All she could hear were screams around her. People screamed; men, women, kids... and most frightened- Obi-Wan and Luke beside her.
But they didn't scream because they were in fear; they screamed her name, again and again.
"Leia!" Obi-Wan shouted. "Leia, stand up, we have to go, NOW! The Sith are going to come!"
She couldn't move. With wide eyes, Leia looked around and saw all these people around her, falling down to the ground, screaming because they were hurt. She tried to move her legs, but it didn't work.
Han. Was he anywhere? She couldn't see him, and at least, she hoped he would have got away.
But it was a lie, she could feel it. Han would always tell her the truth, and this time, he had done it, too.
"Come on" Luke groaned. "We have to get back to the ship, before..."
Suddenly, there was a noise, just right next to him. Someone moaned, and with pain, Leia saw blood on the ground.
"What..." She started and looked next to her. It was Obi-Wan... and he was laying on the ground, eyes closed. Dead.
Her world had stopped. There was just only one person of her family who couldn't die, and that was Obi-Wan. He couldn't die. No. NO!!
Leia had never thought that somehow, she would be able to feel so much pain inside of her, so much fear, so much she couldn't even describe.
It was not possible, Obi-Wan could not be dead. Not the man who had raised her and Luke, who had been a father to them for all this time, who had saved them several times. Not Obi-Wan, no, not him.
"Obi-Wan!" She screamed and knelt next to him. "Obi-Wan, please, wake up, please, please!" She cried, tears were running over her face, but Obi-Wan's face didn't move. He didn't open his eyes, he didn't tell her that he would be okay, that he would save her, his little girl.
Luke cried, too, but he was still able to feel the danger around them. "Leia, come on, we have to go now, we have to get away, Leia, please!" he begged, but his sister didn't move. She shook her head, and there were more tears in her eyes, on her cheeks, and they landed on Obi-Wan's chest.
"When we won't go away, they will kill us, too", Luke said, but Leia stayed at Obi-Wan's side. "I don't care" she whispered. "Maya is lost, Obi Wan is dead and Han…", she cried again. "Luke, go, because I can't."
Suddenly, Luke felt something in the air. No, not in the air... it was in his chest. Or was it his soul? He didn't know, but when he felt it, he knew that it was this one.
The Force.
Obi-Wan had told them several storys about it, how it could change people, give them a look into the future´, lots of things which he told them when Luke and Leia were small kids.
"Leia..." He touched the shoulder of his twin sister. "Can you..."
She turned around and looked at him. And when Luke saw her face, he knew that she felt it, too.
"The Force", she whispered. "Luke, the force..."
And then, they disappeared in a large beam of light... and everything else disappeared, too.
---------------
Anakin Skywalker was happy to come back to Coruscant. Finally, for more than four months, he would be able to see his wife again.
Padmé. Sometimes, when he was alone, he kept on calling her name like a mantra, and it made him happy to hear her name.
Four months were a long time. A long, long time. And now, while he was in the plane, going back with Obi-Wan and the chancellor, he was almost desperate to see her again.
He couldn't have got any messages from her, and that was the saddest part of it. If they would have been able to contact each other, it would have been much easier for him to get through all this long time without her.
Padmé. Padmé. Padmé.
When the door of the plane opened, Anakin jumped out of it. "Come on", he called out for Obi-Wan, but his old master shook his head. "No, Anakin, this is your day. I don't want to destroy the moment when everyone of the senators want to talk with you."
"But..." Anakin protested, but Obi-Wan shook his head again. "No, this is your day, my padawan." He smiled proudly at him. "Go and enjoy it."
"Well, okay" Anakin said. "We'll see us at the temple, right?"
"Of course." And with these words, Obi-Wan stepped back into the plane.
There were several senators who wanted to talk with him, but just after a minute he had spoken with Senator Organa, he saw her.
Padmé. She was standing behind a column and smiled at him.
His wife. Even after four years of their marriage, his heart still jumped at this thought. His wife, Padmé Amidala Skywalker.
"Padmé" he greeted her and hugged her tight. "Oh god, I've missed you so much." He kissed her, and for this very moment, he didn't care of anyone of the others would have seen them.
This was Padmé, his wife. His wife!
"No, not here, Anakin" she whispered. "What if anyone sees us?"
Anakin smiled. "I don't care. Honestly, I want everyone to know that you're my wife, that we are married."
"You should not say this" Padmé replied, but he could see that she was smiling.
They hugged again, but Anakin could swear that something was wrong. Padmé was acting... strange to him.
Had he forgot something? Had someone died?
"Is something wrong?" he asked her.
Surprisingly, Padmé smiled. "No, it's okay, it's... something wonderful has happened, Anakin."
"Something wonderful?" he echoed. "What is it?"
But before she could anything else, there was a loud bang, just a few metres away.
----------
In the first second, Luke wasn't able to see anything. There was so much light, much more than at the ship. And it was colder... just a little bit colder.
"Who are you?" There was a loud demanding voice, and Luke could swear that he had heard it before. Years ago, but he could swear that...
