Hello! So I am posting this a little ahead of schedule, mainly because I want your input before this gets too crazy. I've gotten a lot of traffic for this story and I am loving that you guys are loving it (at least I think you guys are) but if you could leave a small review to tell me what you guys think, it would be greatly appreciated because this story WILL get more crazy and I want you to enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.
So please, read and review!
Chapter 3
Upon entering the adjoined shack, Padme noticed it was only slightly larger than how it looked outside. It had a small kitchen area to the right of the door, on the left sat a small sitting area with three chairs and a waist high bookshelf. The rest of the room was fairly open, two dressers and a wardrobe, a basin and a small room in the back was the bathroom. It was simple, but it had all the essentials and just enough extra things to make it homely. Anakin offered an extra cot for a while, which she was grateful for; she didn't want to have to live in the healer's hut if she didn't have to.
Padme sat at the table and took a moment to collect her thoughts while Anakin moved around the shack. She was angry; there was no denying that. She felt betrayed in more ways than one because clearly Anakin has serious trust issues that have never resolved themselves. But right now, she can't let her anger show, not yet. Despite his flaws, she needed his help to get off this world and back to the alliance. For the moment, she has to hide her anger, and while she is at that, she might as well also try to get as many answers out of him while she can.
Serena returned not long after. She carried a sack over to her father and the two immediately started talking. "Mama gave me bread, mutton, and cabbage," Serena said as she handed him the sack, which contained the food. Padme watched as the girl's gaze dropped as she remembered something else, "She also said this is the last time she'll help you. I think she means it this time too." She said in a whisper. Anakin's eyes flicked over to Padme for a split second before landing on his daughter once more.
"Good to know, she shouldn't have to anyway," He said as he set about preparing dinner.
By the look on his face, Padme knew finding out anything about what was just said was not going to come from him. Her eyes trailed over to Serena. She stood off to the side in the kitchen area, talking with her father while he prepared the meal. Padme knew there were far too many things Anakin would be unwilling to tell her and even the things he would, there was still so much mystery that she found it difficult to piece them all together. She hated herself for having the idea, but perhaps talking with his daughter would warrant some answers to her burning questions. She didn't want to have to do it, but there was no telling if he would ever open up to her, or if he would shut her out completely. He has had several moments of both within the span of a day. With that in mind, she hoped that Serena might enlighten her with some answers about her ever-evasive husband.
Conversation during the meal was very light, centering mainly on what was happening in town. Having Serena at the table certainly made it easier to avoid awkward conversation with Anakin. Padme, ever the politician, navigated through it in much the same way she would handle political dinners. In the world of politics, dinner would be spent discussing anything but the topic the politician wanted sway in, and after they would slowly ease into the desired topic.
When dinner finished, and the dishware and table cleared, Anakin made his way to his cot silently, pulled off his boots and rolled into bed. Padme and Serena watched silently has he pulled the parchment from his pocket and broke off another piece of onyx and ate it quietly. They watched as his eyes closed and he rolled over to face the wall.
Padme found his behavior unusual in many ways. But this gave her an opportunity to get information from his daughter. Turning her attention to Serena she watched as she pulled a leather book from the shelf and began to read. She paid close attention to the girl's features first, her black hair obviously came from her mother, but her blue eyes were diffidently Anakin's. Padme pulled her eyes away, not wanting to stare too long, "What are you reading?" She asked in a hushed tone, not wanting to wake Anakin.
"You don't have to whisper," Serena replied, looking up from her book, "He always takes more before bed so he's already deep asleep." Padme looked back at him and watched the steady rise and fall of his chest, "It's my dad's journal." Serena says, pulling Padme's attention, "Sometimes it talks about the places he's seen, like the temples of Monreylia, or the Isles of Garth; but sometimes it breaks off and talks about things that make no sense at all…" Serena scrunches her face as she flips back a few pages, "Like here: "The battle on Christophsis has left our forces depleted. But instead of reinforcements arriving, we end up with a youngling. At first I was unconvinced she would be useful, but I guess that's something I had to teach her. Regardless, when the droid forces begin another attack with an expanding shield that our artillery can't penetrate, that's when I came up with a plan to lower the shield. Not one of my most brilliant plans, rather simple in fact. We hid under a crate and waited for the shield to pass over us,"" Serena looked up from the journal, "I don't get it. One entry could be about this amazing place, and then the next one is something like this, which makes absolutely no sense at all. There are words here that aren't even words! Droids, younglings, expanding shields, artillery… I guess onyx gives him some weird dreams."
