I apologize for the long break... vacations are wonderful! :)

Over the next few days, I'll be posting the three sections I wrote. I'm posting the first tonight because I had it beta-read. I'm also doing titles for the separate parts because it'll be staggered.

Thank you for your patience :)

I hope you enjoy this...

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Part IX
Potential

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It had been a hell of a three days.

Watching from the small ship hovering over the back lines of the cloned forces, Anakin lifted a pair of binoculars to scan the perimeter. All he saw were various flashes of red and blue light. The battle on Geonosis had all but come to an end.

Anakin lowered the binoculars and set them aside.

It had been three months since he'd seen her. His precious Padmé. The woman he had married because he believed with all of his heart and soul that they were destined to be together. The woman he had to hide from his Jedi Master because love was forbidden in the Jedi Order. Any emotion was.

Hate bubbled inside him. He didn't really feel spite toward Obi-Wan, just animosity. Obi-Wan was holding him back, but for his reason that Anakin was rash and unpredictable.

Anakin sighed and typed in his report and uplinked it to the droid to take to the front base where the last of the clone Commanders were packing up.

The fight had moved to the stars.

Above the planet of Geonosis, droid and clone battleships battled day and night for control of the space.

Since the space war had begun, the Jedi Order had placed Obi-Wan in charge of ordering the cloners still on Geonosis to stamp out any remaining traces of resistance. After a month on the deserted planet, they had come across the Geonosian leader and after a brutal round of questioning had been sent off for trial in the Republic.

Anakin had had his two moments with the creature. After it had tried to kill his wife, he felt nothing except red toward the stuttering dragonfly wannabe.

He remembered that day vividly.

He had received word from Obi-Wan that the clone army had captured the last of the Geonosian high guards and the leader. It was the same leader who had called for their executions fifty four days before.

Anakin had immediately left the room, his eyes blazing over with anger. Once he reached the cell, he had stormed in and grasped the useless creature, shaking it until it had no speech, staring up at him with unblinking eyes. Under the guise of a droid sent to translate, it merely spoke "I was doing what I was told to you."

"I hope you die," Anakin had spat out before leaving the room behind, his eyes blazing with fury.

It had taken him weeks to recover. And just three days ago, the leader had been transported as part of an envoy under close clone protection back to Coruscant, where the Geonosian leader was to await trial for genocide. He most likely would receive the death penalty. Anakin's hopes were about to be brought into the light.

As he finished the uplink, he sent to droid away. He turned to the one Lieutenant left inside the station and gave him the order to break out. His ship would leave in just a few hours.

Anakin longed to return home. The vicious battle raging over their heads was a grim reminder of the failure the Republic had become.

How he wished he could just take a fighter and soar into the air. Ten and a half years before, he had done so, and the droid ship had been destroyed, saving Naboo from certain doom. It was because of him that Padmé and her people live on. It was just ironic that he, clearly the best flyer pilot in the Jedi Order, was forced to stay on ground and watch the movement of clone troops from the Geonosian surface to the stars.

There was a soft movement behind him. He turned and saw Obi-Wan, lurking in the shadows. His heart gave a small leap as Obi-Wan stepped into the light, his eyes narrowed slightly, a thoughtful look on his face. Had Obi-Wan interpreted his thoughts?

Anakin forced his mind clear and smiled at his Master. "Good morning, Master."

"A good one to you, as well," Obi-Wan replied, his eyes glancing full circle at the abandoned control center. "It looks like they're ahead of schedule."

"Always quick, these cloners are," Anakin replied, crossing his arms. "I was to meet you at the forward command in an hour, Master. Is there a reason you have come early?"

"The clone Commanders have left the forward command," Obi-Wan replied gently. "I was to take you aboard a fighter and enter the war."

A thought thundered in his heart. He knew that whatever Jedi still existed were fighting for their lives in the bloodthirsty struggle between two species that had none.

He forced himself to nod, unless his thoughts could betray him. "Yes, Master. I will be ready shortly." He turned abruptly and shoved the binoculars and a few other trinkets into the single bag he'd been allowed to take.

Obi-Wan stood patiently beside him. Anakin could feel the bubble of anger growing deep within him again...

Obi-Wan had told him, three days before, that the Geonosian leader was being turned over to a Jedi Council and the Republic's Supreme Court. Anakin had offered to slay the fallen leader, who had spoken of the droid defense systems and watched as all of his warriors, all slayed, were piled at his feet.

It was Obi-Wan in his damnedest calm voice speaking quietly to Anakin the rules of war for a Jedi. Killing should not be done unless in a life or death circumstance. War trials must be tried in a Council, and not by a sole Jedi.

Anakin had spent the night in one of the foulest moods he'd been in. It was even worse than when he'd killed the bastards that had murdered his mother. Obi-Wan had been misleading him for a while. Obi-Wan was holding him back, calling his reckless and an imbecile.

Obi-Wan was basically telling him that his potential was nothing, because he was nothing.

And that was what angered Anakin the most.

After three days of simmering down, the hell of the past seemed to fall away. Within the hour, he and Obi-Wan had boarded the small ship and with two small clone ships surrounding on either side, they were able to lift off into the sky and join a secondary ship, a large warship constructed from the last Sith wars, a ship from Coruscant.

Anakin was hesitant to board, knowing Mace Windu and other members of the Jedi Council would be aboard. He was less than anxious to face them knowing that he was about to jump headfirst into the war, knowing his bride was parsecs away, lost in her own duties. He only hoped that when she looked at the stars, she would know he was glimpsing them too, dreaming of her every night and day, dreaming he was by her side. Forever.

After this war was over, Anakin had a decision to make. He would either have to take the long road and keep his married life a lie, which would get harder and harder every day. Or he would have to make the ultimate sacrifice - to quit the Jedi Council.

And neither option was satisfactory as long as this damned war kept going on.

They boarded and stepped off the transport. Aayla Secura, the cerulean Twi'lek, was waiting for them, lightsaber in hand. "Master Kenobi," she said in her lustrious tone. "You are needed in a special session of the Council." Her eyes darted over Anakin. As he stepped forward to follow Obi-Wan, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "You shall not follow, Padawan Skywalker. This meeting is for Jedi alone."

Anakin cursed under his breath as Aayla hurried to join Obi-Wan.

As he leaned against the cold metal door of a sitting room, he made himself useful by setting his bag down and going through it. It wasn't until he found a small data device of Obi-Wan's did his interest pique. He turned it on and played it back, using one of the three droids in the room.

The words were not at all kind.

"The Padawan is restless and unprecise, not to mention unpredictable. He fights based on instinct and not on judgment. He has to learn the ways of the Force before he can overcome the trials..."

That was all Anakin needed to hear as he angrily stuffed the small device back into Obi-Wan's bag and sat, sulking. He had a few things of his own to say to Obi-Wan. And with all the anger bubbling in them, he knew he might not be able to hold back.

He rose again at the sound of voices outside the room.

And all of a sudden, a voice inside his heart screamed.

Padmé.

She was in danger.

And pain. Great pain.