Part 3

The landing on Naboo was formal, the Queen dressed in full mourning attire, the delegates and Senators of the surrounding systems having been shipped in to welcome the Nabooian's Senator's body home. The Gungans, Padmé's cause, had turned out in force, their voices raised in songs of mourning. Barriss, her focus less than perfect, remembered little of the speeches that were given, or the people that they met. Obi-Wan, flanked by two of Padmé's Handmaidens, escorted the casket at the front. Her own Master was rear guard while she and Anakin held flank positions. Not that they expected trouble on the landing pad, but four Jedi escorting a casket had the effect the Chancellor had hoped for.

Obi-Wan spoke; she remembered that much, but her gaze was drawn to Anakin. He was pale, but composed, the grief that had held him in thrall finally having relinquished its grasp and allowed him to move beyond the initial sorrow.

Barriss' hand clenched around the Japor snippet she'd attached to her wrist, her hand closing about the pendant as a reminder. A reminder of who the woman in the casket had been and what she'd been to Anakin in his mind. It was also a reminder of her foolishness, of her own desires, her fixation on the other Padawan. A reminder of what she stood to lose if she chose to follow where her feelings were taking her.

They escorted the casket into the main hall of the Theed Palace and took up their honor guard positions flanking the casket on either end as it was settled to the prepared bier. The Handmaidens moved to the entrances, joined by two more, all dressed in the dark colors of mourning.

Barriss was unprepared for the first mourners when they entered. They were an older couple and, without having to ask, she knew immediately that these had been Padmé's parents. They were young, as far as parents went, but then, she realized with a start, the Senator hadn't been very old when she'd been murdered.

Jobal Naberrie walked straight up to the casket, her face a mask, as if frozen, of denial. It wasn't until she neared and she caught sight of her daughter's face, beautiful even in death, that the mask cracked. "No." Her word was but a breath, but it echoed through the hall. "Padmé... no!"

Her husband caught her as she turned away, enfolding her in his grasp. They clung to one another, tears streaking heedlessly down their cheeks, sharing their grief. The grief of losing a daughter. They moved closer and Barriss had the uncomfortable feeling of being a voyeur as the couple spoke to their daughter, their voices choked with tears.

She turned her face away, unable to intrude on their grief. Anakin shook next to her and she found his hand, knowing this would be the most difficult part for him. Having dealt with his grief or not, she already knew he was sensitive and the grief of those who came to see Padmé's final state would affect him deeply.

His hand clung to hers as a small family; Mother, Father and two children, both subdued, their shoulders bowed from grief, were admitted next. The resemblance to the older woman was remarkable and Barriss had no doubt this was Padmé's sister and her family. She squeezed Anakin's hand and he squeezed back gratefully.

The hours passed slowly, Padmé's family given extra time to be with her and speak their thoughts. Finally, spent, their grief weighing them down, Jobal scooped up one of her grandchildren and ushered the rest of her family out. Padmé had been much loved and many more people wanted to say goodbye.

They left and Anakin visibly relaxed, the first hurdle overcome.

Luminara and Obi-Wan exchanged hushed words on the other side of the casket, but neither Padawan was focused on them. The doors had been opened and the crowds admitted. A line had been formed as the mourners waiting outside surged forward. The Handmaidens stepped in, firmly taking control, and quashing any protests with a look or action. They organized the people into a queue and move them inside. Each individual was given a few moments to say something, or to reach out and reverently touch the casket.

The Jedi held their posts, hands on their lightsabers, doing the duty asked of them by the Chancellor. They held their posts through the afternoon, given no relief, and asking none as the endless flow of mourners brought small gifts, flowers or pieces of flimsi with messages to place near the casket. The pile grew, and the mourners continued to come.

Twilight came without so much as a whisper, the wind never appearing, as if the whole world held its breath with the death of a beloved daughter. The Handmaidens finally changed, the Queen's own decoys taking their places. Luminara moved to where Barriss and Anakin stood. "This will continue through tonight and tomorrow. Go. Eat and refresh yourselves. Obi-Wan and I will stand watch until your return."

"But-"

Luminara pinned Anakin with a look and he swallowed his objections. Nodding reluctantly, he pulled Barriss with him and disappeared behind the casket to the private entrance and rooms that had been reserved for them.

Luminara watched them go for only a moment before returning to her post. "Is it wise to keep them together, Obi-Wan?"

"Wiser than separating them right now. Anakin needs her help."

Luminara nodded, but, even as she accepted his assessment she was concerned for her Padawan. Barriss was in over her head and, other than be there to listen, there wasn't a thing Luminara could do to help her. May the Force give you strength, Barriss, she found herself thinking. You'll need it in the days ahead.


