Clieg Lars, Owen, Beru and C3PO were waiting in silence for Anakin and Padme to appear. Cileg hovered in his chair close to his son who had his hand resting on the older man's shoulder. Clieg looked over at the two other graves next to the new one created for his beloved Shmi. His first wife and infant daughter would always be in his heart, but Shmi had been the wife he had always wanted, an equal who was smart, funny, the most beautiful creature he had laid eyes on and so loving, so kind, so open to him and his family. He just hoped he had helped to make her last years more pleasant than the harsh life she had experienced before, a place she would want her son to feel like his home. She rarely spoke of Anakin, he remembered, not because her love for him was diminished, it was obvious his departure was a painful subject for her, even after all these long years, but when she did speak of him her words were filled with love and pride. Having met the young man for himself, he could see the strength of his mother shining within him, his power controlled, his demeanor that of a disciplined warrior.
/You had great reason to be proud, my beloved/ he thought to himself as Anakin and Padme stepped up from the main building out onto the baked sand. The boy still looked ill, and Clieg regretted having the funeral so soon after the lad had woken up from his fever, but they could not wait another day, the traditional mourning period of six days would be over at sunset. He nodded to Anakin as he moved passed the assembled folk and Anakin respectfully nodded back, remaining somewhat distant to his step father. It was completely understandable, they had only met 8 days ago and at that meeting Clieg had explained everything, seeing the relief and hope in the boys eyes fade to fear and quietly controlled rage. It had been a heartbreaking transformation. Now, the boy exuded sorrow, but there was something else. Whenever he glanced at his traveling companion, Clieg noticed hopefulness in Anakin's expression that reminded him of Shmi so much that he knew it could only be rooted in love. Well that gave him some comfort at least, the boy had some one close to help him through this difficult time.
Clieg approached the grave and spoke openly about his love of Shmi and how she had transformed his and his family's lives, how much he would miss her. Anakin was finding it hard to listen all that closely to the man's words, his own emotions threatening to send him to the desert floor with soul draining grief. Remembering his old master's words on such things he knew he couldn't block these feelings, he had to experience them and let them go, so he opened his being to the comforting force and allowed the tendrils of warmth to wrap around him and sweep away the cold feelings twisting at his heart. His footing slipped again and there was Padme using her body to support him, but giving the appearance that it was her that needed the support and he gave her a tight hug in gratitude.
When the ceremony was over Clieg and the others had slowly gone inside, leaving Padme and Anakin at the graveside. Anakin knelt down stiffly and ran his hand over the sand to smooth over some of the rough areas. He lifted a handful of the yellow grains and let them fall between his fingers. They drifted down, caught on the breeze and as they fell they changed color to orange and collected on the boots of a Naboo security officer. Anakin's headshot up and there was Obi-Wan towering above him, his face full of fear. The apparition raised a bloodied hand in defense.
"Sith!" it said before being blown away by a gust of wind that swept around the farmstead. Anakin gasped and sat back on the once again yellow sand.
"What happened, another vision?" asked the concerned Padme as she came to his side. He was shaken for a moment, unable to take his eyes from the spot where Obi-Wan had been.
The chirruping of R2-D2 came to them as the droid trundled over the sand. It was obvious he had something very important to tell them because he stopped in place and rocked from side to side will bleeping excitedly. Anakin and Padme followed him to the ship where a transmission of some kind had been picked up from the planet Geonosis.
The image was not the clearest holo ever seen, but it was obvious to them both who the person was.
"Latterie!" exclaimed Padme excitedly, and she played the message.
The sound and picture quality were intermittent, but they could understand most of what was being said.
