Star Wars Episode Infinity: the Loops by Crossoverpairinglover (Star wars/multi)

Summary: A long time ago, beyond the galaxy far far away, time itself broke. Now the multiverse is stuck on repeat and acts up often. This is the story of the mightiest of galactic heroes, trapped in near infinite repeats of time itself, and their adventures both in their own world and the rest of the multiverse. Part of the Infinite Loops fanfiction project

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10724500/1/Star-Wars-Episode-Infinity-the-Loops

Word count:150k

Chapters:18

Chapter 1

Ever wonder why I haven't been updating Reset Bloodlines like I should have. Part of it is college, but I have recently joined the Infinite Loops Project.

I am now in charge of the Star Wars loops, as the various characters are trapped in their various insanities for the rest of time.

May the force protect us all…

Note, if no name accompanies the numbers, that means I wrote them.

1.1

Ever since he died saving his son, Anakin had been tortured for his failure by being sent back to his youth again and again.

Surrounded by the allies he betrayed, the innocents he slaughtered and the horrors he unleashed...for reasons he could not figure out no matter how hard he tried, nor had the wisest of people he had asked on the subject.

...

"The Force is many things Anakin, but it has limits. If the Force could be used to travel through time into the past to change things, the Sith would have used it to rip time apart and murder us all" Qui-Gon Jin, the only Jedi that Anakin had ever asked for advice on what was happening to him, seeing as Obi-Wan thought he was drunk or high the two times he had brought it up with him, told him in a quiet little corner of Tatoonie during the one time that he had went that far back to Tatoonie, with the much older Jedi kneeling in front of him. "I may not know what is causing what you have described, but rest assured young one, I will aide you in discovering the truth about your affliction. But first do tell me, does Obi-Wan ever act like me?"

Anakin nodded, a spark of mischief appearing in the gleam of his eyes.

The grin on Qui-Gon's face proceeded to bother Obi-Wan for several hours until the grin was lost.

...

Sadly, this conversation distracted Qui-Gon, so Maul ended up killing them all, on orders from Palpatine himself...

Palpatine.

The name itself caused so much anger to boil inside him, even as Anakin realized why such anger was a bad thing.

The man who manipulated him, tricked him and caused the events that ruined his life (a life ruined by his own hands, bitterly enough)...a abomination of the Dark Side who ruined the Galaxy and, as the Chosen One, he was destined to defeat to bring 'Balance to the Force'.

At the time of his death, the idea that 'Balance to the Force' could mean the end of the old Light and the old Dark, but if he was being sent back in time, perhaps he would be stuck in these resets of time until be brought balance in the way that Mace Windu and the other Jedi Council had suggested, by killing the Sith.

No matter how nauseous admitting the Council was right made him.

However...

...

Palpatine was quietly doing the paper work that was needed to keep a Republic going on its path to becoming a Empire, absently turned to the window and let loose a great blast of Force Lightning.

The blast shattered the window, and sent Anakin (Who had been sneaking in through the side to launch a surprise attack on Sidious), falling to his death on the pavement far, far below.

...

That had been death number 7.

Though at least he didn't have to see her that time around...

Padme.

His wife, the person he cared about the most in his life (his mother and son perhaps as equals, but for now he was being overly dramatic in this thoughts, and the question of the daughter he only realized he had for a few minutes at the end of his life was also present...), dead by his hands.

Seeing her was both a great joy, and a great pain.

Did he even deserve to be in her company after what he did? Should be try to make amends for his crimes by being a better husband, or should he follow that saying 'if you truly love something, you should set it free where you can't force choke her'? And what of Luke and Leia, was it wrong to protect Padme from him at the expense of their very existence?

It was trying to avoid those question, perhaps subconsciously, that drove Anakin to try to end Palpatine by any means, attacking him in every conceivable way.

Alone and upfront, in sneak attacks, with the Jedi and with Clones...it all resulted in his death.

But the last one...it was the worst. Ironically enough, it was his only success

...

It was a simple yet ingenious plan, if Anakin had to pat himself on the back.

First he found Bariss, beat her to a pulp and stole her nano droids, before throwing her body into the Cthon infested parts of the under city he had killed Plo's niece in.

Then he slipped them into Tarkin's meal, resisting the urge to kill him right then and there.

Finally, he waited for the racist bastard to have a meeting with the Chancellor.

All he had to do then, was push the remote detonator that was currently in Anakin's hand from his safe little observation spot of the Senate Building.

Boom

Anakin grinned as he heard the audible explosion of the Chancellor's office in a burst of energy.

He was dead, the wicked Sith he was sent back in time to kill by the force was finally dead! Maybe now he could finally...

Anakin's eyes widened in horror as the explosion, which he had deliberately set up to only be large enough to engulf the Chancellor's office/evil lair, somehow caused the entire Senate building to erupt into a giant mushroom cloud.

Just when Padme was on her Herculean task of getting Senators to vote for the common good and not based on their wallets.

"NOOOOOOOO!" for the first time since he started these loops, Anakin let out a great, big No into the sky.

Padme was dead, and it was because of him that she was so...AGAIN.

Collapsing to the ground, tears streaming out of his eyes Anakin looked at fury into the sky, with his eyes briefly flashing gold.

"Is this what you want from me, Force! To trap me in some eternal nightmare because I messed up!" Anakin shouted into the sky "Well, if that's what you want, well there you have it! Palpatine is dead, and I'm sure Obi-Wan and the other masters can deal with Dooku! Now" Anakin drew his light saber from his pocket and pointed it right at his chest "Let! Me! Actually! DIE!"

ZZZZPT!

...

