PROLOGUE
The galaxy is beginning a new era. The new GALACTIC EMPIRE, formed by Emperor Palpatine, has begun taking over the former Republic and changing its old ways into the ways of the evil Sith Master. Feeling the evilness growing stronger in the galaxy, Jedi Master Yoda has come out of hiding and has decided to stay with Padme Skywalker and the unborn child on Alderaan, until Obi-Wan Kenobi returns from his meeting with his former master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Against his former master's warning, Obi-Wan cannot come to the fact that he must destroy Anakin Skywalker in order to prevent the dark warrior from becoming a full agent of the Dark Side and assisting the Emperor to cover the galaxy in darkness.
CHAPTER IL
The stars covered the night sky in a blanket of white and dark blue. A few twinkled, as the rest lay still, with Anakin Skywalker staring at them. His eyes darted from each one, trying to focus in with the Force to feel the presence in that solar system. But he couldn't. Instead, he took a long and hard stare at one and shut his eyes.
It felt as if Anakin were flying straight to that star. His body became weightless, and he raised his arms at his sides, bringing in all the emotion he could feel. Star systems flew by him, as his mind flew to the star. Other stars were streams of white as he neared his mental destination. But as soon he could see a good size portion of it, a disturbance ran through his mind. Something about that planet, Anakin thought. His mind turned around in the middle of space and came to view Tatooine. The dark warrior's closed eyes shut tighter as he heard his mother's voice calling out to him. I love. was all Anakin could hear. His mind moved closer to the planet, closer to the city he grew up in, closer to his slave quarters, closer to him as a young boy with a Jedi sitting next to him. The stars were out in the night sky on the desert planet, just as they were in reality. I want to be the first one to see them all, the young Anakin commented, while the present Anakin mouthed the words as he saw them in his vision. Annie! a voice called. Shmi Skywalker walked by a door, demanding for the young boy to come inside for bed. At that instant, the vision jumped forward, sending Anakin's mind on a roller coaster ride to a decade later. He rubbed his hand on a woman's bare back Everything here is smooth, the young Jedi soothed to Padme Amidala. Her head turned to meet with Anakin's vision, but when it did, it was replaced with a skull. An old skull, with dark gray hair blowing with the wind. As Anakin looked at her body, it was replaced with a skeleton in the dress Padme was wearing. The skeleton fell on top of Anakin, with the Jedi panicking. The more he pushed it off, the heavier it became. He pushed and pushed, not only using his strength, but the Force around him. Heavier and heavier the skeleton became until it began sinking into Anakin's skin. Screaming in pain and fear, his vision ended.
Anakin looked around him, to find nothing out of the ordinary. He stood on a balcony, outside the Emperor's office. The night sky was still lit with stars, and the traffic still flowed, just as it had when he entered the balcony. Sweat covered the hands that were gripping the railing so tightly during the vision. Before he could wipe a bead running down the side of his head, Anakin turned towards the door. "Anakin?" a rough voice called from the shadows. Anakin quickly wiped the bead running down his head and stared at the shadows. He bowed at the hidden figure, and answered, "Yes, your Excellency?" "I never want you to think about think about your past again," the voice responded. "Your old life is dead, gone. You need to wipe it from your memory." The figure came out of the shadows to reveal Emperor Palpatine. A black hood covered his head and approached Anakin. "I don't want them to poison your mind, my friend." "Of course," Anakin responded with a nod. The tall warrior turned back to the edge of the balcony as the Emperor stood right next to him. The two stared off into the distance, without a word exchanged for minutes. "Master," Anakin began, turning to Palpatine, "I have felt a disturbance in the Force." The shorter man nodded. "Strange I haven't. How sure are you?" "Very positive," confirmed Anakin. "I don't know what it is, but I feel that if it makes its presence known, it could destroy us." The brow lowered on Palpatine's face upon hearing the words. How could he feel a presence like that without my knowing? Palpatine thought. He must know something I don't. "Tell me, Anakin," began Palpatine, "Exactly what were you thinking of when I appeared?" "Your Excellency, I'm sorry," apologized Anakin. "I didn't mean to think of them. They are stuck in my mind. I'm still angry about the death and betrayal." Then it hit Palpatine. "What did you say?" Anakin quickly turned his head to the Emperor. "My mother's death. It still haunts my dreams. The Jedi caused her d-" "What were speaking of when you mentioned 'betrayal'?" asked Palpatine, slowly piecing together this unknown threat that Anakin mentioned. "The Jedi? Who?" Anakin didn't answer at first, but instead looked over the edge of the balcony. "It was about Padme." Palpatine's eyes opened wide. "She betrayed me. The Jedi betrayed me. Everyone has betrayed me. I have no one left except for you." Mother. Death. Jedi. Wife. Betrayal. Jedi. The words flew through Palpatine's mind at lightspeed. Mother. Death. Wife. Betrayal. They moved faster and faster, making connections here and there. Mother. Jedi. Wife. Jedi. Giving into the Dark Side, Palpatine made the final connection. Wife. Mother. Jedi. A chill went through Anakin as he looked at his master's face. The pale, white skin began to shake as anger boiled inside the Emperor. His eyes shot open, revealing dark yellow irises glaring back at Anakin. "You fool!" Palpatine used the Force and threw Anakin back ten feet into the edge of the balcony. Anakin's lower back hit the railing and sent him over. Palpatine breathed heavily, staring where Anakin went over. He took a deep breath and approached the edge of the balcony. Two hands grabbed the balcony railing, with the rest of the body hanging over. "Master!" Anakin shouted. "Help! Why did you do this?!" "Your feeble mind has shown its true side of stupidity," Palpatine insulted. "What?" Anakin shouted. "What did I do?" Palpatine growled and pointed at Anakin. He moved his arm up sending Anakin from holding the railing into mid-air, thousands of feet from the surface of Coruscant. The black-clothed warrior tried his best to remain calm by staring straight back at his master. "Where is Padme Skywalker?" Palpatine asked slowly. "I.I don't know," answered Anakin. "I confronted her, then had to escape." "Do you know who Padme is?" "Who?" "She is your wife." Anakin shook his head slightly. "I don't understand." Palpatine frowned and extended his arms, throwing lightning at Anakin. Anakin responded with screams of pain as he grabbed his sides. Bolts of blue lightning shot all over him, sending his body into convulsions. A minute passed and Palpatine stopped the current shooting from his hands. The screaming died down, and the interrogation continued. "Padme is your wife. Shmi was your mother. You were a Jedi. You were thinking of these things and realized there is something that is going to be released into the galaxy." Smoked rose from Anakin's body, as he hung lifelessly. Palpatine changed that as he moved the body from mid-air to the balcony. Anakin lied on the ground groaning in pain from the electricity slowly moving trough his body.
"Do you know what that 'something' is?" Palpatine hissed at Anakin. Anakin coughed and turned over on his back, looking at his master. "What?" he gasped. "Your child," Palpatine answered. Anakin's eyes opened wide as he stood up. As soon as he did, he grabbed the railing and supported himself as his bottom lip began to shake. "My child?" Palpatine nodded. "He can be used against us, Anakin. If we do not find Padme, or this unborn child, we will have a threat entering the galaxy. We cannot have that." Anakin nodded. The Jedi will train my child their way, Anakin thought. NO! I will not let them train him. If my child lives, he will be like me. "He will be one of us, Master." Palpatine nodded. "You have learned much. Find if your wife lives. If she does, bring her before me. No exceptions. If the child is born, you will bring it before me." "Yes, Master." "We must accelerate this plan," Palpatine commented. He closed his mind and went into a trance. Where is she? "She was sick, when I last saw her. If she is alive, she's probably in a medical facility," Anakin observed. "Yes.," Palpatine said. "Good." Minutes passed until Palpatine opened his eyes to Anakin. "Alderaan." Anakin responded with a smirk and headed out the door. "Anakin." The dark warrior spun around, while the Emperor slowly approached him. "I have taught you anger. I have taught you to hate. I have taught you to fear. And now, you need no more lessons. You are the Chosen One."
CHAPTER L
The Jedi walked slowly down the dimly lit hall. All of the lights had completely gone out and darkness covered the Jedi Temple as it had for the past weeks. Ever since the battle of Nkllon and the termination of almost all of the Jedi, the Temple had never been the same. Young padawans weren't practicing with remote droids, teenagers weren't studying in the Jedi Archives, and masters of all species no longer walked the halls. Except for one. Except for the dozen Jedi that were scattered across the galaxy, never to show themselves again, Obi-Wan Kenobi was the last of the Jedi. He walked with both hands behind his back and his head lowered. Footsteps echoed loudly in the hall, and Obi-Wan did not notice this. His mind was set on one thing; one objective; one destiny: to kill Anakin Skywalker. My own apprentice? Obi-Wan thought. How could I? Ordered by my former master to train Anakin, and now ordered twelve years after his death, by Qui-Gon himself, to kill the boy. What is that? Being visited by his master's spirit confused and fascinated Obi-Wan at first, but once the conversation turned towards the destruction of Anakin, he couldn't believe what Qui-Gon was saying.
The Jedi Starfighter took off into the night sky, passing next to large freighters as it made its way out of Coruscant's atmosphere. Obi-Wan looked at his viewscreen and flipped switches, trying to locate a nearby hyperspace ring. He couldn't. Flipping more switches, widening the radius of his search, Obi-Wan found what he was looking for. The hyperspace ring laid a quarter of the distance from Coruscant to Alderaan. Obi-Wan frowned, but decided it was worth it. He would be going in that direction anyways and it was better to have a trip without lightspeed for 25% of the time than not at all. The ship took off into the direction of the ring only to arrive on Alderaan later than expected.
CHAPTER LI
The black robe flowed behind him with a powerful and menacingly look. Black boots struck the metal platform hard as the figure approached his ship. When he did, two black gloves grabbed the ladder and began pulling the body up towards the cock-pit. The lid opened with a hiss and the figure leaped in. "Remember, Anakin," the cloaked Emperor began from the platform, "you will not fail. If she lives, you will bring her before me." Anakin nodded at his master from his seat with a stern expression on his face. While he still kept that strong face of determination, the ship's engines roared to life and lifted off the platform. Called the Dark Seeker, it was in fact completely black and very sleek, with the size of a Jedi Starfighter. The acceleration kicked in, and it was off into the sky, blending with the dark night sky. As the Emperor stood and watched the ship leave, he smiled to himself. My, my, he thought. Anakin, you are gifted. He remained on the landing platform, looking up at the countless stars, knowing the day would come when they would all belong to him.
The Dark Seeker flew at high speeds through the thinning traffic, making its way out of Coruscant's atmosphere. When it had, it glided slowly in space for a few moments. As soon as the coordinates for the Alderaan system were complete, it burst into lightspeed, disappearing in milliseconds from its original location.
The night sky on Alderaan was the same it usually was. Clear and wide open, without ships in the sky. It was in the middle of the morning and Padme sat in her hospital room, finishing a small dish of thecioria. The tan, pudding-like substance had been given to her each night for the many weeks she had been the hospital. She had hardly touched it in the past and just washed it down the sink, but tonight was different. Tonight was the night she had a feeling that she better do something to help her and the baby. Ever since Anakin's turn, she couldn't bring herself to what had happened. But now, things were different. She couldn't explain it, but something reached out to her in her dreams and told her that the baby she was carrying wasn't just any ordinary baby. Padme smiled at the thought of her child being a hero, and rubbed her stomach, trying to feel its spirit. As her hand moved down her stomach, a sharp pain struck her chest. Immediately, her hand reached grabbed where her heart was and began clawing at it. Her eyes shut tightly and her mind did everything it could to try to lower the pain. But it couldn't. The more Padme breathed, the more the pain increased. Increasing so high that she fell back onto the bed, gasping for air as heart felt as though it would explode. Arching her stomach into the air, she began to inch closer and closer to the panic button, using her feet to move her. But she didn't get far as her vision became blurry and clouded. The panic button she was looking at was on a small box, resting on the bedside table. But as the cloudiness increased, the object she focused on began to blend with its surroundings, diminishing all of its contrast. Padme began whimpering as the veins in her left arm began to burn. She grabbed the burning spots with her out-stretched right hand. And rubbed it, trying not to think of the amazing pressure on her heart. But at that moment, she felt a kick in her stomach. Not just an ordinary kick, but one that diminished the pain in her arm. The kicking stopped and Padme reached out again for the panic button. As her hand began to shake, so did the small panic button. It started moving slightly, but then more and more. Padme wasn't even noticing, with her eyes closed from the pain in her chest. But the more her hand shook, the closer the panic button moved. A few seconds later, and the panic button shot straight into Padme's hand. The second it landed, she held the button down. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she held the button down and her vision went to black. Her body lied on the bed, with the chest not rising. The moon shined into the room, hitting Padme's lifeless body.
CHAPTER LII
Hours passed since Obi-Wan's departure of Coruscant and he was finally nearing the hyperspace ring. In a few minutes he would attach himself to it and be to Alderaan in no time. But as he could see the hyperspace ring, resting in space, a stab hit him through the Force. His head went light and he shook it, trying to focus on lining the ship up with the ring. He couldn't explain the feeling he had just had, but fear and death was on his mind. And they both revolved around Padme.
The Dark Seeker pulled out of lightspeed and stopped with Alderaan directly in front of it. It slowly glided to the blue-green planet as the pilot punched up a list of its medical facilities. A list of over 50,000 popped up. Black-gloved hands typed in a few numbers and the list narrowed down to 2,500. With more and more typing, the list was lowered and lowered, until it became the lowest it could be. One name remained: University of Aldera Hospital. Anakin smiled and looked towards the planet with dark and brooding eyes.
The white buildings had a shade of gray to them, as the sun was to rise in the next half hour. The black ship slipped unnoticed through the buildings of Alderaan. Its built in cloaking device proved useful in a situation like this. Anakin couldn't believe a ship this small could cloak, and had no problem with it. The Dark Seeker approached and landed in an abandoned shipping hanger a mile from the hospital. The room was small and crowded with discarded crates and fallen scrap metal. It didn't fit the cleanliness and purity of the rest of the university, but was exactly what Anakin was looking for to hide his ship. The hatch opened and the dark warrior leapt out onto the hanger floor, landing in a crouched position, looking from side to side, checking to see if he had gone unnoticed since his arrival. Noticing that no one had entered or even approached the entrance to the hanger, Anakin stood up and slowly pulled his hood on top of his head. Checking his lightsaber at his side, he shot into a sprint for the entrance. He had timed scenarios like this before and didn't give a second thought to it as he jumped from the entrance of the hanger and fell fifty feet below. The wind smacked his face and his black robe fluttered in the wind. The flapping of the fabric stopped immediately as Anakin came in contact with a passing medic speeder. He held on with both hands and his robe continued fluttering as the speeder cruised along. The human driving it turned around to lock eyes with Anakin. About to scream at the dark eyes staring back at him, the medic relaxed his face and stared back. You will relax, Anakin soothed into the young man's mind. You will not panic. You will continue going to the hospital. "I will relax," the medic repeated, turning and staring straight ahead. "I will not panic. I will continue going to the hospital." Anakin nodded and watched as the hospital came into view. You're there, aren't you? Anakin thought. Resting comfortably? Believing you'll never see me again. We'll your wrong. I'm coming, Padme. The small medic ship pulled up to the base of the hospital and Anakin leapt off. He stared at the driver of the ship and waved. The driver flew off, not remembering a single thing off what happened. As the ship flew farther and farther away, Anakin stuck two fingers apart at the ship. After pointing them at the distant ship for a few seconds, he brought the two fingers together, as if they were an invisible pair of scissors.
On the ship, the medic shook his head, trying to get rid of the massive headache he had. But as he kept shaking his head, he didn't notice the flashing button on his control panel, notifying him that the brake line had been cut.
Anakin smiled as the ship grew farther and farther into the distance, soon disappearing behind a building. A few moments later, an explosion was heard and a tall ball of smoke and flame leaped into the sky. Following the first explosion came many more as shuttles crashed into each other, creating a large pile-up. Anakin's smile grew larger as the sirens began and medic ships could be heard taking off from all around the hospital. Waiting for his moment, Anakin crept into the hospital. He slipped by the head secretary, who was busy with calls about the crash that had just happened. The hallways lay bare and quiet as Anakin quickly jogged down them to get to the nearest elevator. He found one and quickly grabbed a chart from the wall. He scanned it with incredible speed and found what he was looking for: Skywalker, Padme.
The elevator reached the floor and the doors opened, revealing Anakin standing in all of his evilness, holding his lightsaber handle. He began walking towards the room, his boots thudding on the ground. Closer and closer he moved to the room at the end of the hall. Closer and closer he moved to Padme. Closer and closer he moved to his child. If she lives, she will be powerless against me. No more running Padme. Anakin stood right outside the door and slowly rapped his hand on it.
"Padme?" he asked softly. Then, he took a step back and kicked the door in, causing it to break into pieces. He leaped into the room and ignited his lightsaber, keeping it close to his side, but was amazed at what he saw.
The Jedi Starfighter pulled out of hyperspace exactly where Anakin had. At the flip of a switch, the starfighter detached from the ring and flew towards Alderaan. This was Obi-Wan's moment to be able to reach Bail Organa. Since he wasn't traveling through hyperspace, Obi-Wan didn't risk the danger of turning on his receiver. On a few other Jedi Starfighters, three Jedi had died from using their receiver for messages while traveling at lightspeed. When the receiver was switched on, it passed through the same source for hyperspace. If that source box was being used and a receiver was switched on, a spark and hyperdrive fluid would not be the correct combination. Setting the coordinates for one of Bail's offices in the University of Aldera, Obi-Wan tried reaching him, but couldn't get through. He decided to wait until he got into the planet's atmosphere before trying again. Sirens covered the University of Aldera, from all different vehicles. Fire, police, and ambulances lined the sky, trying to save lives and put out the enormous fire engulfing the School of Art. Fire had claimed so much of the building that the workers could not enter. Fire droids were on the way, but would not arrive for minutes. Obi-Wan looked in horror at the burning building and all of the people in it. He quickly tried Bail's office again, but this time received a recording. "Obi-Wan-" Bail's voice began, breaking up in static from the frequencies that the rescue workers were using. "Yo.m.stust..ggg..tt.Mm.ssttt.rr.Yoda...ffff.ee..arrkkk.Side. Padme.sssiii...dy..ang. Hhh.urrrry." The message ended, and Obi-Wan couldn't piece it together. It was the only thing that stuck on his mind as he landed in front of the hospital on a landing pad and walked into the building.
CHAPTER LIII
The elevator reached the lowest floor of the hospital and the doors opened. The room was covered in darkness, until a hand pointed towards a wall and the light switched on. One set of lights slowly flickered on, followed by a second, a third, and fourth set. The white, bright light revealed rows of tables and cooling chambers for dead bodies. The metal tables were polished beyond belief. The lights from above reflected off of them, casting bits of light in all directions. The cooling chambers were a dull gray and covered all the walls of the room. The figure stepped out of the elevator and walked slowly down the aisle with tables on either side of it. The room grew cooler towards the back and as the figure reached that area, he grabbed a handle to one of the chambers and pulled it open. The drawer slid out with a body in a black tarp lying on it. Anakin moved to its side and rested each of his hands on the drawer. Looking the covered body up and down, he stopped when a piece of paper resting next to it confirmed who it was: Skywalker, Padme.
Obi-Wan stared at the bare room as he stood in the doorway. Padme's clothes, belongings, everything, was all gone. The bed had been stripped and all of the medical supplies were gone. Nothing remained except for the necessities of a normal hospital room. Feeling as though something wasn't quite right, Obi-Wan walked into the room, studying it. Rubbing his fingers on the wall and door showed that no blasters or weapons were used. As he turned around and went to the bedside table, Obi-Wan almost fell to knees. There lying on the table was a doctor's report of Padme. Stamped across the report in red letters was the word DECEASED.