"This is .." he seemed to be looking off camera for a moment and then sighed heavily and clenched his eye shut to continue, "this is former Jedi Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi. I seek Count Dooku, I believe he is here on this planet and I need his help. If you can here me it would appear that the entire Geonosian army believes me and my two traveling companions to be rather dangerous and I assure you this is not the case, we just have extremely limited communications capabilities at the moment and would really like this misunderstanding cleared up if that's all the same to you! Please, if you get this message, relay it to the Count or whatever authorities might be able to help three stranded travelers who are not looking for a fight! We have an injured boy with us who needs ..wait.." The image suddenly blurred and blaster fire was heard. The image finally settled on the Geonosian sandy floor and the image of droideka loomed large for a moment before the message ended abruptly.
Padme turned off the comm., her face one of shock and she turned to face Anakin, who was mulling over Obi-Wan's call for Count Dooku. His master had often spoken of the venerable Jedi Master who had taught Qui-Gon Ginn. But he had left the order a long time ago. What was Obi-Wan thinking? Why wasn't he trying to contact the Council if he was in that much trouble?
"You knew, didn't you?" came Padme's accusing voice, her features stern. "That's why the name Obi-wan has been on your mind lately."
"I didn't know for sure until my vision this morning," he replied, seeing the hurt in her eyes.
"But you suspected and you said nothing."
"I couldn't be sure and the last thing I wanted was to reveal him and have him disappear on us again, or falsely accuse someone."
"You speak of him as though he is some kind of criminal. Is that what you think?"
"No, he's only ever been motivated with protecting you and your people. He's just lost his way a little."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"He should have revealed himself to the order a long time ago, we could have helped him through the grief of loosing Qui-Gon. Quite frankly I felt the loss of both knights that day. Thank goodness Master Yoda was there for me, I doubt I would have become the padawan I am now without his help. And yet I can't help feeling I've lost ten years of getting to know the man closest to Qui-Gon, the one man who truly believed in me. I could have learnt so much from him."
"This isn't about you! He's not your responsibility any more. He chose us for his family at a moment when he had lost the only family he had previously known and how he defended us! I am just saddened he felt he had to hide his true nature. We would have accepted him no matter what. Feel rather foolish that I was unable to detect his deception."
"I don't think you have to worry on that score, he had us all fooled. Although I suspect Master Yoda probably knew from the moment I mentioned my suspicions to him."
"I'm going after him," she said as she moved to the nav computer to bring up Geonosis. Anakin laid a hand on her arm.
"Wait, lets just think about this for a moment."
She pulled away from him and continued with her programming. "He's still one of my people and I owe him my life a dozen times over. I'm not going to leave him out on some other desert planet and it's obvious, vision or no, that he's in trouble."
"Padme, the sith are involved in this, I've sensed it. We need to be cautious. How could we even have received this message what he said about their communications is true?"
"The frequency is an emergency channel open to Nubians through a simple hand communicator. The ship picks up anything on that frequency if we're in range and is able to amplify it. I doubt if Lat- " she paused to correct herself, "I mean Obi-Wan even knows there was a Naboo cruiser close enough to pick it up, the signal was so weak. Certainly if we had been on Naboo we wouldn't have been able to get it. Now, lets get going!"
"No, Padme," said Anakin, determined not to rush into things, despite his growing concern for the former padawan. The force was calling him to the man's aid, but he knew he couldn't face the threat of the sith alone. He needed the councils' support. "Let me contact the Jedi Council first, they must be alerted to the presence of the sith in all this. Besides, you are a representative of the Republic and the Geonosians are known Separatist sympathizers. Intervention in another planets affairs could constitute an invasion of their rights to autonomy."
She turned to look at him with impressed eyes and he continued. "Remember how close the Republic came to war with the Separatists after the Theed incident last year. We were able to negotiate through that very delicate situation once Nute Gunray was revealed as the instigator."
"Yes, it was a shame his ill health meant he never made it to trial." She had often wondered about that, at the convenience of his sudden decline and death mere days before the trial would have begun. But that was not the point right now, her Latterie, her protector and friend, her dear hidden Obi-Wan was in serious trouble and there was nothing anyone could do to stop her from going to his aid.
"I'm going to get him back," she said clearly, moving now into the pilots seat, "you can send your message to the Jedi Council if you like, but I'm leaving once the engines warm up."