And that was how Anakin had gotten to where he was now. Sitting on some archaic train, with no idea how he had gotten here or what the point of it was, except that he was some sort of 'Muggleborn' going to 'Hogwarts', and he was about 11 if he had to guess.

Did he break reality in his anger? Because for some reason his head was filled with strange memories about things like a country called the United Kingdom, a queen named Elizabeth, and vehicles that uses wheels and ran on archaic and wasteful fossil fuels.

For some reason people considered going to the moon to be huge. What was so huge about a barren rock? Children went to moons on school trips, it wasn't an international affair.

Anakin also held up the stick that he, for some reason, had instead of a light saber. What sort of primitive backwater was this place?

He sensed the approaching presence before he heard the door open, and so he turned rapidly towards it, pointing his useless stick at the intruder in what he could only hope was a battle ready pose.

He found his piece of wood pointed at a boy about his age, with black hair and large glasses that looked like they were mostly made of tape. He had green eyes and a lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

He also looked surprised to see him.

"...Your new" the boy commented as Anakin continued to point his stick at him "Are you a friend of Ranma's?"

Anakin lowered his stick briefly in confusion "Ranma? What's a Ranma?"

The boy looked curious "Oh, then are you one of Ichigo's friends?"

"Who?"

The boy walked closer to him, and Anakin responded by pointing his stick at him with more gusto. In response, the boy drew his own stick and made a red light fly out of it was some strange words, Expell a something...

The red light knocked his stick out of his hand, sending it clunking across the floor and under a chair as Anakin responded with the force, ripping the boy's stick from his hands and into his own.

That caused the boy to adjust his glasses in shock "Interesting..." the boy's eyes lit up in some sort of realization as Anakin resisted the urge to just force choke him "...Say, by any chance have you found yourself relieving your life recently?"

...

It was a most...informative lecture after this.

That day, a 'September the first 1991' local time, was the day Anakin Skywalker learned of the loops.

1.2

"Haven't seen you before. You new to the loops?"

"Yep."

"You know you replaced Sasuke right?"

"I guess"

"...Do you naturally have hair like a duck or are you prone to murderous revenge sprees that alienate everyone you care about from you?"

"...Sadly the later"

"...Heads up, if you try to stab me in a place called the Valley Of The End, I will beat you to a pulp"

"Don't worry, I have no plans on murdering anyone this loop"

It was Anakin's second fused loop, and this time he was something called a 'ninja'. The person he was talking to, a tanned blond with blue eyes and whisker like markings on his face that would have prevented him from ever being made a stormtrooper, was one of Harry Potter's contemporaries of the original anchor generation, Naruto Uzumaki.

He apparently was a prankster who had a malevolent creature of pure energy locked inside him. Anakin really didn't understand how that worked, but somehow the idea of locking a mountain sized mammal into a baby's stomach violated at least a few laws of physics.

He probably got some part of the thing wrong, but the sight of a pink haired human female was confusing him at the time. Did humans have additional pigments in this world?

He was apparently a member of a training squad, Team 7 apparently. He was teamed up with said anchor, and a blue haired girl wearing a coat that looked like something you'd wear on Hoth with eyes like pearls, as oppose to the oddly pink haired girl as was apparently the norm for Naruto (Something about her starting to act a little...off, and Naruto wanting some space from any version of her after some incident last loop)

Not that Anakin had any idea what happened, and probably didn't want to, so his mind went back to the pearl eyed girl named Hinata Hyuga he was teamed up with this loop as part of a three looper team.

Again, it was kind of odd the variations in the humans in this loop. Again, like the physics of stuffing a giant energy mammal into an infants naval, Anakin wasn't sure how having no visible pupils affected a person's sight.

He could quite plainly see the girl wasn't blind, but still...

Oh, and for some reason he was barely a teenager.

They all were barely teenagers...

"Welcome to Training Ground Seven"

Anakin's train of thought was derailed as the trio found themselves meeting up with their sensei in the middle of a field, surrounded by forests with two wooden posts in the center. He had grayinsh-white hair (Despite being around Anakin's age during the Clone Wars if Anakin had to guess by appearance alone, perhaps a bit older), with a mask covering not only his entire lower face, but a headband with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf Village/ Konohagagkure no Sato (apparently, according to Naruto, the name swapped around a lot, like some person named Haku's gender and apparently Blaise Zabini from Harry's world) covering his right eye. He was named Kakashi Hatake, and he was apparently supposed to be his ninjutsu teacher this loop. (Technically, as Naruto had apparently had the time to master all forms of ninjutsu in his time looping and would actually be teaching him and instead the trio would use Kakashi akin to something called 'a beard'. Anakin had no idea what Obi-Wan had to do with this, but he just went along with it)

Honestly, these humans were just bizarre looking, and unlike Hagrid, Flitwick or Voldemort they didn't have non human ancestry, or evil rituals, to explain it. For some reason, it worried Anakin that the anchor somehow seemed to be the most normal looking, particularly when said anchor wore clothing so obnoxiously orange that even Jar Jar Binks wouldn't wear it.

Anakin hoped what he had seen so far was the weirdest things got.

Meanwhile, a duo of green jumpsuit wearing punching enthusiasts running up and down a sheer cliff with a panicking teammate strapped to their backs apiece sneezed in unison, sending all four of them falling into the water below.

"...In order to pass this test, you must retrieve these bells from me before time runs out" he had sort of zoned out as Kakashi apparently explained a test that basically boiled down to 'I have two bells that will pass two, but I actually won't pass any of you if you all don't work together', at least as Naruto had summarized it. "Any questions?"

