AN: Hello to all and thankyou so much to all of you who have reveiwed. I am sorry to say that i am reaching my end now, and i think there may only be two to three more chapters after this. However, work has already started on Episode 4 if any of you are interested in me putting that up later? Again i apologise for shortness but is vital to my wonderful cliffhangers and approach to the story. Hope you all enjoy and again plz R&R. any questions or comments plz feel free to e-mail me if that is preferred.

DISCLAIMER: please see previous chapters.

BE WARNED, EMOTIONAL STUFF COMING UP

It was Anakin. His face was deathly white, andObi-Wan couldn't see if he was breathing. He knelt at his fallen comrades side and laid a gentle hand across the young man's brow. A small, broken voice broke through the roar of eruptions.

"Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan, please tell me. Is he alive?"

Obi-Wan remained staring silently down at Anakin. He was in too much of a frenzy to fully concentrate. It was several moments before he could regain his Jedi composure and fully allow the force to flow through him and Anakin.

He held his breath as he tried to register a response to his force probing.

"There!" He exlaimed with a hint of disbelief mingaling with his tone. He could feel a pulse, it was slow, and painfully thin, but it was there none the less. An overwhelming sense of relief washed over him and he smiled thinly as he looked into Padme's eyes and said

"He's alive Padme. He's breathing, but it is very serious. I have no idea how deep this wound goes."

Padme's expression quickly turned from overwhelmed to horrified.

"You mean he could die? So soon after finally getting him to come back to us?" She choked on the words. Obi-Wan laid a friendly hand on her shoulder, which caused her to glance up from her husband's unresponsive body and into his calming, sensible blue eyes.

"I am going to do everything I can to make sure Anakin will stay with us. Right now, you need to concentrate on getting yourself better. Padme, I can see the damage inside of you. You are in need of serious medical attention and so is Anakin."

"Right now, i am not important Obi-Wan, Anakin needs me, and he needs your help. Please Obi-Wan, without Anakin, my life is just meaningless!"

"Padme, how can you say things like that. You have a baby on the way, Anakin's baby, and if there was one thing that he would want you to do, i am sure it would be..."

But he was cut short by a groan at his knee. They both looked down at Anakin, as he rolled his head, and opened his eyes. He couldn't breathe properly, his breaths came and went in short gasps. He was in excruciating pain, and it hurt Obi-Wan to see his brother lying on the hot ground, gasping in agony.

"Padme, Padme my love"Anakin gasped, his eyes rolling in his head.

"I'm here my life, I'm here and I always will be. Please Anakin, please I…"

"No Padme listen to me. I'm sorry, I know it wasn't your fault."

His sentence collapsed into a fit of harsh coughing and gasping, his chest heaving up and down. Padme gripped his hand, clasping it tight in the hope that it would make him better.

"We need to move you Anakin, this air is not doing the world for you." A calm, clipped voice stated from Anakin's other side.

Anakin swivelled his eyes to face his friend, his brother and he raised his free, trembling hand to Obi-Wan's chest.

"Obi-Wan, I should have listened to you, I should have listened to everyone, I should have…."

"Hey no more should have's ok?"

"But…"

Padme tenderly laid a finger onto Anakin's lips, treating him like a child, like a 9 year old.

"You say you should have listened to Obi-Wan before. Well here's your chance to listen to him now."

"Anakin, i know that none of this was your fault. I should have been there when you needed me the most. Sometimes I wonder if I were more like Qui-Gon, I would have been able to save you from all this."

"Obi-Wan, I couldn't have asked for a better master than you. You trusted me, and i betrayed that trust. I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, after all, this is the first time i am having to try and save your life, god knows how you have been able to do it for me 9 times!"

Anakin gave a small weak smile, but Obi-Wan could tell Anakin's breathing was getting worse. Obi-Wan once again turned to the force for help. He saw Anakin losing oxygen rapidly, and he knew he had to do something. Then he saw it, clipped to Anakin's utility belt, the rebreather. He checked how many spare canisters they each had. Anakin only had one, Obi-Wan had used his up on Utapu.

He unclipped the equipment, whilst Padme talked as soothingly as she could to Anakin through her own panic, explaining as best she could what was happening and what was going to happen. As Obi-Wan was sorting out the equipment however, Anakin's battered hand found Obi-Wan's trembling one.

Obi-Wan risked a look at his face and saw not the lively, young one that he had trained so many years ago, but an old, haggard, scared face that should have belonged to an old jedi master's like Ki-Adi-Mundi or even Master Yoda. But it was the face of his former Padawan, the young man who had become his brother.

"Master, don't. It's too late for me."

"Anakin, come to your senses. You are young, you are going to live longer than me. Your meant to be the death of me remember, not the other way around!"

Anakin gave a strained smile.

"Don't say that Master, you're the closest thing I have to a father."

He tried to laugh but it came out again as short gasps and coughs. Obi-Wan leaned in close, whispering in Anakin's ear.

"If that is true, then I ask you as a father, don't you give up on me."

Before Anakin could reply, he placed the rebreather gently into his mouth, and set the oxygen flowing.

"Right, now we need to figure out a way to move you. We have to get you back to the ship."

He glanced at Padme, who was growing ever so pale, and signalled for her to move away. He gently slid his arms underneath his fallen hero, and started to raise him up gently. But he didn't even get Anakin a centimetre off the ground. Anakin howled with pain, through gritted teeth and rebreather. Padme rushed to his side and clasped his hand, trying not to cry, trying to be strong for Anakin.

But even she knew that the small oxygen tank would not last Anakin for very long. She looked at Obi-Wan despairingly, pleading with him to help Anakin. But Obi-Wan could think of nothing. He had run out of ideas. Without being able to move Anakin, he had no way of getting him the medical attention he so desperately needed. He sank to his knees, and put his head in his hands. He pleaded with the force to give him some answers, but his force perception was as bleary as the smoke that was rapidly filling the air.

Padme noticed the look of despair and frustration in Obi-Wan's eyes, and felt her heart slowly breaking as she thought of life without Anakin. She felt a squeeze on her hand, and she looked down to gaze lovingly into Anakin's eyes. He pulled the rebreather out of his mouth and spoke, lovingly but tinged with immense pain, words that chilled her to the bone, but at the same time, thawed the worry and the despair that he had inflicted upon her.

"Padme, I am so sorry. If I die, you need to carry on the Skywalker line. Please, don't give up if I go."

"No Anakin, no please, don't say things like that. Please, I cannot do this without you. I need you. Please, please…"

"Ssshh. What are you talking about? You've always been strong, at times you have been stronger than me."

"But it was only because i had you that i could be strong. Without you, i don't know what I will do!"

"You will be the best mother in this galaxy, that's what you will do. You will raise our baby to be the best it can be. I..."

He was cut short by a gasp of pain that left him winded. Obi-Wan tried to place the rebreather back into Anakin's mouth, but Anakin refused.

"Padme, I love you, our baby, and we will be a family. No matter what."

She gave him a wavering smile, Somehowhis hand found her soft cheek and gently wiped away the waterfall of tears she was crying for him. She nuzzled herself into it, crying her heart out. Anakin's eyes were filled with tears, as he rubbed her soft cheek.

Then, the pain, the loss of oxygen, and the feeling of unbearable heartbreak overwhelmed him, and he lost consciousness. The last thing he heard was the sound of Padme's hysterical sobs, and the loud roar of thunder.

Well there you go. U didn't seriously think i would let Anakin die just yet did you? lol. R&R and i will update a.s.a.p