"No... Mom... no..."

Barriss tossed on her bunk, sweat breaking out on her brow as the cry echoed through her dreams. A voice she recognized, that pulled at her heart and dragged her towards it. Anakin's voice. It echoed through her mind, caught somewhere between wakefulness and slumber, haunting her, bringing with it the fear and helplessness of the last time he'd dreamed - and she'd been present.

The dream began to form without conscious though only, this time, there was more...

Sun.

Sand.

Blazing heat.

A handsome older woman with brown hair. Brown hair matted with blood. A cut on her cheek. Her hands drawn, pulled tight across a combined pair of bones. Bones so large they held her weight as effectively as they held her captive.

Blood

Body odor

Death.

Brown robes swathed strange looking humanoids as they raised a weapon of some kind above their heads. Bodies scattered the ground around them as they moved, killing with impunity. They screamed a challenge, one turning to the trapped female, his weapon coming back and connecting sharply with the back of her head. The woman slumped across the bones.

Anakin's cry sounded somewhere in the distance; outrage and pain, as if he'd been the one to take the blow. She felt his presence tear away from her, shocked from sleep as the brutality of the actions were too much for him to bear.

But Barriss didn't wake.

She watched as the woman was loaded on the back of a huge shaggy animal, bone support and all, and the humanoids moved away.

Moon

Stars

Blood numbing cold.

It was night now, the encampment she didn't remember arriving at looming before her. A shadowy figure moved from skin hut to skin hut, careful to stay in the shadows. She blinked, recognizing Anakin's familiar lean frame. She watched as he drew his saber, cutting open the back of one tent and kicking it in savagely. She could feel his emotions, a tumultuous mixture of rage and desperation.

She was drawn in, a silent watcher as events unfolded before her eyes.

Anakin pulled his mother from the bone rack, cradling her in his arms. The words were lost to Barriss, having no meaning in the dream. Only emotions rang clear. Anakin's relief, his joy at finding her alive. His despair at knowing she wouldn't make it out of the tent. She felt his pain and it cut through her, leaving her heart a bruised, aching mess. She watched, helpless to aid him as his mother died in his arms.

She felt the rage that boiled up from the depth of his being, so black it was all consuming. She watched, horrified as he gently lay his mother's body on the ground and pulled out his lightsaber. She stood with him as his lightsaber came up and he sprang from the tent, the blade flashing outwards towards the sentry's neck -

"Anakin! NO!"

"Barriss!"

Barriss woke with a start, the vivid images of the vision hovering before her horrified gaze. The lightsaber arcing, as if in slow motion, towards the first of two sentries. The image was replaced by Anakin's face, his hands cupping hers as he stared at her concerned. She shivered, feeling suddenly cold, as the implications of the vision became clear.

Anakin would return to free his mother and fall to the darkside in the process.

She shuddered and was suddenly pulled close, into the tight embrace of the very man she'd just seen ready to slaughter the people who had torn his mother from him forever. His hands were gentle, stroking her hair as he rocked her back and forth, the vision slow to fade. But fade it did. She clung to him without realizing what she was doing, her face burrowing into the hollow of his shoulder. He was warmth where there was none. His hands were sure, soothing, even as she could feel him shaking off the very real effects of another nightmarish encounter.

But not one that was nearly as chilling as her own.

"Are you alright?"

She inhaled deeply, drawing in the spicy scent that was his alone, allowing it to calm her racing heart. Drawing from his embrace but even as she felt her control returning, she was chilled in a fashion she'd never been before. Lifting her gaze, she found his in the low lights of their assigned quarters, and looked. She searched beyond the concern and compassion, beyond the grief that was loosening its hold to the very depths of his being. She searched for that knot of rage, the one she'd seen in her dream, the one that had exploded to reveal a stranger with lethal intentions.

He pulled back, disturbed by the sharpening in her gaze, but Barriss grabbed his head in her hands and held him still, the Force flaring to life even as something else made her skin tingle and her heart race. She hadn't identified it yet, and didn't dare do so now. Instead she searched and was rewarded. She found it, carefully leashed and controlled, fuelling his drive to become a Jedi, his drive to-

Anakin pulled back, grabbing her hands and wrenching them from his face to break the contact. "Barriss?"

Her shoulders slumped. "You'd do it."

"What?"

She took a shuddering breath. "I saw you, don't deny it. I know how much you care about her."

His confusion was plain. "Who are you talking about? What would I do?"

"Slaughter the people who killed your mother."