"Very well, begin"

"Okay" Anakin grinned as he extended his hand forward, causing the two bells currently tied to Kakashi's waste to vibrate, before both were telekinetically ripped from Kakashi and sent flying into the waiting Naruto and Hinata's hands. "They pass"

Kakashi just stared at them in shock as the first of many, many odd incidents involving these Genin this loop.

1.3

KSSSH KUHHH KSSSH KUHHH

Anakin Skywalker, finding himself stuck in the damn suit, looked at the black, metallic hands of Darth Vader with disdain.

Of course this would happen at some point.

His entire damn life was on repeat, and he spent over half of it in the damn thing...odds were he was probably going to have to loop in the thing.

KSSSH KUHHH KSSSH KUHHH

...Vader considered possibly trying to end this loop quickly, but some of the advice that Harry and Naruto had given him was ringing in his ear.

'Crashing loops because they suck, will only bring up a worse loop'.

He had no idea what was worse than the damn suit, but he wasn't eager to find out.

"Governor Tarkin. I thought you would be the one holding Vader's leash."

Vader's eyes went wide under his visor (which was hard to do with the burns he got from his idiocy), as he realized when woke up.

Moments before Tarkin blew up his daughter's home planet, as he watched.

But really...Tarkin holding his leash? That was ridiculous.

Still shocked at hearing that, much of the resulting conversation was tuned out, but he caught one particular bit.

"...Since you're reluctant to provide us with the location of the rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan"

As this line was uttered, the composure of his daughter (Not that she knew that), broke apart faster than a droid battle formation in his way, Vader began to rapidly think.

This had to change. This moment would make Leia hate him for all eternity (Even though it was Tarkin who blew Alderaan up), and a moment he himself could amend with the loops.

He had to try, at least. But what could he do!? There was no way he could apparate to the core, wreck it and get back without being noticed by Tarkin, and he probably would splinch himself in the process.

True, his limbs were mechanical, but it would be really annoying to deal with, and explain.

There had to be something he could say, or do that could stop this. Perhaps he should appeal to Tarkin's better nature...

Or just stab him, considering Tarkin didn't have a better nature. He could just give Tarkin's job to Yularen, who would be far less trigger happy.

"...Then name the system!" Tarkin demanded as Leia continued to beg him to save Alderaan, as an idea came to Anakin's mind.

The only thing that could possibly save Alderaan, at least in his opinion.

KSSSH KUHHH KSSSH KUHHH

"...That would be unwise, Tarkin" Vader spoke up as Tarkin glared up from the emotional senator.

"What would be unwise for me to do on my ship, Vader?" Tarkin drawled as the looping sith lord continued.

"Alderaan, while rebellious, is a major source of Imperial Tax Dollars. Destroying it will unbalance the budget"

Both Tarkin and Leia just stared at him in shock: Tarkin for going against his call and Leia for suggesting they spare her planet, for money.

"We can simply raise taxes to amend the missing revenue" Tarkin commented matter of factly as he looked ready to signal the gunner again.

Anakin decided to try a different approach.

"Raising taxes will not remedy the loss of Alderaanian wine. You will encourage dissent among the Moffs for putting a finite limit on the remaining stocks of it, and will encourage wine dealers, tasters and collectors to support the Rebellion"

Tarkin looked further annoyed at him for stalling, while Leia looked like furious that he continued to put material wealth as reasons not to destroy a highly inhabited planet, as oppose to humanitarian reasons.

In her distraught state, of course, she failed to realize Tarkin didn't care about humanitarian concerns.

"You're unusually cautious today" Tarkin stated in an icy tone of voice "Does my weapon make you fear you would become, irrelevant perhaps?"

"Anyone can operate your oversized disco ball Tarkin, not everyone can use The Force" Anakin responded in kind.

"I have no idea what a disco ball is Vader. Perhaps you have finally gone crazy, just like your old friends in the Jedi Order..."

...

It was a long time ago, several loops away from his current one, that anchor Luke Skywalker had begun looping.

At first, he wasn't sure what was going on. One moment he was a Force Ghost ensuring his descendant Cade dealt with the Sith, the next he was back on Tatooine buying new droids for his Uncle Owen all over again.

He had no idea what was going on, except that he had somehow gone back in time. In doing so, he could (hopefully) amend his mistakes and stop catastrophes.

He could stop Alderaan from blowing up, redeem his father before his death, save Ben, not flirt with his sister, not loose his hand to his unredeemed father, ensure the Emperor actually died early, save Chewie and Anakin Solo, limit the Vong's rampage, save Jacen from the Dark Side, save Mara's life...it was a long list of things he wanted to see prevented.

He accomplished many of them, but time kept resetting even when he managed them.

However, he eventually met a man named Ranma, who told him that he was in sort of 'infinite time loop' that spanned the multiverse. It was a place of majesty, filled with great spirit swordsmen, planetary soldiers of justice, and something more destructive than the Death Star called a 'Kamehameha wave'.

However, the monotony was starting to get to Luke. As much as he loved Ben, Han and the others, he was starting to feel bad about putting their lives at risk, so this time he decided to go to stop the Death Star on his own, seeing as he woke up a bit earlier this time around.

(it helped he woke up somewhat earlier this time)

Leaving his Aunt and Uncle, he managed to obtain a ship (Credits could be kept in his subspace pocket, apparently) and left Tatooine, though first obtaining R2 (Who had important plants he needed for the Rebellion, and who would be searched for by the Imperials and thus lead to his aunt and uncle dying), and 3PO (Who you couldn't really leave and only take R2), and had managed to break into the Death Star without being detected.

Having done a variant of his current plan a few times before with Han and Ben (Who were not looping, though according to Ramna that could (probably would) happen sometime in the future), he had snuck into the Death Star core and disabled it.