"Onyx?" Padme asked.
"The stuff in the parchment," Serena's gaze fell to the floor, "Mama hates the stuff, but daddy says they keep the demons away."
Padme furrows her brow at what she said about demons. He certainly does not talk the same way he used to, "What is he like? After he takes it?"
Serena shrugs her shoulders, "He's not really that different." She said, "Then again, I don't see him without it too often. He staggers a bit when he walks, and his vision blurs too, and it can be worse if he takes more than normal."
Padme decides that is enough about that subject for now. What she really wants to know has more to do with her mother. As much as she hates thinking about how easy it was for to move on, the proof that he had is sitting right across from her. She doesn't blame Serena for anything and she can't bring herself to hate the child, she had no choice in this. But as she has no idea how long she will be stuck here, she needs to prepare herself for what will most likely be an unpleasant meeting for all involved. "Earlier…" Padme paused as she tried to find the best way to ask about what she said before dinner. It seemed to be the best way to start the conversation, "Earlier, you said your mother helps sometimes… is that because of…"
"He's an addict." Serena says, without hesitation, "I'm not stupid, I've heard my parents argue about it enough, part of the reason they avoid each other in fact." Padme is surprised to hear the blunt answer. She wasn't expecting it at all and is unsure how she should react so she waits for her to continue. Serena looks down at the journal in front of her and closes it, "I'm happy here, if that's what you want to ask. It's what Mama asks me all the time. I am happy here, he's a good dad, he just dulls his senses when the demons come back."
Padme is almost happy his relationship with the mother is bad. It's like karma; but at the same time she does feel bad that Serena is in the middle of it. Padme shifts her attention to what she said about the demons again. The way she talks about them makes them sound suspiciously like the visions he struggles with, "What are the demons? Do you know?"
Serena shrugs her shoulders, "He doesn't talk about them; I know when it happens though. It happens at night most times," Those damned force visions of his. Why do they always make him act like such an idiot? There was no doubt in her mind now that those visions were the reason all of this happened the way it did. She pitied him for the visions he struggles with, but there was no excuse for him lying and running away like he did. Padme directed her gaze towards her estranged husband. Perhaps she has pried too much for one day. With a graceful smile at Serena, she bids the girl goodnight as she makes her way to her borrowed cot.
"You know him very well, don't you?" Serena asked.
Padme sat on the edge of the cot and met the child's eyes that were so much like her father's. "I did." She said, "I knew him once a long time ago. But I'm not sure who he is now."
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Padme wakes as the sun starts to peak through the window. Squinting her eyes, she takes in the unfamiliar surroundings. Serena is curled up on her cot along the opposite wall, still sound asleep. Anakin shores lightly on his side from his bed along the wall adjacent wall, his long arm hangs over the edge while the other arm rests awkwardly behind his back. His legs are bent in a 'running man' stance as he twitches in his sleep. He lets out a soft groan as he buries his head into his pillow and stays asleep.
Within the past twenty-four hours, her world has turned upside down; and while that always seems to be the case when Anakin is involved, this time is so much more. Padme closes her eyes as she processes everything from yesterday for what feels like the billionth time. For starters, She had been frozen in carbonite for at least seven years; her husband who had been dead for two years is alive and it has been a decade since she had seen him. He has an eight-year-old daughter. He works as a blacksmith, of all things. And his visions are a constant problem for him again. And to add to the mess that is her life, she is stranded on a planet that has yet to venture beyond its own atmosphere, the Empire is hunting her, and most likely everyone thinks she is dead. At the moment, she has maybe a week before any real trouble arrives, so that gives her at least a few days to come to terms with everything and maybe get some closure with Anakin. Maybe not repair their relationship, if she is being honest, she isn't sure it can be; but at least maybe she can figure out what was so horrible he was willing to throw everything they had away.