The morgue still remained quiet as Anakin stood over his wife's body. The tarp still covered her, and Anakin was having emotional trouble removing it. For the first time in months, his true feelings towards his wife were showing. A tear rolled down his cheek as he took a step away from the body. "My whole life, I wanted to be the best there was and ever would be," Anakin confessed to the body. "As a slave I dreamed of escaping with my mother and traveling the galaxy together. I wanted to be with her forever. But I couldn't save her that day. You were there for me and knew what it was like for me. You lost your father, I lost my mother. We're split right down the center, Padme. I fought in the war to make up for my mother's death, but now I realize that it was you that I should have been with, rather than the battlefields. I tried to play God, Padme. I tried. But I can tell you right now that I am becoming what I've always wanted. I will soon have the power to have men tremble before me. I will soon be able to have the fate of a planet in my hand. I will soon be an agent of evil. An agent of the Dark Side. I am the Chosen One, Padme. The Emperor and I are the Sith. The remaining Jedi have gone into hiding, and will soon die out and I will see to that myself. What I didn't realize when I was a Jedi was all of the pain I was creating for others. Count Dooku saw it and I've replaced him. Mace Windu didn't see it and I've corrected him. Obi-Wan didn't see it." Anakin's voice and eyes trailed off as he realized that Obi- Wan was still alive. "Why didn't I see it before? He's the one! He's the one who's destroyed my life. He's the reason my mother is dead. He's the reason you are dead. He's the reason my life has been destroyed! Obi-Wan Kenobi! He's held me back while I was his apprentice, but he can't anymore. If I can't give you to the Emperor, than he will do." Anakin's mind began wandering again as millions of thoughts went through his mind. "Obi-Wan." "Anakin!" a voice shouted from the end of the room. Anakin jumped at the shout and quickly positioned himself in a defense position at the figure in front of the elevator. "Obi-Wan!" Anakin growled. Hate began boiling inside his heart. His lips curled and began to shake as his former master walked slowly towards him. Anakin reached for his lightsaber as Obi-Wan tried to make him relax. "Anakin," Obi-Wan began, "don't do this. I know what you're going through and I want to he-" "Don't say that!" Anakin screamed, moving from table to table, opposite Obi-Wan. "You don't know what I'm going through. You never knew and never will. You've destroyed my life! My mother and my wife are dead because of you!" "H-how can you say that?" Obi-Wan responded, moving with Anakin around the room. "I love you, Anakin. You're my best friend and I've done my b-" "I'm warning you," interrupted Anakin. "Don't say things like that again. You're not my friend. You're my enemy and I hate you!" "No, no," pleaded Obi-Wan. "You are my friend, Anakin." With a warrior cry, Anakin leapt across the table in front of him and landed on top of Obi-Wan. Studying martial arts himself, Obi-Wan quickly pushed him over himself with his foot and jumped up to face his apprentice. But as soon as he regained his balance, Anakin was there to punch him across the face. Obi-Wan fell back, sliding across a long table. Shaking his head from the pain he received, Obi-Wan gripped the table and lifted himself up to find the room empty.
The hospital was now covered with doctors, medics, and emergency victims. The accident that Anakin had caused had led to over one hundred victims and they were now being brought to the hospital. Students and adults of all species laid on stretchers or were leaning against walls while doctors and medics were rushing to their needs. The main lobby was engulfed in chaos as Anakin began shoving people out of his way. Victims fell over each other, screaming in pain as the dark warrior pushed his way to the entrance. Between the screaming of doctors and medics for assistance and the victims from being knocked over, Anakin couldn't hear Obi-Wan shouting at the other end of the lobby. "Anakin!" Obi-Wan continued shouting, only to be drowned out. Pushing his way through the crowd of victims, he flinched at all the painful feelings he received through the Force. The pain of the others didn't seem to bother Anakin, but almost comforted him. Feeling the pain of others through the Force almost gave him confidence and endorphins to keep on moving. He couldn't explain why he ran from Obi-Wan, it just seemed like reporting to the Emperor would be more important. Than why I am running? He thought. I don't fear him. I don't think he's better than me. He's never been better than me. He's always thought he's been better than me! Anakin turned to look at Obi-Wan, and found that he was clearly at the other end of the room. The numerous amount of victims in pain caused the Jedi Master from tuning into Anakin's feelings or help him proceed through the large lobby. Anakin smiled as a burnt patient pushed himself on Obi-Wan, pleading for the Jedi to help. He'll get his later. Anakin reached the main entrance and walked calmly through the double doors, smiling up at the clouds that were covering the sky. Looking around at the parked ambulances and droids pushing in victims, Anakin continued the smile. He quickly jogged off the sidewalk and proceeded down the grassy hill towards the abandoned hanger he had arrived in. Reaching the bottom of the building he looked up to find juts sticking out of the old building. Not thinking twice about it, he jumped to the first jut, thirty feet up. The next one was a bit smaller and took fifteen feet to jump to. Anakin flipped off the second one and landed on the interior edge of the hanger. Walking deeper into the dark hanger, a small click of a switch on his wristband and Anakin watched as he ship came into vision. The cloaking device wore off and the Dark Seeker came into sight. The cock-pit opened and Anakin hopped in, laughing out loud at Obi- Wan and how he still must be trapped in the hospital. But that laugh died quickly as a low rumble of an engine was heard and a Jedi Starfighter lifted itself into view outside the hanger. Obi-Wan sat in the cockpit and stared straight ahead. With a stern, unbroken face, he shook his head at the dark warrior. Anakin growled and shut the cock-pit lid. His hands gripped the controls and the ship roared to life, flooring towards the Jedi Starfighter. The Dark Seeker sped through the hanger towards the entrance. Obi-Wan sat in the hovering starfighter patiently. Playing a game of chicken, Obi-Wan sped the ship towards Anakin. The two headed towards each other at amazing speeds. Without taking their eyes off of each other, they came two meters from each other until Anakin quickly pulled his ship to the right, barely missing Obi- Wan and making his escape out of the hanger. Obi-Wan quickly turned his ship and followed Anakin into the sky and soon into space.
CHAPTER LIV
Coruscant's sun had been up for the past few hours, yet the Emperor's office remained dark. A red hologram was presented in front of him. It was a large sphere and was slowly spinning on its axis. The hologram split in half and showed the internal structures of the sphere. The hologram was in fact the plans for the battle station Count Dooku had had designed by the Geonosisians. Oh, Anakin, you didn't realize I had the plans all along. Your mission to Nkllon to retrieve these plans was just a trap. No, not a trap. A step. A step closer to your destiny. A step closer to when you will become mine. "Your Excellency?" a voice called from over the speaker. Palpatine pressed a button and answered, "What is it?" "I need to speak to you for a moment," the voice answered. "Alright, Sly," Palpatine answered, shutting off the hologram and removing the disk from the drive. What could she want? He spun around in his chair to put the disk away in a drawer when he heard the doors to his office open. After closing the drawer, Palpatine spun around to find Sly pointing a blaster at him. "Your Excellency," Sly began. "I must admit have enjoyed working with you." Palpatine shot his hand out and snatched the blaster out of Sly's grip through the Force. The blaster was now being pointed at Sly. "You were saying?" Palpatine asked. "I.uh,wha-" Sly couldn't finish her sentence as Palpatine pulled the trigger, hitting her square in the chest. She flew back and fell over a chair, lying motionless on the floor. Palpatine tossed the gun at her body and shook his head, "You were so trustworthy in the beginning. But if you can't accept the fact that Anakin is my apprentice, you better quit." He then hit a key on his desk and up popped a screen showing Anakin's position outside of Alderaan. His ship was flying away, and Palpatine smiled at the sight. He would soon be receiving news on Padme's status. But before he could stand up, another ship on the sensor appeared. Palpatine's smile faded as he saw that it was a Jedi Starfighter following the Dark Seeker. Storming out of the room and leaving Sly's dead body, Palpatine headed for his personal ship, giving into the Dark Side of the Force in order to find where his apprentice was going.
CHAPTER LV
Space laid quiet outside Alderaan, until the Dark Seeker came roaring past, quickly followed by the Jedi Starfighter. Anakin glared at his sensors, watching as Obi-Wan moved from side to side, but while still staying on his tail. With a few flips of a switch, the Dark Seeker began preparing to make the jump into lightspeed.
Obi-Wan watched as the Dark Seeker continued to move from side to side, while he grabbed for his comlink.
"An..ki.n," a garbled voice came over Anakin's speaker. "An..akin. Where a.rr..e y..ou going?" Fumbling for his own speaker, Anakin thought about what to answer. "You'll see. Prepare for feeling the power of Emperor, Jedi. When I get to Coruscant, he'll be quite upset to find you're still alive." "D..don'ttt do this," the transmission responded. "Whatev.ver yy..ou've done, I forgive you." Anakin snorted into his comlink and tossed it aside as his ship finalized the coordinates for the jump.
Obi-Wan gave up with his comlink and knew he had no other choice. To his side he pulled a small computer screen in front of his right eye. On the screen were the coordinates the Dark Seeker was in. Pressing a few buttons allowed the screen to show the internal structure of the ship and began to focus on the hyperdrive generator. Aiming carefully for the part, Obi-Wan fired.
Anakin couldn't believe what had happened. The ship felt as though an asteroid had rammed it as Anakin picked himself back into his chair. Sensors and lights began to flash, warning that the hyperdrive was leaking.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin shouted, grabbing the controls and trying to steady the ship. Another hit from behind sent the ship into barrel rolls. Anakin knew what Obi-Wan was doing. He's not trying to kill me. He's trying to disable me! The ship continued spinning and Anakin lost total control of the ship as it went offline. "What?!" Anakin shouted, pushing the main controls in all directions. The Dark Seeker continued doing barrel rolls, moving towards a planet he had been to long ago.
Nkllon was a dead volcano planet. The grounds hadn't erupted in centuries, and creatures lived hundreds of miles below the surface where it was still warm. Yet, even though the outer crust was mainly rock, small pits of lava existed, not even hot enough if you stood near them. However, the Jedi ambush at the battle of Nkllon proved that the planet was reborn. The lava that had laid quiet and unseen for hundreds of years now covered more than three quarters of the planet. Miles of black, hard rock now was an endless sea of lava. Small islands protruded here and there, but were amazingly hot if stood on. The only pieces of land that could be stood on were those that were many feet above the lava sea. The Dark Seeker flew at the slowest speed it could when Anakin attempted to override the system towards a tall and long stretch of rock. Anakin braced for impact as the ship crashed into a large group of boulders. The front of the ship exploded and the back portion split right off. Anakin slowly pulled himself out of the burning and wrecked ship, grabbing his left cheek. Touching it carefully, he felt as his skin had been sliced in three horizontal rows. It did not bleed very badly and Anakin tried to ignore it as he pulled himself and landed on both feet on the hard, rocky surface. Before he could examine his body anymore, he quickly looked up into the sky at the Jedi Starfighter approaching. While it landed thirty feet away, Anakin grabbed his lightsaber off of his belt and walked away from his wreck and farther down the long stretch of rock. Looking off the side, lava rested in a massive sea over one hundred feet below. "Anakin!" a familiar voice shouted from behind the warrior. Anakin turned to see his former master walking towards him in his tunic and brown robe. The expression on his master's face was that of failure and pain to see what Anakin had become. "Obi-Wan," Anakin answered, nodding his head to the Jedi. "Why?" was all he asked. This came as an insult to Anakin. "Why? Why?! Why was I betrayed? Why was my mother killed? Why was my wife stolen from me? Why was she then left to die in a hospital? Why? You have destroyed me, Obi-Wan, but I am reborn. No longer do you have the apprentice to push around and abuse. Now you have a master. A master that will teach you the ultimate nature of the Force." "Are you the master, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked. "You're whole life as a Jedi, I have trained you to accept the Light Side of the Force, and you have obviously gone against it. I can now only hope that you will never become a member of the Dark Side. Only then will you truly suffer." "I've suffered enough Obi-Wan! My held my mother as she died in my arms. My wife lies dead in a body bag in a hospital morgue. And here you are saying I haven't suffered?!" "Anakin, we've all suffered. Padme's death is hard on all of us. But her death or the child's can't lead you to-" "DON'T TALK ABOUT MY CHILD! IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU, IT WOULD STILL BE ALIVE! YOU TOOK PADME FROM ME AND MY CHILD!"
The Alderiniaan Cruiser pulled out of lightspeed, and glided towards Naboo. Onboard, Bail sat at the controls, looking back at the body on a pull-out bed. Yoda stood next to it and held his three-fingered hand on its forehead, administering powers of the Force. Dorme sat on the other side, hooking in a new IV. While C-3PO and R2-D2 sat in the back of the room, Dorme looked down into the half open eyes of Padme.
CHAPTER LVI
The two warriors stared straight at each other. Obi-Wan had not yet grabbed his lightsaber from his belt, but knew that he might have to soon. "What I want, Obi-Wan," Anakin began, "is that you experience all of the pain and suffering I have gone through." "You're talking revenge, Anakin." "More. I'm not just talking revenge. I want you to suffer the heartbreak of losing loved ones. I want you to know what its like to be betrayed by someone you trusted and then be disarmed by a Sith." "But isn't that what you're becoming? The very same kind of person that you have spent the last two years trying to find?" "Dooku's dead. He was nothing compared to my power. You couldn't handle yourself against him on Geonosis, and now you face the one who destroyed him." "No, I won't fight you." "Why is that?" "I don't think you've completely turned to evil, Anakin. The Emperor hasn't finished with you. I can see it. I saw on Alderaan when you looked at the body in the morgue. You haven't been driven from the real Anakin." "This is the real Anakin." "No, it's not. I've seen the real Anakin. Qui-Gon told me to destroy you, but I can't. I won't." "Is that your destiny?" Obi-Wan nodded, folding his arms into his robe. "Very well." Anakin grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it. A meter length blue blade shot up from the handle, illuminating Anakin's face while red lava exploded in the distance. Even though the two were on an island far above the lava, three volcanoes surrounded the south side of them. Lava had not erupted from them, but smoke had begun to slowly creep from openings. Anakin twirled his lightsaber with incredible skill and held it over his head while he stuck his left hand out at Obi-Wan, motioning for the Jedi to approach. Obi-Wan stood his ground, not moving a muscle. Trying a few more moves by himself, Anakin gave up offering Obi-Wan the offense. Jumping out at Obi-Wan with a move that the Emperor had taught him, Anakin spun his blue blade at the Jedi. Inches from getting his face sliced off, Obi-Wan ignited his blue lightsaber blade and blocked his opponent's attack. "That's it, Obi-Wan," Anakin taunted. "You can't escape this. This will come to an end and when it does, there will be only one, true master." "It doesn't have to be this way, Anakin," Obi-Wan advised, while keeping Anakin back by pushing on his lightsaber. "You can come with me. We can destroy the Emperor together." "You just don't get it, do you?" Anakin gave up pushing on Obi-Wan and spun away, only to come roaring back in a spiraling display of a blue circular blade. Obi-Wan was familiar with this attack and flipped over his opponent and swung at him. Anakin blocked the blow while his back was turned and quickly crouched to ground, slicing at Obi-Wan's legs. The Jedi rolled to his right side, only to have his robe get caught on a rock jutting out of the surface. Trying to rip it free, he saw Anakin bring the saber down on his face. With a loud tear, Obi-Wan rolled away while Anakin brought his blue blade on part of the robe and the rock it was caught on.\ "Not a bad idea," Anakin commented, quickly taking off his black robe, only to reveal his all black outfit underneath. "This is mere child's play. We have yet begun to fight." Throwing his robe off to the side, Obi- Wan managed to pull off the other half of his robe that remained on the left side of his body. "What did you see in me, Obi-Wan? When you first met me? Was it curiosity? Fear? Jealousy?" "Why jealousy, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, slowly preparing himself in a defense stance. "You tell me. I was the one your master praised. You were the one he was abandoning and I was the one he was going to take on as an apprentice. He was going to leave you, Obi-Wan, to reach.higher ambitions he had. Namely me becoming a Jedi." "And look at you now." "Yes! Do look at me now!" Anakin opened his arms as if he were presenting himself to a group of judges. "I have now become what the Jedi feared most. And only when they have been wiped from the galaxy, the balance will be complete. Qui-Gon said it himself." Obi-Wan had had enough of this talk. "Don't ever speak of Qui-Gon." "Oooo.I've hit a nerve." Anakin laughed out a hearty laugh which quickly turned into scream as he attacked Obi-Wan. Blue blade met with blue blade in an explosion of light. The two warriors exploded in a fury of strikes and stabs that increased in speed, proving who was faster delivering and blocking. Sweat slowly began to drip off both of their foreheads, and neither noticed the increase of heat. While the test of who was faster continued, lava slowly began to rise out of the mouth of one of the volcanoes. At first, it came to the top and rested there. Then, it took off down the steep hill towards the duel. Large boulders blocked some of the red lava, but the rest continued moving. Not taking his eyes off of Obi- Wan, Anakin felt the heat increase and the approaching red river. Ducking from a swing, he pushed himself from his crouched position and shot into the air. Traveling forty feet in the air, Anakin landed on a large boulder while lava flowed on either side of him. "Come on!" he beckoned to Obi-Wan, who was watching the approaching lava and his ship. Twirling his lightsaber in a few circles, he plunged it into the rock he stood on and ran with it to either end of the island. The area he stood on was only twenty feet wide and was much larger on either end. But what happened work perfectly for the Jedi. The lava reached where he was standing and fell into the grove, splitting itself either way and then falling off the side of the island. Smiling at his own work, Obi-Wan turned back to Anakin, who was now leaping over small paths of lava to a drier area. Obi-Wan followed and leaped farther than Anakin did, arriving a few rocks behind him. "Don't give up now, Obi-Wan!" Anakin shouted to the person behind him while he jumped over the last small patch of lava. Turning around he continued, "You only have a lit-" But before he could finish, Obi-Wan delivered a flying kick straight to his face. Anakin screamed as he rolled to the ground, grabbing his left cheek. The wound he had received from his crash hadn't healed and was still sore, but had slightly closed up. The kick Obi-Wan delivered broke it open and blood began to run down Anakin's cheek. Pushing himself up from the ground, Anakin ignited his weapon and lost his cocky attitude as he began attacking Obi-Wan. With so much pain and anger in him, he actually began pushing Obi-Wan farther and farther back. Sweat was now pouring down each of their faces, and Anakin winced as the salt in his sweat met with his cheek wound. What Anakin couldn't believe was how Obi-Wan had quickly changed from being non-aggressive to the complete opposite. "I'm just defending myself, not fighting you," Obi-Wan said, blocking a blow and stepping away from the lava behind him. Anakin had to smile, despite the wound on his face. "Reading my thoughts?" "You're mind is an open book to me, Anakin." Ob-Wan smiled. "It always has." "Then read this." Anakin turned his back and threw his lightsaber straight at Obi-Wan. It headed towards the Jedi in a boomerang fashion, to which he simply dodged. Standing straight up, he began walking towards Anakin, not considering the spinning lightsaber that was returning its trip back to its master's waiting hand. Before he could react, Obi-Wan felt the lightsaber slash through his tunic above his waist on the left side. Grabbing his side in pain, Obi-Wan fell to his knees, trying to use the Force to ease the pain of his flesh being burned away. Catching the lightsaber in his black-gloved hand, Anakin began walking towards Obi-Wan. "You don't know the power I posses. You might have taught me the way of the Jedi, but I will teach you the way of the Sith. Unfortunately for you, this is the lesson. Obi-Wan, some day you are going to have to realize that evil triumphs over good." Glaring up at Anakin, Obi-Wan responded, "I swear on my master's soul, that that will never happen as long as I'm alive." Regaining his strength, he sliced at Anakin's legs and sent the dark warrior jumping into the air. While he was in the air, Obi-Wan pushed him back into a huge boulder with the Force. A crack was heard when Anakin met the rock and tried his best to stand up. Both of the warriors were exhausted and slowly stood up to face each other. "The end of the battle is near, Obi-Wan," Anakin wheezed. Too much ash had gotten into his lungs and his voice was a bit rougher than usual. "I want to see how much more you have in you." "More than you think, my friend," Obi-Wan answered, hitting his chest, trying to clear his throat. Anakin walked towards Obi-Wan at a much slower speed than before, and got two three feet from him before commenting, "You are unwise to lower your defenses!" The quick swing of his lightsaber to Obi-Wan's head woke the Jedi up. The pain in his lungs and his side left his mind as did Anakin's in his lungs and cheek. "Like I said, Obi-Wan, the end is near." "For me?" Anakin slowly nodded and turned from Obi-Wan, sprinting up the middle volcano