(12-18-15: Oh, you know the drill. I've edited this part of the story. We're getting closer to the end. For those of you who have read at least part of the second book and didn't like it...I plan on some major revisions to that story. Just saying.)
Here's the next chapter guys ;D I can't wait for the next one, and I know you guys have been waiting forever for what I have in store hahaha. But first . . . this one haha! Thank you for all of the Reviews! Don't forget to Review this chapter, and Enjoy!
"You know you owe me, right?"
Anakin had his feet propped up on the arm of the couch he was stretched out on, head leaning back and eyes closed. He'd been up all night poking around to see if there had been any sign of The Hunter returning without any luck, and by now he was utterly exhausted.
Luke chuckled at him from the hospital bed he was still stuck in. "Yes, I'm sure I do, though not for the reason you're thinking."
Anakin snorted softly. "I hate being in the medical wing; it bores me to no end."
"Well, you can just leave me all defenseless by myself to get your adrenaline rush, don't worry."
Anakin lolled his head towards the other man. "Now that's a low blow."
Luke chuckled. "You're the one going off about how much you don't want to be here."
"I never said I didn't want to be here with you, I just said that I hate being in the medical wing...there's a difference."
"Sure."
Anakin's datapad went off, and he suddenly sat up straight, his rapt attention on the device sitting on the table.
He only had that set to go off if a certain assassin was spotted.
Luke straightened as well, his eyes zooming in on the pad as Anakin crossed the room to retrieve it. He was silent for a few moments before he finally spoke. "He's back?"
Anakin nodded, tapping the pad a few times, zooming in, and clearing the picture. "He's just landed."
"Do you mind telling me how you know this?"
Anakin smiled mischievously, adrenaline pumping through his veins at the thought of finally getting his hands on The Hunter. "Oh...I used my knack for machines to tap into security cameras around Coruscant...at least at all the points I deemed necessary."
"Isn't that a little...oh, I don't know...illegal?"
Anakin snickered. "Only if you're caught; and I tend on waiting long enough so that I can say I heard a rumor while I was asking around."
Luke sighed. "Wow Anakin...just...wow..."
Anakin didn't reply, studying the figure on his datapad. A sudden rush of maliciousness flashed through him for a moment, though Anakin buried it deep; he didn't need those feelings right now. Right now he needed focus. The security camera's he'd tapped into were following The Hunter's path, and Anakin sat on the couch, watching closely as The Hunter came closer and closer to the center of Coruscant. The closer he got to the Temple, the more uncomfortable Anakin began to feel. Palpatine had probably been onto something when he said The Hunter would come to finish off the job. Anakin glanced at Luke over on the bed, yet said nothing. Though from the feelings he could sense from Luke, Anakin knew that he didn't need to say anything.
"How close is he?" Luke asked evenly.
"Too close," Anakin mumbled.
Luke rested his head on the wall next to his bed. "Do you think I could have my lightsaber back now...just to be safe?"
Anakin smiled ever so slightly. "No problem, but not at the moment since I don't have it; maybe after I go back to Padmé's."
"Oh, of course, I'll just stay defenseless until then."
Anakin shot him a look. "Sure, keep up the humor while the highly trained assassin gets steadily closer."
"You're the one who hacked all those security cameras to keep track of him. Truth be told, I actually feel rather safe right now."
Anakin smiled, continuing to track The Hunter's progress through the city. After a few minutes of silence between the two, Anakin suddenly stood up sharply.
"What is it?" Luke asked, confused.
Tension, fear, and malicious anger were rushing through Anakin as he set the datapad on the couch, snatching his lightsaber off of the table. "He's at 500 Republica," he said sharply.
"Anakin, wait!" Luke replied just as sharply, actually causing Anakin to pause.
"What? Luke, Padmé's there—"
"And she isn't his target; you're over-reacting. Breathe, all right?" Luke had a look on his face that told Anakin he had sensed every single one of those emotions in perfect clarity.
Anakin took several breaths, pacing angrily as he tried to control himself. He snatched the datapad up, continuing to keep track of where The Hunter was. The closer he got to Padmé's floor, the more restless he became. However, The Hunter passed her level and went on up to the floor above. That didn't mean that it eased Anakin's worries.
"He's on the floor above," he told Luke stiffly.
"And that's probably where he'll stay. The guy's not stupid enough to come too close to the Temple, and he doesn't have a way to get to me in here. He's probably staked out there to wait for me to come back to the apartment so that he can ambush me there. Like I just said, he's not there for her, he's not after her, she's in no danger right now," Luke said steadily and in calming tones.
Luke's efforts only barely managed to keep Anakin there in his room. "I should be there, I don't like the thought of an assassin right above Padmé's apartment, its unnerving, its wrong, its—"
"Anakin."