With a louder groan and a jolt, Anakin's head jumps a few inches; eyes blinking away sleep as he breathes deeply. He has yet to notice Padme staring as he rubs a hand over his face then back through his hair. Sitting up he watches Serena sleep for a moment before rising and leaving the shack wordlessly. Padme shakes her head with a long sigh escaping through her lips, she cannot begin to understand him anymore. There had been a time where they had been so connected and so in tune with one another that they could read the other easily; know what the other was thinking, how they felt; but that bond was gone now. After Anakin's death, she had once been convinced it could not be true, it did not feel right to her. But eventually the feeling it was wrong, that he could not be dead faded. Looking back, it must have been the moment he severed that bond.
After several more minutes of reflection, Padme heard Anakin just outside the shack. Getting to her feet, she crept out to see what he was doing. Outside, Anakin walked along the side of the shack with a pitcher loosely gripped in his hand towards a barrel. He still seemed to be oblivious to Padme following. Dunking the pitcher into the barrel he quickly poured the water over his head, the water soaking through his clothes that now clung to his body. Dropping the pitcher, he ran both hands back through his hair and wiped the water from his face. "You're up early," He says, finally acknowledging her presence, "Did you sleep well? I know a cot is far from the most comfortable thing to sleep on."
"Well enough," She said, leaning her side against the wall, "Just a lot to think about." Anakin gives a light chuckle, reaching into his pocket. Padme moved quickly to grab his wrist and tried to pry the parchment from his fingers, "Don't." She commanded in her most demanding senator voice. "Not now. I need to talk to you, and I need you sober to do so." What she wanted to say to him and what she wanted to hear him say were too important to let him dull his senses like Serena said he liked to do. His hand gripped the onyx like it was his lifeline, which to him it probably was, but Padme held firm to his wrist and the parchment while glaring into his eyes to force him to back down. In any other situation, it might have been funny- the five-foot-four senator staring down the six-foot-two Jedi knight.
Knowing he was never going to win this fight, Anakin reluctantly released his hold on the parchment. Padme was quick to pull her hand back and store it in the pocket of her vest. Silence stretches between them as both realize they actually have to talk. Anakin holds his tongue, not wanting to be the one to initiate the exchange.
Padme has no qualms starting; "I heard what Serena said to you before dinner." Padme says, "About how her mother helps you? Tell me about that." She uses this question as a means to test the water, to see if what she got from Serena will upset him or not since she does not want to lose this valuable source of information.
Anakin shifts his feet as he sorts through his thoughts. The question is simple enough, but the answer brings to light his faults. "She helps with food, mostly. I don't always have enough money to afford it." He confesses, though the reason for the debt is omitted.
"Because you're a drug addict." Anakin's eyes meet hers quickly, "I know. The stuff I took from you, dulls your senses so you don't think of whatever is bothering you, which I assume are visions, like the ones you had about your mother." Anakin nods his head, but keeps his eyes firmly on hers, trying to gage her reaction, "What happened to you, Ani?"
Anakin looks over her shoulder and she watches his expression fall. Turning to see what he was looking at, she sees a woman with long black hair standing with her arms crossed watching them, "And who might this be?" The woman asked.
"What are you doing here?" Anakin asked with an annoyed tone.
"I'm here for Serena." The woman said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "She should learn how to do things more appropriate for girls. Forge is no place for her."
Anakin rolled his eyes, "Nor was a privateer's ship yet that's where you ended up." He argued.
The woman who was clearly Ellaena scoffed, "And it was the biggest mistake of my life." She turned her attention to Padme, "If you have any brains, you'd be smart not to fall for his stupid face. Bastard might be good in bed, but he will never commit or give anything up for you."
"Are we honestly going to have that argument again?"