With that, all he had to do was go save Leia from their father (Who was not aware of their relation) and Tarkin, take her back to the Rebellion, and get a laugh or two at Tarkin's performance issues.

However, what he found instead was somewhat odd...

"...Perhaps its finally time we retire you like the old relic of the Republic you are, just like the Venator cruisers you loved so much!"

Tarkin was hounding his father, who was apparently arguing that they shouldn't destroy Alderaan...for taxation purposes?

What in the name of the Force was going on?

This wasn't normal for his father at all: he never bothered about taxation in any of the previous times he had encountered him.

Was this some sort of variant loop, like that time Ben had killed his father and Vader was actually a different person?

"I am quite fond of the Venators, I felt it was quite wasteful to abandon so many in deep space for Pirates to steal. As to being an old relic, the Force is old, yes, but quite reliable. I mean, a single fighter could destroy this thing with a single photon torpedo. You cannot destroy the Force without destroy all life, which I am told is rather difficult to do"

"A photon torpedo!? Preposterous"

Luke's eyes went wide at that remark just as his sister flinched, unnoticed by Tarkin (she probably knew how that would be done from the plans). The only way his father could be aware of how easy it would be to destroy the Death Star would be if he was...

Using Shunpo, Luke lunged at Tarkin faster than anything in this universe, his green light saber glowing.

Tarkin didn't even realize he was dead until he was, in fact, dead on the floor as Luke deactivated his blade and stared at his shocked father and sister.

"Luke..." Vader said in surprise.

"Father" Luke said, simply to see his reaction. Vader's reaction seemed to be mostly surprised to see him also time traveling.

Leia, however...

"Wait...what!?"

"I have a son, L...Senator Organa" Vader noted with a notable near slip on his part "It happens. He just doesn't like the empire and I don't really talk about him much to other people. Political assassination threats on his life and all...of course as I just said that and just allowed the death of a high ranking government official to occur on my watch, I guess I will have to retire from the dark enforcer thing..."

On a scale of 1 to 10, Luke was giving that explanation of low 7 personally.

...

A few hours after Luke blew up the Death Star once more, he finally got a chance to talk with his father, who had slipped away from the rebellion before Mothma and the others could detain him.

Luke, on the other hand, could track him down easily enough. It helped, of course, that despite blowing up the Death Star, his heritage made him somewhat...unpopular with the rebels and they were content to let him go if he A, didn't bother them, B, bothered the empire, and C, kept Vader occupied.

"So...your looping?" his father spoke as Luke entered the quiet temple room Vader was hiding out in until the Rebels left.

"I see you know about it then, so I don't need to give you the whole spewl about the multiverse"

"Correct, Harry Potter and Naruto Uzumaki already filled me in"

Luke rose a confused eyebrow at that one. He had heard of the famous wizard looper and the 'Ninja' looper, but hadn't met them yet. Yet somehow, his father had.

"You've already had two fused loops?" Luke was confused at that one. As the Anchor, he had been looping for longer than his father should have, yet he already had the same many as he did?

"Of course, I am the anchor after all. I began looping first"

Luke just stared at his father "No, I'm the anchor"

"I am afraid you are mistaken my son, I am the anchor"

"No, I am father. You cannot have two anchors, and I was looping before you were"

"I can assure you, Luke, that I am in fact the anchor. I am sure further loops can answer this question and prove that I am correct"

...

"...I've got nothing" next loop, this was all Harry Potter had to say when confronted with this question on the Hogwarts express by 1st year student Luke Skywalker and his father, the Auror Anakin Skywalker. "I know Anakin's an anchor, and Ramna's knows how to tell the anchor from a looper...so somehow you both must be anchors"

"But, that can't be?!" Luke demanded as Harry shrugged.

"Again, I've got nothing"

1.4

"...How is an infinity symbol supposed to help explain how we both can be anchors?"

"First of all, it's a Venn Diagram, second its not supposed to do that. It's simply a visual display of a theory made visible in order to better explain what I believe is..."

"Father please, just let Mr. Fantastic talk"

Anakin and Luke found themselves in a laboratory with a blue and white dressed man whose body was stretching in ways that humans did not stretch in, who was twisted around and pointing to a holographic image of a infinity like set of circles: with two circles meeting in a way that displayed a central overlap in the center that was within both circles that dominated the center of a laboratory of some sort filled with inventions, several of which even managed to go over the Jedi's heads despite this world being far less developed than the ones they were used to.

Even Tatooine was further along than most 'Earths', and it was a backwater that Anakin would blow up with the Death Star if his mother's grave wasn't there (and he didn't want to deal with the emotions that exhuming her remains would cause)

"Thank you Luke. This diagram is simply what I perceive as your status being as loopers with oddly distinct temporal periods, as oppose to how Steve, despite having ample ability to similarly anchor, does not anchor the 1940's. Now, the part on the left represents the Clone Wars and related troubles, Anakin's time as a hero, the Prequel Trilogy, however you wish to describe it" a little icon of Anakin's vader mask appeared above it to Anakin's slight annoyance "On the right represents the Galactic Civil War, Luke's original period of heroism, the Original Trilogy, etc etc" a little icon of Luke's head popped up over Luke's section.

