Anakin's eyes glittered coldly. His skin was bathed in the blue light radiating from his lightsaber. He could feel the heat coming from the lava fields surrounding him. He slowly paced back and forth in front of the small figure that had collapsed on the ground behind him. As he turned to face the blurred outline of the being standing on the other side of the landing pad he shouted at the top of his voice, "You will not take her from me!"

Whatever the figure opposing him said was lost as a loud boom reverberated around them. But the igniting lightsaber in it's hand was answer enough. Trusting in the Force to warn him should he be rushed from behind, Anakin turned his back to the figure and knelt down by the unconscious figure. Using his left hand, he reached out and brushed her hair back from her face and quickly felt for a pulse. It was steady and strong. He breathed a sigh of relief at that.

Anakin heard the shadowy figure say something that sounded like, "I will do what I must."

Straightening up, Anakin replied, "You will try."

Launching himself into a back flip towards his enemy, Anakin finally got a good look at who he was fighting just as their lightsabers crashed into each other.

With a start, Anakin shot bolt upright in bed. His chest was heaving and his face was covered in sweat. Breathing heavily, Anakin ran a hand over his face and rubbed his temples as he processed what the Force had just shown him. The vision had been terrifying. He had felt himself back on the edge between the Light and the Dark. Leia had been the one that was unconscious on the ground behind him. But it wasn't Leia as she was now. She looked to be in her teens and was dressed in robes of all black.

And he had been fighting Sidious. Alone.

Taking a few deep breaths, Anakin rotated so he was sitting on the edge of the bed with his feet on the floor. He knew that he wouldn't be getting back to sleep tonight. Glancing at the chrono next to the bed, he grunted slightly. Three hours of sleep was better than nothing. Bending down, he picked up his nightshirt off the floor and slipped it on, doing his best to stay quiet so as not to wake Padme. She must really be exhausted to have slept through that nightmare of a vision he had.

Padding quietly through their modest apartment in the Jedi Temple, Anakin made his way into the small kitchen and began fixing himself some caf. He had learned much from Yoda, and from his extensive research in the Archives, about Force visions over the last few years. Unlike some Jedi, Anakin never tried to see into the future. But it seemed like he was cursed to occasionally get these visions that would absolutely terrify him. First the death of his mother. Then the one about Padme dying. Now this. Granted, the one about Padme was Sidious screwing with his head. But still.

As he sat at the small kitchen table and sipped his caf, Anakin pondered what the Force had been trying to show him. He hadn't been even remotely tempted by the Dark Side in years now. Yet in the vision, he felt himself on the verge of falling. What could possibly push him back to that point? As he was raising his mug to his lips to take another sip, his arm froze as it hit him.

Leia was dressed all in black. With a rush, Sidious's words from the vision came back to him. "Take her?" Sidious said as he cackled almost maniacally. "I already have her. It is you who must take her if you want her." Then after a long pause while Anakin checked on his daughter, Sidious continued, "She is lost to you, Jedi. My Apprentice will never return to your pathetic and dying Order. The Dark Side has made her strong. Just as it is making you strong now. I can feel your anger. I sense the hate rising in you. Use them. Abandon your foolish Order and join me, or I will do what I must."

Sidious had turned Leia to the Dark Side. That would certainly push him to the edge. It seemed that Sidious still desired him as his apprentice. Despite his calling Leia his apprentice, he could feel the hunger in Sidious for him. Force this wasn't good. He wasn't even sure he could tell anyone about this vision. How do you tell a Jedi Master that you've had a vision of one of their Initiates falling to the Dark Side? Most Masters would react badly and refuse to train the Initiate. Ironically making them even more vulnerable to falling. And there was no way he would even dream of telling Padme that he had a vision of Leia becoming a Sith. Hanging his head, Anakin let out a loud sigh.

It was then that he felt a small tug at this shirt. Looking down, it was Leia. She was looking up at him with a concerned look on her still sleepy face. "You okay Daddy?" she asked, still half asleep.

Scooping her up into his arms, Anakin smiled at her and kissed her cheek then told her, "I'm ok Princess. Daddy just had a bad dream."

Yawning, Leia snuggled into Anakin's chest and said, "Okay."

But instead of going back to sleep, she just kept looking up at Anakin's face. Stang. He wasn't going to get out of this easy it seemed. Damn him for having two ridiculously Force attuned children. Unless he kept his shield air tight every minute of every day, they picked up on everything he felt.

"Why are you awake Princess? It's late. You should be in bed."

"I know. But I could tell you were upset and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Daddy's fine Leia. Promise. Now, you need to get back to bed. You start your Principles of the Force class in the morning."

Saying that, Anakin stood up and carried his daughter back to the room she shared with her brother. Luke was, thankfully, still sound asleep. He had been selected for advanced lightsaber training earlier in the week and the poor boy was exhausted. Five years old and he'd already mastered Form I. He wanted to learn Form VII. But so far Quinlin Vos had been reluctant to train him. Anakin had to agree. Vaapad was a demanding style that required you to skate between the Light and the Dark. Until was Luke was further along in his training Anakin had suggested that he study Form IV.

As Anakin tucked Leia back into bed, she looked back up at him with those big brown eyes that she inhereited from her mother and told him, "I love you Daddy."

Kissing her forehead, Anakin told her, "I love you too Princess. Now get some sleep."

After a few minutes, Anakin could feel Leia slip back into slumber. Making his way back into his own bedroom, he swiftly changed into a set of robes and wrote a quick note to Padme to tell her where he was before making his way out of their apartment. The Jedi Temple was quiet at this late hour. Few Jedi were of nocturnal species, a fact that had been noted and remarked on recently. Why were so few Jedi nocturnal? Was it a bias on the part of the Order, not paying enough attention to those species? Or was it some quirk of the Force, where it wasn't as pronounced in those species? All in all, it had resulted in more than a few debates. Something that Anakin found he was being dragged in on more and more lately. He wasn't the greatest scholar to begin with, but it seemed he was being force to become one now that he was on the Council of First Knowledge.

He would never admit it, but Anakin was quietly chaffing. He wanted to be out on the front lines, fighting the Empire and taking down the Sith. But instead, he'd spent most of the last five years in the Temple serving as Battlemaster and then a member of one of the Jedi Councils. He suspected that Yoda had a hand in keeping him in the Temple. Not because he didn't trust him, but because he was trying to expand Anakin's horizons and force him to become more than just a weapon.

These thoughts made their way through Anakin's mind as he slowly headed to the ancient Meditation Groves. He needed to meditate on this vision. And he was pretty sure he was going to have to delve deep into the Force to make sure this wasn't Sidious's work. He hoped that the droids had been able to repair the fountains in the Grove after that problem with the plumbing last week. He needed the peace they provided him this morning.