This thing doesn’t look very sentient.” Anakin muttered as the Colicoid simply let out a wordless shriek and continued to try to impale them. “The only thing I can feel from it is an endless hunger.”

“I’ve never heard of a species simply losing sentience.” Dooku shot back at him.

“Most sentients don’t live this far down Nar Shaddaa.” Anakin said grimly, before igniting his saber and taking off one of the creature’s deadly arms. Even that didn’t slow it down. In fact, it was still trying to take him out with the missing appendage. He could see it twitching. Sighing, Anakin sped up, moving through the beast with a couple flashes of light. The insectoid fell apart into a couple dozen pieces.

“What a shame.” Dooku sighed, before they continued their journey.

It was a full day into their journey and even Dooku was feeling rather tired. Anakin was still going strong but was legitimately thankful he had brought the older man to watch his back. They’d been attacked by everything from Fang-rats to more groups of Ganks to a full hive of Colicoids on the way down. By the Sith Hells, there had even been a group of furless Wampa-like creatures there. The further down they went, the more dangerous things became.

By the time the Rancor burst through a wall and tried to grab Anakin, he was well and truly nettled. “No.” He hissed, unleashing the most powerful burst of lightning he had used thus far in this life. The Rancor shrieked and roared in agony as its flesh started to melt off its bones. A few seconds under the onslaught turned the creature into ash. “What’s next?” He snarled, “A kriffing Terentatek?!”

“Oh, wonderful!” Dooku snarked, “You just spoke it into being!” He looked around, genuinely looking around for one of the Dark Side creatures readying itself to burst through a wall. “Where is it? It’s going to be behind me, isn’t it?”

“Droll.” Anakin rolled his eyes, “Very droll.” He said as they made it down just one more level. And then Anakin twitched. “…It’s here.” He said, smiling with an almost mad look in his eyes. They hurried on, hoping to avoid any more assaults, and fortune was on their side for once.

“What is this place?!” Dooku’s eyes went wide. It felt like a temple. “I can feel the Force flowing out of it. It’s completely different from the rest of the city!”

Anakin grinned as he made his way down the steps. As he was halfway down, turrets popped out and aimed at them. Anakin held his hands up and flashed both the Light Side and the Dark Side. Like the vault he had collected Revan’s Holocron from, the entire temple lit up with blue and red writings that merged into purple. The turrets, which had spooked Dooku into drawing his lightsaber again, disengaged.

“By the Force! What is this place?!” Dooku exclaimed as they made their way to the bottom and Anakin pushed in the glowing purple doors.

As they entered, the whole complex lit up. But curiously, Anakin could sense no life at all within the complex. “Hmm, it appears the organic guardians either abandoned this place or they’re all dead.” He said, frowning slightly.

“I can’t sense a soul either.” Dooku sighed as he looked around.

They took another step forward, and security droids sprang out. Anakin had only a glance at them, and he saw that they were quite a bit better than the B1 hunks of junk the Trade Federation used. “Disengage!” He called as he blocked with his lightsabers. “Primary override!” He said before yelling out a string of words and numbers.

As soon as he did so, the droids all stopped attacking and marched. They formed a welcoming tunnel towards the steps at the end of the facility. Dooku huffed in irritation, “Is that it? Will we have to deal with any more security?”

“No, that was the master override.” Anakin put his sabers away. “If it disabled the security droids, then the security of the entire facility will be disabled too.”

“That is the best bit of news we’ve had all day.” Dooku sighed and relaxed. Mostly. Anakin turned and used the Force to shut the doors into the complex so that nothing could come in after them. “NOW will you tell me what we’re here for?” He asked the much younger man archly.

“I’ll show you.” Anakin said as they went up the steps and into another room. “Holy kriff, it’s huge!”

An absolutely massive machine was sitting on a platform at the end of a walkway. “You have got to be-” Dooku choked, “It’s probably twenty-five meters in every direction! How exactly do you intend on getting this thing out of here?”

Anakin merely grinned and started walking towards it. “Oh ye of little faith.” He breathed as they reached the device. They were close enough to touch, which Anakin did so. He reached out with the Force, closing his eyes and shaping his desires. He fed neutral Force into it, but the machine still had biological resources within.

Dooku choked as a large plate of bantha steaks appeared out of thin air, held in place by the Force Anakin was using. Two jugs of Anakin’s favorite drink followed. “What?!”

Anakin took a sip of his drinks, “Oh, that’s the good stuff.” He said in rapture before gulping down nearly a quarter of it. He smirked at Dooku, “Well, aren’t you hungry?” He asked as he started to cut up his steak.

But Dooku’s interest in food was vastly outweighed by his need for knowledge on this device. “What. Is. This?!” He asked Anakin, nearly glaring at the younger man.

“This.” Anakin smirked up at the huge machine, “Is the Infinite Engine.” He put a piece of steak in his mouth and moaned. “Holy kriff, it’s like it recreated the exact steak Padmé treated me to at that restaurant.” He savored the juicy piece of meat.

And that made Dooku salivate as he remembered just how hungry he should be. “And just what is the Infinite Engine?” He asked as he regally sliced up the other steak. As he put it in his mouth, he nearly fell over as the exquisite flavor hit him.

Anakin grinned, “In the year 2958 BRR, Master Revan found the Star Forge.” And Dooku’s eyes were already nearly popping out of his head. “He quickly realized how dangerous the machine was and decided to spend as little time as possible aboard it. He instead took a tiny shaving from it no bigger than a fingernail for study and discovered the truth of what the Star Forge was. It was no mere weapon. No simple foundry. No, no, it was an engine of creation, not destruction.” He nearly laughed at the look of both comprehension and utter disbelief on Dooku’s face. “You’re looking at that small, fingernail-sized sliver. You feed it anything you want, and it will create anything you desire.”

“Why is it not…” Dooku frowned, still utterly amazed, “Consumed by the Dark Side?”

“Revan purified the sliver.” Anakin said, “He wanted a clean slate. And because this Infinite Engine was not fed by darkness and suffering over generations, it itself has not been contaminated by the Dark Side.” He turned to the machine, “Though I am quite curious as to what happened to the servants Revan left here to guard it.”