that had not erupted. The one to its right already had and was finished pumping lava out of it. Obi-Wan took off after the lead runner. The ground that the two were running on was crumbling and very unstable. Every few feet, the ground would give way, causing one of them to fall to his knee, only to catch himself and continue running. Obi-Wan had no idea why Anakin would run up the entire volcano, but knew that the duel had to end soon. Breathing anymore of the ash or smoke would completely damage his lungs and would probably die on the spot. But if the time comes when I can't breathe anymore, what about Anakin? I can't leave him here. I've got to save him. But what I've said to him, they're only words. Obi-Wan reached the rim of the volcano and watched as Anakin cracked his neck, preparing himself for the final duel. But before Obi-Wan could ready himself, Anakin began, bursting into energy he didn't have before. His fighting was cleaner and smoother, as Obi-Wan had to give into his typical Form III defense. Blue light burst from each hit the two met with. The footwork of the two took off and they soon were both moving all around the edge of the volcano. Never had Obi-Wan been a duel as serious as this. When he dueled with the Sith warrior, Darth Maul, his rank met with that of his opponent. Other than the deadly bounty hunter, Jango Fett, he fought and the thousands of droids he had sliced through, the duel he was engaged in was the most intense. Not only was it intense physically, but mentally. His own apprentice had turned to the Dark Side and was now trying to kill his former master. Anakin, however, dealt with this duel as if it were the key moment in his life. And it was. The very man who was responsible for all of the unfortunates in his life was engaged with him in a fight to the death. But what Anakin didn't notice was the rising lava in the volcano as he took a step to far to the left. The ground below him gave way and he caught himself before plummeting. Gone before he could realize, Obi-Wan choked on his own breath as his apprentice held on to the edge of the volcano. Deactivating his lightsaber and attaching it to his belt, Obi-Wan had tears form in his eyes as he got on his knees to reach out for Anakin. "ANAKIN!" Obi-Wan screamed. "Give me your hand!" Anakin didn't respond. Instead, he looked below him at the approaching lava. It rose higher and higher, meters from his feet. "Please! The lava is rising!" Anakin responded this time with a shake of his head. It was then that he realized what he had to become. Moments flashed before his eyes. His mother holding him in front of the setting twin suns, growing up with his fellow slave friends, crashing in his first pod race, finding C-3PO, celebrating one of his mother's birthdays, meeting Qui-Gon Jinn and Padme, winning the Boonta Eve Podrace, saying goodbye to his mother, traveling to Coruscant, appearing in front of the Jedi Council, traveling to Naboo, destroying a Trade Federation Starship, watching Qui-Gon's body burn in front of him, celebrating a peace parade on Naboo, saying goodbye to Padme, training to become a Jedi, going on his first mission with Obi-Wan, killing for the first time, settling a border dispute on Ansion, reuniting with Padme, chasing Zam Wessel through a nightclub, falling in love with Padme, returning to Tatooine, meeting the Lars', holding his mother die in his arms, fighting on Geonosis, losing his arm to Count Dooku, proposing to Padme, then marrying her, fighting in many battles, promising Padme he would stop fighting, receiving a metal from Palpatine, fighting with the Jedi on Dooku's ship, chasing down the villain, secretly visiting Padme at night, leading an army of clone troopers and storm troopers on Nkllon, being rescued by Obi-Wan, killing Dooku, taking the Emperor's hand, killing Mace Windu, assassinating senators with Boba Fett, being electrocuted by Palpatine, fleeing to Alderaan, finding his wife's body, crashing on Nkllon, fighting with Obi-Wan, and where he was now. All of it didn't matter anymore as Anakin shook the memories of his former self. The lava had now reached a few feet from his boots and the soles began to soften and melt as Anakin gripped the edge tighter. "Anakin! You have to grab my hand! There's no time!" "It's too late for me, Obi-Wan," Anakin answered in a low voice. "Go." "No," Obi-Wan answered. But just then, something hit him through the Force. He couldn't explain it, but it was the presence of someone. What is that? That feeling seems familiar. He dug deeper into his mind. Padme! "Anakin! I saw her! I saw Padme! She's still alive. So is your child! It's a boy! I can see him. You can still be with them!" "I'd make them join if I could," Anakin responded. The lava now had reached his boots and was melting them completely. "I despise you, Obi-Wan. You've destroyed my life, and I will never forget it. Now, leave me." Tears rolled down Obi-Wan's cheeks as he stared into the eyes of his apprentice. "What about your child?" With his lip trembling, Anakin responded, "Don't tell him what I did." After saying his last words to Obi-Wan, Anakin let go of the rock and began to fall. Despite the fact that the lava was only seven feet below, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Anakin stretched out both of his arms with his eyes closed, awaiting to meet the lava. As he stretched out his body, he took one last look at Obi-Wan before disappearing in the red pit. Feeling as though he were in a dream, Obi-Wan stared in disbelief at what had just happened. The tears stopped rolling down his face and he fell on his back looking at the dark sky. "Qui-Gon.," Obi-Wan said to the sky. "Why?" Before he could get any more of his anger and pain out, a low rumble shook the entire volcano. Realizing that the lava was nearing explosion, Obi-Wan jumped to his feet and sprinted down to his ship. Before he ran ten feet, an explosion shot into the air, sending lava in all directions. Tuning into the Force, Obi-Wan stopped dead in his tracks as lava flew over his head, barely missing him. The Jedi Master spun around to see how far the lava had gotten and then spied something lying near the edge of the volcano. Anakin's lightsaber rested and in moments would be engulfed by lava. Reaching his hand out, Obi-Wan brought the lightsaber flying into his hand. After quickly attaching it to his belt, Obi-Wan began sprinting, dodging the falling lava. After running fifty feet, the Jedi began jumping from rock to rock, avoiding the river. When he reached the end of the rocks, he gathered up all the power he could and leaped across the lava and landed next to his ship. The Jedi Starfighter roared to life and took off into the dark sky. Obi-Wan wiped the sweat from his face and took one last look at the sight. The second volcano had finished erupting and the third was now beginning, covering all of the island in lava and pouring off the side. Ignoring his emotions, Obi-Wan set the coordinates to Alderaan, hoping to get some answers to his questions.
After the lava had stopped flowing out of the third volcano, the area was dead silent. Between the low bubbling and explosions off in the distance, no one could have heard the silent approach of a three-winged black ship. It hovered above the middle volcano, meters from the still hot lava. The hatch opened and revealed the Emperor. Staring into the pool of lava, he began muttering to himself. Before he could say anymore, a low rumble was heard deep below the surface. It grew and grew until a metallic arm shot of it, and grabbed the edge. Bits of burnt flesh remained on it, and gripped the rock with incredible strength. The Emperor watched as a mangled and deformed body pulled itself out of the lava. He could nothing but smile at the strength and determination of his new apprentice as he lied on the edge of the volcano.
CHAPTER LVII
Before the Jedi Starfighter neared anywhere near Alderaan, a voice over the comlink was heard. Obi-Wan grabbed it and tried understanding what was being said on the other end. "Obi-Wan here," the Jedi spoke into the comlink. "Please respond." The static continued and got louder and louder. Obi-Wan just stared at it and threw at the dashboard in anger. He bit his lower lip and stared straight ahead, trying to rid the image of Anakin taking one last look at him before he fell into the pit. Obi-Wan! a voice cried out. Obi-Wan! The Jedi began tapping his headset. What was that voice? He thought. Qui-Gon! Obi-Wan! the voice continued. You will go to the Dagobah system. There the last hope for the galaxy stays. "Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan cried out. "Don't leave!" But after minutes passed without hearing a voice, Obi-Wan set coordinates for the Dagobah system. He had never heard of it before, and wondered what Qui-Gon meant by "the last hope".
The night sky had fallen on Coruscant and the planet was alive as usual. Clubs rocked with patrons and traffic flooded the sky. But below the surface, miles below, an evil was being aided. Palpatine in the shadows of a dark medical room. It laid five miles below the surface, and was secured higher than anything on Coruscant. Droid arms protruded from a main machine, and were laying a heap on an operating table. The heap was a person, burned beyond belief. Its skin was a pasty white, while all of the hair on its head was gone. A deep cut ran down the top of its head and another wound on its left cheek. Its right leg was cut off right above the knee, and the left was missing from a few inches from its hip. The right arm remained, yet lied detached on the table. It was a metal, protocol droid-like arm, with bits of flesh burned onto it. The left arm was completely gone, with the socket going inward into the body. While the body was laid on the table, Palpatine turned to a viewscreen, looking at what needed to be done to it and how long it would take. Calculations predicted that the operation and body modifications would take a few days. After then, resting would take a little over a week. Total, the entire process would take almost two weeks. Palptaine smiled at the design for his apprentice's armor. Never had he seen anything of such power and display. "Emperor Palpatine?" a monotone voice from a droid asked. Palpatine walked towards the droid who was bent over the other side of the table. "Yes? What is it?" "We can't begin surgery." His brow moved low on his face. "Why not?" "The nerve system is experiencing faulty problems. R.E.M. is preventing us from making an accurate incision into the medulla oblongata. Electrodes are moving to rapidly in the lower back portion of the brain and if the victim doesn't calm down then we must wait until he does." "Leave us." Palpatine ordered. "Sir?" the droid asked. The Emperor didn't need to repeat himself as he glared up at the droid. The droid responded by nodding and motioning for the other two droids to leave with him. A few seconds later, the door closed and Palpatine was left alone with the body in front of him. His pasty, old hands rested on the body's face. Feeding all of his energy into the body, Palpatine saw what was happening. Brief images of Jedi, Shmi, and Padme flew into Palpatine's mind. He flinched at these and knew what he had to do. Gathering even more energy in his body he pushed new images into the body's mind.
Images of Jedi chasing and catching Shmi, only to slaughter her with their blades. Her body fell on the ground, and Padme came into view. She wore a white dress and rested her hand on her large stomach. The Jedi saw her and halted. The large group broke apart and out of the center strolled out Obi- Wan. He walked right up to her and kissed her on the lips. After pulling away from the kiss, he quickly ignited his lightsaber and brought it across Padme.
A rough, strained scream filled the medic room, as the mangled body arched its back up. Palpatine took a step back in pleasure knowing that by implanting false images in Anakin's mind would produce pure hatred to his enemies. Traumatizing him like this was just what he needed in order to fulfill Palaptine's needs. While the screaming died down, the body fell back to the table, unconscious. Palpatine walked to the door and opened it. The three droids stood there, pretending they didn't hear the screams from within. "The patient is ready," Palpatine announced. "Begin at once, and I trust you three that you will not fail me."
CHAPTER LVIII
When he heard Qui-Gon's voice, he thought he was imagining it, but now he was believing it even more. He entered the Dagobah system a few hours after his encounter with Anakin and understood why he had never heard of it before. Not a single ship flew on Obi-Wan's radar and few traces of life forms were reported on his control panel. Those life forms that were reported all were grouped in the same area, so Obi-Wan figured that there must be some civilization on the planet. Entering the atmosphere, Obi-Wan became lost in a maze of clouds. They were thick and heavy, preparing to burst with rain any moment. But as he guided himself out of the clouds, he was soon caught in fog. It was nearly as thick as the clouds and Obi-Wan had even a worse time trying to see through them. But before he could realize, a tree branch smacked the front of his ship, shooting it downward towards an muddy opening. The ship crashed in the mud, and the engine slowly died down. Cursing what happened, Obi-Wan opened the hatch and jumped onto the front of the ship. Nothing but gray fog covered the land. His surroundings consisted of vines and dead, trees, resting on swamps. "It's just one big swamp!" Obi-Wan exclaimed with both hands on his hips. "Not just a swamp," a voice said. "My home it is." Obi-Wan looked to his right, and there standing on a tree stump was Yoda.
The cave was large enough for everyone to sit in a circle. In the center of the group, a fire was blazing. Padme sat on a small bed that was brought from Alderaan. Her face was pale white, and she did nothing but stare at the fire dancing. Dorme sat next to her and was leaning towards the fire, stirring a thick stew in a pot. C-3PO and R2 were outside gathering sticks for fire, while Bail sat on the other side of Padme. Obi- Wan and Yoda sat next to each other, opposite of Padme. "Where's Anakin?" Padme asked, not taking her eyes off of the fire. Obi-Wan sat leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded into each other. "Um." Obi-Wan couldn't even get the first sentence out as he got sucked into the vision of the dancing fire. As the flames licked the air, Anakin's face jumped out at Obi-Wan, startling him. Time passed without an answer until Bail asked, "Obi-Wan?" "Hmm?" the Jedi asked still staring at the fire. "He's um." A few seconds passed. "He's dead, Padme." His trance with the fire broke and he looked up at Padme. She stared back at him and nodded slowly. Bail stood up and walked around to Obi-Wan. "I need to talk to you," he whispered into the Jedi's ear. Obi-Wan nodded and looked at Yoda, who got up first and followed Bail.
Screeches and creatures could be heard far off into the distance as the three walked along the edge of a swamp. Obi-Wan did not have his robe anymore and walked with only his tunic. Yoda had seen the burn on the side of him when he arrived and knew it needed to be treated. Obi-Wan just pushed it aside. "What happened on Alderaan, Obi-Wan," Bail began, "must remain secret. If anyone got word that Padme is still alive, the Emperor will stop at nothing to find her. Even though you say Anakin is dead, the Emperor is still in power." "Agreed, Bail," Obi-Wan said. "What did you do to have Padme escape?" "While you were on Coruscant, her heart stopped. We managed to save her in time, but the doctors had nothing to help her. We didn't know what to do, so we brought her here." "Why here?" Obi-Wan asked. "My home this is, Obi-Wan," Yoda answered. "Returned I have not for over 800 years. Not much change, but one thing remains: power it is with the Force. Medicines and aides you will find here to prove much help. The very cave Padme rests in will be the birthplace of a Skywalker. Much power the cave will have alone from the birth."
"Is she better? The medicines here, are they that effective?" "Yes," Yoda answered. "Time ago, into hiding I went. Studied I did the true nature of this planet. Possesses Force power, this planet does." "But what of the Jedi Archives? Couldn't the Emperor search planets on the list?" "Erased it I did. Following in the same way Dooku did, I'm afraid. Poor Dooku." "What are we going to do after Padme gives birth?" "We shall go out separate ways, Obi-Wan," Bail answered. "It's the only answer." The three continued walking, discussing what they had experienced while being apart from each other.
CHAPTER LIX
Over a week passed and the days grew longer and longer. Padme's blood pressure fell from time to time and was nursed back to health by a strange food Yoda called rootleaf. The entire group had to eat it and from the low amount of food in the Alderaanian Cruiser. Bail joked from time to time about the rootleaf with Yoda, who didn't find it funny to make fun of his favorite food. But as the tenth day approached of being on Dagobah, Padme began have contractions. It came in the middle of the night, and the group was right there by her side. Dorme had a bowl of water by Padme's side and blotted her head with a soaked towel. Yoda taught Bail how to mix herbs and medicines, and from time to time, rested his hands on Padme's head and heart, using the Force to calm her pain. Obi-Wan, however, stood at the end of the cave replaying Anakin's death in his mind. When the experience on the tenth night was just a false alarm, Obi- Wan realized that this was his only time to make his final journey to Coruscant. Yoda agreed with him that he should go, and hurry back as soon as possible. Padme was asleep at the time and Obi-Wan knew she wouldn't want him to leave, but he did anyway. The Jedi Starfighter roared to life and Yoda and Bail stood next to it, as they watched it take off into the night sky.
On Coruscant, the droids reported to Palpatine that they were finished with the operation. This pleased the Emperor and he hurried down to the medic room to see the finished product. When he entered the room, all of the droids had moved to the corner of room in fear. They covered their visual sensors and continued shaking. The Emperor, however, didn't tremble in fear when he saw the dark figure standing with his back to him. He was under seven feet tall, and was practicing his Force ability with heavy pieces of machinery. Pieces that would be impossible for a wookie to lift, were lifted two or three at a time with the slightest movement of the black-armored man's index finger. "Show yourself," the Emperor ordered to the figure. The pieces that were floating came crashing onto the ground, but the figure did not turn. Instead it began breathing, with was an artificial, mechanical breathing. "I am your master, and I order you to show yourself." The droids covered their vision sensors again as they watched the figure move towards the Emperor, and bowed.
CHAPTER LX
Obi-Wan walked through the Jedi Temple with caution. Now that Anakin was dead, he was sure that the Emperor would be quite trigger happy with Jedi or even anyone being inside the Jedi Temple.
With two cases filled with diaries, clothes, and pictures, Obi-Wan made his way out the front doors. He had put on a new robe and strode down a small flight of stairs. Within two steps, a disturbance in the Force rushed through him. Quickly looking from side to side, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Moving a bit faster and cautiously, the Jedi reached the starfighter and placed his cases in the rear. As soon as he reached the ladder, he felt his entire body being flung fifty feet into the side of the Jedi Temple. While a huge crack lied in the wall, Obi-Wan pushed himself up from the ground and stared at what he saw. In the distance stood a huge, black-armored man. His shoulders were wider than that of any ordinary person, and his black cape went from his shoulders to barely touching the floor. His entire body was covered in black, with a blinking computer box attached to his chest. A black breastplate covered his chest and a thick belt wrapped around his waist. But what sent chills down Obi-Wan's neck was the mask. With a curved helmet on top of its head, the face was that of a skull. The tinted black eyepieces, Obi-Wan had now idea where the figure was looking. The cheeks of the mask sunk inward, with a mouthpiece sticking out. Out from the mouthpiece came a noise that would always stick in Obi-Wan's mind. The low, artificial breathing of the creature broke the silence. "Who are you?" Obi-Wan demanded, holding his lightsaber handle in his hand. The figure responded by reaching for his lightsaber and activating it. A crimson-colored blade shot up from handle to reach over a meter tall. The figure than swung the lightsaber in a brief display of red light. The move that the figure performed made Obi-Wan realize who was under the dark suit. "Anakin.Is that you?" The figure took a deep breath and stuck his chest out, only to let out a long exhale. He became a blur of black and red as he rushed to Obi- Wan, swinging the lightsaber as he ran. Obi-Wan responded by igniting his blue blade and bringing it in contact with the red one. The two met with a force Obi-Wan had never experienced before. The opponent's blow was so hard, Obi-Wan's blade came two inches from his face. The heat of lightsaber began burning the Jedi Master's forehead and he ducked under the blades and rolled to the side. The dark warrior was not finished and leaped at Obi-Wan swinging with all of his might. The two engaged themselves in a duel, that ranged in all of the moves Obi-Wan knew. The opponent always seemed to be a step ahead of the game. Stabbing and jabbing didn't seem to work, and Obi-Wan went into the defensive position. The stance didn't last very long as the dark warrior kicked him in the face, sending him falling back and losing his lightsaber. The lightsaber zipped straight into the waiting black-gloved hand. "What are you doing, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, lying on the ground. "Anakin is no loner my name, Obi-Wan," the figure answered in a deep and powerful voice. "Your former apprentice is dead, now only darkness survives in what is left of his body. I have been born into something you never could imagine possible. I am fear, I am darkness, I am hate, I am Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith! Master of terror, possessor of evil, executioner of the weak. And now you will bow to me!" "Never!" Obi-Wan responded, spitting at Vader's feet. "If that is your decision, you are free to go," Vader responded. "What?" "You will be the first, pathetic life form I will spare in cleansing the galaxy of the former Republic. We have entered a new era, my old master, and your kind is the disease. If I could have one wish, I would destroy you as we speak, but I must obey my master. You shall die a pathetic old hermit, Obi-Wan, never to show yourself again!" "And what if I do?" "Then you will have to suffer my power." Vader handed Obi-Wan's lightsaber to him, and the Jedi took it. Obi-Wan stood up slowly and walked in front of Vader. The Dark Lord stood much taller than him and spread his chest out wider. Staring at him directly in the face, Obi-Wan shook his head. "Then Anakin is truly dead," he said, turning from the dark warrior and proceeding to his ship. He jumped in and started the engine. As it roared to life, it was then that Obi-Wan remembered that it was Anakin's Jedi Starfighter. He had been using it ever since the battle of Nkllon. As soon as he realized this, he turned his head to where Vader was standing. The figure was gone, and Obi-Wan took off into the night sky, never to see Coruscant again.
