Chapter 9
Humming.
He groaned softly, the insistent buzzing noise slowly receding into a sound he knew all too well.
A lightsaber.
His eyes snapped open, and pain stabbed deep into his brain as bright lights nearly blinded him. He hissed, his eyes closing in almost the same moment they opened. The mechanical laughter that followed took a moment to register. When it did, Anakin managed to fight past the blinding pain and slit his eyes open.
"Jedi Skywalker." The voice grated on his nerves, even sounding diabolical. As diabolical as the mechanical monstrosity that housed it.
"General Grievous." Anakin spat, trying to reach for his lightsaber only to find his arms were outstretched in two different angles. He glanced up and then down at his predicament. His legs were lashed together by the same kind of energy field that held his hands. He was pinned to a wall in about as vulnerable a position as one could be. Not good. "Come out of hiding for some sport?"
The General laughed, his hacking cough intermittently breaking through, though he said nothing. Anakin noted the blade in Grievous' hand was familiar. Focusing on it, his heart contracted; Obi-Wan's blade.
"I'm sorry, Anakin."
Anakin's head whipped around at the sound of the Chancellor's voice. The man he remembered was still the same, his blue eyes sad. Only now, aware of it, Anakin could sense the dark cloud that seemed to weight down on him, subtly shifting, whispering for him to give up, to listen unconditionally to what the man had to say. Aware, he could now feel the Dark Side whispering to him. "You're sorry?"
"My boy, I never wanted things to end this way. You were supposed to become my apprentice; it was your destiny."
"No destiny is set in stone."
Palpatine shook his head sadly. "Yours, my young friend, should have been. You've broken the code, acted in anger, taken a wife - oh yes; I know about your marriage to Padmé."
"You're guessing."
"Am I?" The Chancellor's expression turned crafty. "You speak of little else, Anakin. You're also a young man. A blind man could have seen how you feel about her. That you have such focus, no frustrations, gives away your true commitment to her. Jedi indulge; you do not."
"My vows to the Jedi are sacred."
"Even after being cast out?"
Anakin fell silent. This was going no where. He paused, thinking. "What have you done with Padmé?"
"She's quite safe, I assure you. For now."
"Let her go."
Palpatine laughed, a diabolical sound that set Anakin's teeth on edge. "You are in no position to be making demands, Anakin."
"It's me you're after; I'm here now, at your mercy; let her go."
"Her presence ensures your good behavior." Palpatine made a motion for Grievous to move, and the General bowed before disappearing. "I'll let you speak to her if you wish."
Anakin wanted nothing more, and he knew the Sith knew it. Damn him. "At what price?"
"Anakin!" Palpatine's mask was back. The caring, solicitous expression affected a wounded look. "Can't one old friend so a favor for another?"
"We're not friends. You've used me, you've been using me, all to further your evil plots."
"It's true." The Chancellor smiled easily, settling himself in a nearby chair. "You were so eager to please, so needy for approval. It was easy to manipulate you. What changed, Anakin? Where did I lose you?"
Anakin closed his eyes.
Where indeed. If he hadn't started having those dreams, if Obi-Wan hadn't shared the same dreams, he could see how he'd have taken the path he'd only narrowly avoided. If Obi-Wan hadn't known about his marriage to Padmé he'd have never gone to him with his nightmare about her death; he'd have spoken, instead, to the Chancellor. And, in doing so, would likely have sealed his fate.
"The Force has other plans for him."
Anakin's eyes snapped open at the sound of her voice. Padmé stood across the room, a bandage wrapped securely about her head. Her face was pale with dark, deep shadows under her eyes, but the brown orbs blazed with fire. Grievous stood nearby, one metallic hand around her upper arm. Anakin's throat ached as he looked at her. She was still dressed in the same dressing gown, her condition cloaked in the layers of fabric. Anakin knew the chances of Palpatine being unaware of her condition were next to nil. "Padmé."
She met his gaze and he could see the weariness behind her ire. Her expression softened fractionally and she even managed a slight smile for him.
"You shouldn't be standing in your condition, my dear."
Her gaze snapped back to Palpatine's even as Anakin's heart sank. The Chancellor would bargain for Padmé's life - possibly with his own, he knew that with certainty, but for the life of their child? He could see the spirit he so loved and admired in her bolstering her determination.