He walked over to a console and started to access the data. “Hmm… last log was over fifteen-hundred years ago.” He perused the data, using the Force with finesse to feed himself as he did so. “Ahh…” His voice had a bit of melancholy in it, “They really are all dead. The Infinite Engine could create everything they wanted… except for more Ongree for them to kriff.” Dooku again turned his nose up at the language. “Their genetic pool was far too limited to begin with and once it started going down the drain due to excess deaths…”

“Poor souls.” Dooku shook his head solemnly, “Not even the Force can keep the effects of incest at bay.”

“No, it cannot.” Anakin agreed as he continued to read their history. “As more and more of them died and were fed to the Engine, they started to get sick far more easily. It’s a shame. They waited thousands of years for Revan’s return, but he was never able to make his way back.”

Dooku sighed as he stared at the machine, “You intend to use this?”

“Yes.” Anakin said firmly, “As long as it has a template or a user of the Force who can use it properly, it can create it.” He snorted lightly, “It’s no Star Forge, of course. It’s not powerful enough nor capable of draining stars like its parent machine could… but materials?” He smirked eagerly, “Even more exotic materials? Oh, that it can do. Hopefully easily.” All he had to do was stick it deep within a mine on one of the other planets in Naboo’s system and they could pretend that they had found whatever rare material they wanted deep underground. Or he could bring it to the Unknown Reaches and get it on its way into becoming a new Star Forge. He hadn’t quite figured out just what to do with it yet.

“Excellent.” Dooku said dryly, “Now how do you intend to get it up to your ship?” Anakin twitched. He looked at Dooku and then back to the Infinite Engine. “Well?” Dooku seemed to be enjoying himself, “How do you intend to drag this thing up seven-hundred and fifty-six levels back to the top level where the Revenant was resting?”

How the kriff was he going to get this thing to the ship? “I’ll figure something out.” He said with a shrug and then a yawn. “But I suggest we rest first. We were traveling and fighting for over a day.” Anakin had the wondrous machine recreate his and Padmé’s bed twice, before putting them down away from one another.

“Yes, I suppose you are right. I’m no young man anymore.” Dooku chuckled as he got into his. Within moments, both were dead to the world.

…

“So, any ideas?” Dooku asked wryly the next day. “Because if not, we’re going to have to leave it here and come up with a plan.”

There was quite literally no possible chance of him leaving their prize behind. Anakin thought hard for a moment, before he turned to Dooku and smirked evilly. “I’m glad you asked.”

Dooku did not trust that smirk for a second.

…

“SLOW DOWN!” Dooku screamed as Anakin banked another turn that smashed hundreds of neon lights on their way up.

“Wimp!” Anakin laughed madly, “Afraid of a little flying?”

“Flying is fine, what you’re doing is suicide!” Dooku repeated words Obi-Wan had once said to him almost verbatim. Apparently it ran in their Line.

What Anakin had decided to do was quite mad. He had forced the Infinite Engine to produce what amounted to a souped-up cargo hauler. After checking over the rest of the complex and finding little else of any interest beyond the droids, which he took for study, Anakin then proceeded to fly like an utter maniac through the winding maze of Nar Shaddaa’s decaying cityscape. This was the problem with Ecumenopolisi; they built and built and built on top of and around existing infrastructure. It created outright divides between upper and lower levels. In the lower levels, if you were unlucky enough, you could be born, live, and die without ever once seeing what your parent star looked like or feeling the touch of its warmth. Parts of every district had outright roofs spanning multiple square kilometers.

It was much faster to get to the upper levels than it had been to get down to the compound, but even with Anakin’s mad flying it still took four hours. And then they started running into speeder traffic again and Anakin had to suffer the indignity of flying safely in traffic. It tacked on another hour for them to go the final kilometer up, and Anakin was ready to be done with this world.

He quickly got them back to the Revenant, snorting when he saw the evidence that several idiots had been exploded, and quickly commanded PROXY to get the cargo ramp ready. He quickly floated the behemoth of a machine from their disposable cargo hauler to the Revenant’s cargo hold, wincing as he heard multiple points scratch and screech as it went in.

“Anakin!” Dooku called out, drawing his lightsaber. Dozens of goons had apparently seen his use of the Force and, hating Jedi on principle, had begun assaulting them.

Anakin rolled his eyes before holding out his hand. As Darth Vader, he had been nominally incapable of using Force Lightning due to his heavy prosthetics and the ability’s need to be channeled through living flesh. Well, as if he was going to let that stop him.

A cloud of Force appeared above the goons before black and gold lightning rained down on them, frying them in moments and damaging the platform itself. It started to sag, and he and Dooku ran into the ship. “TAKE OFF, PROXY!” The engines roared immediately, and they got into the air just as the entire landing pad collapsed beneath their feet. It thudded and screeched as it hit parts of Nar Shaddaa on the way down.

He got to the cockpit and immediately took over as planetary security started to chase them. “Well, there goes using this ship for anything but fighting in this part of the galaxy.” Anakin growled angrily. Turbolasers roared after them as they sped into space. A security corvette tried to block their way, but Anakin, Dooku, and the PROXYs began firing everything they had, knocking starfighters out of the sky and blowing the corvette, a shiny-looking and therefore likely new CR90 that deserved better, into thousands of bits of molten slag.

They raced past it and the second they were past the gravity well; Anakin threw them into Hyperspace. He took a deep breath as the stars turned into streaks before they entered the swirling blue tunnel of Hyperspace and grinned, “That was fun!”

“I will kill you.” Dooku grumbled as he covered his eyes and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to incinerate everything I’m wearing and the top layer of my skin.”

“That’s the spirit!” Anakin cackled as he gave the controls back to PROXY. He had a shower with his name on it waiting for him.

-]|[-

Padmé had been hard at work preparing Naboo for the past several months. It hurt to be away from Anakin for so long, but she faced that loneliness with dignity. He was well out of reach for a good, long while, though he hadn’t said where. So, she did her duties as Queen to the best of her abilities.