"Now, based on general looper theorem, one can assume that you two will cause others to loop based on the strength of your connections. Hence why there are so many loopers from the worlds of heroes, the world of ninjas and the world of wizards, while so few loopers come from less connected worlds, such as the world of angels. In the world of heroes, for examples, as the anchors are individuals who function as almost 'hearts and souls' of their super hero communities, you find a rapid increase in looping populations as oppose to other worlds of similar age, such as your own or the world of the transformers. Just in the last three loops, we've seen the final member of my team, Johnny, begin looping, along with Bobby from the X-Men, while I heard from my intern Virgil Hawkins last loop that recently Zatanna, Buddy Baker and Garfield Logan have woken up as well. Due to this, one can assume that, as a longer lived and more friendly and likeable individual, Luke will find himself with far more looping companions than you Anakin"

Anakin grumbled something about Luke inheriting the best of his mother or something along those lines as the Ven Diagram began to fill up: with Anakin's side having little icons with Shmi's, Padme's, Rex's and Ahsoka's faces on them (a head icon of Palpatine also briefly popped up, before it vanished so quickly Anakin wasn't sure if he actually saw it), while Luke's had Han's, Leia's, Lando's, Chewbacca's, Mara Jade's, Corran Horn's, Kyle Katarn's, Lowbacca's, Ackbar's, Nas Choka's and several dozen others.

"Wait...why is the hand's face up there" Anakin noted the red head's surprise appearance (though he had no idea what the one after Ackbar's was, he didn't even recognize its species) as Luke smiled.

"Oh, Mara? She's my wife"

Anakin just stared at his son blankly "Son, I know twins are supposed to mimic each other, but you didn't have to find someone who is nearly as nauseating as Solo to marry just to spite me like she did"

"That has nothing to do with it, and Leia's not even looping"

"She's my daughter, she'd find a way to spite me without even knowing it."

Reed coughed to regain their attention.

"...In laws aside, these individuals are not likely to be the first from your world to begin looping" he then noted the merged area, where icons of R2-D2, C-3PO, Obi-Wan and Yoda popped up "No, instead I hypothesize that the ones who have a strong connection with both of you will begin looping first, though perhaps not all four of them before others appear."

"Great, being stuck with Yoda for all eternity, talking like this end up I will" Anakin scoffed, taking on a bad imitation of Yoda's accent as Luke shook his head at his father's somewhat juvenile behavior.

"Father, he's not that bad"

"Luke...that...whatever he is, isn't some cuddly, innocent furry creature, he's a scheming little midget. Ever here of the Hardeen incident..."

Reed again coughed to stop Anakin from going onto another rant.

"Again, this is merely a hypothesis. Hopefully I will be able to gather further data on this multiple anchor timeline theorem upon later testing. I heard tale of another world of space fairing heroes that I believe could possibly hold interesting data"

"Oh...them" Anakin had a frown on his face as he turned to his son "Luke...if you ever loop into that world, or ever run into a pointy eared man named Spock...don't mention that you're related to me"

"...Do I want to know?" Luke reluctantly asked.

"...In my defense, I wasn't awake at the time, but no, you probably don't"

1.5

Luke had received a message from his father about a week into the loop.

After spending a week as his aunt and uncle's helpful nephew again (And working on appreciating them a bit more. Luke was aware he didn't have best of relations with his uncle, rebellious teenager and all, but after a loop in Harry Potter's shoes he was quite aware they could be far worse), he had received the message via messenger droid.

It was...sort of odd.

"Dear Son"

"Was trapped in loop where all communications was by song. Said loop likely caused damage to my already off sanity, though it probably is temporary. I am currently a trigger happy, stressed out Sith Lord who expects every conversation to break out into a musical montage and has to physically keep his hand from going into choking motions. Have taken a shuttle into the Unknown Regions to find peace and quiet far away from musical merriment. Please don't contact me unless it is necessary, and definitely not anywhere where there are singers, instruments, Rap Artist Munns, or Psychedelia inducing Gungans"

"I Am Your Father"

"P.S, Obi-Wan has a terrible singing voice. He should never be part of a Disney Film. Mundi and Fisto actually not half bad. Will probably murder them if I encounter the Jedi High Choir again"

So that was what a variant loop was like within your own loop? He had heard about them from Ranma and the others, loops where people's morality was off without looper intervention, people changed genders and Dolores Umbridge physically resembled someone named Lady Gaga.

He had never heard of a musical loop though. It sounded...unnerving.

So, with a few days to set up a 'I want to see the universe on my own' conversation with his uncle, Luke left Tattoine and had made his way to Byss, where he promptly destroyed all of Palpatine's clones, the cloning equipment and anything that could potentially be used to get the process restarted at an accelerated rate.

One Palpatine was too much as it was, clones were overkill. Palpatine was his and his father's problem, Ben did not need to deal with him. Cade wouldn't deal with him. The universe was already damaged enough without reality damaging clones running around, etc etc.

Now, it was time to deal with the 'prime clone' as the original source was called.

...

"...Jedi, I'm taking it your the reason I cannot find my apprentice" from his throne, the old and evil Darth Sidious, Dark Lord of the Sith and enemy of Truth, Justice and the Galactic Way, drawled as Luke appeared before him, face to face. "Though I must say, you look rather young for a Jedi who escaped my sight all those years ago."

The Skywalker males had been looping for a while now.

They had traveled to various worlds and seen many wonderful and horrible things, and learned skills that went beyond the force.

By now, they had passed beyond the power level of Sidious and both could and did kill him whenever they could to make the lives of everyone else a lot better (Luke for longer than Anakin due to being more familiar with killing Palpatine than he was, and for the fact that Palpatine knew Anakin well enough he could be on guard the moment Anakin started acting 'differently'/not like a slowly groomed apprentice to the dark arts).

However, Palpatine was still dangerous. He could still kill them, and he could still sense them, so they had to be rather careful in how they approached him, particularly Anakin considering Palpatine was considered a benevolent and beloved leader and murdering him openly was not an option.

But Luke had the option of walking up to the guy and challenging him to a duel to the death, a fringe benefit of the Galactic Empire and the massive amount of hate the galaxy had for him.