"Maybe not right now," Ellaena said, "Right now Serena is my only concern."
Anakin sighed and shook his head, "Serena can do what she damn pleases, and you know as well as I do she hates what you do."
Padme watched as both of them quickly forgot she was there as they argued about Serena. The venom both of them threw at one another was worse than she thought it would be. She couldn't imagine what this is like for Serena to see this often enough to think it was normal. As the argument dragged out, she started to feel a little uncomfortable as the insults started to get a little too personal. Looking for an escape she noticed Serena standing several feet away just watching the argument. Neither of her parents seemed aware of her and the look of disappointment on the girl's face. Padme stepped between the two arguing adults, "Maybe now isn't the time for this." She said; hopping at least one of them had sense enough to stop.
"The fuck do you think you are?" Ellaena demanded, "You're not involved in this just because he fucked you once!"
Padme ignored her comment as she tried to reason with her. Anakin seemed to have already backed off, more than happy to let the argument drop, "You're right, I'm not involved. And from my impartial perspective this argument is more of an exchange of hurt blows rather than parents discussing the wellbeing of a child." Ellaena glared at Padme, seemingly sizing her up. She looked like she had more to say to her but the distant whirl of engines prevented the retort. Everyone looked up to see Imperial gunships descending.
"Get inside, NOW!" Anakin ordered as they ran back into the shack, Anakin grabbing Padme's hand as they ran.
Once inside, Ellaena started yelling even more, "What is going on? What are those things?" Anakin ignored her as he rummaged through one of the dressers, in search of possessions he had not used in a decade. Padme stood by the door and watched as storm troopers started to disembark in the town square.
"Daddy?"
Anakin finds what he is looking for and turns the lightsaber over in his hands several times, re-familiarizing himself with it before clipping it on his belt and attaching a sword belt over it. He might not know much about what happened in the galaxy within the past decade, but he knows that the less attention they draw, the better. Turning to his daughter, he is quick to assure her everything will be fine, but that they need to leave. Ellaena is not as easy to calm down. "How are you so fucking calm, you bastard!" She shouted at him.
"Ellaena!" Anakin raises his voice at her and holding his hands out in front of him, he clenches his fists, "Do us all a favor, and shut the fuck up, unless you want to get us all killed." She nods her head rapidly, and reaches to take Serena's hand, holding it tightly as Anakin leads them out of the shack. The town has already descended into chaos. The troopers on the ground ransack the homes and shops and overturn whatever they find. They see some of the people try to fight back and defend themselves, but they obviously don't stand a chance against the superior weapons the Empire possesses. They watch as the storm troopers shoot into crowds of people and their screams echo into the wind. Anakin is quick to shield the sight from Serena and leads them to the forest. He leads them over the bridge and looks overhead to see a gunship descend not far ahead of them, Anakin moves so he is standing directly in front of Serena and draws the steel sword as the clones disembark. Anakin is upon them before they can shoot him and impales the first trooper, using the body as a shield from the shots fired at him. With a harsh kick, he forces the body off his blade and directly into the attacking clones. It throws them off enough for Anakin to cut through the hand of one trooper and throw his shoulder into the other. With a flourish of the blade, he stabs the clone with a backhanded grip. Padme is quick to relieve one of the corpses of his weapon and ammunition as Anakin wipes the blood off his blade on the grass.
"We have to hurry," He urges as he starts to move, faster this time. Padme is quick to fall into step with him just like old times while Serena releases her mother's hand to run after them.
Ellaena is rooted to the spot for a moment, "What the actual FUCK!" She shouts into the sky. She would have stayed there a little longer if the sound of blaster fire wasn't echoing, "Hell no!" She said as she ran to catch up with the only people who seemed to have any idea how to deal with this.
Running through the forest, Serena is confused about the entire situation. She had never seen metal machines fall from the sky, and she did not understand why the men on them wanted to hurt them. She also did not understand why her father and his friend seemed so calm about the situation. While everyone else seemed to think it was the wrath of the gods, her father acted as if he had seen this before. She is afraid, but she knows that so long as she is with her father, she will be fine. Serena looks over at her mother and she looks just as terrified as she is.