With the massive windfall they had taken from the Trade Federation and the knowledge that they had taken from the Neimoidians, Padmé had gotten their plasma business up to full capacity. Roughly half of their Lucrehulks were now flying this way and that, carrying millions of tons of their pure plasma to the rest of the Chommell sector. The credits began to flow in as they sold their plasma cheaper than the Trade Federation ever had, and still they began to fill the treasury rather than empty it. They weren’t actually leaving the Chommell sector quite yet as she wanted to build up their area of space first, but even that was still generating a huge amount of cash flow.

With the money, she had also been able to handle their food shortages quickly. Trade to and from the planet resumed, and she could already see what Anakin had been saying. Several people were already calling for them to simply axe the next election and make Padmé Queen for life. Padmé wouldn’t accept that though. She would earn it.

She had also opened up academies in every major city. The Naboo people had never been very industrious and that would have to change. These academies were all dedicated to the sciences and engineering, and she recruited both from the brilliant engineers of the Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps as well as out of system for teachers. She was even able to steal away some decently big names from Kuat, Nubia, and Corellia with the fat paychecks teachers were offered, though none who had names as big as Walex Blissex.

Progress there would be slow but certainly needed. She also set the Palace Engineering Corps to create new vessels. The ships that they already had were wonderful, obviously, and luxury incarnate. But they needed to do better in terms of defense forces. The Lucrehulks couldn’t be everywhere, after all. This was the one area that was seeing any sort of push-back, since even after the invasion, roughly twenty percent of the population were still ultra pacifists.

She had set the Corps to design a cruiser first. She knew that Anakin had dozens of ship designs, but those were for later. They needed to stay hidden until they were needed. They needed something visible. Something that wasn’t a ‘stolen’ Lucrehulk. A show that Naboo wouldn’t be bullied any longer and that they could create and not just buy or take. A symbol of Naboo’s forces all in one.

Progress on that had been slow, seeing as Padmé truthfully didn’t really know what made a good ship and had instructed the engineers to take their time. These would need to be mass produced, after all. Plus, she needed Anakin (and maybe Ani) to vet all the designs. She also requested that the ships all have hangar bays capable of stowing N-1s inside. That system had been incredibly useful on the Revenant.

She also knew that they would need more able-bodied men and women to crew these ships and thus had created a military academy outside of Theed. She was surprised to find just how many Naboo natives signed up. She had actually underestimated just how much the Trade Federation’s invasion had shaken her people.

Unfortunately, this had caused a gigantic fight between her and her parents, who even now were staunch ultra pacifists. Even Padmé showing them Gunray’s second trial and the utter nothing that the Courts had slapped him with hadn’t been enough to break the long indoctrination that the peace of Naboo had developed in them.

Padmé needed Anakin back. She hadn’t spoken to her parents in months. Thankfully, Sola had been far more reasonable. After watching the first and second trials, she had been utterly disappointed and scared for her sister. She also didn’t know what she could do to support her. She obviously had no interest in either politics (that had always been Padmé’s thing) nor in the sciences or military… but Padmé had just wanted a good relationship with her sister and was happier to see her so often when she visited the palace as “Sola Amidala.”

Most importantly, she had begun the long, arduous process of wiping out any and all pockets of humanocentrism on Naboo. She knew from Anakin that Palpatine had secretly been one himself, and that his empire had completely and utterly degenerated any species that wasn’t human. She wanted their… whatever this became to be as displaced from that evil bastard’s empire as possible.

To that effect, she had opened up Naboo schools to the Gungans. This had caused some consternation from some of the elitest nerf herders of Naboo, but Padmé was firm. The Gungans had come to their aid when no one else would, and they were brilliant in their own right, despite their quirks when speaking. Jar Jar was the exception, not the rule. The Gungans were delighted and had reciprocated, allowing some humans to enter the underwater cities to learn as well. They had also offered help with military training. Padmé had eagerly offered the improved version of the handheld personal shield Ani had created back, and both armies made the new gauntlets standard issue.

There was the logistical issue, unfortunately, as they didn’t really have the manufacturing to make a lot of the equipment in bulk. To that end, Padmé had spent some time surveying the planet for the best location to build a new industrial district. At least one of the Lucrehulks was dedicated to bringing in raw materials now.

Honestly, she was feeling a little stretched thin from all the work she’d had to put in with little guidance. She’d gotten everything started but it would take years for almost anything to bear fruit.

Which was why she was so, so glad that Anakin had created the PROXY droids. She’d almost fallen over in shock when she had asked about how much each unit cost, but they were worth every last credit. Since she had built her lightsaber, she had sparred with it nearly to exhaustion every night. The basics of Shi-Cho had been trained to near exhaustion ages ago, and so she flowed from one form to the other, learning as she went and trying to figure out which style suited her best. Obviously, with her shield, none would be perfect, but it would certainly be helpful to be at least proficient in each form.

She often sparred with the younglings as well, if for no other reason than to not get complacent against a single opponent who couldn’t use the Force. From the PROXY (assuming Anakin’s form, to her mild displeasure as she knew it wasn’t actually Anakin, and it just made her miss him more) she had also learned Electric Judgement. It was just one of the reasons she was leaning more towards Niman’s principles than any of the other forms. Despite that, even PROXY Anakin somehow managed to get some disdain for the style she had been leaning towards to display. She kept on learning it, however. She felt that it was the right choice.

She also couldn’t understand the Jedi’s disdain for a good blaster. She had kept up her target practice and would be completely at ease switching between that and her lightsaber as needed.

Then, one headache-inducing day where she really didn’t feel up to sparring, it happened. She had returned to her room ready to pop some painkillers… when she was grabbed from behind. “Did you miss me?”

Her shriek of terror was abruptly cut off and she quickly extinguished her lightsaber. She had jerked her wrist, snapping it into her hand from her robe and stabbing for her assailant… only for her wrist to be caught. And then the voice penetrated her ears. “ANI!” She squealed, whirling around and tackling him to the floor. He laughed as he fell, her lightsaber rolling away from them. “Oh, you jerk!” She slammed her dainty fist into his chest a couple times. “You scared the-mmph!” All thoughts were forgotten as his lips found hers, and all was right with her world.