Anakin paused—in his words and pacing—at Luke's tone out of surprise. He felt as if he had just been scolded by Obi-Wan, and all from one word in that tone Luke had used.
"Anakin, you need to think, breathe; you're about to just barge in on a highly trained assassin without even thinking twice about it. Besides, you're the one who wanted to wait so that it would look like you got the information from asking around instead of illegally. Think, Anakin, before you do something rash, all right?"
Anakin took a few steadying breaths, getting control of himself once again. "All right...okay, you're right; but I'm leaving now. I'll be back later."
Before Anakin could leave the room he heard Luke speak quietly from his bed. "Anakin, please be careful; and don't do anything that you'll regret later."
Luke's tone was pleading, so Anakin didn't joke about it...but he didn't respond, either. He had a feeling, and he didn't want to make a promise if there was a possibility he couldn't keep it. So instead he slipped out of the room, out of the Temple, and made a beeline for 500 Republica.
He probably should have been alarmed by the malevolent rush he felt from being so close to taking his vengeance on this assassin, but he was too focused on the task at hand to care.
Instead of going to Padmé's or going straight to the apartment The Hunter was currently in, Anakin went to the apartment above. Both of them were currently vacant, so he didn't need to worry about any frightened occupants inside or anyone coming to the apartment any time soon.
Once inside, Anakin paced restlessly and thought through what he was going to do over and over, several different plans shifting around in his head. He couldn't kill the man right away; no, that wouldn't do if he wanted answers, and he didn't want to scare anyone in the building, either. He'd have to keep the man alive, take him somewhere else for questioning. He wasn't going to go through the Senates or the Council's long and grueling process; it would take too long, and he felt proper justice for the lives the assassin had taken and the attempt he'd made on Luke's life would not be properly dealt. Anakin would have to carry it out himself.
Anakin fingered his lightsaber absentmindedly, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He remained riveted on the Force Presence below him, refusing to let this man get away again or even move to his balcony without Anakin knowing.
He was just starting to smooth out some of the kinks in his plan he had formed when The Hunter started to leave the apartment. Of course that threw the entire plan Anakin had been working on in his mind out of balance and he scrapped it, coming up with a new one even as he sprinted to the balcony of the apartment above, which was directly above the landing pad of the apartment The Hunter was now exiting. Without a second thought, Anakin launched himself over the edge, touching down on the landing pad right behind The Hunter.
The assassin was swift to turn about, but not fast enough. Anakin grabbed The Hunter's arm, twisted it behind the man's back, and activated his lightsaber, holding its activated blade at the assassin's throat.
"Forward," Anakin growled harshly. "I have nothing against killing you if you try anything."
The Hunter's breathing was ragged and he was even trembling. It amused Anakin in a way as The Hunter moved forward into the speeder Anakin assumed he'd 'borrowed' for his brief time on Coruscant. Anakin climbed in behind the assassin, keeping his saber at the man's throat the entire time.
"We're going to take a little drive..."
Anakin forced The Hunter to land deep within the industrial zone of Coruscant in the middle of a cluster of abandoned warehouses. He gruffly pulled the assassin inside before releasing the man, Anakin's lightsaber now leveled at his chest.
"Now you're going to answer a few questions for me."
"Like I'm going to tell you anything," The Hunter scoffed.
Anakin gave him a dangerous smile, and The Hunter shifted uncomfortably. "Oh, you will. First question: why were you hired to kill Luke?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Anakin growled, slicing downward with his saber and giving The Hunter a cut down the length of his leg. He cried out in pain, dropping to his good knee while he clutched at his bad leg. "Let's try this again: why were you hired to kill Luke?" Anakin snarled.
The Hunter spat at him in response, hate burning in his eyes, and Anakin hit him brutally in the head with the brunt of his lightsaber hilt in response. "Tell me now!" Anakin shouted.
"Because I'm the best in the business for killing Jedi, that's why," The Hunter growled before spinning around and taking a swing at Anakin with two small daggers he'd snuck out of his boot. Anakin pulled his lightsaber up and blocked the swing, knocking the man's advances aside with his wrist one by one. Eventually he grabbed The Hunter's wrist and twisted his arm hard and sharp, forcing the man to drop one dagger as he dealt a simultaneous blow to the arm that caused The Hunter to jerk and cut himself accidentally with the other blade. The Hunter made a strange sound of dismay when he realized what had happened, dropping to his knees before he started to scream in pain. Anakin watched the man's twitching form unsympathetically for a few moments before he bent down and picked up the blade he had knocked out of the man's hand. The blade seemed to be dipped in the same poison the man had used on Luke.
Gripping the hilt firmly, Anakin went back to the side of the withering assassin, pressing the steel blade to his throat. "Who hired you?" Anakin shouted at him over the assassin's screams.