"Might I assume you were trained by a Jedi who slipped through my fingers? Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Shaak Ti, K'Krukh?" the Sith continued as if he was discussing the weather, as oppose to being confronted by a dangerous opponent"

"Oh, one here and the other there. You could say I am mostly self taught" Luke darkly bantered back as he activated his green lightsaber "And no, I am not the reason that Anakin Skywalker isn't here to save you now."

Sidious glared at him for that comment "How...disrespectful, like a ill-behaved youngling. None the less, it does appear I will be needing a new apprentice, and I can sense quite...strong force in you young one. Join me, and learn the power of the dark side"

"No thanks, I have all the power I need" Luke pointed his blade at Palpatine as he continued "You, on the other hand, have far too much of it"

"That, boy, is a matter of perspective. The idea of too much power...how foolish" and with that, lightning was fired.

...

A epic duel later, a panting Luke stood over the dead body of the Emperor of the Galaxy, and last Lord of the Sith seeing as his father was not into it and decided to instead seek silence for a loop.

The battles with Palpatine may get shorter and shorter with each iteration (as they learned what the man could do), but even then, not as quickly as other foes.

Among the loopers he had met, he had heard tales of how quickly the great and powerful foes of the baseline became push overs. Even among his 'class' of newer loopers, it was already the case with the first looper who came around in the world of a young woman named Bulma: the looper known as Goku had already taken to easily overpowering his greatest baseline foes like stormtrooper fodder in only 5 loops.

However, neither he nor his father were like that. No matter the power they gained, Sidious was still a dangerous foe. He was cunning, adaptive and had access to a massive amount of power in a galaxy saturated in the dark side. While they could gather great power to match that on a basic level, none of them could deal with those advantages in any doable way quickly enough.

May the Force (and the admins) never allow him to loop. Palpatine could easily become the most dangerous looper in such a scenario...a threat even to the Original Seven individually in no less than two fused loops for each of them.

Thankfully, all the conventional looping wisdom said that Sidious could not loop, and Luke would hold out hope that remained the case.

Now, he had several things to do. While his father leaving did distort the Death Star plans, and hopefully threw the rise of Lumiya off (Luke personally liked his nephew not a Sith Lord) , a giant planet destroying space station was still floating around, the Galactic Empire had to be properly dismantled, a new Jedi Order formed, an extra-galactic alien invasion to plan for in nearly 30 years, and he had to convince Mara not to murder him for taking down Palpatine.

All in a loops work for Luke Skywalker.

Speaking of the loop, wonder how Leia's mission was going without her ship being boarded?

...

"Beep beep beep"

"Are you trying to jinx us R2!? Honestly, I can't even understand why your so concerned"

The famous droid duo, currently in orbit over the planet Tatooine, was currently in one of their famous 'arguments'.

R2 was being annoying, while 3PO was berating him, yet somehow R2 came off as the mature one in the end. It was one of those universal singularities of the universe really, and it was a sign to their boss for the loop, the young and noble Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, that things were going as normal.

"Might I ask what is troubling him?" Leia rose a curious eyebrow as the golden protocol droid turned to her.

"It is rather odd Mistress Leia. For some reason, R2 seems to believe Darth Vader and an army of imperials were going to attack this vessel an hour ago. As if the Emperor's right hand would ever be this far out in the middle of nowhere"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP!"

"...He now seems to think we're messing with him or something. He keeps mentioning someone called Luke Skywalker...it really is bizarre"

Leia looked confused as the little astromech continued to go crazy "...This is troubling, but it's too late to get another R2 unit. We'll have him checked after we find Master Kenobi"

1.6 (Valentine Meiken)

Darth Vader walked into the Emperor's chambers, flaring his cloak impressively.

"My liege, I bring news of a plot to assassinate you..." Vader announced, "I strongly suggest you remain in this room."

"Thank you for your suggestion, my apprentice..." Palpatine declared, "I will take that into consideration..."

Vader then walked out of the chamber, then hit a button on the high yield explosive devices he'd dropped when he flared his cloak, before humming the Imperial March to himself.

1.7 (jjxz,edited by myself)

Ranma and the Skywalker Anchors looked at the sight of what they had inevitably created, with great dread and uncertainty of what they could do

The loop had started as normal, in the "Vader" era. Ranma had replaced Obi-Wan, but that wasn't uncommon. Last time, Lina Inverse had replaced Obi-Wan.

Luke still smelled like Giga Slaves after that one.

Anyway, The member of the O7, the hero of the rebellion and the Jedi-turned-Sith had decided to see how much damage could they cause to the Death Star with a direct fight, as oppose to blowing it up from the inside or making a run at it with bombers, and that included using anything in their Pockets.

One thing lead to another, and the crazy really hit the fan when Ranma accidentally released another Death Star from his growing collection of them...

And two copies from the Movie-Variant of the Transformers' All Spark, which once was able to be kept in the Subspace Pocket at all times, but this ability to was severely damaged by the Crash. (which is a whole bucket of bolts we don't need to get into right now)

So, the resulting nightmare fuel would not happen again outside of a dedicated fused loop 7 times out of 10.

"I, Deathtronus, will conquer the galaxy!" The first Death Star shouted, having reshaped itself into a giant, humanoid robot with a lot of guns and a deep, scary voice

"No, brother! I, Staronius, will protect it, and all living things from your greed!" Ranma's own said in a deep, wise voice, having also turned into a giant robot, with a shield and axe instead of all the guns.

"Then, we don't have other option, but to FIGHT TO THE DEATH!" Deathtronus said, charging his plasma cannon with his planet destroying blast.