Anakin suddenly pushes the girls to the ground as an arrow wizzes past their heads. Another is quickly loosed but Anakin is quick to catch the shaft in his hand before it reaches his face. Ellaena takes Serena in her arms to protect her from the attack. From behind a tree a man charges at them with a sword. The man was too close for Anakin to draw his own blade but Padme had a clear shot and fired at his chest. The man went flying backwards while Anakin returned his focus to the arrows being fired at them. With quick reflexes, Anakin dodges or blocks the arrows with the side of his blade. The archer is in the trees somewhere and after several seconds, Anakin is able to pinpoint where the arrows are coming from. The archer is hidden behind the brush of a large tree. Switching the grip he has on the sword, Anakin throws it to where the archer is. With a yell, the archer falls from his perch, impaled on the sword. Padme watches as Anakin goes over to the archer and pulls the sword from the man's gut, wiping the blood on the man's shirt.
"Bandits are going to start coming out a lot more now that they feel threatened by the invasion." He said as he helped the girls to their feet.
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It took almost an hour for them to reach a cave. They had successfully avoided any other encounters with the clones, but they did have two more encounters with bandits that all ended with either a sword in their chest or were shot. Anakin had carried Serena most of the way as she was too small and not as strong or as fast as the adults. Anakin took them deep into the cave and when they reached what seemed to be a dead end.
"Great, we're all going to die because of you now." Ellaena complained.
Anakin rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored her. Putting Serena down, he reached into the Force for the first time in years. Slowly, the rocks shifted as the wall fell away to reveal an older ship. It was a little worse for wear and was rusted in several places, but it would serve its purpose. And so long as it could get them off world, it didn't matter.
Ellaena stared at the new opening in the cave, uncertain what to make of any of this. This day was just getting weird. Shaking her head, she wasn't about to stay here a moment longer and went to board the metal machine Anakin seemed to know how to work.
Anakin hurries to strap Serena into a seat and reassures her once more that they were okay before moving to the pilot's chair with Padme as copilot. Ellaena strapped into one of the other seats across from Serena and flashed her daughter a reassuring smile while Anakin and Padme exchanged diagnostic data, and double-checked all the systems. The scanners on the ship indicated that more life forms were patrolling the forest now, without waiting a second longer, Anakin guns the ship forward and out of the cave, bringing the ship in a sharp dive up away from the ground. It was imperative that they make it off world quickly before the troopers on the ground notice and alert the command ships.
Many of the instruments beep in warning of the sharp angle they are at as the break through the atmosphere. Padme reads out indicators as Anakin makes the appropriate adjustments to the course. As they break out into space, the sight of the six star destroyers greets them. Tie fighters are quick action and Anakin is quick to dodge the shots fired at him; spinning, and diving as he tries to break the fighters up.
"Does this thing have any weapons?" Padme asks as Anakin takes them through another spin.
"Guns were damaged a long time ago and I never thought I'd have to face a fleet if I needed to use this thing." Anakin flies straight for a fighter with one directly on his tail. Within the last few feet, Anakin spins away, leaving the two ships to crash into one another. "The hyper drive should be able to at least get us out of immediate danger," He said as he set the coordinates.
Anakin pointed the nose of the ship between two of the battle ships before he flipped the switch of the hyper drive and the ship jumped into hyperspace.
Anakin stared at the console for several minutes after the jump. His left hand shook and his breath was shaking as he breathed. "Ani?" Padme called to him, reaching over to grab his arm. He looked up at her a moment, beads of sweat lined his face.