"I prefer to stand, thank you. As you have not been gracious enough to allow me a bacta patch, I hardly see how being solicitous now is going to change me view of you."
The Chancellor's eyes narrowed at her defiant answer.
Anakin took a deep breath, and spoke quietly. "Let her go; take me in her place."
"Anakin!"
He didn't dare look at her as Palpatine's gaze moved back to him. He saw the older man calculating the numbers in his head and then smile deviously. "Certainly, Anakin. We'll let her go; after she's taken a trip to the medical bay."
His blood ran cold at the pleasantly phrased but ominous statement. "Why?"
"We can't very well send her home with the wounds on her head and a widow with a baby. We'll take care of both for you."
Padmé reacted instantly. "No!" She struggled against Grievous' hold, unmindful of the abrasions she was causing on her skin. "No! Anakin! I won't let them take our baby! Don't let him!"
Anakin didn't look at her. "The baby's not yet been born; he or she is still a part of Padmé. They both go free, or the Force help me, your death will be my only goal until my own."
"Anakin!"
He finally looked at her, saw the fear in her eyes, but fear not for herself. He loved her all the move in that moment; she was afraid for him and for their child. She calmed, watching him, her struggle stopping. His eyes widened and he shook his head fractionally as he read her intent in her gaze. Don't do it he begged her silently. Wait, just a little longer.
Her expression was calm, composed; accepting. She couldn't wait. She turned, breaking eye contact, and spun at Grievous, lifting her legs and using his grip on her as leverage. The effort was costly, leaving her completely exposed, but neither the General nor the Sith Lord saw her action coming. Padmé's feet, booted in sturdy home moccasins, slammed both heels into the housing at the center of Grievous' body. Her strength, born of desperation, folded the protecting shield about the mechanical monster's heart and drove the organ backwards, piercing it in the center and leaving it impaled against the back plating.
Grievous let out a horrendous, spine chilling shriek as he was mortally wounded, flinging Padmé from him with a vicious twist of one arm.
Anakin heard something snap audibly as Padmé landed in a heap several feet from where the mechanical General was writhing in his death throes. Anakin paid the General no mind; his gaze was on Padmé. She shifted and he thought he heard a moan from her.
"That was a very dumb thing to do my dear."
Palpatine! Anakin's gaze swung back to the Sith Lord whose expression was one of annoyance.
"A very dumb thing, indeed. What had you hoped to accomplish, exactly?"
"A distraction." Padmé pushed herself up into a sitting position, putting the wall at her back. Her lips were drawn, white lines clear about her mouth as she cradled her right arm against her chest. The upper arm was out of line with the lower, the bone protruding at a painful looking angle.
"Indeed." Palpatine turned slowly in the room before turning back to her. "For what or whom, my dear? There is no one here but we three now that you've killed my General."
Padmé looked back to Anakin and smiled.
A snap-hiss of a lightsaber igniting was audible as Anakin brought Obi-Wan's lightsaber to his hand with a thought. The blade dipped, cleaving through the control console barely feet away, releasing Anakin's restraints a moment before the hilt settled comfortably into his palm.
Sidious spun, going into a low crouch as Anakin lunged for him. The Sith Lord moved, darting away as Anakin put his back to Padmé, taking up a defensive stance in front of her. "Thank you for obliging me, your Excellency."
Sidious pulled a lightsaber from beneath his robes, igniting the blade with the flick of his thumb. "A foolish move, Anakin. I'll have to kill you both now."
Anakin twirled the blade once before returning it to the en-guarde position. "Let Padmé go and I'll stay here with you; willingly."
Padmé's sharp, shocked gasp was drowned out by the Chancellor's reply. "With a wife and child to consider; I doubt that."
Anakin centered himself, balancing his weight on the balls of his feet as he prepared for an assault. He immersed himself in the Force, opening up to it as he did before combat; finding his comfort zone.
Sidious struck, coming in with a series of lightning quick thrusts and stabs, meant to force him to turn aside; to move beyond.
Anakin stayed where he was, parrying and blocking each swing, opening himself further to the Force as he needed the speed to deal with the attacks. The speed came at his call, lending him a fluidity of movement and a clarity of thought, he'd rarely achieved before in combat. His lightsaber danced, an extension of his arm, flowing down and up, turning aside each stroke as the Chancellor attempted to break his defense; as he tried to force Anakin to move and give him a clear opening to strike at Padmé.
