Ch. 13

Obi Wan saw Anakin's hand clench around his light saber and felt his friend's thoughts of hatred escalate quickly. Obi Wan, too, whished they could just fight and end it all right then, but it was no use. Even Anakin Skywalker had no chance of even engaging the Sith in combat, he would be killed instantly. The Sith stood above Anakin, who was kneeling, his light saber at Anakin's throat. One move, and Anakin would be killed. Suddenly, Obi Wan saw Anakin begin to bring his hand up in attempt to knock the Sith's blade away.

"Anakin, don't try it! He has the higher ground!" Obi Wan yelled. Though no physical change was evident in Anakin, because he couldn't move without being pierced by the red blade in front of him, Obi Wan could sense his former Padawan reassessing the situation. Reluctantly, slowly, spitefully, Anakin dropped his light saber on the grass below him.

"Your patience is admirable, Anakin," came the creepy voice from under the hood. "Much more so then the last time we met. Now tell me, where are the children?"

Padme was still hiding with Luke and Leia behind the trees, her hands over their mouths so that they could not make a sound. However, she was finding it harder to keep herself quiet. Seeing her husband so close to being killed was almost too much to handle. Tears streamed silently down her face, and her sole thought was that of a longing to be home, cuddled on the couch with Anakin's arms around her, Luke and Leia giggling together on the floor as they played. She longed to be with him, to suffer with him, but she knew that she could not run to him, for her children's sake.

"Safe from you," Anakin spat at the blade in front of him, not even giving the Sith enough respect to look into his eyes.

"You will not get them back," Obi Wan seconded, supporting Anakin. "Do what you must with us, but the children are safe from you."

"It doesn't matter," said the Sith, refusing to be outdone. "I don't really care about them anyway, don't you see? It's you I want, as it always has been."
Anakin now stared up into his eyes, looking outwardly even more confused then ever and yet feeling his instincts lead him even closer to the truth.

"Take of your hood," Anakin demanded, the situation all to familiar for him.

"All in good time," replied the Sith. Suddenly, he turned sharply and ordered his followers to search the area for the twins, as well as to bring the boy, the Wookiee, an the two Jedi back to their base. He began to walk away briskly, but stopped when he reached the boy.

"It's a shame," he said, quietly but menacingly. "You could have been on the right side of it all. Now, I'll probably have to kill you… I am sorry." He cackled, and stalked off accompanied by several guards.

"I hate you! I am on the right side!" The boy yelled after him. "I am…" he said more quietly, crying to himself.

Both Anakin and Obi Wan tried to send Force signals to Padme to sneak away slowly, to hide herself and the twins, but they had to be very cautious in case the Sith was anywhere nearby- he probably had the ability to hear Force messages even if they weren't directed to him.

It was too late. Several of the cloaked figures emerged from the trees with Padme and the twins at gunpoint. Padme's cheeks were streaked with tears, though she had stopped crying, and Luke and Leia stood amazingly resolute and determined, only their eyes betraying their fear.

"It willbe ok," Anakin tried to reassure his family. "I promise you."

The figures marched away with the prisoners, around the woods this time. They wound up at some sort of base, one which had obviously been well established for some time. They threw all of them into a cell together, first making sure to take any weapons or possessions that any of them held. Several guards remained outside, but the group was alone in the cell.

"What now?" Anakin asked Obi Wan.

"Our first matter of business is to get your family and this boy and Wookiee to safety," Obi Wan replied. "But, I'm afraid Anakin that we must come back. We will alert the council and then we must deal with this Sith. The fact that a Sith remains in the galaxy is extremely disturbing, we can't allow this situation to not be dealt with."

"Agreed," Anakin stated firmly but sadly.

"No, Ani," Padme pleaded. "Please, let someone else…"

"There's nothing to worry about, love," Anakin assured her. "We can handle it."
"But last time you-" Padme began, referring to when Anakin had been knocked unconscious by Sith lightning when he had faced Palpatine. (A.N. If you haven't read No Boundaries, this would be confusing, but it doesn't really matter.)

"Padme, he jumped in front of that to save me," Obi Wan reminded her, interrupting. "Anakin helped in defeating Sidious."
"But Yoda was with him, and Mace, and you," Padme argued.

"I wasn't much help," Obi Wan laughed regretfully. "I was unconscious for most of the battle. Anakin did much of it himself."

"We can handle this Padme, and it is our duty," Anakin told her. "But I will get all of you to safety first." He pulled her close to him, as they sat together on the ground, and kissed her. He put a hand on her belly, trying to include the unborn member of the family in his affections. He smiled at Padme reassuringly, though she only could gaze at him worriedly. He gave her another kiss, unable to bear the look of sadness on her face.

"Don't," mumbled Leia, and despite themselves, everyone laughed. Leia remained headstrong and true to her nature, even in this situation. Luke nodded to Leia, scrunching up his nose, and she giggled.

Padme pulled Leia and Luke close to her, trying to live in the moment and be thankful that she was simply with her children and husband, and all of them were alive. Anakin put his arms around all of them, and buried his head in Padme's shoulder. 'Thank the Force you're safe,' Anakin thought. Without his family, he would feel so lost, so alone… 'Well, except for Obi Wan, of course,' he remembered with a small smile, looking towards his former master. He suddenly noticed that Obi Wan was in deep conversation with the boy, and they all turned to tune into the conversation, intrigued as to how the boy would explain his role in all of this.

"When I was little," the boy was saying, "I was taken from my home planet of Corellia. I think I had parents there, I'm not sure. Maybe they killed them, but who cares. Obviously no one cared about me, cuz I was always alone. Anyways I was maybe four or five when they found me, and took me away."