"One shall rise, one shall FALL!" Staroius said, charging in with his axe and shield that could theoretically slice a planet in half.

Ranma only sighed inside a Millennium Falcon Ranma had bought off this loops Han. "And this, my folks, is why I usually keep the All-Sparks in uninhabited planets."

"... Has... Another thing... Touched an All-Spark?" Luke said, between trying to make his mouth work again and wake his father up, who collapsed at the sight of two sentient death star giant robots battling for the fate of the cosmos.

"Once, it touched ALL the mechas and Iron Man Armors Shinji and I had." Ranma shuddered at the memory. "It wasn't pretty."

"I don't want to know, do I?"

"No, no you do not. It's a long story, but involved a High School/Harem Fused Loop, three tons of pasta, and a bet gone horribly wrong."

1.8

Anakin Skywalker did not need looping to realize he was a horrible person.

He did need it to realize that he was not as irredeemable as he once thought, even after death.

Time loops then once again reminded him of how far he still had to go, of course.

One of the most...pressing concerns is a revelation.

A rather obvious one, truth be told, but one that never really sunk in until a few attempts at parenting.

Anakin, really didn't know how to be a parent.

Sure, he didn't do something obviously wrong (he did not give Luke and Leia chainsaws, for instance, or starve them in a dark cave whenever they made a mistake in their potty training), but there was just a certain level of...touch, he couldn't seem to get.

Was it just because he was, more often that not, a single parent because the universe seemed to take a unhealthy glee in killing off Padme no matter what he did to try and deal with the potential problems?

Was it just the fact that, if he took Luke and Leia in, either at the start or retrieved them from their 'homes', that he was still learning which people in the empire to fire, which to exile, and which to mind wipe.

Or was he just not fit to be around children?

Sure, he hadn't had any, ultra concerning situations yet (No Leia's killing innocent furry creatures, no Luke's setting fires), but they had, at various loops been arrested for petty crimes, been utterly spoiled brats, and turned into lawyers, depending on what tweeks Anakin was using on his parenting methods at the time.

He really didn't know which was worse.

He tried to emulate his mother on a few occasions to see if that work...problem was that he...really couldn't pull off her saintly level of patience.

Perhaps there were, other ways he could figure out what to do to improve his parenting techniques...

...

"Miss Richards, you and your husband have managed to raise two children loop after loop with, as far as I can tell, no problems at all" Anakin decided to go to the best looping parents he could think of at the top of his head, the Richards of the Fantastic Four, for advice on his concerns with his parenting style. The blue bodysuited blond looked interested in what he was asking of her as he continued "I would like to know your secret"

"Secret?"

"Despite the repeated kidnapping, murder, reality alteration and, at times, descent of their father into mad science territory, neither Franklin nor Valeria are in any visible way, damaged, yet when anything remotely like that happens with either Luke or Leia, they don't handle it nearly as well. How do you do it"

The brilliant and most powerful member of the four pondered this question for a moment as Anakin removed a notepad and pen (how rustic) from his subspace pocket as she thought up what she and Reed had that kept their kids so well off and normal, even with reality warping powers and a uncle figure in Victor Von Doom, respectively.

"Well let's see...we have a stable home, both Reed and I are able to spend as much time with them as needed, Reed normally keeps his 'mad scientist phase', as you call it, side in check" he had not done anything crazy like, say, building robotic Thor clones again.

As Anakin took notes, she continued "Oh...and they have the loving support of their uncle Johnny and Franklin's godfather Ben"

"Godfather?" Anakin tilted his head in curiosity as Susan smiled.

"Oh, you don't have that in your loop?"

"I don't know, I never asked. I'm not exactly an expert on father figures" Considering the list of people who could vaguely be called that included his owner, his master and the Dark Lord of the Sith, it was quite possible godfathers did exist in his world and he had no idea.

"Well, a godfather is a person who is meant to become the child's guardian should the parents die. They also generally give the child additional support and generally are seen as the 'fun' parent."

Anakin looked intrigued at what he was hearing.

A godfather, was that the answer?

...

Kuush.

In the desert wasteland of Tattooine, a black armored figure entered a hut dramatically.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi. I am need of your services"

The armored, in recovery for evil actions, Sith looked around in confusion as he heard no response "Obi-Wan? Kenobi? Old Man?"

Where was he? He was the obvious choice for a godfather...

ZTTT

...

...Perhaps he should have remembered that Obi-Wan was not only currently not a looper, and he also had a lot of reasons to stab him.

Perhaps he should try some other sources for advice on non-godfather based advances in parenting

...

"...Go away" the dark brooding figure in front of the large computer in the cave waved Vader off.

"I simply wish to have some advice for parenting from you, Batman" the dark lord asked as Batman ignored him, but did bring up one file, labeled under 'All Star' and 'Disturbing Variant'.

"Do not make your kids eat rats, and your fine. Now, leave before I activate the magnet"

...

"...Bub" the short, hairy man in yellow, though covered up by biker gears, told Anakin as the two played pool somewhere in the western motor lanes "Why the hell are you asking me about how to raise kids?"

Striking the white ball with the result of putting one of his striped bars in one of the holes, Anakin rose an eyebrow "Kitty's come out quite well. Same with Jubilee, Laura and whoever else you've adopted since I last checked. I mean, Jubilee even manages to handle getting her powers removed and getting turned into a vampire well, better than a normal person should. Obviously you're doing something I'm not"

Taking his own turn, Logan struck in three striped balls with one punt "Bub, let me say it nice and easy like. The reason Kitty and the others came out so well is a team effort. You have Chuck as a mentor like grandfather, Ororo as an aunt like figure, Bobby as the uncle like figure and Slim as the token serious family member we ignore sometimes. To raise those kids of yours, you need a proper support system behind them. If your looking for some wisdom from me, that's mine"

Anakin briefly had the thought of Mace Windu Xavier flash through his mind, but then he remembered how his problems were never solved by removing Mace Windu's limbs.