-]|[-

“Stars, you got a lot done.” Anakin was pretty shocked the next day when they finally rolled out of bed, and she started to let him know everything that had happened while he was gone.

She sighed in relief. “Honestly, I was afraid I would have messed something up. We weren’t exactly coordinating.”

“No, this is actually perfect. The new schools especially was masterfully done.” Anakin grinned, “I have a lot of knowledge from the future and am enough of a greasemonkey-” She started to giggle, “-That I can improve on designs because I know where they failed, but I’ve never designed something completely from scratch.” She smiled happily at his praise.

“Well, we’ll include you in the design process then.” Padmé said, “It might ruffle some feathers but once you prove yourself it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Damn right it won’t be.” He chuckled, “Now, let’s go put Sabé in charge for the day. We have a lot to do back home, and I have a lot to show you.” That put a frown on her face, “…What’s wrong, love?” He asked her when he saw the forlorn look on her face.

“Sorry just… you reminded me of Varykino… My parents.” She sighed, “Sola is on board… for now, at least. But mom and dad…”

Anakin let out a slow groan, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry… I… that was not ever something I wanted…”

She shook her head. “They’ll either come around or they won’t. I know what’s coming. They don’t. They have no idea just how badly we’ve been played. And even Gunray’s trials haven’t meant anything. They’re still…”

‘…somehow, your stances in the old timeline make a LOT more sense now.’ He thought dryly to himself. He let out a heavy sigh, “I just can’t understand their point of view…”

“I can.” She said morosely, “So I’m really afraid that they’re going to actually… I don’t know… disown me when we go after the Hutts.” Anakin let out a tiny microflinch, before he embraced her.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” He said softly, “I really, really, don’t.” She said nothing in return.

-]|[-

“PAPA!” One ballistic Ahsoka, just add Anakin.

He bent down to haul her into the air, laughing, “No way! This can’t be my tiny snips!” She giggled as he held her up in the air.

“Meanie papa! Why did you not come home first!” She pouted at him.

“Well, I had to go get Padmé, didn’t I?” He asked rhetorically.

“Big brother!” Ani, Aayla, and Kali barreled into him as well.

“Ooh, you’ve all grown!” Anakin hugged and kissed each of them in turn. “Have you all kept up your studies?”

“Yes!” All of them said cheerfully.

“They’re all enrolled in classes.” Padmé said imperiously, hands on her hips and a playful smile on her face, “I made sure of it. They’ve made some friends, Gungans included.”

“Good.” Anakin patted Ahsoka on the head.

“It’s not fair!” She pouted and stomped her feet, “Ani, Aayla, and Kali are all in different classes!”

He chuckled lightly, “That happens, young one.” He tickled her chin, earning a smattering of giggles.

“I see you have quite a way with the younglings.” Dooku’s powerful voice rang out. He was smiling lightly.

“Well, you look like you’re in a better mood.” Anakin chuckled.

“Your mother made a lovely breakfast.” Dooku countered, looking down at Anakin slightly.

“So that’s what you were up to.” Padmé muttered under her breath as she looked at the man.

“Anakin.” Shmi bustled in after the older man and hugged him, “Welcome home.”

“Thanks mom.” Anakin kissed her cheek.

She smiled wryly at him, “Next time, you might want to come in person to deliver houseguests.” She did the ‘mom’ pose. “The kids would have been hiding behind my skirts if they couldn’t sense his good intentions.”

“Nu uh!” said kids all chanted, though they were all looking somewhat warily at Dooku.

“I commed ahead!” Anakin said in a weak protest.

“Anakin!” Padmé lightly smacked his arm. “I know we hadn’t seen each other in nearly a year but that was no excuse!”

Dooku chuckled, “I think he was just ready to be rid of me, Queen Amidala.” Ani and Kali snorted before they could help themselves.

Anakin rolled his eyes, “Everyone, meet Count Dooku.” He introduced them formally, “He is a former Jedi Master-” The kids all gasped, “And will be helping out with your training on occasion.” Now they were looking at him with great interest. “Dooku, let me formally introduce everyone. This is my mother Shmi, my fiancé Padmé, and the kids are Anakin Skywalker- don’t ask- Aayla’Secura, Kali’Moro, and Ahsoka Tano.”

“It’s a pleasure to actually meet you.” Dooku replied dryly.

“Likewise, Count Dooku.” Padmé curtsied to him, and he bowed back to her.

Anakin clapped his hands, “Well, this is the perfect time to see how much you’ve all grown since you constructed those lightsabers.”

Padmé blinked, “Aren’t we-?” She started to say, but he shook his head.

“Later.” He said, “Would you mind leading everyone to the training area? I need to go grab something.”

“Sure thing!” Padmé’s lips quirked in amusement.

“I suppose that’s my cue.” Shmi chuckled as she followed after Anakin deeper into the house. Padmé led the others to the training areas, which impressed Dooku for how well put-together they were.

They were joined a few minutes later by Anakin, and Dooku’s eyes widened, “By the Force, is that-?”

“Wow, it’s huge!” Ahsoka gasped.

Anakin chuckled and placed it on a pedestal. “Wakey, wakey.” Dooku goggled at the irreverent manner he activated the Holocron.

“Must you?” Revan asked dryly as his hologram appeared. The kids all gasped and Padmé looked at the man in interest.

“Master Revan.” Dooku said in greeting, “So that’s how you knew.” He muttered under his breath.

“I am indeed.” Revan nodded to Dooku.

Anakin introduced everyone again and clapped once, “So, now that everyone knows everyone, what lightsaber forms have you felt calling to you?” Anakin asked with a smile on his face.

“Oooh, ooh!” Kali raised her hand high, “Makashi!”

“Oh, is that so?” Dooku raised an eyebrow. “How interesting, young one. May I see your lightsaber?” Kali stood and ignited her blade, the dual-colors shimmering to Dooku’s interest. “An intriguing coloration.” He said dryly, “Show me what you’ve learned.”

