As usual, before I begin, I would like to thank someone... This time it's Ryan Sage.. Thanks so much for reviewing the previous chapter... Honestly, it is one of the nicest comment... hehe... Thanks for the critics, I really appreciate it.Actually, I did intent to slowen the flow of this fic, so I tend to separate some sentences... Yet, I'm sorry if that makes some things uncomfortable for you... Thanks for reviewing, anyway. Hope you like this and next chapters.
It won't be long when this fic finally ends...
11
That night Padme was late for dinner. In fact, she didn't even come. Yoda said she told him she needed some time to be alone, so he left her at the swamp. Before he knew it, Obi Wan's feet had marched their way to the place Yoda just mentioned. And in that place, he found Padme.
She turned around and found him.
"Hello, Ben."
---
"How's Yoda? Was he hard on you? Sometimes he can be so infuriating," began Obi Wan, as he led her back to the house.
Padme nodded. "But I can handle him," she quickly continued, "The one thing that infuriates me the most is that he's not as infuriating as you."
"Oh? Now I'm infuriating."
"Upsetting, too."
"Of all the expectations I have had from taking the troubles to cross those treacherous swamps, only -and only, if I may add- to escort you back to the house, I never expected to be insulted,
"I'm afraid I must leave now!" He walked faster to let her know that he was being serious, though he wasn't. Yet, Padme didn't make any significant reaction.
"Till we meet again."
He walked faster and faster. She knew he's leaving her, but she merely called from behind, "Be careful for the swamps."
Good warning, but it came too late.
On walking too hurriedly, Obi Wan failed to see a puddle of swamp before him and successfully fell into it. Lucky enough, it was a shallow one, so he could easily get out of it.
What he found when he did get out made him want to throw himself back again, for it was almost surreal, unbelievable, he thought he was already drowned and it was death he was staring at.
It was the view of Padme laughing.
He didn't try to stop her for he could merely stare at the unexpected view. Not that he would.
She still laughed for some moment, and when she finally gathered herself to be able to speak, she did it with much effort. "I'd be jumping heartily if I weren't so much pregnant," she said between her laugh.
She could've laughed still had Obi Wan not spoken up, "I'll jump in once again if you promise to keep laughing."
Suddenly she remembered that she wasn't supposed to laugh. She turned away from him and left him hurriedly.
He tried to follow her from behind, but he didn't find a need to rush, because as abrupt as she ran back to the house, she halted beside a big tall tree and leaned there, as if she ought to grab a hold of someone or something before she fell down.
"Oh! Come on, Padme! You can't play sick every time you hear something you don't want."
Padme didn't give any reply. Instead, her breathing became harder and harder.
"Padme?"
He could even hear the sound of her screeching lungs when she desperately panted for air.
"Padme!"
---
It was as though the entire creature, big and small, dead and living, all jumped out when all of a sudden, the front door roughly burst open. And behind, was Obi Wan carrying the lifeless Padme in his arms. He placed her unconscious body after Organa and Yoda quickly made a room for her. Her eyelids were closed, but cold sweat kept streaming down and her lips kept opened and closed, opened and closed, whimpering words, "Fire… Mountains…"
Her hand reached out at the hollow air. And Obi Wan, too, reached out, yearning to seize hers in his. But a single word then followed, "Ani."
He abruptly pulled his hand.
The old words of fire and mountains came back, but Obi Wan couldn't hear more, because he had gone out of the room, leaving the horrible scene behind him.
He didn't know how many seconds passed. Suddenly, Yoda had turned out before him, informing him all about the detail; about the message that Organa just received from the Chancellor that the senators were to attend a conference (they have to go there to see what remained at the Temple), and also about Padme. Yoda assumed it must be a premonition she just had had. The fire and the mountains must be the place where Anakin would be. They needed to find out where it was. This, of course, confused him, but what confused him more was how strong The Force Padme had.
"It was less than a week we've spent to tutor her, but this Force is already so strong within her baby," Obi Wan consented.
"Only one explanation, there is. Baby, there wasn't," Yoda replied, "babies, there were."
Suddenly everything was clearer for Obi Wan.
"And separate them, we must," continued Yoda.
---
After a while, Obi Wan looked for Padme and found her staring at the stars. She was still staring at them when she asked him, without even turning her back, "Has he told you?"
"About what?" he questioned back, walking to her, "The vision? The babies? Or the fact that they're taking the babies?"
She let out a sigh. "It's funny, isn't it? I shall have children; twins. I should be happy, but I'm not!"
"Padme, it's the only way…"
"Don't you think I don't know that?" she shrieked, restraining him from finishing his words, "what kills me is that I know I should do it!
"But I don't want to give up my children! I refuse that!" And the tears he always saw in her eyes, but never on her cheeks, was there once again.
"Listen, Padme, you don't have to do this on your own, you…"
His words were unfinished once more, but it wasn't because his interlocutor had outspoken him. It was because she had moved into his arms; her head on his shoulder. Her weak grasps were clutching his muscles. And perhaps, because it was so weak, that the Jedi could easily, slowly put them down and freed his arms from them.
