In the days following the successful retrieval of Chancellor Palpatine, my injury heals. I'm not back to full strength just yet, so I'm training...just a lot more carefully.

Since there seems to be no word on the location of General Grevious, I've been inactive, confined to my floor of the building. I'll on occasion visit Padmé while Anakin is away, though I haven't had the chance to see my little brother in a while. I suppose a quick visit to the Jedi Temple can't hurt. The Council hasn't exactly banished me from approaching the Temple grounds.

I decide to leave my floor and head upwards to Padmé's. Along the way, I find my brother, Anakin Skywalker, in a huff and a mood it seems, stomping down the hall. Some days it's hard to believe he isn't the braid-donning Padawan learner I had met five years ago. He let his hair grow out. His face was marred slightly by a scar running alongside his right eye.

"Anakin?" I ask. "Whoa, slow down, brother."

"Please, Thea, I'm not in the mood to talk."

"Sure, not with me, but your wife, oh sure, let's talk to her."

Anakin stops, his blue-eyed glare not lost on me.

"I'm just concerned. What's up?"

"Things are changing, Thea."

"Um, what?"

Anakin rolls his eyes, and I don't appreciate the demeanor. "The Chancellor wants me as his personal representative on the Jedi Council. He doesn't trust them."

"Does he want you to...spy on the Council?" When my brother doesn't answer, I continue, "He's just paranoid. War does that to people, whether on the field or off it."

"They granted me a spot on the Council, but I wasn't granted the rank of Master, Thea."

I'm not surprised; nobody ever self-appoints themselves as a Master, that's just not how things are done with the Jedi. "They might not feel it's the right time. I know you're working towards it, Annie, so I wouldn't get too discouraged."

"But it makes no sense, Thea! How can I be on the Council but yet not be made a Master? You see the injustice in it, don't you?"

I shrug. "I don't deal with the Jedi, Annie. You seem to be the only one who's upset by it. The Council makes decisions rationally; they wouldn't do it out of having anything against you."

"Oh, there's a lot more I haven't yet told you." Anakin exhales. "The Council wants me to report the Chancellor's dealings. They want me to spy on him! It's an assignment that's not going to be on any record."

My mind is spinning. My brother is caught in the middle of a game of trust, or is it distrust? He's being called on to play both sides, and he's clearly frustrated on which side he should be on. Really, his first loyalty should be to the Jedi, not to the Chancellor.

"Look, regardless of your part in whatever you've winded up in, be careful," I say to him seriously. "Nothing comes out good for you if you're on the wrong side of things." I know that almost too well.

"You know from experience?"

"Let's not talk about your current problem, Anakin, let's just...talk." I sigh. "Come inside. There's something that I need to tell you. I've owed you this explanation long enough."

"What are you talking about?" Anakin follows me back inside my suite.

"I need you to understand why I was gone from home for so long. Please, sit."

"Can I tell you something before you start?" Anakin hovers near the sofa.

My brows furrow. "I...sure."

"Mom's gone, Thea."

I tilt my head. "Gone?"

"Killed, by the sand people."

"How would you know that?"

"I had a dream, about Mom. She was dying. When I was on duty for Padmé, we made a stop on Tattooine. She'd been taken by them. I set out to find her. I did...but they hurt her, badly, Thea. She...she died in my arms. She hung on long enough for me to find her."

My mind counts back how long my brother has held this from me. Five whole years. "You...you never told me until now?" I had questioned why he had made the stop to begin with but I had never gotten an answer then.

"We got swept up in battle, in war. There was never a good time to tell you."

"So you think now is?!"

"Thea, please." Anakin closes his eyes, as though he's controlling his own temper.

"Did you...what happened at the camp, Annie?"

"I slaughtered them all. Even the women and children. I brought Mom back home so she could be buried. Not long after that we found your distress call."

I can't believe this. I'm upset, because Anakin knew Mom was dead for five years and waited until now to tell me! I want to be mad at my brother, I really do. But it won't solve anything for us. It won't bring Mom back. I'll have to mourn over her properly, later.

"I'm sorry, Thea. I wanted to tell you sooner," Anakin says in a small voice. "I-if you want me to leave, I understand."

"No, stay," I insist. "I still owe you this." As I sit, Anakin mimics me. "I mean what I say in watching what side your loyalty lies on. I didn't run from home, Annie. I was abducted when Mom let me out to the markets. I was abducted by a Sith apprentice named Darth Maul."

"Did he have red and black face paint? Horns?"

"Y-yes. How—?"

"I remember seeing him as a boy. That can be told later."

"Okay." I wring my hands. "Well, his Master, he accepted my training. Since I never met Darth Sidious, Maul trained me under his Master's instruction. You know of the prophecy, right?"

"About the Chosen One? Yeah, I'm familiar with it."

I chuckle. "You'll get a kick out of this. The Sith believed I was the Chosen One. Until they realized that I wasn't. For that, Sidious ordered Maul to kill me. It's the only explanation I have for them kidnapping me so early on. They wanted the scales in their favor, for the Force to not be balanced."

"How come they didn't come after me once they realized?"

I shrug. "They may not have been aware that I had a sibling. And maybe by the time they found out, the Jedi took you in. It would have been gutsy of them to take on all the Jedi just for one boy." Tears well in my eyes. "I'm sorry that I missed a lot, Annie. I didn't want to. I wanted nothing more than to be home...initially. The Sith teach their rights and wrongs, the beliefs that the rest of the galaxy doesn't share. The homesickness left after a time, and for a while, I forgot who I really was and where I came from. I almost believed I belonged to the Dark Side."

"Thea..."

"Don't ever heed the call to the Dark, if it ever tries to call for you. Don't do it, Anakin, do you understand?" I ask sharply.

Anakin is taken aback by my response.

"I mean it," I insist. "It takes away who you are, what you used to be. It warps you into something you're never supposed to be."

"Okay, okay." Anakin closes the gap to hug me. I bury my head into his shoulder.

"Swear to me, Annie. Swear you won't make the same mistake that I did. No matter what age you are, the Dark can corrupt anyone."

"I-I swear."

"Thank you." I pull away slightly.

"Are you going to be okay, Thea?"

"If you're implying you should stay to keep me company, I won't say no." I try and smile, but it doesn't distract from my tears. The tears caused by the pain of my past. The tears I hope to one day never weep again.

"Well, then I guess I'll hang around."

**You guys know just how ironic it is for Thea to basically yell at her brother not to go Dark Side, right?**