CHAPTER LXI
Yoda rested his hands on Padme's stomach as she slept. It raised up and down, while the Jedi Master looked deep into it at the still unborn child. It was then that something reached his attention. What's this? Yoda realized. The midi-chlorian count is much too high in this child. Anakin didn't even have midi-chlorians this high. There's only one explanation. Tw- -. The Jedi Master's thoughts were cut off as Padme screamed in pain. "This is it!" she screamed. Dorme woke from her sleep and quickly prepared for the birth. While getting the herbs and medicines ready, Bail ran into the room. "What's happening?" he asked. "Coming the children are," Yoda said. Dorme stopped working and Padme still whimpered, but looked confused at Yoda. "Twins?!" Padme shouted. "I'm having twins?" Yoda nodded and Bail lowered his head in guilt. "Need you we do, Bail," Yoda said to the man standing at the cave opening. He walked to Padme and cleansed his hands in a clean bowl of water, while Dorme administered medicines and Yoda soothed Padme with the Force. C-3PO and R2-D2 entered the room with fresh firewood and clean water. Padme screamed at the pressure on her heart. Her disease had healed since she had been on Dagobah, but was not in terrific condition. "Give into the Force, Padme." Yoda whispered into her ear. "It's all around you. In the fire, the cave, the air. It's in you. Focus on it, don't let it leave you. Give into the Force." As soon as Padme found the Force, the crying of a baby broke her concentration. Tears rushed out of her eyes as she watched Bail hand the baby to Dorme, who set on a blanket and treated it with medical supplies from Alderaan. But as Padme realized that the baby was all right, she felt another movement in her abdomen. "I can feel the other one!" she shouted, while Yoda again began whispering into her ear. Another cry broke into the cave, as Bail handed the second baby to Dorme, who had finished cleaning the first one. "You did it, Padme." Bail said, displaying a big smile at the mother who lied in front of him. Padme smiled in return and nodded at Bail. She wiped the sweat from her face and placed her hand on Yoda's. The Jedi Master turned and smiled at her. "Thank you, Master," she said, with tears in her eyes. "Brave you are, Padme," Yoda said, rubbing his hand on her forehead. "You have brought the only hopes to save the galaxy into being." "Here you are," Dorme soothed, handing the two children into Padme's arms. Tears poured down her face as she looked at the faces of her children. They were both wrapped in cloth and remained with their eyes closed. "A son and a daughter," Dorme said, with Bail's arm wrapped around her shoulder. "A son." Padme trailed off, ".and a daughter." She continued to just look at them. "A son.Luke. And a daughter.Leia." Bail smiled at Dorme and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Yoda left Padme's side and walked out of the cave.
Walking alongside the edge of a swamp, Yoda began realizing what must be done about the children. The Emperor doesn't know that they're twins. If no one else close to Padme knew, how could he know? Nonetheless, the twins couldn't live together, it would be too much of a risk if the Emperor found out about one of them. "Master Yoda?" a voice called from behind the Jedi. Bail jogged up next to Yoda and began walking with him. "Twins she was pregnant with," Yoda said. "Knew you did." Bail nodded. "Yes, I did. I found out before Obi-Wan and I realized of the storm troopers on Alderaan. The doctor pulled me aside and told me in case I didn't know. I lied and said I did. I realized, Master Yoda, that if anyone were to know of the twins, then it could be beaten out of them. I did what I thought was right." "Good that you did. For choices are made on instinct, not thought. Doing what one thinks is right at the time is better than not doing anything at all."
CHAPTER LXII
Obi-Wan landed on the same spot he had before, and it seemed as if Yoda and Bail had not moved at all. They stood in their same places, staring at Obi-Wan as he descended the cock-pit ladder and approached them. His face showed that something terrible had happened. "What is it?" Bail asked the approaching Jedi. "There is a new threat in the galaxy," Obi-Wan began. "I don't know how it happened, but Anakin is still alive." Yoda's eyes opened wide, and Bail took a step forward. "How?" Bail asked. "He now calls himself Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith," Obi-Wan continued. "He's been completely changed, physically and mentally. He wears a black suit. But this suit, it's.it's almost as if it's keeping him alive. His voice has changed and so has his physical build. But I know it's him. I just know." "Displeasing news this is," Yoda admitted. "If Anakin Skywalker and this Sith Lord are one in the same, then you would be the only person who would truly know. Turned to the Dark Side he has. More than I've ever seen anyone turn to, next to the Emperor. Dooku was just clouded, but true what you say, than our foes have increased." "What now?" Bail asked. "Break the heart of a mother."
Padme was now clutching the children as tightly as she could. "Never! They're my children! You can't do this! Obi-Wan, help me!" Obi-Wan walked next to Bail and Yoda. "You must understand, Padme, that if the children live together, the risk increases if the Emperor finds out. Don't let your children fall down the same path Anakin did." "They won't!" Padme pleaded. "Let's live here! I can raise them." Obi-Wan sighed and stepped aside as Bail moved next to Padme. "Padme, I know this is hard, but if you were to raise Luke and Leia on this planet, their lives would be terrible. This is no place for children to live. They would become reckless and would never be able to leave. If they're separated, then they can live normal lives. Happy lives, without fearing someone is after them. You trust Obi-Wan, don't you? He's agreed to look after Luke, and we can take Leia to Alderaan. You can raise her to be a Senator. She'll be just like you. Wouldn't you rather they both live happy lives, then ones where they would live in a swamp, paranoid with fear?" Padme didn't answer at first, but looked at both of her children. "Let me just hold them for a little while longer." She kissed both of them on the head, and held the close to her chest. Bail left her side and moved with the two Jedi outside. Dorme sat where Bail and smiled as he left the cave. She couldn't believe that what he said was so wonderfully said. She turned back to Padme and pushed strands of hair out of her eyes.
The Alderaanian Cruiser landed twenty feet from the entrance to the cave, crushing old, rotten trees underneath it. Bail opened the hatch and C- 3PO and R2-D2 pulled medical supplies in. Some luggage remained onboard, but didn't seem necessary to be brought into the cave. Bail hurried to the cave and grabbed one end of the bed Padme was lying on. Obi-Wan grabbed the other end and carried it onto the ship. Padme stayed in her own room on the ship this time. When they arrived on Alderaan the first time, she wanted to stay in the cock-pit. And when they arrived on Dagobah, they were in such a hurry that she was placed in the main room of the ship. But this time, her room had a large window and a more comfortable bed. As she lied in the bed, Obi-Wan entered the room, holding Luke. With her lip trembling she reached out for him, and he handed him to her. She brought him close to her and kissed him on the forehead. Tears rolled off her face and landed on his, stirring him a bit, letting a little noise. Padme smiled and whispered into his ear, "Look to the horizon, Luke. Never give up on your dreams." With one more kiss she handed him to Bail. "Goodbye, Padme," Obi-Wan said. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the cheek. While still hugging him, Padme whispered, "Never let him leave your sight." Returning the hug, Obi-Wan whispered, "Alright." The two pulled away and Obi-Wan was handed Luke by Bail. He wrapped part of his robe around him and held him close. "The Force will always be with you, Padme," Obi-Wan said. "Goodbye, Obi-Wan," Padme responded. When Obi-Wan walked out of the room, Padme whispered under her breath, "Goodbye, Luke."
Bail stood outside the ship with Obi-Wan and Yoda. While Obi-Wan placed Luke in a cushioned basket, Bail crouched down to be eye-to-eye with Yoda. "Thank you, Master Yoda," Bail said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Without you the Force would be nothing." "Without the Force, I would be nothing," Yoda responded with a small smile on his face. Bail nodded and stood up to face Obi-Wan. After staring him straight in the eyes, he moved forward and hugged him. "Obi-Wan," he began, "thank you for everything." "You're welcome, Bail," Obi-Wan responded. "Be sure to give the two droids a memory erase, just in case they fall into the wrong hands. I'll send you an encrypted message in a few months to tell you where you can locate me in an emergency." "I understand," Bail confirmed, pulling away from the hug. He looked down at Luke and smiled. "Make us proud Luke." Glancing up at Obi-Wan he patted him on the shoulder and then turned away. After he made his way up the ramp, it slowly began to close. As it shut completely, Obi-Wan grabbed Luke, and he and Yoda stood back as the ship came alive. Resting in its spot for a few moments while Bail set calculations, it was soon off into the gray sky, disappearing in the fog and clouds that surrounded Dagobah.
CHAPTER LXIII
The Alderaanian Cruiser entered hyperspace about five minutes after leaving Dagobah. Bail was at the controls and eased off as the ship went on automatic. His eyes slowly closed and began to fall asleep. As soon as the door to the cock-pit opened, Bail's sleep ended and he jumped up as Dorme walked in. "Oh, I'm sorry," Dorme apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I can go." "No, no," Bail responded. "You can stay. I just nodded off for a while." Dorme smiled and walked over to the co-pilot's chair. She sat down and looked at Bail, who returned the look. Both of them began talking at the same time, and broke away when they realized what they had done. Nervous laughter filled the small room, and Dorme started rubbing the lower lobe of her ear. "Please, what were you going to say?" Bail asked. "Oh, I was just saying what a wonderful job you've done with all that's gone on in the past few months." Bail smiled at the comment. "Would you like to continue this conversation elsewhere with me? I have some things to do." Dorme smiled and nodded.
"Master Organa, I don't understand why I must be cleaned right now," C-3PO said. "I mean, wouldn't it be better if we waited until we reached Alderaan? I hear they have wonderf-" 3PO's voice cut off as soon as Bail pulled a lever. The protocol droid didn't say anything when he had three wires inserted into the top of their head and continued talking about nothing. Bail almost found pleasure when he cut the droid's talking off. Detaching the wires from the back of 3PO's neck, Bail turned to Dorme. "This droid has the biggest mouth of anyone I've ever met. And if he speaks to the wrong person about what he's seen, then all we've suffered for will be destroyed." "I understand, Bail," Dorme responded. "I just don't see what Artoo could tell anyone. I always liked him." "Well, how about we leave Threepio here for a while and go get something to eat?"
The small kitchen in the bottom of the ship didn't have much food in it, but what was in the cupboards, the two ate. Laughing over experiences either had been through in life was the main thing they did. However, when the scarce amount of food disappeared and the stories died down, the became very vulnerable. "I have to ask you something," Bail broke the silence with the question. "Hmm?" Dorme responded by ripping her napkin into smaller and smaller pieces. "I know this isn't the right setting or anything, but." "Bail, what is it?" A few seconds passed before Bail broke the silence. "Will you marry me?" Tears poured down Dorme's face as she jumped up from her seat and was embraced in Bail's arms. The two kissed and held one another in the ship's kitchen, while Padme stood right outside the doorway holding Leia close to her. "Do you here that Leia?" she whispered to her daughter. "If something happens to me, you will have two people to look after you. But that won't be for a long time." She walked back to her bedroom, not letting her daughter leave her arms.
CHAPTER LXIV
The only surviving Jedi Masters in the galaxy sat in the dark, damp cave on Dagobah. The fire that had stayed lit for weeks was now a few glowing pieces of wood and ash. Obi-Wan kicked them with his foot and grabbed the basket with Luke inside of it and walked out of the cave. Reaching the Jedi Starfighter, Obi-Wan began to climb the ladder. "Obi-Wan, wait," a familiar voice called Obi-Wan. He turned to see Qui-Gon Jinn stand at the entrance to the cave. "We have much to discuss still." "I have nothing to discuss with you," Obi-Wan responded. "Anakin's dead. You got what you want, but now we have a Sith Lord and the Emperor running the galaxy. Is this what you wanted?" "Obi-Wan, you know I didn't want it to be this way," Qui-Gon corrected. "The prophecy says that the Chosen One will bring balance. And Anakin has fulfilled that prophecy." "But now there are two Jedi left in the galaxy against two Sith! That's balanced?" "Listen to Qui-Gon you must, Obi-Wan," Yoda said, walking out of the cave. "Never did he realize this would happen. Neither did I." "Masters, I let my best friend and apprentice die two weeks ago," Obi-Wan continued. "Do you know what he said to me before he died? He said 'I despise you, Obi-Wan. You've destroyed my life.' Is what he said supposed to go right through me? I failed at training him and failed at turning him to good. He's no longer who he used to be. Anakin Skywalker is dead." "If that's true, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon began, "then when young Luke grows, he is our only hope to destroy what has become of his father." "Even though Anakin's last words were for Luke not to know what he did?" Obi-Wan asked. "And who's supposed to train him? Me?" Qui-Gon looked at Yoda and the smaller Jedi answered, "Begin it, you will, Obi-Wan. And continue I will." Obi-Wan could hardly deal with all the information he was receiving. He looked down at Luke and watched as the baby yawned. "I know where to take Luke. I will say goodbye to both of you now." The Jedi Starfighter hatch opened and Obi-Wan set Luke in a safe area while he jumped into his seat. "May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan," Yoda called to the Jedi. "Meet again, we shall." Obi-Wan nodded to the Jedi Master and then looked at the spirit of Qui-Gon. "Remember, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon advised, "your relationship with Anakin was strong. Make the one with young Luke even stronger. Only then will your spirit be able to be present longer. For now, I will say goodbye and may the Force be with you, my friend." Qui-Gon bowed to his former apprentice and slowly disappeared. Yoda was left standing outside the cave by himself, leaning on his cane as Obi-Wan waved goodbye. The small creature watched as the Jedi Starfighter took off into the sky, carrying two people he would see again someday.
EPILOGUE
Coruscant had completely changed in the past week. Crime was even higher, more Senators had been assassinated, and the Emperor had an entire section of land near the Senate devoted to him. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader stood in his new throne room, watching thousands of people cheering as a statue of the Emperor was placed at the end of the square. Floating cameras moved all around the crowd, projecting smiling people cheering, "PALPATINE!" The Emperor smiled to himself as the moment he had been waiting for his whole life was being experienced. People cheering his name, a galaxy to control, and his own, powerful Sith Lord. When he looked at Vader, he was surprised that the evil warrior wasn't looking at the crowds of people cheering, but at the stars in the sky.
Alderaan was very calm that morning as Bail and Dorme held hands on their balcony. A wedding band rested on each of them, and the two smiled as they remembered that special day. Few people attended and Padme stayed in back, trying her best to remain unnoticed. Even though Bail returned to the Imperial Senate in a few days, he wanted to enjoy as much as he could with his new wife and Padme and her daughter, Leia. Bail left his wife standing on the balcony, staring off at the rising sun, while he went into their apartment. Turning a few corners of the enormous penthouse, Bail ran into C-3PO, who had been polished beyond belief and was now a shiny, golden color. R2-D2 was right next to 3PO as usual and the two directed Bail to what room Padme was in. When he reached it, he knocked on the closed door and entered. There lying on the bed was Padme, clutching Leia in her arms. At first Bail thought she was asleep, but upon feeling her freezing cold hand he realized he was wrong. He got down on his knees and kissed Padme's lifeless hand, while Leia remained asleep in her other arm.
Tatooine was in afternoon as the twin suns were setting far off in the distance. Obi-Wan had spent the past week researching Anakin's past, and he had been led to one final place. The Lars Homestead was the same as it always had been, but it was all new to Obi-Wan. When he first arrived, he was poorly greeted by Owen Lars, but kindly by his wife, Beru. "You Jedi have no business stepping on this ground," Owen shot at Obi- Wan, who introduced himself as a Jedi Master. That was a big mistake to mention Jedi, since Owen's father, Cliegg, had been murdered by Tusken Raiders a year ago to the day. "What does that have to do with Jedi?" Obi-Wan asked. "One of your damn Jedi is the one responsible for killing an entire Tusken Village!" Owen continued. "He was my step-brother for crying out loud! His name was---" "Anakin Skywalker," Obi-Wan cut in. "Yeah." Owen pondered, rubbing the stubble on his cheeks and staring closely at Obi-Wan. "What do you have to do with Anakin?" "I was his master," Obi-Wan explained. "He died three weeks ago and this is in fact his son I have here. I am trusting you two to look after him for the time being." Obi-Wan set the bundled baby into Beru's arms. "Oh, he's beautiful," Beru confessed. "Owen, look at his eyes. There like Shmi's." Owen looked at Luke, and Obi-Wan caught a smile cross the stern man's face. "I appreciate this burden you two have accepted," Obi-Wan bowed to the two. "What did you say your name was?" Owen asked. "Kernovi? O-Ben Kernovi?" Obi-Wan almost chuckled at the confused man trying to pronounce his name, but realized that a false name would be a good idea. "Actually, you've almost got it. It's Ben Kenobi." "Oh, yeah," Owen mumbled, returning his staring to Luke. But as the two farmers stayed close on Luke, Ben Kenobi leaned forward and kissed the baby's forehead, whispering, "May the Force be with you, young one." Pulling away from the baby, he looked up and nodded to the couple. "And you two as well. I'll be close by, watching." Turning away, Ben began walking into the distance as the twin suns set straight in front of him. But before the Jedi Master got five feet, he stopped when he heard Owen yell, "I don't think so, Kenobi. There are already four tombstones over there and I don't won't there to be any dead bodies for Luke to see. We already know that the Emperor has sent bounties for Jedi in hiding, and we don't want to get mixed up in that. The name Skywalker is dead. Luke will be raised a Lars and that's final. This is it. The end of the Jedi. The end of the adventures. It's just the end. Accept it." Not feeling that situation was very funny, a small smile still stretched on one of the sides of Ben's face. Turning his back, he responded, "Far from it, I'm afraid. The galaxy has entered a dark era and young Luke might be the only one to save it. The name Skywalker is very powerful and I hope you two will let him keep the name. The boy will go far in galaxy, don't keep him sheltered. Nevertheless, if you keep him sheltered or not, I will always be close by for I have a bad feeling, my friends, that this is just the end of the beginning." Ben nodded one final time and proceeded walking towards the setting suns, not looking back as he was told not to during his early years of training Anakin. The boy broke it to him when Ben had awoken from a nightmare of Qui-Gon's death. My mother once told me to never look back. Don't look back, Master Kenobi. Don't ever look back. And those words would forever stay with him as he remembered Anakin Skywalker. They would stay as he remembered his apprentice. But most importantly, they would stay as he remembered his friend.