Kali immediately got into the Makashi stance with her left hand behind her back. She did a few thrusts and swipes against an invisible foe, before switching hands and doing the same. “I’m ambidextrous, Master Dooku.”

“Good, that will serve you well.” Dooku smiled at her.

Anakin chuckled, “This is perfect, actually. Count Dooku is the Makashi master.”

“If only because I’m just about the only Makashi practitioner.” Dooku said dryly.

“Excuse me?” Revan cut it, looking at Dooku in confusion. “Please explain, Master Dooku.”

“Ah, I suppose things would have been quite different back in your era.” Anakin muttered. “The breakdown for each style is about five percent Shi-Cho-”

“Closer to four percent, actually.” Dooku cut in, and Anakin deferred to him, “Less than one percent Makashi. It fell out of favor, excessively so in my opinion, over the last one thousand years. The Sith were gone forever, after all.” He scoffed now, knowing what he knew, before he continued. “About ten percent practice Soresu, twenty-five percent Ataru, twenty percent Shien and Djem So, and forty percent Niman. Only a scattered few know Juyo or even of Master Windu’s Vapaad.”

Anakin shook his head, “Forty percent Niman. What a damn waste.” He muttered under his breath.

Revan looked amused, “And what, precisely, is wrong with Niman?”

Dooku and Anakin looked at him, befuddled, “It’s damn near useless.” Anakin said with some derision. Padmé flinched slightly, though Anakin didn’t notice. “Jedi who use Niman have overwhelmingly been the ones who have most often been casualties in the past one-thousand years. ‘The Diplomat’s Form’ indeed.” He rolled his eyes.

Revan let out a dry laugh, “So I see the Order has become even more foolish since my passing.” He shook his head, “The weakness of the form is the Jedi, not something inherent in the form itself. The few Sith who have chosen to specialize it have been outright terrors.” He smirked lightly at Anakin, “Yours truly included.”

“Bwuh?!” Anakin gaped at the hologram.

“Wait, you’re a Sith?!” Ani gasped at him.

Revan chuckled lightly, “Jedi, Sith, and back to Jedi. Been there, done that, in other words.”

“Did you get the t-shirt?” Anakin asked drolly, and Dooku almost rolled his eyes.

Revan shook his head, “In any case, to simply use Niman is to fail. The style is not built for the mediocre. For the undriven. To master Niman is to master the lightsaber. It takes pieces from every form and emphasizes the Force. Niman is a blank slate. A form that can absorb anything and become anything. The Jedi even of my era neutered it with moderation. They learned it as a static form, not one that built upon the other forms.”

This was astounding information even to Anakin. He had always thought Niman was a useless style, even before the First Battle of Geonosis where he had watched dozens of fellow Jedi fall inexorably to the droid armies. Every Jedi who had specialized in it in that battle had fallen, and it had just confirmed what he had already expected. To hear this from Revan of all people was mind blowing.

“So in essence…” Padmé said, drawing Anakin’s attention, “To master Niman is to master every form and more.”

Revan nodded to her, “Yes.” He said simply, “To master Niman is to be able to seamlessly flow from the precision strikes of Makashi into the acrobatics of Ataru, the power of Djem So and the unparalleled defense of Soresu. You master each and every form and then discard their limitations. And to do so, you must be a dedicated student not only of the blade but of the Force. Most Jedi then and even apparently now believed the two to be separate. That to master the blade meant forgoing the Force, and to master the Force meant forgoing the blade. Not so. They are inexorably tied, and it is foolish to eschew one for the other.”

Now that was something Anakin wished he had understood before Mustafar in his previous life. While he had never consciously transitioned to Niman as Vader due to his injuries and that Sith-damned suit he had worn, he had apparently done so anyway without realizing it. He had taken lessons from Dooku, from Obi-Wan, and from his own broken body to forge himself into a weapon anew. Only once he regained a younger body, he had not forgotten those lessons but had resumed his primary usage of Djem So.

Huh, maybe Niman truly was worth pursuing. If you had the dedication and passion for it. “So that’s it.” He muttered, “Why Niman fails in an overwhelming majority of Jedi hands. They’ve sucked all of their passion out. Passion is dangerous, after all.” He snorted derisively, “And in doing so they’ve created a massive liability.”

“It appears so.” Revan agreed, “Niman without passion and mastery is nothing more than a tragedy in potentia.” He smiled at them, “But in the hands of a true master, it is truly worthy of being called the Way of the Rancor.”

Anakin grinned, “Thank you, Master Revan, for reminding me of what Niman should have been. I think I would quite like to learn from you. Properly, this time.”

Revan smiled, nodding at him. “Though I think the younglings are a bit more interested.”

“Ah!” Anakin rubbed the back of his head, “Sorry littles ones! That kind of got away from us.” The younglings giggled. “So!” He clapped his hands. “Which styles have you been practicing most?”

Padmé raised her hand with a sheepish smile, “Niman.”

Anakin blinked, “Really?”

Padmé nodded, “It appealed to me most due to my… unusual armaments.”

“How so?” Dooku asked her.

Padmé stood and drew her saber, before igniting both it and her shield gauntlet.

“Fascinating.” Revan mused as he looked at her, “I can’t recall ever seeing a Jedi who preferred to use a shield along with the lightsaber.”

Padmé smiled at him and Dooku, “I found it incredibly useful when we retook Theed from the Neimoidians.” She told them, “At the time, I had no lightsaber of my own. Only a training saber that… wasn’t really worth much in a fight, obviously.” She smirked as the two men chuckled, “So I fought using the shield and a blaster.” She saw Dooku’s nose wrinkle, “A weapon is a weapon, master Dooku.” She turned her nose up slightly, “And I am perfectly capable of shooting an enemy as easily as I could slice into one as the situation demands.”

“Well, it’s certainly unusual.” Revan smiled, “And yes, I believe Niman would suit you perfectly.” Padmé returned it in victory as she turned off her shield and weapon and sat back down, “Though figuring out how to implement that shield will be tricky. I do love a challenge, thankfully.”

Anakin chuckled, before turning to his younger self. “And you, Ani?” He asked, knowing that his younger self was going to choose Djem So.

