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Anakin see's the last choked breathes of his broken mother. Choking with his unshed tears, he feels the eerie warmth of the tent, thick with sweat and Anakin can almost taste the blood spurting from his mother as she is whipped. He leans over and closes her eyes for one final time. There was only one train of thought that runs through his mind. They did this. They killed her, now they must…be killed. He can feel his unreleased anger brewing inside him, moving up into actions. It boils his face, it burns with hate, his face contorted and his veins protruding in raw emotion. He is physically shaking with lust, lust for revenge. He takes a look at his mother and he knows what he is going to do. He hears the growls of the animals outside. He ignites his lightsaber and with a flash to the door, he has killed two guards before they even recognise the danger. Massacre has begun. No one is spared from his fury. But he no longer cares, he is not human anymore. He is a machine, a killing machine. He ignores the desperate screams, the calls of children, the whispers of shouts from the Jedi, an old master long gone. Soon he is done. With not so much as a nod to the dead Tusken's around him, he walks back to the only standing tent in the campsite, wraps up his recently deceased mother and heads back to his speeder. Half way there it sets in that his beloved mother is dead, gone from the world, taken. Tear spring to his eyes and he lets them consume him, like his anger did moments ago. Yoda's words ring true in his memory. Hate leads to suffering. He is barely able to make it up to the cliff. He places his mother's body on the back of the bike and stumbles over to a small cave in the Cliffside. There he lets the darkness, the darkness of night; take him into sleep, sleep that is no longer terrorised with visions of death but with a replaying of death.
Padmé Amidala doesn't know when he will return. He could be back in minutes, hours, days even weeks, who knows. She sniggers at the thought of her companion's unruliness. She sees Beru smile back to her.
"What is amusing to you Padmé? Am I missing something?"
No I am, Padmé muses.
Padmé blushes slightly, embarrassed at her childish thinking.
"No, just…thinking"
Beru smiles again. Padmé comes and sits on the table where Beru is preparing dinner for them all.
"How do you find it here? Don't you get lonely?" Padmé asks.
"No, not really. Cleigg treats me like a daughter and he's like my second father. They are jolly people most of the time but we are all traumatised with…you know"
"I can't imagine the amount of pain you must be in. Did you know Shmi well?"
"Oh yes. Again she was like my second mother. She was so kind, passionate, giving freely, yet she was …sad. She really missed Anakin with all her soul." Beru lifted her sleeve up to her eyes and wiped tears away from them. Padmé placed a comforting hand on Beru's and gave her a compassionate smile.
"Thank you. It's good to have female company again"
Suddenly a whir outside alerted them to an arrival at the homestead,
"He's back" Owen called. Padmé looked at Beru quickly, before getting up from the table and rushing to the door. They walked out onto a grim scene. Anakin carried a body shape in his arms. There was no second guessing who the body belonged to. Anakin gave a silent nod to Cliegg before carrying her body solemnly down into the house. Padmé could almost feel his pain. She had always had her parents and they were both still alive. She glances at Owen and Beru, in each other's arms, weeping. Padmé wishes she could comfort Anakin like that, but she knows all too well he needs his time alone for a moment. They walk inside gloomily, and Padmé takes up her seat at the table again. Beru is rushing around, picking up bits and pieces and putting them onto a tray.
"Take this to him. If I know men, sometimes food in their stomachs can go a long way to improving their mood.
"Thanks Beru" She lifts the tray and starts to scour the place for her friend.
She finds him down in the engine room.
"I've brought you something. Are you hungry?" He tinkers with a mechanical part. Padmé wonders if he heard her arrive or indeed speak, so she walks over and places the tray on a bench, preparing to leave when he finally speaks.
"The shifter broke" She turns to the sound of his voice. "Life seems so much simpler when you're fixing things. I guess I'm good at fixing things, always have been. But I couldn't…" He pauses leaving her to interpret the obvious meaning.
"Why did she have to die? Why couldn't I save her? I know that I could have" he walks over to another bench and digs his fingers into it.
"There are some things that can't be fixed. You're not all powerful Ani…"She soothes but is cut off midsentence.
"Well I should be! Someday I will be! I will be the most powerful Jedi that has ever lived. I will even learn to how to stop people from dying."
His speech sounds childish but Padmé notices something she hasn't seen in him before, cold ambition. She remembers though that he is a ruined man at the moment. He looks at her, his grief showing itself in the form of anger.
"It's all Obi Wan's fault! He's jealous, he's holding me back!"