The galaxy is beginning a new era. The new GALACTIC EMPIRE, formed by Emperor Palpatine, has begun taking over the former Republic and changing its old ways into the ways of the evil Sith Master. Feeling the evilness growing stronger in the galaxy, Jedi Master Yoda has come out of hiding and has decided to stay with Padme Skywalker and the unborn child on Alderaan, until Obi-Wan Kenobi returns from his meeting with his former master, Qui-Gon Jinn. Against his former master's warning, Obi-Wan cannot come to the fact that he must destroy Anakin Skywalker in order to prevent the dark warrior from becoming a full agent of the Dark Side and assisting the Emperor to cover the galaxy in darkness.
CHAPTER IL
The stars covered the night sky in a blanket of white and dark blue. A few twinkled, as the rest lay still, with Anakin Skywalker staring at them. His eyes darted from each one, trying to focus in with the Force to feel the presence in that solar system. But he couldn't. Instead, he took a long and hard stare at one and shut his eyes.
It felt as if Anakin were flying straight to that star. His body became weightless, and he raised his arms at his sides, bringing in all the emotion he could feel. Star systems flew by him, as his mind flew to the star. Other stars were streams of white as he neared his mental destination. But as soon he could see a good size portion of it, a disturbance ran through his mind. Something about that planet, Anakin thought. His mind turned around in the middle of space and came to view Tatooine. The dark warrior's closed eyes shut tighter as he heard his mother's voice calling out to him. I love. was all Anakin could hear. His mind moved closer to the planet, closer to the city he grew up in, closer to his slave quarters, closer to him as a young boy with a Jedi sitting next to him. The stars were out in the night sky on the desert planet, just as they were in reality. I want to be the first one to see them all, the young Anakin commented, while the present Anakin mouthed the words as he saw them in his vision. Annie! a voice called. Shmi Skywalker walked by a door, demanding for the young boy to come inside for bed. At that instant, the vision jumped forward, sending Anakin's mind on a roller coaster ride to a decade later. He rubbed his hand on a woman's bare back Everything here is smooth, the young Jedi soothed to Padme Amidala. Her head turned to meet with Anakin's vision, but when it did, it was replaced with a skull. An old skull, with dark gray hair blowing with the wind. As Anakin looked at her body, it was replaced with a skeleton in the dress Padme was wearing. The skeleton fell on top of Anakin, with the Jedi panicking. The more he pushed it off, the heavier it became. He pushed and pushed, not only using his strength, but the Force around him. Heavier and heavier the skeleton became until it began sinking into Anakin's skin. Screaming in pain and fear, his vision ended.
Anakin looked around him, to find nothing out of the ordinary. He stood on a balcony, outside the Emperor's office. The night sky was still lit with stars, and the traffic still flowed, just as it had when he entered the balcony. Sweat covered the hands that were gripping the railing so tightly during the vision. Before he could wipe a bead running down the side of his head, Anakin turned towards the door. "Anakin?" a rough voice called from the shadows. Anakin quickly wiped the bead running down his head and stared at the shadows. He bowed at the hidden figure, and answered, "Yes, your Excellency?" "I never want you to think about think about your past again," the voice responded. "Your old life is dead, gone. You need to wipe it from your memory." The figure came out of the shadows to reveal Emperor Palpatine. A black hood covered his head and approached Anakin. "I don't want them to poison your mind, my friend." "Of course," Anakin responded with a nod. The tall warrior turned back to the edge of the balcony as the Emperor stood right next to him. The two stared off into the distance, without a word exchanged for minutes. "Master," Anakin began, turning to Palpatine, "I have felt a disturbance in the Force." The shorter man nodded. "Strange I haven't. How sure are you?" "Very positive," confirmed Anakin. "I don't know what it is, but I feel that if it makes its presence known, it could destroy us." The brow lowered on Palpatine's face upon hearing the words. How could he feel a presence like that without my knowing? Palpatine thought. He must know something I don't. "Tell me, Anakin," began Palpatine, "Exactly what were you thinking of when I appeared?" "Your Excellency, I'm sorry," apologized Anakin. "I didn't mean to think of them. They are stuck in my mind. I'm still angry about the death and betrayal." Then it hit Palpatine. "What did you say?" Anakin quickly turned his head to the Emperor. "My mother's death. It still haunts my dreams. The Jedi caused her d-" "What were speaking of when you mentioned 'betrayal'?" asked Palpatine, slowly piecing together this unknown threat that Anakin mentioned. "The Jedi? Who?" Anakin didn't answer at first, but instead looked over the edge of the balcony. "It was about Padme." Palpatine's eyes opened wide. "She betrayed me. The Jedi betrayed me. Everyone has betrayed me. I have no one left except for you." Mother. Death. Jedi. Wife. Betrayal. Jedi. The words flew through Palpatine's mind at lightspeed. Mother. Death. Wife. Betrayal. They moved faster and faster, making connections here and there. Mother. Jedi. Wife. Jedi. Giving into the Dark Side, Palpatine made the final connection. Wife. Mother. Jedi. A chill went through Anakin as he looked at his master's face. The pale, white skin began to shake as anger boiled inside the Emperor. His eyes shot open, revealing dark yellow irises glaring back at Anakin. "You fool!" Palpatine used the Force and threw Anakin back ten feet into the edge of the balcony. Anakin's lower back hit the railing and sent him over. Palpatine breathed heavily, staring where Anakin went over. He took a deep breath and approached the edge of the balcony. Two hands grabbed the balcony railing, with the rest of the body hanging over. "Master!" Anakin shouted. "Help! Why did you do this?!" "Your feeble mind has shown its true side of stupidity," Palpatine insulted. "What?" Anakin shouted. "What did I do?" Palpatine growled and pointed at Anakin. He moved his arm up sending Anakin from holding the railing into mid-air, thousands of feet from the surface of Coruscant. The black-clothed warrior tried his best to remain calm by staring straight back at his master. "Where is Padme Skywalker?" Palpatine asked slowly. "I.I don't know," answered Anakin. "I confronted her, then had to escape." "Do you know who Padme is?" "Who?" "She is your wife." Anakin shook his head slightly. "I don't understand." Palpatine frowned and extended his arms, throwing lightning at Anakin. Anakin responded with screams of pain as he grabbed his sides. Bolts of blue lightning shot all over him, sending his body into convulsions. A minute passed and Palpatine stopped the current shooting from his hands. The screaming died down, and the interrogation continued. "Padme is your wife. Shmi was your mother. You were a Jedi. You were thinking of these things and realized there is something that is going to be released into the galaxy." Smoked rose from Anakin's body, as he hung lifelessly. Palpatine changed that as he moved the body from mid-air to the balcony. Anakin lied on the ground groaning in pain from the electricity slowly moving trough his body.
"Do you know what that 'something' is?" Palpatine hissed at Anakin. Anakin coughed and turned over on his back, looking at his master. "What?" he gasped. "Your child," Palpatine answered. Anakin's eyes opened wide as he stood up. As soon as he did, he grabbed the railing and supported himself as his bottom lip began to shake. "My child?" Palpatine nodded. "He can be used against us, Anakin. If we do not find Padme, or this unborn child, we will have a threat entering the galaxy. We cannot have that." Anakin nodded. The Jedi will train my child their way, Anakin thought. NO! I will not let them train him. If my child lives, he will be like me. "He will be one of us, Master." Palpatine nodded. "You have learned much. Find if your wife lives. If she does, bring her before me. No exceptions. If the child is born, you will bring it before me." "Yes, Master." "We must accelerate this plan," Palpatine commented. He closed his mind and went into a trance. Where is she? "She was sick, when I last saw her. If she is alive, she's probably in a medical facility," Anakin observed. "Yes.," Palpatine said. "Good." Minutes passed until Palpatine opened his eyes to Anakin. "Alderaan." Anakin responded with a smirk and headed out the door. "Anakin." The dark warrior spun around, while the Emperor slowly approached him. "I have taught you anger. I have taught you to hate. I have taught you to fear. And now, you need no more lessons. You are the Chosen One."
CHAPTER L
The Jedi walked slowly down the dimly lit hall. All of the lights had completely gone out and darkness covered the Jedi Temple as it had for the past weeks. Ever since the battle of Nkllon and the termination of almost all of the Jedi, the Temple had never been the same. Young padawans weren't practicing with remote droids, teenagers weren't studying in the Jedi Archives, and masters of all species no longer walked the halls. Except for one. Except for the dozen Jedi that were scattered across the galaxy, never to show themselves again, Obi-Wan Kenobi was the last of the Jedi. He walked with both hands behind his back and his head lowered. Footsteps echoed loudly in the hall, and Obi-Wan did not notice this. His mind was set on one thing; one objective; one destiny: to kill Anakin Skywalker. My own apprentice? Obi-Wan thought. How could I? Ordered by my former master to train Anakin, and now ordered twelve years after his death, by Qui-Gon himself, to kill the boy. What is that? Being visited by his master's spirit confused and fascinated Obi-Wan at first, but once the conversation turned towards the destruction of Anakin, he couldn't believe what Qui-Gon was saying.
The Jedi Starfighter took off into the night sky, passing next to large freighters as it made its way out of Coruscant's atmosphere. Obi-Wan looked at his viewscreen and flipped switches, trying to locate a nearby hyperspace ring. He couldn't. Flipping more switches, widening the radius of his search, Obi-Wan found what he was looking for. The hyperspace ring laid a quarter of the distance from Coruscant to Alderaan. Obi-Wan frowned, but decided it was worth it. He would be going in that direction anyways and it was better to have a trip without lightspeed for 25% of the time than not at all. The ship took off into the direction of the ring only to arrive on Alderaan later than expected.
CHAPTER LI
The black robe flowed behind him with a powerful and menacingly look. Black boots struck the metal platform hard as the figure approached his ship. When he did, two black gloves grabbed the ladder and began pulling the body up towards the cock-pit. The lid opened with a hiss and the figure leaped in. "Remember, Anakin," the cloaked Emperor began from the platform, "you will not fail. If she lives, you will bring her before me." Anakin nodded at his master from his seat with a stern expression on his face. While he still kept that strong face of determination, the ship's engines roared to life and lifted off the platform. Called the Dark Seeker, it was in fact completely black and very sleek, with the size of a Jedi Starfighter. The acceleration kicked in, and it was off into the sky, blending with the dark night sky. As the Emperor stood and watched the ship leave, he smiled to himself. My, my, he thought. Anakin, you are gifted. He remained on the landing platform, looking up at the countless stars, knowing the day would come when they would all belong to him.
The Dark Seeker flew at high speeds through the thinning traffic, making its way out of Coruscant's atmosphere. When it had, it glided slowly in space for a few moments. As soon as the coordinates for the Alderaan system were complete, it burst into lightspeed, disappearing in milliseconds from its original location.
The night sky on Alderaan was the same it usually was. Clear and wide open, without ships in the sky. It was in the middle of the morning and Padme sat in her hospital room, finishing a small dish of thecioria. The tan, pudding-like substance had been given to her each night for the many weeks she had been the hospital. She had hardly touched it in the past and just washed it down the sink, but tonight was different. Tonight was the night she had a feeling that she better do something to help her and the baby. Ever since Anakin's turn, she couldn't bring herself to what had happened. But now, things were different. She couldn't explain it, but something reached out to her in her dreams and told her that the baby she was carrying wasn't just any ordinary baby. Padme smiled at the thought of her child being a hero, and rubbed her stomach, trying to feel its spirit. As her hand moved down her stomach, a sharp pain struck her chest. Immediately, her hand reached grabbed where her heart was and began clawing at it. Her eyes shut tightly and her mind did everything it could to try to lower the pain. But it couldn't. The more Padme breathed, the more the pain increased. Increasing so high that she fell back onto the bed, gasping for air as heart felt as though it would explode. Arching her stomach into the air, she began to inch closer and closer to the panic button, using her feet to move her. But she didn't get far as her vision became blurry and clouded. The panic button she was looking at was on a small box, resting on the bedside table. But as the cloudiness increased, the object she focused on began to blend with its surroundings, diminishing all of its contrast. Padme began whimpering as the veins in her left arm began to burn. She grabbed the burning spots with her out-stretched right hand. And rubbed it, trying not to think of the amazing pressure on her heart. But at that moment, she felt a kick in her stomach. Not just an ordinary kick, but one that diminished the pain in her arm. The kicking stopped and Padme reached out again for the panic button. As her hand began to shake, so did the small panic button. It started moving slightly, but then more and more. Padme wasn't even noticing, with her eyes closed from the pain in her chest. But the more her hand shook, the closer the panic button moved. A few seconds later, and the panic button shot straight into Padme's hand. The second it landed, she held the button down. Sweat dripped down her forehead as she held the button down and her vision went to black. Her body lied on the bed, with the chest not rising. The moon shined into the room, hitting Padme's lifeless body.
CHAPTER LII
Hours passed since Obi-Wan's departure of Coruscant and he was finally nearing the hyperspace ring. In a few minutes he would attach himself to it and be to Alderaan in no time. But as he could see the hyperspace ring, resting in space, a stab hit him through the Force. His head went light and he shook it, trying to focus on lining the ship up with the ring. He couldn't explain the feeling he had just had, but fear and death was on his mind. And they both revolved around Padme.
The Dark Seeker pulled out of lightspeed and stopped with Alderaan directly in front of it. It slowly glided to the blue-green planet as the pilot punched up a list of its medical facilities. A list of over 50,000 popped up. Black-gloved hands typed in a few numbers and the list narrowed down to 2,500. With more and more typing, the list was lowered and lowered, until it became the lowest it could be. One name remained: University of Aldera Hospital. Anakin smiled and looked towards the planet with dark and brooding eyes.
The white buildings had a shade of gray to them, as the sun was to rise in the next half hour. The black ship slipped unnoticed through the buildings of Alderaan. Its built in cloaking device proved useful in a situation like this. Anakin couldn't believe a ship this small could cloak, and had no problem with it. The Dark Seeker approached and landed in an abandoned shipping hanger a mile from the hospital. The room was small and crowded with discarded crates and fallen scrap metal. It didn't fit the cleanliness and purity of the rest of the university, but was exactly what Anakin was looking for to hide his ship. The hatch opened and the dark warrior leapt out onto the hanger floor, landing in a crouched position, looking from side to side, checking to see if he had gone unnoticed since his arrival. Noticing that no one had entered or even approached the entrance to the hanger, Anakin stood up and slowly pulled his hood on top of his head. Checking his lightsaber at his side, he shot into a sprint for the entrance. He had timed scenarios like this before and didn't give a second thought to it as he jumped from the entrance of the hanger and fell fifty feet below. The wind smacked his face and his black robe fluttered in the wind. The flapping of the fabric stopped immediately as Anakin came in contact with a passing medic speeder. He held on with both hands and his robe continued fluttering as the speeder cruised along. The human driving it turned around to lock eyes with Anakin. About to scream at the dark eyes staring back at him, the medic relaxed his face and stared back. You will relax, Anakin soothed into the young man's mind. You will not panic. You will continue going to the hospital. "I will relax," the medic repeated, turning and staring straight ahead. "I will not panic. I will continue going to the hospital." Anakin nodded and watched as the hospital came into view. You're there, aren't you? Anakin thought. Resting comfortably? Believing you'll never see me again. We'll your wrong. I'm coming, Padme. The small medic ship pulled up to the base of the hospital and Anakin leapt off. He stared at the driver of the ship and waved. The driver flew off, not remembering a single thing off what happened. As the ship flew farther and farther away, Anakin stuck two fingers apart at the ship. After pointing them at the distant ship for a few seconds, he brought the two fingers together, as if they were an invisible pair of scissors.
On the ship, the medic shook his head, trying to get rid of the massive headache he had. But as he kept shaking his head, he didn't notice the flashing button on his control panel, notifying him that the brake line had been cut.
Anakin smiled as the ship grew farther and farther into the distance, soon disappearing behind a building. A few moments later, an explosion was heard and a tall ball of smoke and flame leaped into the sky. Following the first explosion came many more as shuttles crashed into each other, creating a large pile-up. Anakin's smile grew larger as the sirens began and medic ships could be heard taking off from all around the hospital. Waiting for his moment, Anakin crept into the hospital. He slipped by the head secretary, who was busy with calls about the crash that had just happened. The hallways lay bare and quiet as Anakin quickly jogged down them to get to the nearest elevator. He found one and quickly grabbed a chart from the wall. He scanned it with incredible speed and found what he was looking for: Skywalker, Padme.
The elevator reached the floor and the doors opened, revealing Anakin standing in all of his evilness, holding his lightsaber handle. He began walking towards the room, his boots thudding on the ground. Closer and closer he moved to the room at the end of the hall. Closer and closer he moved to Padme. Closer and closer he moved to his child. If she lives, she will be powerless against me. No more running Padme. Anakin stood right outside the door and slowly rapped his hand on it.
"Padme?" he asked softly. Then, he took a step back and kicked the door in, causing it to break into pieces. He leaped into the room and ignited his lightsaber, keeping it close to his side, but was amazed at what he saw.
The Jedi Starfighter pulled out of hyperspace exactly where Anakin had. At the flip of a switch, the starfighter detached from the ring and flew towards Alderaan. This was Obi-Wan's moment to be able to reach Bail Organa. Since he wasn't traveling through hyperspace, Obi-Wan didn't risk the danger of turning on his receiver. On a few other Jedi Starfighters, three Jedi had died from using their receiver for messages while traveling at lightspeed. When the receiver was switched on, it passed through the same source for hyperspace. If that source box was being used and a receiver was switched on, a spark and hyperdrive fluid would not be the correct combination. Setting the coordinates for one of Bail's offices in the University of Aldera, Obi-Wan tried reaching him, but couldn't get through. He decided to wait until he got into the planet's atmosphere before trying again. Sirens covered the University of Aldera, from all different vehicles. Fire, police, and ambulances lined the sky, trying to save lives and put out the enormous fire engulfing the School of Art. Fire had claimed so much of the building that the workers could not enter. Fire droids were on the way, but would not arrive for minutes. Obi-Wan looked in horror at the burning building and all of the people in it. He quickly tried Bail's office again, but this time received a recording. "Obi-Wan-" Bail's voice began, breaking up in static from the frequencies that the rescue workers were using. "Yo.m.stust..ggg..tt.Mm.ssttt.rr.Yoda...ffff.ee..arrkkk.Side. Padme.sssiii...dy..ang. Hhh.urrrry." The message ended, and Obi-Wan couldn't piece it together. It was the only thing that stuck on his mind as he landed in front of the hospital on a landing pad and walked into the building.
CHAPTER LIII
The elevator reached the lowest floor of the hospital and the doors opened. The room was covered in darkness, until a hand pointed towards a wall and the light switched on. One set of lights slowly flickered on, followed by a second, a third, and fourth set. The white, bright light revealed rows of tables and cooling chambers for dead bodies. The metal tables were polished beyond belief. The lights from above reflected off of them, casting bits of light in all directions. The cooling chambers were a dull gray and covered all the walls of the room. The figure stepped out of the elevator and walked slowly down the aisle with tables on either side of it. The room grew cooler towards the back and as the figure reached that area, he grabbed a handle to one of the chambers and pulled it open. The drawer slid out with a body in a black tarp lying on it. Anakin moved to its side and rested each of his hands on the drawer. Looking the covered body up and down, he stopped when a piece of paper resting next to it confirmed who it was: Skywalker, Padme.
Obi-Wan stared at the bare room as he stood in the doorway. Padme's clothes, belongings, everything, was all gone. The bed had been stripped and all of the medical supplies were gone. Nothing remained except for the necessities of a normal hospital room. Feeling as though something wasn't quite right, Obi-Wan walked into the room, studying it. Rubbing his fingers on the wall and door showed that no blasters or weapons were used. As he turned around and went to the bedside table, Obi-Wan almost fell to knees. There lying on the table was a doctor's report of Padme. Stamped across the report in red letters was the word DECEASED.