...

"...and another thing, parenthood is a never ending expedition into the unknown! Like the search for the Snorkack, one must be ready for anything! For when boys attack, for when your home is infested by Nargles, for when the secret police storm your house to seize your toilet paper for The Purpose! You must be ready for anything, young father! After all, I was ready for anything when the red-eyed rabbits attacked..."

As the eccentric looking man continued to spewl...something, Anakin couldn't help but make partial reaches for his lightsaber.

Why did he think Xenophilius Lovegood was the person to ask for parental advice?

There was a reason he was one of the few people who would believe someone who said they were a time looping space man from another universe.

...

Anakin began walking towards the house of this world's most powerful looper, before he remembered who that guy was, and promptly turned around and walked back from whence he came.

Goku was not the person to ask for fatherly advice. As well intentioned he was, he had a bad habit of being dead/out in space.

Perhaps Piccolo...

...

Nanoha and Fate were a pair of magical girls from a reality that was rather different from the Sailor Senshi, who had recently began to loop in the footsteps of said founding looper members.

Nanoha was the world's anchor, a blue eyed brunette, and Fate was the world's first looper, a reddish-brown eyed blond.

He had met them a few times before this, the first time costing him an entire fleet, though after that regrettable incident they generally got along rather well.

In fact, it was because of that incident that he sought them out, particularly over the trigger for it.

...

Presea Testarossa was one of the worst parents in the known multiverse (at the present time), up there with people like Gendo Ikari and Norman Osborn.

However, unlike Shinji Ikari or Harry's friend Peter Parker, the local anchors tried to redeem her as often as possible.

It was a rough job, but they were pure of heart, and not a certain crazy pink haired kunoichi who was not welcome near Kamino anymore who forgot her moral.s

Anakin greeted the two 9 year old magical girls (at the moment) capable of mass destruction and reality disruption with a smile as he ran into the two mid 'how to redeem Fate's mother this time' mode

"Hello there, got a minute? I have something I would like to ask of you"

...

"Vivio? Why do you want to know about her?" the three, with the two little girls appearing to be much older thanks to some magic (Anakin had no desire to be labeled something unpleasant), were discussing Fate and Nanoha's daughter over milkshakes.

Vivio, the adopted daughter of Fate and Nanoha, and one of the many reasons quite a few loopers were sure they were a couple, even if they didn't say anything about it.

"I am currently working on improving my parenting skills" Anakin began "As mothers yourselves, I would like your wisdom in how to raise children to be happy, healthy and mature"

The two little girls exchanged looks "Well, I'm not sure you can really teach parenting" Nanoha began.

"How come?" Anakin asked in response to that, rather odd response "Parenting isn't an instinctual part of life, if it was every parent would raise their children the same way."

"While it's true that people often parent in similar ways to how their parents did, it's not a hard fact. If it was..." Fate began, before deciding that elaborating on what kind of parent she'd be if she acted like her mother was something that did not need to be said. "It's up to each parent to find their own 'right' way to raise their children. What looks with one parent will not work with another parent. I'm not even sure the same parenting style can be used with each child, right Nanoha?"

Said anchor nodded in confirmation. As the youngest of three siblings she knew that the way her parents raised her was slightly different from how they raised her older brother and sister, before adding "When it comes to parenting, there is one thing you always have to remember: it is a constantly evolving recipe. There is no perfect formula, you have to continue to improve on it each and every day, for each and every scenario. Be it bruises, slips or even Moff's kidnapping your child to power a Death Star (Anakin shivered, recalling the parental rampage the two went on when Tarkin pulled that one off), a parent needs to be able to adapt. If you can learn to do that, and how to improve your parenting with each and every day, your be a great dad one day, Mr. Skywalker, and your own kind of parent. "

"I see..." Anakin mused, as he realized he was given sound advice on how to parent, from 9 year olds.

Even in context, it felt sort of weird.

...

Several loops later, in a loop where everything went just right (Sidious was removed quickly enough, the war was won at just the right enough of time to deal with the problems that caused it, without causing even more problems, Anakin completed his 500th loop of not killing, maiming, mind wiping or otherwise harming Rush Clovis, etc etc), had Anakin walk past a cracked door late one night, pausing as he did so to peek inside.

Two sleeping little children, smiles on their faces as they dreamed pleasant dreams.

'Perhaps I can actually get some things right once in a while' Anakin mused to himself happily before resuming his walk to a good nights rest.

1.1. Anakin's earliest loops were somewhat frustrating…..

1.2 Anakin has seen many things, but pink and blue hair is probably new to him

1.3 Anakin's first loop in the Original Trilogy, and his first loop back in the Vader Suit. This will happen a lot.

1.4 The loops are linked, Prequel and Original Trilogy. And yes, Luke is far more sociable than Anakin and gets a lot more of his pals looping.

1.5 I write a lot of Anakin based snips, particularly early on. These snips are actually newer, and written to set up this compilation. So you won't see Luke staring that often, at least by my typer

1.6 These compilations are not just my work. Wonder if the styles are noticeably different?

1.7 In the original Innortal shorts, there was talk about this incident. Now you get to see it

1.8 Rule of the Story: there is not 'one perfect path' to good parenting. Also, Anakin has a healthy fear of 'the White Devil' and the devil's…...Leman perhaps? Brownie points if people can tell me what that means and whom I'm making a vague reference to here.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10724500/1/Star-Wars-Episode-Infinity-the-Loops