"I'm fine," He said as he stood up and went to the far side of the ship, bracing his hand against the wall. Padme remains silent as she watches him with a concerned gaze, "I haven't flown like that since…" He lets out a light laugh that soon sounds a little crazed, "I haven't flown like that since the Clone Wars," He said, his breath coming out hard and fast. The sound of the ship and the people around him faded and sounded slightly muffled as the louder, more audible sound of mechanical breathing surrounded him. Hunching forward, he grabs the side of his head, "Shit!" He hisses as bright flashes of visions of alternate futures assault his mind. Having avoided these visions for a decade, his head throbs as the visions show him several futures he has never dreamed about before. At the same time the visions of Darth Vader flash before his eyes but they are fuzzy, and the sensation of its imminence is not as strong as it had been years ago. Anakin hisses as he grips his hair, "Fuck! Shit!" He growls and feels as though he is being torn apart. His head hurts as the new visions of being trapped in a white room and a dark prison cell at the same time; visions of code flashing before his eyes as he seemingly walks through them pass through his mind.
"Ani!" Padme hurried over to his side, her hands in his hair. "What's wrong? Talk to me!" She is at a loss of how to help him; she strokes the back of his head to try to calm him.
"I've never seen this happen before," Ellaena said as she too went to stand by him, unsure of how to help.
"It's the demons." Serena says from her seat. The two women look at her in confusion, "The reason he does onyx. It keeps them from doing that to him."
Padme is unsure how to react knowing his visions are so bad they cause physical pain, "How long does this last?"
Serena shrugs, "Don't know. He's never gone without for long."
Anakin takes a slow but shaky breath, "It's passing." He said, his voice barely above a whisper as he falls back onto his rear, one leg curling up to his chest while the other curled under the arch the other leg formed. Anakin rests his elbow on his knee as his hand shakily pushes back his hair. His eyes are pinched shut as he collects himself, "They don't last long, but they hurt like hell." He says, "Sorry you had to see that, sweet girl," Anakin said as he looked up to meet Serena's gaze. He tries to give her a reassuring smile but he falters slightly. He closes his eyes a moment trying to calm down a bit more. From the moment he started having these particular visions, he knew they were different from the ones he normally had. They had started after what happened on Mortis and they progressively got worse until they showed him more than he cared to know. After a while, he figured the dreams had to come from Mortis, as it was the only thing that made sense considering how unusual the whole thing was. Regardless of their origin, the visions caused him a great deal of pain and it seemed as though he would have to live with that.
As his breakdown ended, Ellaena let her attention drift to the ship they were in. The air in this metal ship smelled weird to her; stale and extremely dry, it was not the most pleasant thing she has smelled. The blinking lights on the consoles that ran along the perimeter of the ship occasionally made a beeping sound and hearing the roar of an engine for the first time certainly was scary. But the most frightening thing to her right now is the purple haze they were flying through right now. She had no idea where they were or where he was taking them. Clearly Anakin knew about all of this, as did his girlfriend, which was not really comforting at the moment. "Does someone want to explain, what just happened?" She asked, gesturing to the entire ship.
"We're flying with the stars, aren't we?" Serena asked as she directed her attention to the view out the front window. The haze of hyperspace parting as they traveled through it, "Never thought the sky would look like this."
Anakin smiled at Serena, "We're far beyond the sky," He said as he got to his feet and went to stand by her, crouching low so his face is level with hers, "We're traveling in hyperspace right now, and when we come out of it, we'll be in an entirely different place- millions and billions of miles away from home." He said, letting the smile stay on his face, "In fact, home will look just like a star."
Padme smiled as she watched Anakin explain things to Serena, she could tell he was still in pain from whatever just happened, but he hid it well for the sake of his daughter. She found it almost hard to be mad at him when she sees how tender he is with his daughter. Padme looked over at Ellaena, the look she gave her told her that at some point they all needed to talk. Padme resisted groaning, this was not something she wanted to do right now. She turned her attention back to Anakin just to hear what he is saying for a little longer.
"They're all dead, aren't they? The people back home."
Anakin looked to the floor, "Yes, sweet girl. I'm so sorry." He knelt on the floor next to her and pulled her into a tight hug, "But I'm here I will always be here." He promised. He held onto her tightly until he felt she was calm, "Let me tell you about the planet we're going to," he says, shifting the conversation to a lighter one, "We're going to Takodana. It is a beautiful planet and there is this castle, on the shore of a lake where a great battle once took place…"