The morgue still remained quiet as Anakin stood over his wife's body. The tarp still covered her, and Anakin was having emotional trouble removing it. For the first time in months, his true feelings towards his wife were showing. A tear rolled down his cheek as he took a step away from the body. "My whole life, I wanted to be the best there was and ever would be," Anakin confessed to the body. "As a slave I dreamed of escaping with my mother and traveling the galaxy together. I wanted to be with her forever. But I couldn't save her that day. You were there for me and knew what it was like for me. You lost your father, I lost my mother. We're split right down the center, Padme. I fought in the war to make up for my mother's death, but now I realize that it was you that I should have been with, rather than the battlefields. I tried to play God, Padme. I tried. But I can tell you right now that I am becoming what I've always wanted. I will soon have the power to have men tremble before me. I will soon be able to have the fate of a planet in my hand. I will soon be an agent of evil. An agent of the Dark Side. I am the Chosen One, Padme. The Emperor and I are the Sith. The remaining Jedi have gone into hiding, and will soon die out and I will see to that myself. What I didn't realize when I was a Jedi was all of the pain I was creating for others. Count Dooku saw it and I've replaced him. Mace Windu didn't see it and I've corrected him. Obi-Wan didn't see it." Anakin's voice and eyes trailed off as he realized that Obi- Wan was still alive. "Why didn't I see it before? He's the one! He's the one who's destroyed my life. He's the reason my mother is dead. He's the reason you are dead. He's the reason my life has been destroyed! Obi-Wan Kenobi! He's held me back while I was his apprentice, but he can't anymore. If I can't give you to the Emperor, than he will do." Anakin's mind began wandering again as millions of thoughts went through his mind. "Obi-Wan." "Anakin!" a voice shouted from the end of the room. Anakin jumped at the shout and quickly positioned himself in a defense position at the figure in front of the elevator. "Obi-Wan!" Anakin growled. Hate began boiling inside his heart. His lips curled and began to shake as his former master walked slowly towards him. Anakin reached for his lightsaber as Obi-Wan tried to make him relax. "Anakin," Obi-Wan began, "don't do this. I know what you're going through and I want to he-" "Don't say that!" Anakin screamed, moving from table to table, opposite Obi-Wan. "You don't know what I'm going through. You never knew and never will. You've destroyed my life! My mother and my wife are dead because of you!" "H-how can you say that?" Obi-Wan responded, moving with Anakin around the room. "I love you, Anakin. You're my best friend and I've done my b-" "I'm warning you," interrupted Anakin. "Don't say things like that again. You're not my friend. You're my enemy and I hate you!" "No, no," pleaded Obi-Wan. "You are my friend, Anakin." With a warrior cry, Anakin leapt across the table in front of him and landed on top of Obi-Wan. Studying martial arts himself, Obi-Wan quickly pushed him over himself with his foot and jumped up to face his apprentice. But as soon as he regained his balance, Anakin was there to punch him across the face. Obi-Wan fell back, sliding across a long table. Shaking his head from the pain he received, Obi-Wan gripped the table and lifted himself up to find the room empty.
The hospital was now covered with doctors, medics, and emergency victims. The accident that Anakin had caused had led to over one hundred victims and they were now being brought to the hospital. Students and adults of all species laid on stretchers or were leaning against walls while doctors and medics were rushing to their needs. The main lobby was engulfed in chaos as Anakin began shoving people out of his way. Victims fell over each other, screaming in pain as the dark warrior pushed his way to the entrance. Between the screaming of doctors and medics for assistance and the victims from being knocked over, Anakin couldn't hear Obi-Wan shouting at the other end of the lobby. "Anakin!" Obi-Wan continued shouting, only to be drowned out. Pushing his way through the crowd of victims, he flinched at all the painful feelings he received through the Force. The pain of the others didn't seem to bother Anakin, but almost comforted him. Feeling the pain of others through the Force almost gave him confidence and endorphins to keep on moving. He couldn't explain why he ran from Obi-Wan, it just seemed like reporting to the Emperor would be more important. Than why I am running? He thought. I don't fear him. I don't think he's better than me. He's never been better than me. He's always thought he's been better than me! Anakin turned to look at Obi-Wan, and found that he was clearly at the other end of the room. The numerous amount of victims in pain caused the Jedi Master from tuning into Anakin's feelings or help him proceed through the large lobby. Anakin smiled as a burnt patient pushed himself on Obi-Wan, pleading for the Jedi to help. He'll get his later. Anakin reached the main entrance and walked calmly through the double doors, smiling up at the clouds that were covering the sky. Looking around at the parked ambulances and droids pushing in victims, Anakin continued the smile. He quickly jogged off the sidewalk and proceeded down the grassy hill towards the abandoned hanger he had arrived in. Reaching the bottom of the building he looked up to find juts sticking out of the old building. Not thinking twice about it, he jumped to the first jut, thirty feet up. The next one was a bit smaller and took fifteen feet to jump to. Anakin flipped off the second one and landed on the interior edge of the hanger. Walking deeper into the dark hanger, a small click of a switch on his wristband and Anakin watched as he ship came into vision. The cloaking device wore off and the Dark Seeker came into sight. The cock-pit opened and Anakin hopped in, laughing out loud at Obi- Wan and how he still must be trapped in the hospital. But that laugh died quickly as a low rumble of an engine was heard and a Jedi Starfighter lifted itself into view outside the hanger. Obi-Wan sat in the cockpit and stared straight ahead. With a stern, unbroken face, he shook his head at the dark warrior. Anakin growled and shut the cock-pit lid. His hands gripped the controls and the ship roared to life, flooring towards the Jedi Starfighter. The Dark Seeker sped through the hanger towards the entrance. Obi-Wan sat in the hovering starfighter patiently. Playing a game of chicken, Obi-Wan sped the ship towards Anakin. The two headed towards each other at amazing speeds. Without taking their eyes off of each other, they came two meters from each other until Anakin quickly pulled his ship to the right, barely missing Obi- Wan and making his escape out of the hanger. Obi-Wan quickly turned his ship and followed Anakin into the sky and soon into space.
CHAPTER LIV
Coruscant's sun had been up for the past few hours, yet the Emperor's office remained dark. A red hologram was presented in front of him. It was a large sphere and was slowly spinning on its axis. The hologram split in half and showed the internal structures of the sphere. The hologram was in fact the plans for the battle station Count Dooku had had designed by the Geonosisians. Oh, Anakin, you didn't realize I had the plans all along. Your mission to Nkllon to retrieve these plans was just a trap. No, not a trap. A step. A step closer to your destiny. A step closer to when you will become mine. "Your Excellency?" a voice called from over the speaker. Palpatine pressed a button and answered, "What is it?" "I need to speak to you for a moment," the voice answered. "Alright, Sly," Palpatine answered, shutting off the hologram and removing the disk from the drive. What could she want? He spun around in his chair to put the disk away in a drawer when he heard the doors to his office open. After closing the drawer, Palpatine spun around to find Sly pointing a blaster at him. "Your Excellency," Sly began. "I must admit have enjoyed working with you." Palpatine shot his hand out and snatched the blaster out of Sly's grip through the Force. The blaster was now being pointed at Sly. "You were saying?" Palpatine asked. "I.uh,wha-" Sly couldn't finish her sentence as Palpatine pulled the trigger, hitting her square in the chest. She flew back and fell over a chair, lying motionless on the floor. Palpatine tossed the gun at her body and shook his head, "You were so trustworthy in the beginning. But if you can't accept the fact that Anakin is my apprentice, you better quit." He then hit a key on his desk and up popped a screen showing Anakin's position outside of Alderaan. His ship was flying away, and Palpatine smiled at the sight. He would soon be receiving news on Padme's status. But before he could stand up, another ship on the sensor appeared. Palpatine's smile faded as he saw that it was a Jedi Starfighter following the Dark Seeker. Storming out of the room and leaving Sly's dead body, Palpatine headed for his personal ship, giving into the Dark Side of the Force in order to find where his apprentice was going.
CHAPTER LV
Space laid quiet outside Alderaan, until the Dark Seeker came roaring past, quickly followed by the Jedi Starfighter. Anakin glared at his sensors, watching as Obi-Wan moved from side to side, but while still staying on his tail. With a few flips of a switch, the Dark Seeker began preparing to make the jump into lightspeed.
Obi-Wan watched as the Dark Seeker continued to move from side to side, while he grabbed for his comlink.
"An..ki.n," a garbled voice came over Anakin's speaker. "An..akin. Where a.rr..e y..ou going?" Fumbling for his own speaker, Anakin thought about what to answer. "You'll see. Prepare for feeling the power of Emperor, Jedi. When I get to Coruscant, he'll be quite upset to find you're still alive." "D..don'ttt do this," the transmission responded. "Whatev.ver yy..ou've done, I forgive you." Anakin snorted into his comlink and tossed it aside as his ship finalized the coordinates for the jump.
Obi-Wan gave up with his comlink and knew he had no other choice. To his side he pulled a small computer screen in front of his right eye. On the screen were the coordinates the Dark Seeker was in. Pressing a few buttons allowed the screen to show the internal structure of the ship and began to focus on the hyperdrive generator. Aiming carefully for the part, Obi-Wan fired.
Anakin couldn't believe what had happened. The ship felt as though an asteroid had rammed it as Anakin picked himself back into his chair. Sensors and lights began to flash, warning that the hyperdrive was leaking.
"Obi-Wan!" Anakin shouted, grabbing the controls and trying to steady the ship. Another hit from behind sent the ship into barrel rolls. Anakin knew what Obi-Wan was doing. He's not trying to kill me. He's trying to disable me! The ship continued spinning and Anakin lost total control of the ship as it went offline. "What?!" Anakin shouted, pushing the main controls in all directions. The Dark Seeker continued doing barrel rolls, moving towards a planet he had been to long ago.
Nkllon was a dead volcano planet. The grounds hadn't erupted in centuries, and creatures lived hundreds of miles below the surface where it was still warm. Yet, even though the outer crust was mainly rock, small pits of lava existed, not even hot enough if you stood near them. However, the Jedi ambush at the battle of Nkllon proved that the planet was reborn. The lava that had laid quiet and unseen for hundreds of years now covered more than three quarters of the planet. Miles of black, hard rock now was an endless sea of lava. Small islands protruded here and there, but were amazingly hot if stood on. The only pieces of land that could be stood on were those that were many feet above the lava sea. The Dark Seeker flew at the slowest speed it could when Anakin attempted to override the system towards a tall and long stretch of rock. Anakin braced for impact as the ship crashed into a large group of boulders. The front of the ship exploded and the back portion split right off. Anakin slowly pulled himself out of the burning and wrecked ship, grabbing his left cheek. Touching it carefully, he felt as his skin had been sliced in three horizontal rows. It did not bleed very badly and Anakin tried to ignore it as he pulled himself and landed on both feet on the hard, rocky surface. Before he could examine his body anymore, he quickly looked up into the sky at the Jedi Starfighter approaching. While it landed thirty feet away, Anakin grabbed his lightsaber off of his belt and walked away from his wreck and farther down the long stretch of rock. Looking off the side, lava rested in a massive sea over one hundred feet below. "Anakin!" a familiar voice shouted from behind the warrior. Anakin turned to see his former master walking towards him in his tunic and brown robe. The expression on his master's face was that of failure and pain to see what Anakin had become. "Obi-Wan," Anakin answered, nodding his head to the Jedi. "Why?" was all he asked. This came as an insult to Anakin. "Why? Why?! Why was I betrayed? Why was my mother killed? Why was my wife stolen from me? Why was she then left to die in a hospital? Why? You have destroyed me, Obi-Wan, but I am reborn. No longer do you have the apprentice to push around and abuse. Now you have a master. A master that will teach you the ultimate nature of the Force." "Are you the master, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked. "You're whole life as a Jedi, I have trained you to accept the Light Side of the Force, and you have obviously gone against it. I can now only hope that you will never become a member of the Dark Side. Only then will you truly suffer." "I've suffered enough Obi-Wan! My held my mother as she died in my arms. My wife lies dead in a body bag in a hospital morgue. And here you are saying I haven't suffered?!" "Anakin, we've all suffered. Padme's death is hard on all of us. But her death or the child's can't lead you to-" "DON'T TALK ABOUT MY CHILD! IF IT WEREN'T FOR YOU, IT WOULD STILL BE ALIVE! YOU TOOK PADME FROM ME AND MY CHILD!"
The Alderiniaan Cruiser pulled out of lightspeed, and glided towards Naboo. Onboard, Bail sat at the controls, looking back at the body on a pull-out bed. Yoda stood next to it and held his three-fingered hand on its forehead, administering powers of the Force. Dorme sat on the other side, hooking in a new IV. While C-3PO and R2-D2 sat in the back of the room, Dorme looked down into the half open eyes of Padme.
CHAPTER LVI
The two warriors stared straight at each other. Obi-Wan had not yet grabbed his lightsaber from his belt, but knew that he might have to soon. "What I want, Obi-Wan," Anakin began, "is that you experience all of the pain and suffering I have gone through." "You're talking revenge, Anakin." "More. I'm not just talking revenge. I want you to suffer the heartbreak of losing loved ones. I want you to know what its like to be betrayed by someone you trusted and then be disarmed by a Sith." "But isn't that what you're becoming? The very same kind of person that you have spent the last two years trying to find?" "Dooku's dead. He was nothing compared to my power. You couldn't handle yourself against him on Geonosis, and now you face the one who destroyed him." "No, I won't fight you." "Why is that?" "I don't think you've completely turned to evil, Anakin. The Emperor hasn't finished with you. I can see it. I saw on Alderaan when you looked at the body in the morgue. You haven't been driven from the real Anakin." "This is the real Anakin." "No, it's not. I've seen the real Anakin. Qui-Gon told me to destroy you, but I can't. I won't." "Is that your destiny?" Obi-Wan nodded, folding his arms into his robe. "Very well." Anakin grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it. A meter length blue blade shot up from the handle, illuminating Anakin's face while red lava exploded in the distance. Even though the two were on an island far above the lava, three volcanoes surrounded the south side of them. Lava had not erupted from them, but smoke had begun to slowly creep from openings. Anakin twirled his lightsaber with incredible skill and held it over his head while he stuck his left hand out at Obi-Wan, motioning for the Jedi to approach. Obi-Wan stood his ground, not moving a muscle. Trying a few more moves by himself, Anakin gave up offering Obi-Wan the offense. Jumping out at Obi-Wan with a move that the Emperor had taught him, Anakin spun his blue blade at the Jedi. Inches from getting his face sliced off, Obi-Wan ignited his blue lightsaber blade and blocked his opponent's attack. "That's it, Obi-Wan," Anakin taunted. "You can't escape this. This will come to an end and when it does, there will be only one, true master." "It doesn't have to be this way, Anakin," Obi-Wan advised, while keeping Anakin back by pushing on his lightsaber. "You can come with me. We can destroy the Emperor together." "You just don't get it, do you?" Anakin gave up pushing on Obi-Wan and spun away, only to come roaring back in a spiraling display of a blue circular blade. Obi-Wan was familiar with this attack and flipped over his opponent and swung at him. Anakin blocked the blow while his back was turned and quickly crouched to ground, slicing at Obi-Wan's legs. The Jedi rolled to his right side, only to have his robe get caught on a rock jutting out of the surface. Trying to rip it free, he saw Anakin bring the saber down on his face. With a loud tear, Obi-Wan rolled away while Anakin brought his blue blade on part of the robe and the rock it was caught on.\ "Not a bad idea," Anakin commented, quickly taking off his black robe, only to reveal his all black outfit underneath. "This is mere child's play. We have yet begun to fight." Throwing his robe off to the side, Obi- Wan managed to pull off the other half of his robe that remained on the left side of his body. "What did you see in me, Obi-Wan? When you first met me? Was it curiosity? Fear? Jealousy?" "Why jealousy, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, slowly preparing himself in a defense stance. "You tell me. I was the one your master praised. You were the one he was abandoning and I was the one he was going to take on as an apprentice. He was going to leave you, Obi-Wan, to reach.higher ambitions he had. Namely me becoming a Jedi." "And look at you now." "Yes! Do look at me now!" Anakin opened his arms as if he were presenting himself to a group of judges. "I have now become what the Jedi feared most. And only when they have been wiped from the galaxy, the balance will be complete. Qui-Gon said it himself." Obi-Wan had had enough of this talk. "Don't ever speak of Qui-Gon." "Oooo.I've hit a nerve." Anakin laughed out a hearty laugh which quickly turned into scream as he attacked Obi-Wan. Blue blade met with blue blade in an explosion of light. The two warriors exploded in a fury of strikes and stabs that increased in speed, proving who was faster delivering and blocking. Sweat slowly began to drip off both of their foreheads, and neither noticed the increase of heat. While the test of who was faster continued, lava slowly began to rise out of the mouth of one of the volcanoes. At first, it came to the top and rested there. Then, it took off down the steep hill towards the duel. Large boulders blocked some of the red lava, but the rest continued moving. Not taking his eyes off of Obi- Wan, Anakin felt the heat increase and the approaching red river. Ducking from a swing, he pushed himself from his crouched position and shot into the air. Traveling forty feet in the air, Anakin landed on a large boulder while lava flowed on either side of him. "Come on!" he beckoned to Obi-Wan, who was watching the approaching lava and his ship. Twirling his lightsaber in a few circles, he plunged it into the rock he stood on and ran with it to either end of the island. The area he stood on was only twenty feet wide and was much larger on either end. But what happened work perfectly for the Jedi. The lava reached where he was standing and fell into the grove, splitting itself either way and then falling off the side of the island. Smiling at his own work, Obi-Wan turned back to Anakin, who was now leaping over small paths of lava to a drier area. Obi-Wan followed and leaped farther than Anakin did, arriving a few rocks behind him. "Don't give up now, Obi-Wan!" Anakin shouted to the person behind him while he jumped over the last small patch of lava. Turning around he continued, "You only have a lit-" But before he could finish, Obi-Wan delivered a flying kick straight to his face. Anakin screamed as he rolled to the ground, grabbing his left cheek. The wound he had received from his crash hadn't healed and was still sore, but had slightly closed up. The kick Obi-Wan delivered broke it open and blood began to run down Anakin's cheek. Pushing himself up from the ground, Anakin ignited his weapon and lost his cocky attitude as he began attacking Obi-Wan. With so much pain and anger in him, he actually began pushing Obi-Wan farther and farther back. Sweat was now pouring down each of their faces, and Anakin winced as the salt in his sweat met with his cheek wound. What Anakin couldn't believe was how Obi-Wan had quickly changed from being non-aggressive to the complete opposite. "I'm just defending myself, not fighting you," Obi-Wan said, blocking a blow and stepping away from the lava behind him. Anakin had to smile, despite the wound on his face. "Reading my thoughts?" "You're mind is an open book to me, Anakin." Ob-Wan smiled. "It always has." "Then read this." Anakin turned his back and threw his lightsaber straight at Obi-Wan. It headed towards the Jedi in a boomerang fashion, to which he simply dodged. Standing straight up, he began walking towards Anakin, not considering the spinning lightsaber that was returning its trip back to its master's waiting hand. Before he could react, Obi-Wan felt the lightsaber slash through his tunic above his waist on the left side. Grabbing his side in pain, Obi-Wan fell to his knees, trying to use the Force to ease the pain of his flesh being burned away. Catching the lightsaber in his black-gloved hand, Anakin began walking towards Obi-Wan. "You don't know the power I posses. You might have taught me the way of the Jedi, but I will teach you the way of the Sith. Unfortunately for you, this is the lesson. Obi-Wan, some day you are going to have to realize that evil triumphs over good." Glaring up at Anakin, Obi-Wan responded, "I swear on my master's soul, that that will never happen as long as I'm alive." Regaining his strength, he sliced at Anakin's legs and sent the dark warrior jumping into the air. While he was in the air, Obi-Wan pushed him back into a huge boulder with the Force. A crack was heard when Anakin met the rock and tried his best to stand up. Both of the warriors were exhausted and slowly stood up to face each other. "The end of the battle is near, Obi-Wan," Anakin wheezed. Too much ash had gotten into his lungs and his voice was a bit rougher than usual. "I want to see how much more you have in you." "More than you think, my friend," Obi-Wan answered, hitting his chest, trying to clear his throat. Anakin walked towards Obi-Wan at a much slower speed than before, and got two three feet from him before commenting, "You are unwise to lower your defenses!" The quick swing of his lightsaber to Obi-Wan's head woke the Jedi up. The pain in his lungs and his side left his mind as did Anakin's in his lungs and cheek. "Like I said, Obi-Wan, the end is near." "For me?" Anakin slowly nodded and turned from Obi-Wan, sprinting up the middle volcano that had not