Suddenly, he could see everything. They were at a big place, with large columns around them, lots of columns. And a man who was walking towards them, with long, dark blond hair.
He had a lightsaber. He had a sword, a Sith weapon. He was a Sith, he had to be one. No doubt.
Leia, who was standing behind him, looked at the man, too. "He has a lightsaber" she whispered.
"Sith." It was the only reason why this man could have one.
"Who are you?" The man asked again. "Why are you here? It's forbidden for you to be here!"
Forbidden. Luke looked around, just for a second, and then, he screamed to Leia "RUN!"
Just like she had waited for this word, she began to ran, faster than ever before. The man just stared at her, running away, faster than every human could have ever run.
For a second, Luke was proud of his sister. Leia had always been one of the best at Tatooine, and now, she was just proving it.
The man turned around to him, again. "Who are you?" he asked again, for the third time. "You should go away and get your friend, she will be caught in the next seconds."
Luke just stepped back. "I'd rather die than do what you tell me" he screamed at the man. "Fucking Sith Lord!"
"Sith?" The man froze. "Why do you call me a Sith Lord?"
Luke could feel the anger of the man, but he didn't care. As long as he spoke with him, there was more time for Leia to escape. His sister had the chance to escape... she would be able to survive.
"You're all Sith Lords, remember?" Luke hissed. "And everybody of you keep on saying 'It's the best for the empire', don't you?"
"The... empire?" The man kept on staring at Luke, but before he could say anything else, Luke saw the woman behind the column.
He wasn't able to see her face, but he saw her clothes, and her body language said only one word: fear.
If she worked for the empire, why would she be afraid? Or was she afraid of the man?
Suddenly, there were other voices behind the man, lots of voices. Male voices.
Luke grabbed quickly his lightsaber and tensed his muscles. If he had to die, he wouldn't die without a fight.
But the men who appeared behind the man in front of him didn't look like Sith Lords. Not that he had seen lots of Sith Lords, but they seemed not to be dark.
"Who are you?" Another man asked him. "Were you sent to kill the chancellor?"
Luke blinked, a little bit confused. "Which chancellor?" He asked. "I don't know any chancellor. And if I was sent to kill the emperor, I would definitly do this."
Now, it was the time for the men to be confused. "Who is the emperor?"
Luke didn't say anything. He just took his lightsaber in front of him and prepared himself for a fight.
"Do not fight, you must" Someone said suddenly. "Die you must not."
"Sith!" Luke screamed and started to run towards the men.
-------------
Surprisingly, it took the Jedi masters five minutes until they were able knock the young man out. He was laying on the ground, and kept on breathing, but he couldn't move anymore.
Anakin wasn't quite sure how long the fight would have lasted without the help of the other Jedi. Thanks to the Force that they had been brought here by the Force.
Master Windu was next to Anakin. "Who are you?" he asked the young man again. "I can't feel something dark around you... so how was it possible that you arrived here so fast and why do you want to kill the chancellor?"
"I don't want to kill the chancellor, I want to..." But before the young man could say anything else, there was loud noise behind them.
A young woman, the one who arrived with the man, was just a few metres away from them. And if Anakin was right, there were tears on her cheeks.
"What are you doing?" She cried and ran towards them. "Let him go, let him go!" She pushed Master Windu away, so fast he could not do anything, and knelt beside the man.
"Luke? Luke, can you hear me?" She turned around to the men. "What have you done, you monsters? Sith Lords!"
"Leia..." The man called Luke said. "Run away, now! They are Sith, they won't..."
"We are NOT Sith Lords!" Anakin said frustrated. "Kids, we are Jedi Knights!"
The young woman- Leia- froze. "That's not possible", she replied and turned around. "All of you... you can't be Jedi knights. You just can't."
"And why not?" Master Windu asked her, but he seemed surprised. "Have you never heard of Coruscant and the temple of the Jedi? You're just a few metres away of it."
"Of course we've heard about the temple of the Jedi" Leia said. "But... everything we heard was just fairytales."
"Fairytales?" Another Jedi Knight echoed and looked at her as if she was crazy. "Where do you come from?"
"Tatooine. And you can ask everyone of the people there, they will all tell that the Jedi Knights are dead."
There was a second of silence. It was Master Yoda who spoke at first: "Take them to the temple, we must."
----------
After there were some Clone soldiers who took the two to the temple, Anakin suddenly remembered that Padmé was nowhere to see.
Fear rushed through his veines. Had she run away? Or... the girl... she was running towards her. Had she…
He ran to her bedroom and didn't care of all the people who started to look at him. Had there been any other allies of the young man and woman?
He cried her name "Padmé!!" when he entered her apartement, and all he could hear was his heartbeat.
Please... please... he begged. Please, let her be here, safe...
"Ani?" She was standing at the window and looked at him. "ANI!"
She ran towards him and wound his arms around him. "You're okay" she breathed. "I thought, you were..." She stopped and hugged him tighter.
"No, no, I'm okay, even when the boy- I think his name is Luke- well, he is good fighter." He could feel that he calmed down with every minute. She was okay. She was safe.