“Niman!” Ani said eagerly, and Anakin almost fell over in shock. Betrayal! By his own younger self! “I’m going to learn ALL of them and be even better than big brother!”

“In your dreams, pipsqueak!” Anakin attacked, tickling his ‘brother’ savagely. Ani squealed and tried to get away with the Force as everyone started to laugh. After they subsided, he turned to Aayla, “You’ve been pretty quiet, Aayla. Everything okay?”

She smiled sheepishly, “I haven’t really chosen one, really. I’ve been working mostly on Ataru, though with two blades not one.”

“Interesting.” Dooku said noncommittally. He was certainly most interested in Kali. “And you, little one?” He asked Ahsoka, who was patiently waiting her turn for once.

“I use two too!” She said cheerfully, drawing both blades. “I’ve been working on Djem So and Niman.”

“Ah Snips!” Anakin grabbed her and hugged her like a teddy bear. “I knew you wouldn’t betray me!”

“Papa!” Ahsoka giggled as she wriggled to get out of his grip. “Watch!” She ignited her sabers, and Anakin had to bite back a groan as he saw that she had already fallen into the habit of using the reverse grip.

“Well, at least none of us will be bored.” Revan chuckled. The rest of the group laughed as well and got to practicing.

By the end of the day, Dooku and Kali had practically formed a Master-Padawan bond.

-]|[-

Padmé’s jaw was on the floor as she looked at the massive machine that Anakin had brought back from Nar Shaddaa. For once in her life, even more so than when Anakin had first told her the truth, she was well and truly speechless. She had at least been coherent when Anakin had dropped the time travel bomb on her. After seeing what she had sworn her eyeballs had just shown her, she had turned into a babbling idiot.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this!” Anakin grinned cheekily, ‘In either life.’ He added mentally to her so that Dooku wouldn’t overhear.

‘Oh, kriff off!’ She shot back at him.

‘Such a potty mouth!’ He snickered.

She focused herself with a supreme force of will. “How.” She said plainly, “Is this possible?! Anakin, this is-”

“The force multiplier of force multipliers?” Anakin asked, throwing his arm around her. “Indeed, it is.” He then explained to her everything Revan had told him about the Star Forge and later the Infinite Engine.

“What in the Sith Hells were the Rakatans?!” Padmé swore as she half-glared at the machine. “How did they build all of this?!”

Dooku let out a dry chuckle. “It’s a saying that even many Jedi have never truly learned and internalized, Queen Amidala.” He looked over at her, “All things are possible through the Force.”

“Clearly.” She said, putting a hand on it and slowly feeling it. “Stars, this thing can even create food if you’re skilled enough to direct it properly. Cooked food.” She put her hand on her head and scrunched up her hair in a tight grip.

“Now the question is: What do we do with it?” Anakin asked softly.

“Surely you have ideas?” Padmé frowned, looking up at him.

“Plenty of them.” Anakin replied, “I just don’t know what the best use of it is.”

“Then give us two or three.” Dooku said, “We might come to a decision properly that way.”

Anakin nodded, “My first idea was to use it as the base for a new Star Forge.” He said softly. “Nowhere near as efficient as the original, of course. It would still have to consume actual material rather than stars. But it would tremendously speed up construction of our fleets.”

“Fleets which we can’t crew.” Padmé said, “Not unless you want to pull a Trade Federation and go full droid.”

“Never go full droid.” Anakin muttered, shaking his head. While droids WOULD be a great part of their navy and ground forces, crews had to be mixed with organics in charge. They had seen how poor all-droid armies and fleets were in the Battle of Naboo, and Anakin had the added knowledge from the Clone Wars. At least part of that was how cheap the Trade Federation and Separatists had been, but even the better droids they had utilized in the Clone Wars were still only droids. Without true artificial intelligence, they could only follow orders with very little in terms of interpretation or deviation from their programming. And Anakin had already messed up one timeline. He wasn’t about to bring about the droid uprising in this second chance.

“What else?” Dooku asked him.

“My second thought was that we stick it on one of the planets here in-system. Padmé, have they been explored and documented?”

“Not really.” Padmé shook her head, “Naboo was the only planet in the habitable zone for the system, so we never considered colonizing the others. We own all of them, so that we could ensure mining rights if we ever found anything, but we never really developed an industry. Not until now, that is. Everything has been scanned, of course, but they were only cursory scans not deep penetration scans.”

“Then we could place the Engine on those worlds and seed them with rare materials.” Anakin said, “Either for trade or for use.”

“There exists a flaw in that strategy,” Dooku chimed in, “Though I am unsurprised you did not see it. Anything you seed this planet with that is overly rare will by nature become suspicious and could lead to discovery of the Engine.” He stated.

“How so?” Anakin frowned at him.

“No, no, he has a point.” Padmé sighed, “If we find… say… Beskar on one of our worlds, then the galactic community WILL take notice. Even if we limit mining to only Naboo, that’s still going to be millions of people hoping to make it rich by finding the motherlode. And then when no one finds anything anywhere else…” She trailed off leadingly.

Anakin facepalmed, “They’ll wonder how in the hell we managed to stumble on the only source on the entire planet, which could lead to the engine being discovered. Fark.” He cursed.

“The idea is still doable.” Padmé said, “But only if we use it to create materials already on planet. If we find Beskar veins, we can expand them. Make things more believable by maybe increasing the ore concentrations in the veins we find. Artificially make them more valuable by changing plain dirt into ore which we then mined manually.”

“I’m… not sure the Engine can work like that.” Anakin muttered, “It works by feeding and then producing, not by outright transforming. And I have no idea how much range it has. Even Revan has no idea what it can truly do. He only ever got to study the one small piece.”

“Then ore into better ore.” Padmé said dryly. “But that’s all it can do. At least at scale. If we want to turn dirt into Phrik for our own secret use, then by all means.”

“Right.” Anakin muttered, crossing his arms. “In any case, my last idea is rapid prototyping.” He said, looking at Dooku, “Keep it here. Hidden. Any time we come up with a design, we feed a copy of the design to the engine and then feed it materials to build it exactly as directed. We then have a fully functioning unit to mess around with and show the eggheads if need be to make corrections or improvements. Rinse and repeat until we’re happy.”