erupted. The one to its right already had and was finished pumping lava out of it. Obi-Wan took off after the lead runner. The ground that the two were running on was crumbling and very unstable. Every few feet, the ground would give way, causing one of them to fall to his knee, only to catch himself and continue running. Obi-Wan had no idea why Anakin would run up the entire volcano, but knew that the duel had to end soon. Breathing anymore of the ash or smoke would completely damage his lungs and would probably die on the spot. But if the time comes when I can't breathe anymore, what about Anakin? I can't leave him here. I've got to save him. But what I've said to him, they're only words. Obi-Wan reached the rim of the volcano and watched as Anakin cracked his neck, preparing himself for the final duel. But before Obi-Wan could ready himself, Anakin began, bursting into energy he didn't have before. His fighting was cleaner and smoother, as Obi-Wan had to give into his typical Form III defense. Blue light burst from each hit the two met with. The footwork of the two took off and they soon were both moving all around the edge of the volcano. Never had Obi-Wan been a duel as serious as this. When he dueled with the Sith warrior, Darth Maul, his rank met with that of his opponent. Other than the deadly bounty hunter, Jango Fett, he fought and the thousands of droids he had sliced through, the duel he was engaged in was the most intense. Not only was it intense physically, but mentally. His own apprentice had turned to the Dark Side and was now trying to kill his former master. Anakin, however, dealt with this duel as if it were the key moment in his life. And it was. The very man who was responsible for all of the unfortunates in his life was engaged with him in a fight to the death. But what Anakin didn't notice was the rising lava in the volcano as he took a step to far to the left. The ground below him gave way and he caught himself before plummeting. Gone before he could realize, Obi-Wan choked on his own breath as his apprentice held on to the edge of the volcano. Deactivating his lightsaber and attaching it to his belt, Obi-Wan had tears form in his eyes as he got on his knees to reach out for Anakin. "ANAKIN!" Obi-Wan screamed. "Give me your hand!" Anakin didn't respond. Instead, he looked below him at the approaching lava. It rose higher and higher, meters from his feet. "Please! The lava is rising!" Anakin responded this time with a shake of his head. It was then that he realized what he had to become. Moments flashed before his eyes. His mother holding him in front of the setting twin suns, growing up with his fellow slave friends, crashing in his first pod race, finding C-3PO, celebrating one of his mother's birthdays, meeting Qui-Gon Jinn and Padme, winning the Boonta Eve Podrace, saying goodbye to his mother, traveling to Coruscant, appearing in front of the Jedi Council, traveling to Naboo, destroying a Trade Federation Starship, watching Qui-Gon's body burn in front of him, celebrating a peace parade on Naboo, saying goodbye to Padme, training to become a Jedi, going on his first mission with Obi-Wan, killing for the first time, settling a border dispute on Ansion, reuniting with Padme, chasing Zam Wessel through a nightclub, falling in love with Padme, returning to Tatooine, meeting the Lars', holding his mother die in his arms, fighting on Geonosis, losing his arm to Count Dooku, proposing to Padme, then marrying her, fighting in many battles, promising Padme he would stop fighting, receiving a metal from Palpatine, fighting with the Jedi on Dooku's ship, chasing down the villain, secretly visiting Padme at night, leading an army of clone troopers and storm troopers on Nkllon, being rescued by Obi-Wan, killing Dooku, taking the Emperor's hand, killing Mace Windu, assassinating senators with Boba Fett, being electrocuted by Palpatine, fleeing to Alderaan, finding his wife's body, crashing on Nkllon, fighting with Obi-Wan, and where he was now. All of it didn't matter anymore as Anakin shook the memories of his former self. The lava had now reached a few feet from his boots and the soles began to soften and melt as Anakin gripped the edge tighter. "Anakin! You have to grab my hand! There's no time!" "It's too late for me, Obi-Wan," Anakin answered in a low voice. "Go." "No," Obi-Wan answered. But just then, something hit him through the Force. He couldn't explain it, but it was the presence of someone. What is that? That feeling seems familiar. He dug deeper into his mind. Padme! "Anakin! I saw her! I saw Padme! She's still alive. So is your child! It's a boy! I can see him. You can still be with them!" "I'd make them join if I could," Anakin responded. The lava now had reached his boots and was melting them completely. "I despise you, Obi-Wan. You've destroyed my life, and I will never forget it. Now, leave me." Tears rolled down Obi-Wan's cheeks as he stared into the eyes of his apprentice. "What about your child?" With his lip trembling, Anakin responded, "Don't tell him what I did." After saying his last words to Obi-Wan, Anakin let go of the rock and began to fall. Despite the fact that the lava was only seven feet below, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Anakin stretched out both of his arms with his eyes closed, awaiting to meet the lava. As he stretched out his body, he took one last look at Obi-Wan before disappearing in the red pit. Feeling as though he were in a dream, Obi-Wan stared in disbelief at what had just happened. The tears stopped rolling down his face and he fell on his back looking at the dark sky. "Qui-Gon.," Obi-Wan said to the sky. "Why?" Before he could get any more of his anger and pain out, a low rumble shook the entire volcano. Realizing that the lava was nearing explosion, Obi-Wan jumped to his feet and sprinted down to his ship. Before he ran ten feet, an explosion shot into the air, sending lava in all directions. Tuning into the Force, Obi-Wan stopped dead in his tracks as lava flew over his head, barely missing him. The Jedi Master spun around to see how far the lava had gotten and then spied something lying near the edge of the volcano. Anakin's lightsaber rested and in moments would be engulfed by lava. Reaching his hand out, Obi-Wan brought the lightsaber flying into his hand. After quickly attaching it to his belt, Obi-Wan began sprinting, dodging the falling lava. After running fifty feet, the Jedi began jumping from rock to rock, avoiding the river. When he reached the end of the rocks, he gathered up all the power he could and leaped across the lava and landed next to his ship. The Jedi Starfighter roared to life and took off into the dark sky. Obi-Wan wiped the sweat from his face and took one last look at the sight. The second volcano had finished erupting and the third was now beginning, covering all of the island in lava and pouring off the side. Ignoring his emotions, Obi-Wan set the coordinates to Alderaan, hoping to get some answers to his questions.
After the lava had stopped flowing out of the third volcano, the area was dead silent. Between the low bubbling and explosions off in the distance, no one could have heard the silent approach of a three-winged black ship. It hovered above the middle volcano, meters from the still hot lava. The hatch opened and revealed the Emperor. Staring into the pool of lava, he began muttering to himself. Before he could say anymore, a low rumble was heard deep below the surface. It grew and grew until a metallic arm shot of it, and grabbed the edge. Bits of burnt flesh remained on it, and gripped the rock with incredible strength. The Emperor watched as a mangled and deformed body pulled itself out of the lava. He could nothing but smile at the strength and determination of his new apprentice as he lied on the edge of the volcano.
CHAPTER LVII
Before the Jedi Starfighter neared anywhere near Alderaan, a voice over the comlink was heard. Obi-Wan grabbed it and tried understanding what was being said on the other end. "Obi-Wan here," the Jedi spoke into the comlink. "Please respond." The static continued and got louder and louder. Obi-Wan just stared at it and threw at the dashboard in anger. He bit his lower lip and stared straight ahead, trying to rid the image of Anakin taking one last look at him before he fell into the pit. Obi-Wan! a voice cried out. Obi-Wan! The Jedi began tapping his headset. What was that voice? He thought. Qui-Gon! Obi-Wan! the voice continued. You will go to the Dagobah system. There the last hope for the galaxy stays. "Qui-Gon," Obi-Wan cried out. "Don't leave!" But after minutes passed without hearing a voice, Obi-Wan set coordinates for the Dagobah system. He had never heard of it before, and wondered what Qui-Gon meant by "the last hope".
The night sky had fallen on Coruscant and the planet was alive as usual. Clubs rocked with patrons and traffic flooded the sky. But below the surface, miles below, an evil was being aided. Palpatine in the shadows of a dark medical room. It laid five miles below the surface, and was secured higher than anything on Coruscant. Droid arms protruded from a main machine, and were laying a heap on an operating table. The heap was a person, burned beyond belief. Its skin was a pasty white, while all of the hair on its head was gone. A deep cut ran down the top of its head and another wound on its left cheek. Its right leg was cut off right above the knee, and the left was missing from a few inches from its hip. The right arm remained, yet lied detached on the table. It was a metal, protocol droid-like arm, with bits of flesh burned onto it. The left arm was completely gone, with the socket going inward into the body. While the body was laid on the table, Palpatine turned to a viewscreen, looking at what needed to be done to it and how long it would take. Calculations predicted that the operation and body modifications would take a few days. After then, resting would take a little over a week. Total, the entire process would take almost two weeks. Palptaine smiled at the design for his apprentice's armor. Never had he seen anything of such power and display. "Emperor Palpatine?" a monotone voice from a droid asked. Palpatine walked towards the droid who was bent over the other side of the table. "Yes? What is it?" "We can't begin surgery." His brow moved low on his face. "Why not?" "The nerve system is experiencing faulty problems. R.E.M. is preventing us from making an accurate incision into the medulla oblongata. Electrodes are moving to rapidly in the lower back portion of the brain and if the victim doesn't calm down then we must wait until he does." "Leave us." Palpatine ordered. "Sir?" the droid asked. The Emperor didn't need to repeat himself as he glared up at the droid. The droid responded by nodding and motioning for the other two droids to leave with him. A few seconds later, the door closed and Palpatine was left alone with the body in front of him. His pasty, old hands rested on the body's face. Feeding all of his energy into the body, Palpatine saw what was happening. Brief images of Jedi, Shmi, and Padme flew into Palpatine's mind. He flinched at these and knew what he had to do. Gathering even more energy in his body he pushed new images into the body's mind.
Images of Jedi chasing and catching Shmi, only to slaughter her with their blades. Her body fell on the ground, and Padme came into view. She wore a white dress and rested her hand on her large stomach. The Jedi saw her and halted. The large group broke apart and out of the center strolled out Obi- Wan. He walked right up to her and kissed her on the lips. After pulling away from the kiss, he quickly ignited his lightsaber and brought it across Padme.
A rough, strained scream filled the medic room, as the mangled body arched its back up. Palpatine took a step back in pleasure knowing that by implanting false images in Anakin's mind would produce pure hatred to his enemies. Traumatizing him like this was just what he needed in order to fulfill Palaptine's needs. While the screaming died down, the body fell back to the table, unconscious. Palpatine walked to the door and opened it. The three droids stood there, pretending they didn't hear the screams from within. "The patient is ready," Palpatine announced. "Begin at once, and I trust you three that you will not fail me."
CHAPTER LVIII
When he heard Qui-Gon's voice, he thought he was imagining it, but now he was believing it even more. He entered the Dagobah system a few hours after his encounter with Anakin and understood why he had never heard of it before. Not a single ship flew on Obi-Wan's radar and few traces of life forms were reported on his control panel. Those life forms that were reported all were grouped in the same area, so Obi-Wan figured that there must be some civilization on the planet. Entering the atmosphere, Obi-Wan became lost in a maze of clouds. They were thick and heavy, preparing to burst with rain any moment. But as he guided himself out of the clouds, he was soon caught in fog. It was nearly as thick as the clouds and Obi-Wan had even a worse time trying to see through them. But before he could realize, a tree branch smacked the front of his ship, shooting it downward towards an muddy opening. The ship crashed in the mud, and the engine slowly died down. Cursing what happened, Obi-Wan opened the hatch and jumped onto the front of the ship. Nothing but gray fog covered the land. His surroundings consisted of vines and dead, trees, resting on swamps. "It's just one big swamp!" Obi-Wan exclaimed with both hands on his hips. "Not just a swamp," a voice said. "My home it is." Obi-Wan looked to his right, and there standing on a tree stump was Yoda.
The cave was large enough for everyone to sit in a circle. In the center of the group, a fire was blazing. Padme sat on a small bed that was brought from Alderaan. Her face was pale white, and she did nothing but stare at the fire dancing. Dorme sat next to her and was leaning towards the fire, stirring a thick stew in a pot. C-3PO and R2 were outside gathering sticks for fire, while Bail sat on the other side of Padme. Obi- Wan and Yoda sat next to each other, opposite of Padme. "Where's Anakin?" Padme asked, not taking her eyes off of the fire. Obi-Wan sat leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded into each other. "Um." Obi-Wan couldn't even get the first sentence out as he got sucked into the vision of the dancing fire. As the flames licked the air, Anakin's face jumped out at Obi-Wan, startling him. Time passed without an answer until Bail asked, "Obi-Wan?" "Hmm?" the Jedi asked still staring at the fire. "He's um." A few seconds passed. "He's dead, Padme." His trance with the fire broke and he looked up at Padme. She stared back at him and nodded slowly. Bail stood up and walked around to Obi-Wan. "I need to talk to you," he whispered into the Jedi's ear. Obi-Wan nodded and looked at Yoda, who got up first and followed Bail.
Screeches and creatures could be heard far off into the distance as the three walked along the edge of a swamp. Obi-Wan did not have his robe anymore and walked with only his tunic. Yoda had seen the burn on the side of him when he arrived and knew it needed to be treated. Obi-Wan just pushed it aside. "What happened on Alderaan, Obi-Wan," Bail began, "must remain secret. If anyone got word that Padme is still alive, the Emperor will stop at nothing to find her. Even though you say Anakin is dead, the Emperor is still in power." "Agreed, Bail," Obi-Wan said. "What did you do to have Padme escape?" "While you were on Coruscant, her heart stopped. We managed to save her in time, but the doctors had nothing to help her. We didn't know what to do, so we brought her here." "Why here?" Obi-Wan asked. "My home this is, Obi-Wan," Yoda answered. "Returned I have not for over 800 years. Not much change, but one thing remains: power it is with the Force. Medicines and aides you will find here to prove much help. The very cave Padme rests in will be the birthplace of a Skywalker. Much power the cave will have alone from the birth."
"Is she better? The medicines here, are they that effective?" "Yes," Yoda answered. "Time ago, into hiding I went. Studied I did the true nature of this planet. Possesses Force power, this planet does." "But what of the Jedi Archives? Couldn't the Emperor search planets on the list?" "Erased it I did. Following in the same way Dooku did, I'm afraid. Poor Dooku." "What are we going to do after Padme gives birth?" "We shall go out separate ways, Obi-Wan," Bail answered. "It's the only answer." The three continued walking, discussing what they had experienced while being apart from each other.
CHAPTER LIX
Over a week passed and the days grew longer and longer. Padme's blood pressure fell from time to time and was nursed back to health by a strange food Yoda called rootleaf. The entire group had to eat it and from the low amount of food in the Alderaanian Cruiser. Bail joked from time to time about the rootleaf with Yoda, who didn't find it funny to make fun of his favorite food. But as the tenth day approached of being on Dagobah, Padme began have contractions. It came in the middle of the night, and the group was right there by her side. Dorme had a bowl of water by Padme's side and blotted her head with a soaked towel. Yoda taught Bail how to mix herbs and medicines, and from time to time, rested his hands on Padme's head and heart, using the Force to calm her pain. Obi-Wan, however, stood at the end of the cave replaying Anakin's death in his mind. When the experience on the tenth night was just a false alarm, Obi- Wan realized that this was his only time to make his final journey to Coruscant. Yoda agreed with him that he should go, and hurry back as soon as possible. Padme was asleep at the time and Obi-Wan knew she wouldn't want him to leave, but he did anyway. The Jedi Starfighter roared to life and Yoda and Bail stood next to it, as they watched it take off into the night sky.
On Coruscant, the droids reported to Palpatine that they were finished with the operation. This pleased the Emperor and he hurried down to the medic room to see the finished product. When he entered the room, all of the droids had moved to the corner of room in fear. They covered their visual sensors and continued shaking. The Emperor, however, didn't tremble in fear when he saw the dark figure standing with his back to him. He was under seven feet tall, and was practicing his Force ability with heavy pieces of machinery. Pieces that would be impossible for a wookie to lift, were lifted two or three at a time with the slightest movement of the black-armored man's index finger. "Show yourself," the Emperor ordered to the figure. The pieces that were floating came crashing onto the ground, but the figure did not turn. Instead it began breathing, with was an artificial, mechanical breathing. "I am your master, and I order you to show yourself." The droids covered their vision sensors again as they watched the figure move towards the Emperor, and bowed.
CHAPTER LX
Obi-Wan walked through the Jedi Temple with caution. Now that Anakin was dead, he was sure that the Emperor would be quite trigger happy with Jedi or even anyone being inside the Jedi Temple.
With two cases filled with diaries, clothes, and pictures, Obi-Wan made his way out the front doors. He had put on a new robe and strode down a small flight of stairs. Within two steps, a disturbance in the Force rushed through him. Quickly looking from side to side, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Moving a bit faster and cautiously, the Jedi reached the starfighter and placed his cases in the rear. As soon as he reached the ladder, he felt his entire body being flung fifty feet into the side of the Jedi Temple. While a huge crack lied in the wall, Obi-Wan pushed himself up from the ground and stared at what he saw. In the distance stood a huge, black-armored man. His shoulders were wider than that of any ordinary person, and his black cape went from his shoulders to barely touching the floor. His entire body was covered in black, with a blinking computer box attached to his chest. A black breastplate covered his chest and a thick belt wrapped around his waist. But what sent chills down Obi-Wan's neck was the mask. With a curved helmet on top of its head, the face was that of a skull. The tinted black eyepieces, Obi-Wan had now idea where the figure was looking. The cheeks of the mask sunk inward, with a mouthpiece sticking out. Out from the mouthpiece came a noise that would always stick in Obi-Wan's mind. The low, artificial breathing of the creature broke the silence. "Who are you?" Obi-Wan demanded, holding his lightsaber handle in his hand. The figure responded by reaching for his lightsaber and activating it. A crimson-colored blade shot up from handle to reach over a meter tall. The figure than swung the lightsaber in a brief display of red light. The move that the figure performed made Obi-Wan realize who was under the dark suit. "Anakin.Is that you?" The figure took a deep breath and stuck his chest out, only to let out a long exhale. He became a blur of black and red as he rushed to Obi- Wan, swinging the lightsaber as he ran. Obi-Wan responded by igniting his blue blade and bringing it in contact with the red one. The two met with a force Obi-Wan had never experienced before. The opponent's blow was so hard, Obi-Wan's blade came two inches from his face. The heat of lightsaber began burning the Jedi Master's forehead and he ducked under the blades and rolled to the side. The dark warrior was not finished and leaped at Obi-Wan swinging with all of his might. The two engaged themselves in a duel, that ranged in all of the moves Obi-Wan knew. The opponent always seemed to be a step ahead of the game. Stabbing and jabbing didn't seem to work, and Obi-Wan went into the defensive position. The stance didn't last very long as the dark warrior kicked him in the face, sending him falling back and losing his lightsaber. The lightsaber zipped straight into the waiting black-gloved hand. "What are you doing, Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, lying on the ground. "Anakin is no loner my name, Obi-Wan," the figure answered in a deep and powerful voice. "Your former apprentice is dead, now only darkness survives in what is left of his body. I have been born into something you never could imagine possible. I am fear, I am darkness, I am hate, I am Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith! Master of terror, possessor of evil, executioner of the weak. And now you will bow to me!" "Never!" Obi-Wan responded, spitting at Vader's feet. "If that is your decision, you are free to go," Vader responded. "What?" "You will be the first, pathetic life form I will spare in cleansing the galaxy of the former Republic. We have entered a new era, my old master, and your kind is the disease. If I could have one wish, I would destroy you as we speak, but I must obey my master. You shall die a pathetic old hermit, Obi-Wan, never to show yourself again!" "And what if I do?" "Then you will have to suffer my power." Vader handed Obi-Wan's lightsaber to him, and the Jedi took it. Obi-Wan stood up slowly and walked in front of Vader. The Dark Lord stood much taller than him and spread his chest out wider. Staring at him directly in the face, Obi-Wan shook his head. "Then Anakin is truly dead," he said, turning from the dark warrior and proceeding to his ship. He jumped in and started the engine. As it roared to life, it was then that Obi-Wan remembered that it was Anakin's Jedi Starfighter. He had been using it ever since the battle of Nkllon. As soon as he realized this, he turned his head to where Vader was standing. The figure was gone, and Obi-Wan took off into the night sky, never to see Coruscant again.
