CHAPTER 2 – Scorched Remains
Smoke rises from the darkness. Screams, infinite and deafening screams. Scorched remains of buildings once so grande. Tears swell uncontrollably. I try to suppress them, but the eerie silence beckons them to fall down my weary face.
"What have I done?" I whisper, voice trembling.
Tears fall down from my eyes. The world cold, empty and desolate.
A woman screams. It rises in pitch, screeching in agony. Bloody gurgle. A snarl and the gnash of teeth. The sounds of bodies colliding and of flesh being torn from the bone. A flowing tide of blood seeps towards me. Bodies line the street in horrid presentation. Their eyes rolled back into the pits of their hollow skulls as if they have been swallowed by the evil that has consumed them. My feet weaken at my every step. The sight of veins dried and scorched. Shards of glass and cinders on foreheads, purple, hued by putrid blood. These corpses are my family, my friends…
A laugh echoes amidst the eerie emptiness. Its sadistic sound, weighed down by dark undertones, a deep and hollow laugh, churns about the air unjustly.
"Who is that?" I whisper to myself
Ash swirls around and around in an unnatural whirlwind. A face emerges. It blurred outline reflecting that a woman. Padme!
My feet carry me forward, their every step a burden to the undertaken. I feel heavy. Weighed down by my own bones.
"Why?..." her voice echoes in the silence "Why did you leave me, Anakin?"
"I didn't leave you.." shouting, the sound bouncing off the scattered walls.
My heart thuds with fear as the ash thickens, its dark colors of grey and black consume the dead as all around fades to black.
A cold wind blows as the figure of Padme, lurks out of darkness like a stealthy sovereign reaper. Her face, once so beautiful in all it's rich color and life, now empty and pale as the snow on the planet Hoth. Her deep brown eyes, empty as they stare at me in great despair.
"Why did you leave me, Anakin?"
That question. Why torment me with the guilt of that question? I look at her. She began to cry tears of crimson red, that fell in silent lamentation down her face.
"Padme!" I cry, "I'm sorry… Padme… forgive me…."
Anakin awoke then. Screaming. It was all a dream or was it a vision of events to come? His dreams of his mother were truthful, why not this? This revelation did not comfort him as his heart thudded violently in his chest.
Sweat poured all over his heated body. Tears augmented from his eyes, but he suppressed them.
"Padme", he whispered to himself.
Sitting up, Anakin stared at his hands. A guilt sweeping over him.
Did these hands cause all that pain?
"No!" Anakin shouted, standing to thump the wall beside the view screen. "I will not let it happen!"
The tense moment was suddenly interrupted.
"Skywalker, you have an urgent message from Senator Amidala"
To the very mention of her name, his eyes widened as his shoulders eased their strain.
She's alive. She is alright.
"Patch it through."
Anakin hit the switch on the wall awaiting the incoming transmission. Oh how he had longed to see his beloved's face one more, especially now.
His eyes gazed attentively as her face emerged, but it was not the vibrant Padme he once knew. Her eyes were glazed over with tears. She had been crying, but she put up a brave smile to try and hide those tears.
"Padme, I'm so glad to see you."
She smiles at his words.
"As I you, Anakin…"
She paused for a moment in thought. Trying to gather the words in her mind.
"Anakin, I need you to come home to me" she said
"What?" Anakin asked suspiciously
"Day and night I sit in the senate as we squabble and debate this messed up war and all I can think about is the danger you face out there."
Anakin smiled coyly – her concern amused him.
"Padme, I am fine. Those Trade Federation assholes are not touching this Jedi Knight with an inch of their Cyclopean photoreceptors"
"Your not invincible Anakin, you may think you are, but your not."
Her statement hit Anakin. It was not an insult of sort, but coming from her it stabbed him.
"I am more powerful than all Jedi Knights and a thousands times more powerful and invincible than anybody around here give me credit for… you above all, included."
Padme starred at Anakin, his growing pride in himself shocked her. It is as Obi Wan had told her.
"Anakin…"
"Listen Padme… I will come home when I have won this war."
"I can't convince you otherwise can I… not even Ben…"
"You've been talking about me with Obi Wan again, haven't you?"
Anakin's anger began to flare.
"We're concerned…"
"Spare me the bullshit Padme… Your backstabbing me, your husband. Conversing with that coward of a Jedi about me."
"Anakin.." Padme pleaded, but to no avail.
Anakin cut off the transmission. He did not want to talk to her, his anger subsiding within him. The whole galaxy seemed to be opposing his every move then. He needed guidance. He needed stability. He needed control of his own destiny.
Palpatine.
Anakin punched a button on the wall which activated a transmitter array – He was going to contact Chancellor Palpatine.
Suddenly the small blue hologram of Palpatine appeared, instantly, as if he knew Anakin was to contact him at that moment through some precognition.
"Ahh, Anakin. I knew you were going to contact me."
"How?"
"Does it matter now?... What can I do for you, my young Jedi?"
"I can't stand it here… Everybody seems to be against me. I need your guidance."
Palpatine's hologram became even clearer to Anakin at that moment, as if it had consumed his entire vision with it's presence.
"My guidance… What of your Master?"
"He is ignorant of my own abilities… I could win this war for you Chancellor. On my own if necessary."
"It is not only your abilities is it, Anakin?"
"No… He and Senator Amidala have been conspiring behind me…"
"Conspiring… How interesting?... Surely they are just concerned for your safety."
"Yes, but it is the fact that they converse in secret behind my back."
There a slight pause for a moment between the two men.
"Anakin, I think it is time you showed them what your truly made of. That is of course if you are up to the task of proving your strength and power to all."
"Anakin Skywalker just left in his fighter. Ten troops have been knocked out, General"
"What?... Track him, Commander."
"Yes, Sir"
What in the blazes was he thinking?
Obi Wan tensed.
"Where is he headed?"
"He is not chasing the Trade Federation battleships, that is for sure. His direction is more towards the core regions"
What is he thinking?
Obi Wan closed his eyes, reaching deep into the recesses of the force to try and figure out Anakin's sudden impulse reaction.
Nothing, except a darkness; A cold and emotionless darkness.
"Can you establish a communication with him?"
"Yes, Sir…"
"Patch me through"
The Commander keyed in the appropriate information before signaling to Obi Wan that a link was established.
"Anakin what are you doing?"
"Doing what is needed, Master", his voice replied coldly.
"Come back at once…"
"And miss the chance to end the war. No way Kenobi!"
The tone of Anakin's voice startled Obi Wan. Anakin was now in control of Obi Wan, and this was dangerous territory indeed.
"Where are you headed, Anakin?"
"Don't you concern yourself with that, Master. You will thank me when I return and the war is over."
"Anakin…" Obi Wan pleaded.
"Goodbye, Master."
The uplink was closed with that said, leaving Obi Wan standing isolated within the cold confinements of the bridge of the Command ship. He turned and walked silently from it's silence towards his private quarters.
Once there he established a communication link to the Jedi High Council. He had to ask for their guidance now. They could not ignore this. Something needed to be done about his drifting apprentice before the power in which he withholds is given to the dark side of the Force.
This can not happen.
"Master Kenobi, good to see you it is", a raspy voice. Master Yoda's voice. "Troubled you are."
"Yes, Master."
"Young Skywalker?"
"He has fled the Command ship in pursuit of some Vendetta to win the war."
Silence.
"Hmmm… Pursue him you must. Overtaking the dark side is. Bring him back, try you must."
"If I fail?" Obi Wan queried with a hopelessness never seen.
"Then lost all could be…. May the Force be with you, Obi Wan."