The pain and rage flared in his eyes, the burning she'd seen in her dreams coming to the forefront for an instant before it was gone again. "She's alive."

"I know."

"But you just said-"

"I know what I just said. Your mother will die in your arms and it will bring about your downfall. Don't you see, Anakin? Don't you understand that your attachment to your mother is what will drive you beyond reason?"

"You can't know that."

She told him, succinctly, about her dream.

Anakin paled, falling away from her and pushed to his feet to pace back and forth across the middle of the room. "That's not for certain."

"Can you look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't do it if you had the opportunity, Anakin?"

"I know better; I'm going to be a Jedi!"

Barriss felt her throat close. "But you don't know you wouldn't, do you? You can't tell me you wouldn't."

"I couldn't - I know better!"

"Knowing better doesn't help when your feelings are involved, Anakin."

"What do you know about feeling?" He rounded on her spitefully, his eyes flashing. "You, the perfect Jedi Padawan who doesn't know her mother, and never will. What could you possibly know about what it is to feel your mother's pain, to know that she's being tortured at the hands of animals and there's nothing you can do about it? Nothing anyone will let you do about it and to have your dreams passed off as nonsense. What could you know?"

There was a sadness in her gaze as she watched him. "If you could see yourself, maybe you wouldn't think my vision was so far fetched."

He glared at her. "I was a fool to think you could understand. No one does because no one but me remembers their mother."

That stung. Barriss managed not to flinch at his venomous accusation. "So let's go after her and prove us both wrong."

He froze, not believing his ears. "What?"

Barriss pushed to her feet, carefully avoiding the doubts in the back of her mind. "I said, let's go after her. If we get to Tatooine - I assume she's still on Tatooine in your visions?"

He nodded.

She continued. "Good, then if we get there and find that she's just fine, and nothing's happened to her your nightmares - and mine - should stop. If we get there and she's been captured by those... things-"

"Tusken Raiders."

Barriss didn't miss a beat. "If she's been captured by the Tusken Raiders, we go as a team. None of this super hero stuff; deal?"

He stared at her shocked. "What deal? We can't leave now."

"Why not?" Barriss pinned him with a look that dared him to present an argument she couldn't refute.

"Padmé-"

"She's dead, Anakin. Nothing you can say or do will bring her back."

"But, her burial-"

"Is Tatooine more than a day's journey from here?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then we'll be back in time."

"We've been appointed as honor guard; we can't just abandon our posts-"

"Our Masters were appointed honor guard." Barriss crossed her arms over her chest. "We're simply here to be back up if anything goes wrong. People will be viewing the body for the rest of the week - that's plenty of time to get to Tatooine, check on your mother and be back in time to see Padmé buried."

"Our Masters are relying on us for breaks, it would be-"

"Anakin." Barriss grinned. "Just grab your bag and let's go already. They won't even notice we're gone."

Anakin stared at her shocked. "You're serious."

"Deadly. I don't like my nightmares about you anymore than you like the ones about your mother. We can kill them both in a single stroke - we'd be foolish not to capitalize on this opportunity. Grab your gear, Anakin; you're going home!"


"They went where?"

"Tatooine, Master Jedi." The page held out the message Barriss had left for their Masters to Luminara "She asked I deliver this message to you."

Luminara thanked the young boy and he disappeared. She signalled to Obi-Wan she was stepping back for a moment and scanned the hastily concocted message.

Master,

I've taken Anakin to Tatooine to rid ourselves of these visions once and for all. I've had another, more disturbing vision centered on Anakin's mother - and his actions - that needs immediate action. Without prompt attention it could mean the difference in his career.

I beg forgiveness, not permission. I will give you a full report on our return and after the burial of the Senator.

Barriss

A line creased Luminara's brow. More disturbing visions? She hadn't been aware of more than the single one she'd shared with Anakin. But something that could mean the difference in Anakin's career - and in the middle of their assignment no less?

She stepped back to Obi-Wan, tapped him on the shoulder and handed him the message. Obi-Wan read it where he was, half-turned to hide the contents from those mourners who continued to file past. He looked up sharply, his mouth set in a disproving line. Luminara shook her head fractionally and retrieved the datapad before taking up her position on the other side of the casket.

Their hands were tied, their instructions explicit. Until Anakin and Barriss returned - or the Senator was buried - they were honor bound to their duties on Naboo.

Luminara put the datapad in her pocket. Barriss wasn't known for rash actions like this; if she'd deemed it important enough, Luminara would trust her judgment for now and wait. Her Padawan would return and when she did they'd have a long talk about responsibilities and manners. Until then she would simply have to trust her Padawan to return in one piece.