Chapter 15

Anakin was in the courtroom with Yoda, Obi-Wan and his wife Padme. These were the people who were very dear to him. Padme had Luke and Leia with her as well. He was glad that whatever happened here these people were all around him supporting him and standing by him.

Judge Gomnaz was sitting at his desk and looking over several sheets of papers. He had been looking at them for almost the last twenty minutes without saying much of anything. The silence was killing him. He didn't mind a few minutes, but with the fact that he had called him here to speak with him prior to the time the courts started was just too much.

Finally Gomnaz broke the silence, "Skywalker, the Hero with out Fear, as many refer to you as, I have been up most of the night reviewing a list of offenses made about you… These offenses range from aiding in a sadistic leader to overthrow the Republic, as well as assassinating almost all the Jedi, except for who is in here… These are very traitorous deeds that are even against the Jedi beliefs. How do you plead to these accusations?"

Anakin swallowed hard, "Guilty your honor."

Gomnaz took a deep breath, "I also have a very big list of deeds you did prior to this, how countless times you saved the very same Republic… This even includes your capture Palpatine and helped to come up with a plan to restore the Republic… Is this true also?"

Anakin nodded and said, "Yes."

Gomnaz took a breath again and continued, "There is not going to be a trial for you Anakin, The Council of Courts decided yesterday that only I would decide your fate. This was due to them wanting to focus everything on Palpatine's trial… Therefore all I want to hear from you is your side of everything…what would cause you to disobey the rules of the Jedi and to do the dark deeds you did?"

Anakin nodded, "Before I begin I want to let you know that I feel genuine sorrow for the lives that I have taken, as well as remorse. A few days ago, I even asked Obi-Wan to kill me after I defeated the Emperor. But I now value life more than anything. I fear the idea of Padme raising the kids by herself."

Gomnaz nodded at this even noticing the tears of remorse coming from his eyes.

Anakin continued, "Truthfully I would say it goes back to my upbringing, you see I was different than all the other Jedi, I was not found until I was about nine years old. So I began my training. At this time Palpatine took me in. He kept encouraging my abilities as well as he even gave me some advice. This continued like this for until about the start of the Clone Wars… during this time I desperately wanted to go and see my mother, for as a Jedi I was envisioning her in pain… They denied this. "

"Then I got my first assignment: It was to guard the Senator Amidalla. I will be the first to admit I always loved her, even as a nine-year-old kid, we went back to Naboo and did our best to ignore our feelings we had for each other… Then one day I could not avoid my nightmares of my mother anymore, I returned to my birth planet, Tatooine. But sadly I was too late she was brutally killed by the sand people… I felt something then I never felt before, and before I knew it I slaughtered everyone in the camp."

"Upon returning I found out Obi-Wan was captured and Padme, and I tried to save him. Upon our capture, we declared our love for each other, for we didn't see the point in hiding it, due to what we thought was going to be the end of us… However it wasn't. Upon taking her back to Naboo we decided to hide it from the Order and from everyone else, and got married. We were successful at hiding it the whole time."

"A few weeks ago, when Count Dukoo captured Palpatine, I dueled him and bested him. Palpatine, whom at this point hadn't revealed himself to me, told me to kill him, luring me with the dark side. It was then I saw Padme for the first time in months. She was pregnant. I kept having nightmares of her dying in childbirth."

"It was then that that Palpatine started playing with my emotions. He told me that I should be the one fighting Grevious not Kenobi. He then revealed that the dark side could save people from dying, and that the Jedi were hiding it and were trying to overthrow the Republic."

"Then I saw Master Windu in what seemed like an assassination attempt. Days later I saw that they did attempt to arrest him prior to my arriving in a security disk. So I thought the Jedi were the enemy and began to use the dark side."

"After wiping out the sepertists, Padme and Obi-Wan came and we calmly talked it over and then I made a vow to stop that madman."

Judge Gomnaz sat there for several minutes. "That is some story, Skywalker. Anything else you wish to add?"

Anakin shook his head.

Judge Gomnaz sat for about five minutes looking again at the charges and the deeds Anakin did. Finally after this he spoke up, "Anakin, I have decided that…"