"Excuse me, but who are they?" Padme asked politely.

"These, these people! These creatures here, I don't even know. Except not the ones now, these ones were like me…it was older ones, meaner ones…"

"What do you mean?"
"We were being trained to follow… him," the boy stated, and that was all he had to say.

"But a Sith would have taken Force sensitive children to train, I don't understand what he wanted you for," Anakin protested.

"He took us from all over the galaxy," the boy continued, almost ignoring Anakin. "And he brought us here, maybe other more remote planets too. It was as if he was trying to make it like a summer camp or something. There were a few of us from every system, I guess he wanted kids of all the species, who spoke all the languages, understood all the cultures…he told us we would bring peace to the galaxy, we would run the greatest army ever to keep the peace… anyway we all came here, and lived at these camp like places, all of us around the same age. He trained us like we were soldiers or something, even at such a young age. That's where I learned to speak Wookiee, because I was brought here… and where I met him," He said, nudging a shoulder towards the Wookiee, who growled kindly. "Anyway, we kids were all orphans, you know; so don't ask me how he found us or where we came from. All I know is, this guy is and was evil. He would torture us, threaten us with the light saber if we ever questioned him, do Force tricks to make us think what he wanted us to, or to shut us up…horrible things…"

"And that's why you don't like Jedi," Obi Wan muttered pensively.

"It's why I don't trust the Force, yes," the boy answered defiantly.

"We aren't all like that," Obi Wan said. "He's a Sith, we are different…"

"Well I'm on your side now, ain't I?" The boy shot back defensively. "Anyway, one day, like four or five years ago, he told us it was time, that what we'd been training for was coming. He said he had to go to Coruscant, to get the army ready, then we were gonna go all over the place to lead it. He said he was getting a new apprentice, cuz the old one had just been killed, and that we would all be even more powerful and be able to bring more peace to the galaxy… but I didn't stick around for the rest. I ran…I didn't like this guy and I didn't want to help him and I certainly didn't want to be like the creepy cloaked guys that followed him around, and we were being trained to replace them…so I ran. I snuck off at the spaceport when we were being sent away, and stowed away on a ship and ended up on Tatooine. Jabba found me, and he was impressed I had managed to get there undetected, so he hired me to smuggle for him, taught me how to understand that language and all… Anyway one day I lose a big shipment right, so he sells me! Apparently Watto needed a kid who could fix stuff, and who could speak Huttese, which I could because of Jabba, not sure I'm really thankful for that or not…anyway he needed me, having lost his last kid that was worth anything over ten years before or something. So anyway, I didn't have anything to do with hurting your children or anything like that, ok? I just started to get suspicious then I noticed we were goin' to Kashyyyk, and that's why I wanted to help. Because I know what it's like… and those guys that called me a traitor are guys I was here with, they still think they're doin' right but I know they ain't. And that's it, ok?"

"So those that we killed, they're just… just…" Obi wan couldn't finish his sentence.

"Kids, yep. But I was one of the youngest, and don't worry because you should kill them, they've pledged themselves to him, they're just as bad as him if you ask me."
"But they've been lied to, manipulated with the Force… we, we could help them!" Obi Wan protested.

"If you think it's possible…" the boy shrugged.

"So are you saying," Anakin said quietly, breaking out of a trance. "That this man is Palpatine?" Suddenly, Padme and Obi Wan stared at him.

"I dunno who Palpatine is, wasn't he once Chancellor?" asked the boy.

"He was also a Sith Lord, Darth Sidious. We defeated him, but I thought…" Obi wan drifted off.

"Lord Sidious was Chancellor Palpatine!" The boy exclaimed incredulously. "I knew the universe was a mess, but not this bad. Force! Yep, that's him."

"How, how did he… how…?" Anakin stuttered, seething in anger.

"Calm down Anakin," Obi Wan warned. "I thought he was killed too, but remember, neither you nor I were in any condition to actually see his trial, we were both in the hospital all week. Neither of us ever saw him after the battle…"

"Why would they lie to us," Anakin shouted, getting angry. Luke and Leia cowered in the corner, and Padme held them close to her, though for once she was feeling the same intensity of anger and betrayal that he was.

"Why would he bring innocent kids, from all over the galaxy…it doesn't make sense," Anakin said finally, calming down simply because he refused to believe it.

"Actually Anakin, it does," Obi Wan counseled him. "Remember, there can only be two Sith… but he needed followers who weren't clones, ones who could actually lead armies and make decisions for themselves… so he took children, whom he could brainwash from an early age, in whom he could instill these twisted ideas. And no one would ever know, because they were orphans…"

"It's sick, it's twisted…" Padme protested.

"But it's true," stated the boy, staring at her intently.

"I can't believe he's still alive," Padme said softly, and she hugged Luke and Leia to her more tightly.

Suddenly, a bunch of the cloaked figures burst in and grabbed the boy and the Wookiee, pointing guns to their heads and pulling them out.

"No!" Anakin yelled, trying to hold them back. The Wookiee fought with all his might to protect the boy, but it was no use. They were extremely outnumbered.

"It's no use," the boy said, trying to calm the Wookiee and Obi Wan pulled Anakin's arm back.

"Don't get your children killed for this, Anakin," Obi Wan counseled. "We will help him."
"Come on, buddy," Said one of the cloaked figures meanly to the boy's face.

"Don't worry about me," the boy said. "Just try to get out of here, before he comes…"
"We will save you," Anakin yelled to him, cursing to himself as the door to the cell was slammed again.

"The poor thing," Padme whimpered. "We never even learned his name…"

"Han," Leia responded enthusiastically. "Han Solo." Leia stared out the door after him, smiling after her newfound friend.