“Now that is an excellent suggestion though one all too limited for such a wondrous device.” The older man said softly. “Which, I suppose gives us the question we need to answer… which direction do we go in?”

“Do we have to choose?” Padmé asked, drawing their attention. “This thing is huge and unwieldy and already barely fits inside the Revenant. We also don’t have anywhere to store it here. At least not yet. What if we chose all three?” She asked with a grin, “Command it to split. We get smaller machines that are easier to work with, and then we don’t have to choose.”

“Would that even work?” Anakin frowned, rubbing his chin not unlike his old master always would.

“You’re the expert.” Dooku said dryly.

“I’m an engineer and an egghead, not a scientist.” Anakin deadpanned, “I’ll consult Revan. He’s the one who studied the Forge originally.”

“Good.” Dooku nodded, “In any case, I would not split it too many times, if we do at all. We have no idea what the effects would be.”

Anakin nodded, “If Revan agrees it is possible, I’ll have it split once in half just to be sure the effects aren’t too severe, and then if that works I’ll have one of the halves split in half again.”

“If only the Ongree had split it once already and diversified out of that one compound.” Dooku sighed, “Their race might still be alive.”

“Wait, what happened to the Ongree?” Padmé asked, having not gotten the history of the machine from Anakin. Her love told her of what they had found, and she shook her head. “Those poor souls. At least their race isn’t extinct.”

“Indeed.” Dooku agreed, “Now, I believe it is time I head for Serenno. I need to get started with consolidating power there.”

“Will you take Kali with you?” Padmé asked, suddenly worried. “You two bonded very quickly.”

Dooku sighed, “Jedi tradition and my own sensibilities demands it, yet I can see that taking those younglings from one another right now would be a mistake. At least right now.”

Anakin let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Give me a few hours.” He said, “I’ll have the Engine create a PROXY for you and then modify it slightly. It won’t be the same as having her with you, but via your bond and regular communication you can still teach her much.”

Dooku nodded, “My thanks.” He looked at Anakin, “Once they are a bit older though, I will have her with me for at least some time.”

Anakin agreed and thus got to work. It took a bit more time than he expected, because he had a bit of a brain wave while working on the modifications and quickly whipped together a prototype ‘virtual reality’ interface, as he took to mentally calling it. Dooku would then be able to wear it and see through a linked PROXY’s ‘eyes.’ It would read his brain impulses and transmit them, meaning he would be capable of remotely ‘piloting’ the droid in real time.

It took quite a few attempts, but the Infinite Engine already proved the viability of plan three. By the time he was finished, two weeks had passed and Dooku had already left. But the result was a much improved, long-range teaching device so that the former Jedi Master would be able to teach his pupil much more efficiently.

-]|[-

Padmé had been so caught up in Anakin’s return that it wasn’t actually until the day after Dooku left that she realized she had forgotten to ask Anakin something important. “Ani, what was that massive spike of the Dark Side we felt a week or so ago?”

Anakin grimaced as he remembered the incident, “I have no idea.” He said in irritation. “It definitely didn’t happen back in the original timeline. Or if it did, I didn’t feel it.”

Padmé shook her head, “No, if it had happened, you definitely would have felt it no matter how little training you had at the time. Sabé had a night terror because of it and had to sleep with me for a night.”

Anakin cursed lightly. “Even worse than I thought, then.” He ran his hand through his hair, “But I legitimately have no idea. I’m actually wondering if my knowledge of the future is even useful at this point.” He said in frustration.

“Have you found more differences?” She asked him curiously and apprehensively. He nodded and told her about the timeline differences between what had happened in his timeline and what had happened here with Dooku. She pinched the bridge of his nose, “So Dooku started Falling to the Dark Side at completely different points in time and that wasn’t something you could have changed. Kark.” Anakin nodded, “…What about the Blockade?”

He shook his head, “No, that was correct to the week if not the day.”

“Then your knowledge isn’t useless…” She trailed off and bit the tip of her thumb, “But we have no way of knowing what bits of knowledge are useful and which aren’t.”

Anakin sighed, “I think we’re going to have to play things by ear much more than I thought we would.”

“No.” She said firmly, “We need to still plan around your knowledge. Maybe the dates changed, but the outcome was still the same: Dooku Falling. We can plan loosely so that we can react to changes as they come, but disregarding your knowledge entirely would be catastrophically bad.”

Anakin thought about it for a moment, before nodding. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll need to keep improvisation in mind and research important events too.” He cursed himself, “Stars, I wish I had paid more attention in history classes. Or at least watched more events while within the Force before coming back.” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Even if you had, it still would have been a massive amount of information to remember and then pick this and that as different.” Padmé grabbed his chin and tilted his head down so she could kiss him. He relaxed in her arms and wrapped his own around her. “Don’t kick yourself.” She said softly, “You need to be strong for us.”

He took a deep breath and released it. When he opened his eyes again, his confidence had returned. “Thank you, angel.” He smiled down at her, before they kissed again.

-]|[-

Time quickly passed, and the day Padmé turned sixteen, the two of them got married. While they had no need to hide their relationship unlike last time, Padmé was worried about her family being identified and targeted by the Trade Federation. To that effect, they got married in a small, private ceremony with just their families and friends. It was the first time in over a year that Padmé and her parents had even spoken, and Anakin was quickly able to figure out that they really disliked him now. Apparently they thought he had corrupted their sweet and innocent daughter.

It would have been amusing if they hadn’t been right.

Still, at the very least, they kept their displeasure private and put on smiles at the wedding. Padmé had been so radiantly happy that they couldn’t bring themselves to ruin her special day. It was officially one of the happiest days in his life and it continued all week as they had a private honeymoon.

Which they spent going at it like bunnies.

The next week had been awful… because then they had the public wedding they had been told in no uncertain terms was absolutely necessary. The sheer pageantry on display and the sight of Padmé in one of the frankly way overdone traditional Naboo dresses and the fact that they stuffed him into richer clothes than he knew existed had both of them begging for a way to fast-forwards through their day.