He paved the way he walked through when he, some minutes ago, just passed. Now, he was walking the opposite way, back to the inside of the house.
"You never hold my hand!" called her from behind.
Pivoting back, he shouted, "I never…"
"When we were in Tatooine, and on the ship…"
"Why are you keep saying that!"
"You! You're why! I thought you wanted to help me!"
"I did want to help you! You're the one who keep holding back!"
"You're the one who left!"
"I had to! If I hadn't…" The sentence had to be stopped, for he didn't know what would happen if he hadn't left her in the first place in the care of Yoda's teaching. Perhaps he knew, but he refused to spill it out. He moved on instead, "This is exactly what made him turn evil!"
And everything was resumed; his walking back to the inside room and the urge to stop and pivot back for she had sounded from behind him, "At least he lives."
Her sentence was as vivid as the bright stars above them. She blatantly accused him to never have a life, as he never thought that to love and be loved was a life better than to be a good Jedi.
"What about you?" he shouted back, "look at yourself in the mirror! You're denying yourself! Those tears in your eyes, you never let them fall! You think you're strong, but you're not!
"Face it! You're weak! Just like your husband, you are weak!"
A slap on his face ended the quarrel momentarily. She glared at him, now, with flames in her eyes.
"I don't want to speak to you anymore!"
Turning around, Obi Wan was finally able to carry on his walking and was at once returning to the inside of the house.
---
As soon as the sun came out that morning, Yoda, Organa, and Obi Wan prepared for their journey back to Coruscant. Each of them had no single idea of what they would encounter once they were there. There was a possibility that they would meet Anakin there. They could be meeting with death himself there. Padme was aware of this.
Before leaving Padme behind, accompanied only with C-3PO and R2-D2 and the rest of the droids, Obi Wan headed to where he knew she would be there. And she was really there, sitting on the tree trunk.
As she approached her from behind, he started, "I know you're not talking to me, but this maybe the last chance for us to meet,
"Goodbye."
He abruptly turned away from her, but her words stopped him from walking further yet.
"Remember your promise,
"Please," she added as she turned to face him, and with that she saw his face; his reluctant expression. Somehow, Padme had known what his response would be like before he even said the words and left her alone afterwards.
"I never promise anything."
---
For Organa's safety, the two Jedi decided that the senator must return to Dagobbah on his own. That means, leaving the Jedi at Coruscant to settle some matters first.
Meanwhile, Yoda lost the battle with Darth Sidious, or whom he used to name as Chancellor Palpatine, and Obi Wan witnessed his Padawan slaughtered the other Jedi in the hologram. The dream had come true.
The two of them flew back to Dagobbah with an abandon Jedi Starfighter. It was then when Yoda determined to remain in the planet until the time should come when he must train Padme's children, or at least one of them. He knew they could be their last hope.
They were still above Coruscant when suddenly Obi Wan received a message from Organa; from Dagobbah. His little holographic figure came out, his face looked terrified, and his voice was trembling when he said, "It's time!"
Obi Wan didn't have to be a genius to understand what he meant: It was time already for Padme to give birth. He instantly reached for the turbo button on the cockpit, so the ship would fly at the speed of light. As the result, Yoda gave him a discontent look. It wasn't safe enough for them to fly fast; they were too near the enemy. But Obi Wan ignored him, pressed the button, and guided his speeding ship back to Padme.
---
The first person he saw once he entered the house abruptly was Organa. He was still trembling and merely staring with the same horrified look at Obi Wan, who passed him and went straight to Padme.
There was Padme. Her eyes were closed and she seemed so serene that Obi Wan thought she didn't even breathe.
He couldn't believe she had already gone.
He couldn't take his eyes off the figure reposing before him, wishing that at anytime her eyelids would move and her lips would part and her weak voice greeting him would be heard, "Hello, Ben."
"Ben?"
He rushed to kneel beside her the minute his wish fulfilled. In his heart, he experienced a feeling of utmost joy; a feeling that hindered him from uttering anything but a sigh, "Padme."
Her breathing was as slow as her words. "Have you seen - Luke and Leia?"
His eyes became wider with surprise. At the same time, a droid that just helped Padme from delivering her babies came. In its arms was a bundle of blanket with a baby girl inside.
"Leia?" asked he, "this is Leia?"
Padme smiled conformingly. The same droid came again, but this time it carried a different bundle with it.
"Is that Luke?"
He put Leia in her arms and took Luke from the droid, so he didn't quite notice when the smile from her face vanished immediately. Once the baby boy was safe with him, the newly mother coldly spoke, "You can take him whenever you like, teach him as you like,
"A Jedi wasn't supposed to see his mother."
Then she turned away from them, pretending to nurse her baby girl. He said nothing in return and, carrying Luke in his arms, he left the bedroom to prepare both of them for another trip.