CHAPTER LXI
Yoda rested his hands on Padme's stomach as she slept. It raised up and down, while the Jedi Master looked deep into it at the still unborn child. It was then that something reached his attention. What's this? Yoda realized. The midi-chlorian count is much too high in this child. Anakin didn't even have midi-chlorians this high. There's only one explanation. Tw- -. The Jedi Master's thoughts were cut off as Padme screamed in pain. "This is it!" she screamed. Dorme woke from her sleep and quickly prepared for the birth. While getting the herbs and medicines ready, Bail ran into the room. "What's happening?" he asked. "Coming the children are," Yoda said. Dorme stopped working and Padme still whimpered, but looked confused at Yoda. "Twins?!" Padme shouted. "I'm having twins?" Yoda nodded and Bail lowered his head in guilt. "Need you we do, Bail," Yoda said to the man standing at the cave opening. He walked to Padme and cleansed his hands in a clean bowl of water, while Dorme administered medicines and Yoda soothed Padme with the Force. C-3PO and R2-D2 entered the room with fresh firewood and clean water. Padme screamed at the pressure on her heart. Her disease had healed since she had been on Dagobah, but was not in terrific condition. "Give into the Force, Padme." Yoda whispered into her ear. "It's all around you. In the fire, the cave, the air. It's in you. Focus on it, don't let it leave you. Give into the Force." As soon as Padme found the Force, the crying of a baby broke her concentration. Tears rushed out of her eyes as she watched Bail hand the baby to Dorme, who set on a blanket and treated it with medical supplies from Alderaan. But as Padme realized that the baby was all right, she felt another movement in her abdomen. "I can feel the other one!" she shouted, while Yoda again began whispering into her ear. Another cry broke into the cave, as Bail handed the second baby to Dorme, who had finished cleaning the first one. "You did it, Padme." Bail said, displaying a big smile at the mother who lied in front of him. Padme smiled in return and nodded at Bail. She wiped the sweat from her face and placed her hand on Yoda's. The Jedi Master turned and smiled at her. "Thank you, Master," she said, with tears in her eyes. "Brave you are, Padme," Yoda said, rubbing his hand on her forehead. "You have brought the only hopes to save the galaxy into being." "Here you are," Dorme soothed, handing the two children into Padme's arms. Tears poured down her face as she looked at the faces of her children. They were both wrapped in cloth and remained with their eyes closed. "A son and a daughter," Dorme said, with Bail's arm wrapped around her shoulder. "A son." Padme trailed off, ".and a daughter." She continued to just look at them. "A son.Luke. And a daughter.Leia." Bail smiled at Dorme and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Yoda left Padme's side and walked out of the cave.
Walking alongside the edge of a swamp, Yoda began realizing what must be done about the children. The Emperor doesn't know that they're twins. If no one else close to Padme knew, how could he know? Nonetheless, the twins couldn't live together, it would be too much of a risk if the Emperor found out about one of them. "Master Yoda?" a voice called from behind the Jedi. Bail jogged up next to Yoda and began walking with him. "Twins she was pregnant with," Yoda said. "Knew you did." Bail nodded. "Yes, I did. I found out before Obi-Wan and I realized of the storm troopers on Alderaan. The doctor pulled me aside and told me in case I didn't know. I lied and said I did. I realized, Master Yoda, that if anyone were to know of the twins, then it could be beaten out of them. I did what I thought was right." "Good that you did. For choices are made on instinct, not thought. Doing what one thinks is right at the time is better than not doing anything at all."
CHAPTER LXII
Obi-Wan landed on the same spot he had before, and it seemed as if Yoda and Bail had not moved at all. They stood in their same places, staring at Obi-Wan as he descended the cock-pit ladder and approached them. His face showed that something terrible had happened. "What is it?" Bail asked the approaching Jedi. "There is a new threat in the galaxy," Obi-Wan began. "I don't know how it happened, but Anakin is still alive." Yoda's eyes opened wide, and Bail took a step forward. "How?" Bail asked. "He now calls himself Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith," Obi-Wan continued. "He's been completely changed, physically and mentally. He wears a black suit. But this suit, it's.it's almost as if it's keeping him alive. His voice has changed and so has his physical build. But I know it's him. I just know." "Displeasing news this is," Yoda admitted. "If Anakin Skywalker and this Sith Lord are one in the same, then you would be the only person who would truly know. Turned to the Dark Side he has. More than I've ever seen anyone turn to, next to the Emperor. Dooku was just clouded, but true what you say, than our foes have increased." "What now?" Bail asked. "Break the heart of a mother."
Padme was now clutching the children as tightly as she could. "Never! They're my children! You can't do this! Obi-Wan, help me!" Obi-Wan walked next to Bail and Yoda. "You must understand, Padme, that if the children live together, the risk increases if the Emperor finds out. Don't let your children fall down the same path Anakin did." "They won't!" Padme pleaded. "Let's live here! I can raise them." Obi-Wan sighed and stepped aside as Bail moved next to Padme. "Padme, I know this is hard, but if you were to raise Luke and Leia on this planet, their lives would be terrible. This is no place for children to live. They would become reckless and would never be able to leave. If they're separated, then they can live normal lives. Happy lives, without fearing someone is after them. You trust Obi-Wan, don't you? He's agreed to look after Luke, and we can take Leia to Alderaan. You can raise her to be a Senator. She'll be just like you. Wouldn't you rather they both live happy lives, then ones where they would live in a swamp, paranoid with fear?" Padme didn't answer at first, but looked at both of her children. "Let me just hold them for a little while longer." She kissed both of them on the head, and held the close to her chest. Bail left her side and moved with the two Jedi outside. Dorme sat where Bail and smiled as he left the cave. She couldn't believe that what he said was so wonderfully said. She turned back to Padme and pushed strands of hair out of her eyes.
The Alderaanian Cruiser landed twenty feet from the entrance to the cave, crushing old, rotten trees underneath it. Bail opened the hatch and C- 3PO and R2-D2 pulled medical supplies in. Some luggage remained onboard, but didn't seem necessary to be brought into the cave. Bail hurried to the cave and grabbed one end of the bed Padme was lying on. Obi-Wan grabbed the other end and carried it onto the ship. Padme stayed in her own room on the ship this time. When they arrived on Alderaan the first time, she wanted to stay in the cock-pit. And when they arrived on Dagobah, they were in such a hurry that she was placed in the main room of the ship. But this time, her room had a large window and a more comfortable bed. As she lied in the bed, Obi-Wan entered the room, holding Luke. With her lip trembling she reached out for him, and he handed him to her. She brought him close to her and kissed him on the forehead. Tears rolled off her face and landed on his, stirring him a bit, letting a little noise. Padme smiled and whispered into his ear, "Look to the horizon, Luke. Never give up on your dreams." With one more kiss she handed him to Bail. "Goodbye, Padme," Obi-Wan said. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and pulled him into a hug and kissed him on the cheek. While still hugging him, Padme whispered, "Never let him leave your sight." Returning the hug, Obi-Wan whispered, "Alright." The two pulled away and Obi-Wan was handed Luke by Bail. He wrapped part of his robe around him and held him close. "The Force will always be with you, Padme," Obi-Wan said. "Goodbye, Obi-Wan," Padme responded. When Obi-Wan walked out of the room, Padme whispered under her breath, "Goodbye, Luke."
Bail stood outside the ship with Obi-Wan and Yoda. While Obi-Wan placed Luke in a cushioned basket, Bail crouched down to be eye-to-eye with Yoda. "Thank you, Master Yoda," Bail said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Without you the Force would be nothing." "Without the Force, I would be nothing," Yoda responded with a small smile on his face. Bail nodded and stood up to face Obi-Wan. After staring him straight in the eyes, he moved forward and hugged him. "Obi-Wan," he began, "thank you for everything." "You're welcome, Bail," Obi-Wan responded. "Be sure to give the two droids a memory erase, just in case they fall into the wrong hands. I'll send you an encrypted message in a few months to tell you where you can locate me in an emergency." "I understand," Bail confirmed, pulling away from the hug. He looked down at Luke and smiled. "Make us proud Luke." Glancing up at Obi-Wan he patted him on the shoulder and then turned away. After he made his way up the ramp, it slowly began to close. As it shut completely, Obi-Wan grabbed Luke, and he and Yoda stood back as the ship came alive. Resting in its spot for a few moments while Bail set calculations, it was soon off into the gray sky, disappearing in the fog and clouds that surrounded Dagobah.
CHAPTER LXIII
The Alderaanian Cruiser entered hyperspace about five minutes after leaving Dagobah. Bail was at the controls and eased off as the ship went on automatic. His eyes slowly closed and began to fall asleep. As soon as the door to the cock-pit opened, Bail's sleep ended and he jumped up as Dorme walked in. "Oh, I'm sorry," Dorme apologized. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I can go." "No, no," Bail responded. "You can stay. I just nodded off for a while." Dorme smiled and walked over to the co-pilot's chair. She sat down and looked at Bail, who returned the look. Both of them began talking at the same time, and broke away when they realized what they had done. Nervous laughter filled the small room, and Dorme started rubbing the lower lobe of her ear. "Please, what were you going to say?" Bail asked. "Oh, I was just saying what a wonderful job you've done with all that's gone on in the past few months." Bail smiled at the comment. "Would you like to continue this conversation elsewhere with me? I have some things to do." Dorme smiled and nodded.
"Master Organa, I don't understand why I must be cleaned right now," C-3PO said. "I mean, wouldn't it be better if we waited until we reached Alderaan? I hear they have wonderf-" 3PO's voice cut off as soon as Bail pulled a lever. The protocol droid didn't say anything when he had three wires inserted into the top of their head and continued talking about nothing. Bail almost found pleasure when he cut the droid's talking off. Detaching the wires from the back of 3PO's neck, Bail turned to Dorme. "This droid has the biggest mouth of anyone I've ever met. And if he speaks to the wrong person about what he's seen, then all we've suffered for will be destroyed." "I understand, Bail," Dorme responded. "I just don't see what Artoo could tell anyone. I always liked him." "Well, how about we leave Threepio here for a while and go get something to eat?"
The small kitchen in the bottom of the ship didn't have much food in it, but what was in the cupboards, the two ate. Laughing over experiences either had been through in life was the main thing they did. However, when the scarce amount of food disappeared and the stories died down, the became very vulnerable. "I have to ask you something," Bail broke the silence with the question. "Hmm?" Dorme responded by ripping her napkin into smaller and smaller pieces. "I know this isn't the right setting or anything, but." "Bail, what is it?" A few seconds passed before Bail broke the silence. "Will you marry me?" Tears poured down Dorme's face as she jumped up from her seat and was embraced in Bail's arms. The two kissed and held one another in the ship's kitchen, while Padme stood right outside the doorway holding Leia close to her. "Do you here that Leia?" she whispered to her daughter. "If something happens to me, you will have two people to look after you. But that won't be for a long time." She walked back to her bedroom, not letting her daughter leave her arms.
CHAPTER LXIV
The only surviving Jedi Masters in the galaxy sat in the dark, damp cave on Dagobah. The fire that had stayed lit for weeks was now a few glowing pieces of wood and ash. Obi-Wan kicked them with his foot and grabbed the basket with Luke inside of it and walked out of the cave. Reaching the Jedi Starfighter, Obi-Wan began to climb the ladder. "Obi-Wan, wait," a familiar voice called Obi-Wan. He turned to see Qui-Gon Jinn stand at the entrance to the cave. "We have much to discuss still." "I have nothing to discuss with you," Obi-Wan responded. "Anakin's dead. You got what you want, but now we have a Sith Lord and the Emperor running the galaxy. Is this what you wanted?" "Obi-Wan, you know I didn't want it to be this way," Qui-Gon corrected. "The prophecy says that the Chosen One will bring balance. And Anakin has fulfilled that prophecy." "But now there are two Jedi left in the galaxy against two Sith! That's balanced?" "Listen to Qui-Gon you must, Obi-Wan," Yoda said, walking out of the cave. "Never did he realize this would happen. Neither did I." "Masters, I let my best friend and apprentice die two weeks ago," Obi-Wan continued. "Do you know what he said to me before he died? He said 'I despise you, Obi-Wan. You've destroyed my life.' Is what he said supposed to go right through me? I failed at training him and failed at turning him to good. He's no longer who he used to be. Anakin Skywalker is dead." "If that's true, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon began, "then when young Luke grows, he is our only hope to destroy what has become of his father." "Even though Anakin's last words were for Luke not to know what he did?" Obi-Wan asked. "And who's supposed to train him? Me?" Qui-Gon looked at Yoda and the smaller Jedi answered, "Begin it, you will, Obi-Wan. And continue I will." Obi-Wan could hardly deal with all the information he was receiving. He looked down at Luke and watched as the baby yawned. "I know where to take Luke. I will say goodbye to both of you now." The Jedi Starfighter hatch opened and Obi-Wan set Luke in a safe area while he jumped into his seat. "May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan," Yoda called to the Jedi. "Meet again, we shall." Obi-Wan nodded to the Jedi Master and then looked at the spirit of Qui-Gon. "Remember, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon advised, "your relationship with Anakin was strong. Make the one with young Luke even stronger. Only then will your spirit be able to be present longer. For now, I will say goodbye and may the Force be with you, my friend." Qui-Gon bowed to his former apprentice and slowly disappeared. Yoda was left standing outside the cave by himself, leaning on his cane as Obi-Wan waved goodbye. The small creature watched as the Jedi Starfighter took off into the sky, carrying two people he would see again someday.
EPILOGUE
Coruscant had completely changed in the past week. Crime was even higher, more Senators had been assassinated, and the Emperor had an entire section of land near the Senate devoted to him. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader stood in his new throne room, watching thousands of people cheering as a statue of the Emperor was placed at the end of the square. Floating cameras moved all around the crowd, projecting smiling people cheering, "PALPATINE!" The Emperor smiled to himself as the moment he had been waiting for his whole life was being experienced. People cheering his name, a galaxy to control, and his own, powerful Sith Lord. When he looked at Vader, he was surprised that the evil warrior wasn't looking at the crowds of people cheering, but at the stars in the sky.
Alderaan was very calm that morning as Bail and Dorme held hands on their balcony. A wedding band rested on each of them, and the two smiled as they remembered that special day. Few people attended and Padme stayed in back, trying her best to remain unnoticed. Even though Bail returned to the Imperial Senate in a few days, he wanted to enjoy as much as he could with his new wife and Padme and her daughter, Leia. Bail left his wife standing on the balcony, staring off at the rising sun, while he went into their apartment. Turning a few corners of the enormous penthouse, Bail ran into C-3PO, who had been polished beyond belief and was now a shiny, golden color. R2-D2 was right next to 3PO as usual and the two directed Bail to what room Padme was in. When he reached it, he knocked on the closed door and entered. There lying on the bed was Padme, clutching Leia in her arms. At first Bail thought she was asleep, but upon feeling her freezing cold hand he realized he was wrong. He got down on his knees and kissed Padme's lifeless hand, while Leia remained asleep in her other arm.
Tatooine was in afternoon as the twin suns were setting far off in the distance. Obi-Wan had spent the past week researching Anakin's past, and he had been led to one final place. The Lars Homestead was the same as it always had been, but it was all new to Obi-Wan. When he first arrived, he was poorly greeted by Owen Lars, but kindly by his wife, Beru. "You Jedi have no business stepping on this ground," Owen shot at Obi- Wan, who introduced himself as a Jedi Master. That was a big mistake to mention Jedi, since Owen's father, Cliegg, had been murdered by Tusken Raiders a year ago to the day. "What does that have to do with Jedi?" Obi-Wan asked. "One of your damn Jedi is the one responsible for killing an entire Tusken Village!" Owen continued. "He was my step-brother for crying out loud! His name was---" "Anakin Skywalker," Obi-Wan cut in. "Yeah." Owen pondered, rubbing the stubble on his cheeks and staring closely at Obi-Wan. "What do you have to do with Anakin?" "I was his master," Obi-Wan explained. "He died three weeks ago and this is in fact his son I have here. I am trusting you two to look after him for the time being." Obi-Wan set the bundled baby into Beru's arms. "Oh, he's beautiful," Beru confessed. "Owen, look at his eyes. There like Shmi's." Owen looked at Luke, and Obi-Wan caught a smile cross the stern man's face. "I appreciate this burden you two have accepted," Obi-Wan bowed to the two. "What did you say your name was?" Owen asked. "Kernovi? O-Ben Kernovi?" Obi-Wan almost chuckled at the confused man trying to pronounce his name, but realized that a false name would be a good idea. "Actually, you've almost got it. It's Ben Kenobi." "Oh, yeah," Owen mumbled, returning his staring to Luke. But as the two farmers stayed close on Luke, Ben Kenobi leaned forward and kissed the baby's forehead, whispering, "May the Force be with you, young one." Pulling away from the baby, he looked up and nodded to the couple. "And you two as well. I'll be close by, watching." Turning away, Ben began walking into the distance as the twin suns set straight in front of him. But before the Jedi Master got five feet, he stopped when he heard Owen yell, "I don't think so, Kenobi. There are already four tombstones over there and I don't won't there to be any dead bodies for Luke to see. We already know that the Emperor has sent bounties for Jedi in hiding, and we don't want to get mixed up in that. The name Skywalker is dead. Luke will be raised a Lars and that's final. This is it. The end of the Jedi. The end of the adventures. It's just the end. Accept it." Not feeling that situation was very funny, a small smile still stretched on one of the sides of Ben's face. Turning his back, he responded, "Far from it, I'm afraid. The galaxy has entered a dark era and young Luke might be the only one to save it. The name Skywalker is very powerful and I hope you two will let him keep the name. The boy will go far in galaxy, don't keep him sheltered. Nevertheless, if you keep him sheltered or not, I will always be close by for I have a bad feeling, my friends, that this is just the end of the beginning." Ben nodded one final time and proceeded walking towards the setting suns, not looking back as he was told not to during his early years of training Anakin. The boy broke it to him when Ben had awoken from a nightmare of Qui-Gon's death. My mother once told me to never look back. Don't look back, Master Kenobi. Don't ever look back. And those words would forever stay with him as he remembered Anakin Skywalker. They would stay as he remembered his apprentice. But most importantly, they would stay as he remembered his friend.