All the while plastering political smiles on their faces and dealing with people they frankly didn’t want to deal with. Especially Palpatine, who took time out of his busy schedule to come for the wedding to keep up appearances. The knowledge that all three of them ‘secretly’ wanted to gut the other party was incredibly stressful. Especially since Palpatine had brought in a number of senatorial ‘friends.’ By the end of that day when they collapsed exhausted in bed, Anakin was honestly considering scrapping the whole plan, having a Dark Side breakdown and massacre, and just becoming a hermit with his wife and family. It had been the one thing that had put a genuine smile on her face that day.

Even her political smile had become strained by the time the media circus covering the wedding between the two ‘Heroes of Naboo’ finally died down a month later, to their relief.

And after that… well, it was back to work. They had used their time as wisely as possible, training hard, making overtures to other planets both within Chommell as well as elsewhere, and designing and building up both a public and very private military presence.

Revan had deemed the splitting of the Infinite Engine viable and so they had pulled the trigger. They quickly figured out that halving the massive machine had not quite halved its output. The first split had cut its volume in half, which still equated to a machine nearly twenty meters in length, width, and height. That meant that they felt perfectly comfortable with splitting it again, yielding three large Engines, though one was larger than the rest.

The first of the trio, Anakin buried beneath their home. Deep beneath their home. No one would know it was there unless shown. It did mean prototypes would have to be relatively small until he could dig himself a larger hidden exit somewhere else. Thankfully, Naboo was a strange planet with cavernous depths. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had traveled through the core itself, after all. 

The biggest of the Engines Anakin took with him into dark space where he was hiding the shipyards. He started fusing them to the engine and creating a much larger behemoth that would be capable of churning out ships at a much faster pace than his shipyards already had.

The last of the Engines was a bit more of a tough cookie. First, he had to locate a viable planet, preferably one in the Other Rim and hidden from galactic scrutiny, with vast resources that they could use the Engine to create more of. To that end, he had the engine create tens of thousands of survey drones, which he used a Lucrehulk to seed everywhere along the Outer Rim.

He got a huge hit nearly outside of the main galactic ring that checked every box he and Padmé had: close-ish to both Naboo and the Hutt Sector. Not quite equidistant but close to it, and somewhat near Rothana as well. Not populated with any even mildly intelligent life. Far from any prying galactic eyes. Rich with a lot of different materials that were hard to come by in galactic space. Hells, there was actually a planet in that same System that could be a Scarif-Tier tropical resort to take his family on vacation to.

With that done, he had to grind his teeth and take nearly a month away from Padmé again to map out a Hyperlane to the planet. This time, he was at least able to take the younglings with him so he could continue their lessons. They were having their vacation from school. He was quite proud of how far they had come already and spent his time during the trip teaching them Electric Judgement. He wasn’t going to let any of them mess with the Dark Side yet, which they were really happy about.

With the secret Hyperlane created, he was able to seed the Engine into the richest parts of it and quickly had it make construction drones to form a compound, mine, and spaceport. He dropped the younglings off at Naboo and then brought the shipyards over to it. With that done, things really picked up, and Anakin was able to bring back millions of tons of cargo back to Naboo for them to sell, divvy up to their allies, and make use of for their budding defense industry.

They started with the mass production of the Defender II class… albeit not quite as spec’d out as the Revenant. This was a ship designed for a smaller, droid-assisted crew. This was meant mainly for police action within the Chommell sector. As they were so close to Hutt space, they occasionally got into skirmishes with ‘pirates.’

Well, those ‘pirates’ learned pretty quickly that Naboo was no longer going to tolerate their actions. It was good training for their defense fleet and also started producing more experienced officers. This built up Naboo’s reputation within Chommell and soon, they were selling Defender IIs to other Systems within the Sector.

With that, they moved onto unveiling their cruiser, and the galaxy at large started to get a little worried. Many outside of the Chommell sector couldn’t help but wonder if Queen Amidala hadn’t gotten a taste for blood because of the Invasion. But their ships were fully compliant with Republic laws regarding capital ships. They were all fitted with limited-range Hyperdrives so as to be incapable of projecting power outside of their sector. Senator Palpatine assured everyone that the Naboo were not violent people, all the while wondering what in the Sith Hells Padmé was doing. When no violence came, people unclenched, but the Galaxy started to take notice that Naboo was becoming a powerhouse.

And then Serenno started doing the same. People wondered at the sudden economic alliance between the two far-away nations and started getting very nervous again once Serenno began producing their own starfighters and capital ships: all of very different design philosophy compared to the Naboo vessels. The increasing wealth between the two sectors was plain to see, and other planets started to want a piece of the pie.

Many made overtures both to the charismatic Count Dooku as well as the beautiful and well-regarded Queen Amidala, and using Anakin’s knowledge, they were able to choose the planets from the Confederacy of Independent Systems which truly had wanted only to remove themselves from the corrupt Republic and who they knew would support their actions in Hutt Space and in the Outer Rim.

They didn’t make any overt noises in that direction, not yet, but they started feeling them out and dropping hints about the Hutts to those they felt would be amenable to action there. Some responded positively, and some required some memory wipes to keep their secret.

It was three years after they found the Infinite Engine that Anakin and Padmé figured out what that huge Dark Side spike had been. Jedi Master Sifo Dyas had reappeared in the Outer Rim, and the first time Anakin watched one of his speeches, he understood the man had Fallen somehow. He began taking up Dooku’s role from Anakin’s memory, making overtures first to the Trade Federation, then the other major intergalactic conglomerates. Once that happened, they started stirring unrest in the Outer Rim.

The galaxy didn’t know it yet, but it was getting closer and closer to the day it was split in three.

-]|[-

And that’s it!

Unfortunately, I don’t have anything more for this fic at the moment. Or at least not plot related. Things like fleets and ships and stuff, I have plenty of. They’re just not immediately useful. I need to get back into serious planning mode before I get back onto this one in full.

In the meantime, there will be three upcoming one-shots and pilots, as mentioned last week. I hope you’ll enjoy them as well!