Chapter 14
"Lay down your weapons!" the Espo sergeant ordered. Mara and Tahiri drew their lightsabers. Anakin pulled his blaster and grabbed the Espo, using him as a shield. Blast after blast hammered into the guard. Anakin dropped several Espos with perfectly aimed blast bolts. He hurled the human shield at the incoming attackers, knocking several over as he pulled his lightsaber out. The blue blade ignited and Han watched as he son killed every last one of the guards with lethal efficiency.
"Come on! They're going to be all over this place in a few minutes," said Mara. They left the room, with the three Jedi leading the way, lightsabers blazing.
When they got to the hanger, they found the Falcon surrounded by Espos. "Anakin, can you fire up the ship from here, with the Force?" asked Han.
Anakin shook his head. "Nope. Just give me a minute though." He reached down and pulled a fragmentation grenade from one of the pockets on his flightsuit. Anakin stood up and tossed the grenade into the middle of the squad of guards. They dove for cover until they realized Anakin had left the pin in the grenade. By the time they started looking for the person who had thrown the grenade, Anakin had his blaster aimed directly at it. The blaster bolt struck the grenade and set off its explosive charge and blowing the Espos all across the hanger.
As Anakin, Han, Tahiri, and Mara ran across the hanger, Espos started entering from the halls, their blasters lighting up the hanger. Anakin slapped the button for the ramp to open as he hastily returned fire. Not even waiting until the ramp was fully extended, he darted up and into the bottom quad laser turret and quickly powered it up as Han and Mara headed for the cockpit. Anakin put on the headset and found that Tahiri was occupying the dorsal turret. Anakin switched the lasers over to stutterfire and sprayed a few bursts in the direction of the Espos.
When they got into space, a flight of tri-fighters moved in on them. "Tahiri, they're flying by you first. Switch your lasers over to quad bursts and target one at a time," he said over the comlink.
"I know," she shot back. "I'm not a little girl any more. I can handle a laser cannon." There was the sound of the lasers firing. "Ah ha! Gotcha! They're coming up on your side Anakin."
Anakin readied his trigger finger and as the first clutch appeared, he took it out with a precise burst directly through the cockpit. "One down," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. He fired again. "Another one down. That's two. One more left."
He saw the last tie clutch blink off of his sensors. "Nice shooting Tahiri."
"Thanks."
"Get strapped in kids," said Han over the comm. "We're going to Bonadon."
Anakin hopped out of the turret and found Tahiri in the main lounge. "How could you have changed so much?" she asked, an almost hurt expression on her face.
Anakin looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"
"You've grown so cold. You don't show any emotion through the Force. You do things I've never seen you do before. Like using that guard as a human shield. And the fight at the Dance Dome. Your dad said you weren't fighting like yourself. He said you beat those men horribly. He said all of the ones you hit could barely twitch after you finished with them."
"Tahiri...death...I can't describe it to you. As I died I kept feeling like I had failed everyone. It was horrible. I don't want to die and feel that again. I don't want to let anyone down. I'm doing what I can to keep everyone alive."
Tahiri just stared for a moment and said, "I don't think this will work. Talk to me when you've remembered who you were."
She turned and walked towards the small room that she and Mara were sharing, tears streaming down her face silently. The real Anakin isn't back. I was stupid to believe he was.