“What are you doing?” Aloo whispers, but Ahsoka only smirksand grabs her hand, pulling her out too.

The passing master has turned back to look at them, and fora moment Aloo feels unreasonably terrified, but then she sees it’s not a masterat all. It’s Anakin.

She didn’t recognize him at first, because he’s been awaywith Master Kenobi on a mission for months and months now, and in that timehe’s somehow gotten even taller.

Anakin grins when he sees them, and then grins even widerwhen he sees where they’ve come from. “Am I interrupting a secret mission?” heasks.

Aloo rolls her eyes, but Ahsoka gets into the act, glancingconspiratorially up and down the empty hall before stepping closer to Anakin towhisper, “Top secret. We’re going – to dance.”

“Scandalous,” says Anakin, though the way he says it makesit sound more like, “Excellent. I’m in.”

Ahsoka grabs Aloo’s hand in one of hers and Anakin’s in theother, and drags them both the rest of the way to the conservatory. Anakinpretends to complain the whole way. “This is a kidnapping,” he says, though hesays it quietly enough that the sound won’t carry. “You’re kidnapping arepresentative of the Republic.”

“It’s for a very important cause,” Ahsoka says cheerfully.

They’ve reached the conservatory now, and she leads themquickly and furtively into a lush, densely green room full of ferns and thesound of trickling water. Anakin stops just inside, closing his eyes andbreathing in long and deep. “I missed this place,” he says, mostly to himself.

“Where’d you go, Anakin?” Aloo dares to ask.

He opens his eyes again and smiles down at them. “Can’t tellyou,” he says, but it’s an apology, not a boast. “But it was awful. Lots ofrich people, lots of expensive food and shiny buildings and sla– servants. Idon’t think they had a single plant in the place. Even on Tatooine we hadplants.”

Aloo looks at Ahsoka, and they grimace. Some of the otherpadawans talk about diplomatic missions like they’re the greatest honor.Padawan Mottin, who taught them Chandrilan etiquette last week, always makesthem sound wonderfully distinguished and important. Anakin’s the only personshe’s ever heard describe a diplomatic gathering as a “rich people party.”

“Well,” says Ahsoka, drawing them all back to the “mission”at hand. “We were planning to practice Tatooine dancing. If you want to joinus.”

Okay so,

Throughout flashbacks, it would be revealed that Paula became Talia’s personal bodyguard and close friends with “Thomas Pennyworth”. She assisted with Bruce and Talia’s courtship, hiding it from Ra’s, which was a huge risk for her personally. Paula came to the attention of Lady Shiva, who selects Paula to be an apprentice. Bruce is clearly uncomfortable with this, but won’t tell Paula why. On the night Paula has her “final exam” (killing someone) she comes back, traumatized and scared, and “Thomas” is gone. She goes to Talia, and Talia is also furious, because he left without saying anything. Paula is assigned to track him down, and is assigned the name “Huntress”. She proceeds to uncover Bruce’s real identity, but is called back by Ra’s. She keeps her discovery of Bruce’s identity to herself, and recognizes him as Batman instantly when he debuts. 

Present day, the kids run around and pick up more strays. They pick up Cass next, after David Cain attacks them, hoping to collect the bounty on their heads. Cass starts her career as Shadow, and shortly after they return to Gotham looking for Hook, who they believe has information on their father. He doesn’t, but he’s been working with Arthur Brown, so a certain Spoiler charges in to help them. They then raid Cadmus (not the DC branch) and rescue Terry, who is a clone of Bruce and an unidentified second person (who Terry would later in the story to either be Paula Nguyen, Selina Kyle, or Mary Grayson.) The Hunters don’t know this, they only know he’s Batman’s clone, and abscond with him. 

In between all this, the kids have befriended Dick, despite Batman still trying to chase after them to keep them safe. They rescue Rose in a similar way to Cass, and end up with custody of Damian shortly after. Confronted with the knowledge that they now have two of Bruce’s biological kids in custody, Jade finally sucks it up and goes to Bruce. Because of all of the complications now present (and Jade now being a legal adult), Bruce ends up just bankrolling them. 

Now having resources, the kids redouble their efforts to investigate Paula’s killer, and consult with Bruce about it. Bruce is forced to reveal his history with Paula, including his regrets about leaving without asking her to leave with him (Paula’s flashbacks reveal that she would have gone if he’d given her a chance). They uncover that Paula was killed by Shiva, who viewed Paula’s betrayal as a stain on her reputation. 

Complicating this is the discovery that Shiva is Cass’s biological mother, and the knowledge that beating her is extremely unlikely. Despite this, the Hunters take the fight to the Shadows (with the Team as backup of course). The fight goes… okay, but they’re losing. 

And then Shiva kills Jason.