Anakin knew he couldn't allow it; he wouldn't. If he did, if something happened to her, it would mean the path that Sidious had wanted him to walk. He'd seen that path, he'd seen the pain and the suffering he'd caused, the evil deeds he'd willingly committed. He wanted none of it.
While Padmé was alive, it gave him a reason to fight, a reason of being; it gave him focus. It lent him strength. He wanted to be her husband, to watch her grown old; to watch their child grow up. He wanted to watch her bring the Galaxy back into balance, to restore the order and diplomacy that had been wrested from the people. He wanted to watch her succeed.
And so he fought. His lightsaber danced in an intricate pattern, forcing the Sith Lord on the defensive more than once, but never following up on advantages that would take him more than a step from Padmé. He knew the Sith's plan; he wasn't about to oblige him and allow him to take away the one person who made his life worth living; the one person who saw the potential for good despite his evil deeds of the past.
A second presence joined the fight, drawing an outraged shriek from the Sith Lord. He focused as the green lightsaber intercepted a series of blows on his left, moving with quick familiarity into the gap.
Obi-Wan!
The knowledge that his old mentor wasn't dead barely had time to register as Sidious attacked again, redoubling his efforts. Anakin stepped forward, into the assault. "Get Padmé!"
He didn't wait to see if Obi-Wan heard him, didn't pause as he went on the offensive. The blue blade of Obi-Wan's lightsaber hummed in Anakin's hands as he struck, forcing the Sith Lord back, towards the wall where he'd been held prisoner minutes before. Sidious changed his tactics, spinning just out of reach before a barrage of Force lightning suddenly engulfed Anakin.
Padmé screamed somewhere behind him, and Anakin gritted his teeth as he moved his lightsaber into position, the very force of the lightning pinning him in place. "Get her out of here!"
"Obi-Wan, help him!"
"He'll have help, Padmé. Come on."
Anakin barely registered the conversation happening behind him as he took a step into the lightning, feeling the Force coursing through him to give him strength. The Sith Lord's mask began to weaken and fade as the barrage of Force lightning continued, revealing the shrunken, shriveled, withered flesh of the man beneath. Yet his sadistic grin never wavered, almost as if Palpatine was completely unaware of the physical transformation that was taking place.
Anakin continued to advance, lightning crackling around him as he missed catching one bolt on the blade. Another was swift to follow, several catching him unprepared in quick succession. Pain course through his body, racing along his nerve endings and causing his muscles to spasm. The lightsaber fell from nerveless fingers and agony was swift to follow as his knees buckled, sending him writhing to the floor.
Palpatine's delighted cackle echoed through his brain like the fire that danced upon his veins. The stream crackled and sizzled, the smell of burnt flesh permeating the room.
The pain suddenly stopped and so did the laughter, a silence as sudden and as swift as a sandstorm on Tatooine sweeping through the room. Anakin forced himself to move, commanding his muscles to obey. Shakily, almost drunkenly, he forced himself to his knees, resting his weight on one as he looked about.
Palpatine stood silently watching him from across the room. His hood had been pulled up, casting his face into shadow but did little to hide the ravages of unleashing such power.
Anakin stayed where he was, breathing deeply, forcing air into tortured lungs.
"Now you understand, young Skywalker. You cannot win."
"I... don't have... to win." Anakin pushed himself to his feet, scooping Obi-Wan's lightsaber from the ground as he did so. He took another deep breath and met the Sith Lord's gaze. "I just have to stop you."
"It's futile, Anakin. I hold within my grasp the power to control the galaxy. It could have been yours."
"I already have everything I want; even you can't stop people from dying."
"But we could learn."
Anakin managed a wry smile. "Says the man who destroys to gather his powers. I won't let you do it. I won't join you."
"Then you will die."
Anakin flicked gathered the Force about him like a cloak, immersing himself completely, giving himself over to the powers he often sought to control, and allowing it to control him. He thought of Padmé, of their child, of his or her impending birth. He thought of the goodness he saw in her, the goodness she bought out in him; he silently swore, he'd find a way out, a way back to them. He'd promised her he would be there for the birth of their child and he wasn't about to break that promise. He let himself go, becoming one with the Force in a way he'd never expected, never before experienced. And, in doing so, he never heard the scream; he never saw the explosion; he never felt the concussion.
In doing so he found silence and peace.