Knowing full well that Obi Wan has nothing to do this, she realises something is out of place. Something sinister is lurking behind all of this.
"What's wrong Ani?"
Anakin chokes his tears for the hundredth time since his mother's passing. As he stares at his hands, he shakes at what he sees in them. Blood, they are stained with blood. He see's mothers hold their hands above their heads to protect them and their children but useless to the power of his blade.
"I…I killed them" he says, coming to the realisation himself "I killed them all. Every single one of them." He turns around and his face is red but tears free for now
"And not just the men… but the women and children too." He spits out the words in disgust of himself and them.
"They were like animals and I slaughtered them as animals! I hate them!" His tone is loud with hate. Padmé's stunned and slightly repulsed face turns to one of pity as, instead of the monster she saw, a flash of the young boy reappears. As he slumps down she sits next to him.
"To be angry is to be human"
"I'm a Jedi, I'm better than this"
There are no more words to be spoken. He breaks down to tears and Padmé knows she can't be selfish. She knows full well the feelings Anakin has for her so she gently strokes him hair, pulling him close to her.
In little more than 20 seconds they hear yelling and thuds coming from the main house. Anakin quickly jumps up. They hear multiple footsteps coming down the stairs. Someone roughly shoves Owen into the room. His nose is bleeding and a bruise is beginning to form around his left eye. Padmé blots up too. Anakin reaches for his saber and Padmé for her blaster. Three men step down, two burly men, one an alien, one a human, and a very short man.
"Anakin Skywalker?" the small man asks
"Yes…" he replies.
The little man smiles, a smile without happiness or warmth behind it.
"Hello" He flips out a an identification card "Julius, Julius Jago , Tatooine Investigation Services.
"Police ? I didn't think Tatooine had police. With all the peace and serenity here I didn't think it needed it." Anakin says with sarcasm. One of the guards moves forward but Julius stops him.
"Well it does and you, Anakin Skywalker are under arrest"
"Under arrest? Padmé asks, not believing the man.
"Yes, sweetness, for wilful mass murder"
Anakin's face whitens. Julius motions for the two men to grab him.
"This is preposterous!" Padmé exclaims.
" Do you dismiss these claims?" Julius points out with accusation.
"No but, his mother just died" Padmé knows it's a poor excuse.
"So have all those Tusken's"
The guards roughly shove Anakin towards the doorway.
"Padmé stay here with the Lars'"
"Don't take him away…he needs to stand trial in a Republic court"
"We don't deal with the Republic here sweetness."
"Stop calling me sweetness. And you will take him to Coruscant or I will personally lead a campaign to come and find him."
"You and what army, Senator Amidala?" Julius asks a notion to her opposition against creating an army for the Republic. "You really think the Jedi will come looking for a murderous padawan?"
"I know some Jedi will"
"Well, I'm placing my bet that the Jedi won't be coming, which is why I'm taking this boy into custody. Take him away."
"Stop!" She rushes to them.
"Owen!" Anakin states. Owen reaches out and grabs Padmé's arm.
"You know for an advocator of peace you're not making this easy!" Julius says annoyance in his tone.
"I will not give into this!"
"Yes, you will, Padmé " Anakin says suddenly "You will forget about all of this, all about me. Go off and live your life. I'm a murderer Padmé! You should go away from me"
"I know you'd never hurt me!" She says slightly amused.
"Do you?"
"Look, miss, if you'd don't mind we have to be going, so say goodbye to your Jedi boyfriend and we'll forget all about this"
She walks up to him and crushes him tightly into her arms. Unable to move his arms Anakin stands there burning the memory into his mind for the coming years he sees himself alone in.
"I promise, I won't forget. I can't" she whispers before backing away.
"Good, there we are. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Senator." With that Julius and his lackeys are off, dragging Anakin off with them.
Padmé stares at the doorway, regretting she hadn't done more. There was so much unsaid. She'd just sent one of her best friends off to a unforgiving jail.
"I'm so weak" she wailed and dropped to the ground. Owen knelt down, blood dripping down his face.
"Hey, hey, there was nothing you could've done" he soothes.
"I'm a Republic Senator, of course there was more I could've done"
"He did commit a crime, Padmé"
"I feel this is my fault, all of it! He wouldn't be on Tatooine if it wasn't for me!"
"You really believe that! You don't think he would've come anyway. You haven't been around Jedi long enough to know that nothing happens by coincidence!?"
"This can't be part of the plan, Owen" she said as she heard the speeder take away Anakin Skywalker into the unjust and unforgiving deserts of Tatooine.
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