Ch 6

Ben

On our way to the next beam of light, my grandfather gave me some background on his story. A lot of it I knew, how he had at one point been a great Jedi Knight, how he had fought in the Clone Wars and was deemed the Chosen One by the Jedi. He had been born from the Force, he had no father. And once he met Padme, Kenobi and Qui-Gon his entire life flipped.

He gave me all this as context.

"I don't want my legacy to merely be that I was a great Jedi warrior gone bad, there's more to it, you see Jedi at the time weren't allowed to form... emotional attachments. It was forbidden, something you should be grateful no longer applies."

He continued to tell me how he loved my grandmother from the moment he laid eyes on her at 10 years old. And how they secretly married nearly 10 years later, he was 19, she was 23. She had tried to avoid her feelings for him, but he always felt conflict inside of her. Eventually she confessed she loved him and gave in to her emotions.

After this, we saw another beam of light and stepped through it once more.

This next memory was my grandfather's again.

He had returned from a mission during the Clone Wars and was on his way to Coruscant to see my grandmother.

He was at the Republic Executive Building when he felt something from behind him calling. Not in words, but it was a feeling. A connection, it felt... familiar

*thud*My hand instinctively went to my head, it seemed that the headache was not as strong as the first time I had felt it.

Each time, it was subdued.

The scene continued to develop in front of me, he kissed his wife with such much hunger and passion, and yet he was so tender... there was something about the scene that touched my heart. A part of me longed for something like that...

"I'm pregnant..." she said. And his wave of emotions was like a storm.

Fear. Happiness. Fear. Excitement. Fear. Confusion. Fear.

"I was... so elated with the news, Padme would be a wonderful mother, I knew it in my heart. I didn't know she was having twins at the time, neither did she. I was terrified, I never had a father, Obi-Wan was the closest I ever came to having one. I had no idea how to be what a father should be, nevertheless, I was filled with joy"

He looked into her eyes and saw it, there was fear there. What would they do? What if people found out? What if the Jedi found out...

"Ani what are we going to do?"

"Let's not worry about it right now. This is a happy moment. The happiest of my life." He said as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

Ben...

I turned away from the vision in search of the one that had called my name. It was a girl... but I didn't hear her again. Her voice was like a whisper, and her voice... it was so familiar...

"It's not time yet Ben, we still have a few stops left and this memory isn't over, we'll merely skip a few months... to where the nightmares began"

I looked at him and he gestured with his hand in front of us. The vision in front of us was of Padme, she was in pain... visible pain. Anakin was nowhere near her and suddenly the dream ended and he woke up. It went on for months. Padme noticed it. He would never really tell her the full truth, he didn't want to worry her.

No one else could help, Yoda told him he could only let go of what he feared to lose, that death was a natural part of life. This wasn't good enough for him.

One day, he confided in the Chancellor that he'd felt the Jedi didn't trust him. Yet he was someone who trusted and had faith in him. It was an unconditional... faith they held with each other. The Chancellor told my father the same thing he told me that there were powers the Sith held that were deemed unnatural.

Anakin found out the story that day of Darth Plagueis the wise, who had found a way to use the Force to keep someone from dying. It was like the Chancellor knew what he feared most and Anakin never questioned it.

"Son... in my youth I was naïve, clueless and... easily swayed by my emotions. As you can plainly see. I want you to understand that I was... terrified of losing her. I couldn't fail her the way I failed my mother. I needed to do everything possible to keep her with me. In the end... I lost her and my children anyways..."

The memory suddenly shifted to a red and fiery planet. Mustafar. I instantly recognized it.

There was a small silver ship approaching, it was luxurious. I could see the new Darth Vader now, his yellow eyes glowing bright. He saw the ship approach and ran to it. Instantly sensing who was inside of it.

She ran down the ramp to meet him, she was terrified of what she'd heard from Obi-Wan. She stepped off the sHip and into his arms, confronting him about everything, the death of younglings... the destruction of the temple on Coruscant...

"Together you and I can rule the galaxy" he said. Instantly I felt her pain, it was enough to knock anyone out.

"You're a good man, don't do this! You're going down a path I can't follow" she screamed, that didn't sway him.

Kenobi came out of the ship at that moment.

"LIAR! Obi-Wan turned you against me!" He screamed and his hand was raised.

I immediately recognized the gesture and panic filled every part of me.

He was going to kill her.

But Obi-Wan stopped him. They battled and Anakin lost.

He lost everything that day on Mustafar.

"That's the last memory I have of her... I was never able to forgive myself for what I did to her, to our family, to Ben."

I turned to look at him, he put his hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes.

"Don't make the same mistakes I made... you may get a second chance, but don't waste it. Do not throw away a life of happiness and love for one surrounded by death, regret, and loneliness"

He took his hand off my shoulder and walked through another beam of light and back into the darkness.

"It's time for you to remember" I heard his voice say, but I could no longer see him.

Instead I was shoved into another memory, and this time, it was my own.