They were fired on as they flew to the surface, but they managed to land at the facility Admiral Yularen had identified as the most likely prison on one of the landing platforms. Obi-Wan tried to squash the nervous sickness in his stomach. Darkness lay heavily on the building. He couldn't sense Anakin anywhere. That had to just be the influence of Palpatine.
"Make sure this ship stays safe, Caleb," Depa said. "Even if you hear us calling for backup on the comms, that doesn't mean you. You have to guard the ship. We may need a quick getaway."
Caleb nodded. "Yes, master."
Depa smiled and put a hand on his cheek. "Stay safe, little one."
Caleb blushed. "Master, I'm not little anymore."
Mace chuckled. "You'll always be little to her. You might as well get used to it now." He drew his lightsaber. "Come on, men, let's go." He left the ship.
"Oh, yeah!" Wrecker called. "Palpatine, here we come!"
"Wrecker!" Sergeant Hunter snapped.
"What?"
Beside Obi-Wan, Ahsoka managed a faint smile.
Obi-Wan patted her on the shoulder and raised his voice. "Let's go find Anakin."
The clones cheered. Obi-Wan led everyone except Caleb out onto the landing platform.
Time to find his brother.
Luke peeked his head out of his hiding spot in the back among the speeder bikes. Empty. Good. Time for him to find his daddy.
He darted out into the open part of the ship and froze.
The padawan, Caleb Dume, was standing right outside the ship staring at him.
Luke gave a small wave. "Hi, I'm Luke."
"What the…how in the…who are you and what are you doing here?" Caleb demanded.
"I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to help save my daddy," Luke said. Shouldn't it be obvious why he was here?
Caleb stared at him with his mouth open. Finally, he said, "How old are you?"
"Seven." Luke showed his hands with seven fingers up.
"Do you realize how irresponsible it is for you to be here? What if you get killed?" Caleb spread his hands.
"What if my daddy gets killed?" Luke asked.
"And you think you can help him? You're seven!"
Was he just going to stand there yelling at him instead of letting him go save Daddy? Think, think! What would Mommy do?
Luke reached out with the Force to feel the darkness outside and burst into tears. "My daddy's gonna die!" he wailed. He scrubbed at his face with his hands.
"Uh…don't…don't cry. I'm sure Master Skywalker won't die." Caleb shuffled forward and wrapped his arms around Luke. He awkwardly patted his back. "There, there."
Luke grinned. He felt around Caleb's belt and snatched his lightsaber, then bolted away. "Thanks!" he called back. "Better stay with the ship!"
"Why, you…Come back here!" Caleb shouted.
Luke waved and disappeared into the dark, scary building.
Obi-Wan slowly made his way down the dark corridor. He and Ahsoka had run into a few battle droids, but no Anakin and no Palpatine. He peeked around a corner.
A heavy blast door guarded by battle droids was at the end of the hall and the junction of another.
"That looks promising," Ahsoka remarked quietly.
Obi-Wan nodded. He stepped out from behind the wall. "Hello there."
"It's Obi-Wan Kenobi!" one of the battle droids said.
"Oh, no."
Obi-Wan ran forward and slashed the droids to pieces. Ahsoka plunged her lightsabers into the door and carved a circle out. She kicked it through and jumped in.
"Master!" she exclaimed.
Obi-Wan climbed through the hole and grinned. Anakin was sitting on a medical bed, hair all mussed. He only had one arm and was pale and sickly, but he was sitting up and looked relatively healthy. He was, however, holding his lightsaber in his left hand. The fact that Palpatine had trusted him with his lightsaber wasn't a good sign.
"Who are you?" Anakin asked.
"I'm Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan Kenobi." Obi-Wan stretched out his hand. "I'm here to rescue you."
"Obi-Wan?" Anakin's face transformed into a mask of rage. He leapt forward, igniting his lightsaber, and swung the blade at Obi-Wan.
Padmé paced back and forth in the cruiser hangar. Half of her wanted to steal a ship and fly down to Mustafar's surface herself. The other half, maybe the more sensible half, kept replaying Obi-Wan's words.
"And what if you get killed on this mission? What if both you and Anakin die? What happens to your children? Don't willingly put yourself in a position where your children could easily be orphaned."
She placed a hand over her stomach, over her unborn baby. "Oh, how did we get into this mess?"
Her comm beeped. She pulled it out and answered. "This is Senator Amidala speaking. How may I help you?"
A frantic-looking Lux appeared on the comm. "Have you seen your son anywhere?"
"What?" Padmé burst out. She pressed her hand to her heart. "Which son? What's happened?"
"Luke! We can't find him anywhere. Apparently, Leia started screaming in class because her bond with her brother got strained, and we've been combing the Temple, and we can't find him anywhere! The last he was seen, a boy named Ezra was taking him to the healers for a bloody nose. That was hours ago, and no one's seen him since. Do you have any idea where he might be?" Lux asked.
"No!" Padmé cried. "Oh, no." What had she just been thinking of doing? Which parent was Luke more like in temperament? Hadn't he just last year wound up kidnapped and a slave on Tatooine because he'd tried to stop slavers he ran into all by himself? If it hadn't been for Watto, he'd have been lost for good. And no amount of lectures had been able to convince Luke he'd done the wrong thing. "I know exactly where he is."
The monster actually looked stunned that Anakin was attacking him. He stumbled back a few steps before blocking his strike.
"Anakin, what's wrong?" Obi-Wan asked.
"Master, stop it!" the other one cried.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Anakin roared. "You're a murderer! A monster! You dare to ask what's wrong?" He slashed down, powerful strikes driving Obi-Wan back. He kept trying to back up his strikes with his non-existent right hand. It was throwing him off. He had once had a right hand, hadn't he?
"Murderer? Anakin, what are you talking about?" Obi-Wan backed up against the wall. He ducked under Anakin's swing and jumped through the hole the girl had made into the hall.
He wasn't getting away that easily. Anakin dove through the hole and rolled onto his feet. "Don't pretend you don't know, you Jedi scum. You couldn't let me be happy, could you? You couldn't let me have a family. You had to ruin it!"
"Master, we are your family!" That girl had climbed through the hole and was pointing her lightsabers at him. "We love you! We want you to be happy!"
"Stay out of this, child!" Anakin snarled.
"Child!" the girl repeated.
"Anakin, all I've ever wanted is for you to be happy," the monster protested.
"Liar!" Anakin shouted. How could he stand there and dare to act so baffled? He wasn't even trying to defeat him. "Fight me, you monster! How could you dare to kill a seven-year-old?"
"What?" Obi-Wan exclaimed. "Who?"
"He was my son!" Tears filled Anakin's eyes, but he didn't let that stop him from attacking the monster. "Luke was my baby, and you murdered him!"
"What?" Obi-Wan said again. "I would never murder Luke!"
"Anakin, Luke's not dead," the girl said.
Anakin ignored her. Of course she was trying to sway him from wreaking his vengeance on her companion. Lies, all lies. "How could you?" he demanded.
"Daddy?" a small voice said.
Anakin froze. Coldness spread through his limbs, melting the heat that was driving him. A small child with golden hair stood in the hall brandishing a blue lightsaber.
Anakin's lightsaber slipped from his fingers. "Luke?"