"How did you get here?" He asked her, suddenly. "I thought you were behind the column."
Anakin could feel how her body stiffened. "The girl..." She said suddenly. "It was the girl."
He froze. "She... she had attacked you?! What? Why haven't you said it earlier, has she hurt you?"
Padmé shook her head. "No, Ani, no, you understood it wrong. She had told me to go to my apartment, because... there would be a fight. She said she wanted to save me."
Anakin stood there in silence. This was not the thing he had expected.
"Do you know her name?" Padmé looked at him. "I don't know what has happened, but she seemed to be a nice girl."
"Her name... is Leia" Anakin finally said. "I don't know what she wanted, or the man with who she was."
Suddenly, he remembered what she had said: And you can ask everyone of the people there, they will all tell that the Jedi Knights are dead.
"I have to go to the temple", he told her. "I need to be there. Can you... Is it a problem?"
"No, my Jedi Knight." She smiled at him.
"Let me go!" Leia screamed as she beat the droids who held her captive. "Let me go!! Sith Lords!" She spatted in front of the Jedi who were just a few metres away.
Master Windu looked at her, and then turned away to the other Jedi. "She seemed to be afraid of the Sith, but I can't explain why she thinks that we are the bad ones."
Master Yoda nodded. "Fear I can feel in her. About young man who is hurt."
"Luke", Master Windu said. "Have you seen how he can fight? He must be a Jedi Knight, and he hadn't used the dark to fight. Apparently, he must be a very good Jedi."
There was a noise behind the door, and seconds later, Obi-Wan Kenobi arrived. "I've heard about the attack" he breathed and started looking around. "Is anyone hurt?"
Suddenly, Master Windu noticed that Leia had stopped screaming. She just stared to Obi-Wan who didn't notice her.
"She is right there" Master Windu told him. "But the man is still in the hospital, we had to shock him."
Obi-Wan turned to Leia, and this was the moment when Leia was able to push the droids beside.
"Help me" she screamed. "Please, Obi-Wan, please! They are Sith Lords, all of them, they are, trust me! I've seen their lightsabers, they wanted to kill Luke! Please help me, help him!"
Windu jumped forwards to push her away, but Yoda stopped him. "Love I can feel" he said thoughtful. "Like a father she loves him. Desperate, she is."
"Father?" Windu stared at Obi-Wan.
"Like a father" Yoda corrected him and stepped forwards.
Leia was laying on the ground and kept on begging Obi-Wan to help her, so she didn't see Yoda coming towards her... and also not Anakin who appeared in the doorway.
"Little girl" Yoda spoke friendly with her. "Leia, your name is, right? Don't worry, nobody will kill you or Luke."
Leia looked up to him. "But you keep on lying" she whispered. "Trust me, where I come from, there are no more Jedi Knights. They were all killed."
Yoda touched gently her forehead. "Tell me. Hurt, it won't. I promise."
Leia took a deep breath. Her eyes flickered to Obi-Wan, then she closed them and began to speak. "The Jedi were killed by a betrayer" she said quietly. "There is an imperium, and no Jedi are allowed. And there is a fight between the ones who are suppressed by the emperor and the ones who want to be free."
The Emperor? Anakin froze. He had never heard about an emperor, or an imperium. And the Jedi... were all dead? This was not possible. There were so many Jedi, all around the galaxy, even in this room.
But… the girl didn't lie. He could feel that she was desperate to get out, that she was a good girl, not one of the bad ones. And she obviously hated the Sith, just like the other man… Luke.
Slowly, he moved forwards and was next to Obi-Wan. Both of them looked to Yoda who had his eyes closed. He was still in front of the girl who seemed to be a little bit relaxed, but everybody could see that she was still frightened of everything what happened.
"She knows you" Anakin told his old master quiet. "How is it possible? Do you remember her?"
"No." Obi-Wan seemed to be shocked. "I have never seen her before. Never, I swear. Maybe… one of the missions… but that's not possible." He stared at the girl. "I think she's seventeen or eighteen years old, just a few years younger than you, Anakin."
"Yeah…" Anakin looked at Yoda who was still concentrated on the girl. "Do you think she's telling the truth?"
"I don't know." Obi-Wan crossed his arms. "But she seems to be desperate and frightened… and she wants my help. Why? I'm sure I've seen her never before. She looks completely unfamiliar to me, to be honest."
But I must have, Anakin thought. There was something familiar with this girl... and the boy. Something he couldn't explain. Has he met them before? On a mission? Maybe that was the reason.
Suddenly, Yoda opened his eyes again. All of the Jedi who were standing in the room kept looking at him, but he didn't spoke. He just looked at the girl.
The girl opened them, too, and was again held captive by the droids. But this time, she didn't fight. Her eyes looked all the time at Obi-Wan who noticed it this time.
Suddenly, Anakin recognized the look. It was the same look with which he looked at his old master when he asked for help.
His master… Could the girl…
But his thought were interrupted when Yoda started to speak. Suddenly, it was silent in the room.
"Telling the truth, she is."