"Sidious! A Sith who goes by the name Sidious!" he cried out.
Anakin paused. Darth Sidious, the missing Sith Lord they'd been trying to find, was trying to kill Luke? That was the Sith who's plans the young Jedi was tampering with? "You've seen him? What does he look like?"
The Hunter cried out even louder when the blade started to bite into his skin. "I don't know! I don't know! He keeps himself hidden under a hood; I've never seen his face!"
"Do you know where he is? Tell me!" Anakin demanded.
"I don't know! Somewhere on Coruscant? When he gave me the job he said 'here on Coruscant,' but that's all I know, I swear!"
"Why did he hire you to kill Luke?" Anakin asked, pressing the man into the ground.
"How should I know? Why should I care? Just one less pathetic Jedi in the galaxy," The Hunter spat before crying out in agony again from the poison.
Anakin's vision went red with rage, and he felt his hand move of its own accord...well, almost move of its own accord.
Anakin stood up, breathing heavy, dagger in hand as he stared at the fast-dying assassin, twitching and bleeding out on the floor as strange sounds emanated from him. Anakin dropped the bloodied dagger to the floor with a clatter, staring down at the man in a sort of daze long after the bounty hunter died. He glanced around, his breathing starting to pick up. Now that his rage was gone and no longer blinding him, he felt sick.
What did I just do?
Anakin stumbled backwards into a nearby crate, staring at the body of the assassin.
I have to get out of here.
With that thought, Anakin turned tail and ran, taking The Hunter's speeder back to the apartments where he then switched to his own speeder and returned to the Temple.
Luke was lying in bed—of course—when he felt the powerful wave of emotion from his father that nearly sent Luke into a panic. That malevolent rage...it was too equivalent to the rage that Vader had emanated on several occasions, so much so that Luke felt he was about to be sick.
However, Luke felt confusion wash through him when that very same rage dwindled away before morphing into resigned devastation and guilt.
What just happened?
By the time his father arrived in Luke's room, Luke was a nervous wreck, and the look on his father's face did nothing to sooth his worries; it was full of self-loathing and guilt.
"Anakin, what happened?" Luke asked almost immediately.
"Nothing," Anakin ground out in a harsh tone that surprised and alarmed Luke even further.
"Anakin, I sensed it, and I can still sense your guilt now. What happened?"
Anakin glared at him for pressing the topic, arms crossed, turning his back to him. "Nothing you need to worry about," he snapped.
Luke pulled himself up into a sitting position, beginning to fear for his father. "Anakin, please...tell me what happened."
Luke could see the tension in Anakin's back and shoulders, and several beats of silence passed before Anakin finally spoke in a flat, emotionless tone.
"The assassin's dead."
Luke took a deep breathe. "How?"
"I killed him."
"Why?"
Anakin spun around to face him, eyes flashing dangerously. "I don't want to talk about it, Luke; can you just drop the subject?"
Luke frowned, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. "Well you look like you need to tell someone."
Anakin growled in frustration, moving over to stand by the window. "I was trying to get answers from him, he attacked me, got cut with his own poisoned blade, he said something to taunt me, and then I snapped and killed him."
Luke sighed tiredly, running his hand through his hair and closing his eyes. "You have to learn how to control your temper, Anakin."
"It's not exactly the easiest thing to do, Luke! Especially when you feel as angry as I do all the time!" Anakin exploded.
"Do you think I don't know that? I cut off my father's hand and almost killed him in a burst of rage. I get it, Anakin, but you have to learn to rein yourself in or else one of these days you're going to make a mistake that you're not going to be able to fix!" Luke said sharply.
He could tell that his words hit home because Anakin stopped moving, collapsing onto a chair and suddenly looking drained. He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking deep breaths to gradually himself down. "I-I'm sorry, Luke. It's just...there's so much right now and...it's all too confusing, I just..."
Anakin trailed off and he ran his fingers through his hair before burying his face in his hands.
"It's all right, Anakin...I understand," Luke told him softly. "Though I have the feeling that...soon enough everything is going to make sense; really soon."
Anakin looked up at him, a tired, sad expression on his face. "That day can't come soon enough, Luke. I don't know what to believe anymore," he murmured.
That caused Luke's heart to drop. His father truly was lost right now, and all Luke wanted to do was to help him see the truth in everything that was happening.
Wait, Luke; do not tell him yet. He will find out sooner than either of you think, Luke heard Qui-Gon whisper in his mind.
All right. "We should get some rest Anakin; both of us. You've had a long and tiring day; you need the rest."
"Yes...yes, some sleep should help..." He gradually stretched out on the couch, taking a deep breath and allowing his eyes to close.
Soon, Luke could tell that his father was fast asleep, and it was only when he was sure of that fact that Luke let himself drift off into a slumber he felt was going to hold some answers for both of them.