Dream Warrior

by AnnieCat

Anakin finds a way to enter his nightmare so he can try to change its outcome. Whatever happens in it will become real! Alternate ROTS one shot short story in 3 acts.

DREAM WARRIOR

Short story- alternate ending to Revenge of the Sith

Act I

Anakin lay awake in bed, staring at Padme after she feel asleep. She was so beautiful. He thought of how happy he was to be back from the outer rim sieges, and how good if felt to see her, to touch her again! What a pleasant surprise she had been, hiding behind that pillar. How lovely she looked on the balcony, combing her hair, with the city lights and night sky illuminating her.He couldn't believe how fortunate he was to be with her, and to know that she was carrying his child, a living product of their love. Nothing in the universe was more beautiful, or more precious. He touched her one more time with a silent kiss, turned over and tried to let sleep find him.

He wasn't even aware he had drifted off to sleep when it happened. A terrible nightmare, an unwanted vision of Padme in pain, crying for him! No, make it go away! It wouldn't stop! She was dying, he knew it. In childbirth. At last it left him, and so did sleep. He sat straight up in bed, panting, sweating on his face and his bare chest. Staring out into the room, he was unable to shake the terrible image from his brain. She was dying. The worst possible thing he could image, losing his beloved Padme and their baby! He was full of terror, because he knew his dreams were not just dreams, they were visions of the future, just as the ones of his mother had come tragically true. He tried to talk himself out of this, telling himself it was just because he was so glad to be home, and feeling so happy, it was an inner, subconscious fear of something going wrong that had caused the nightmare, no real future event. Who was he fooling? He knew better. He searched his feelings, and knew it to be true.

He got up, careful not to wake Padme, put on his robe and walked over to the window. He stared out at the city, at at the dark shadow of the Jedi Temple in the distance. He was supposed to be there, they all thought he was there, and here he had snuck out to be with Padme. His own wife! How unfair it was that they had to hide their love from the world, a love more deep and true and complete than most beings could ever imagine. For a second, he thought perhaps it was that frustration too that had sent the dream. He tried to let it be true, but the sick inner feeling came back. It was true. Padme was going to die in childbirth, and there was nothing he could do. Or was there?

"I have to know more of that dream" he thought silently to himself. If he knew what events had led up to it, maybe he could stop them, and in turn, stop her death. But how could he? This hateful image was the only one sent to him. How could the force be so cruel? He had to know more! He crawled back into the bed without hardly moving the bed at all. "I have to get back into that dream" he told himself. "then and only then can I find out what I need to know. I can change it, I know I can." He tried to will himself back into the dream, back into sleep. But he was too shaken to fall alseep. He got up and paced again and again, and stared out the window, again and again, until he wore himself out. He was so afraid of waking Padme. What would he tell her? He couldn't scare her like that, but she had to know. But, maybe not. Let's try again.

DREAM WARRIOR

Act II

Anakin spent a restless, uneasy day at the temple. The meeting, the usual frustration with Masters Yoda and Windu. He spent part of the afternoon drilling some padawans on their lightsaber skills. He was glad to do this, it used a lot of his pent up energy so he could be more tired, and get to sleep easier at night. He had to find a way into the dream again, to stop it and find out who or what was stopping him. Before he went back to Padme's, he spent much time alone meditating. He had to calm his mind, search for answers, and most of all call upon whatever in the force was sending him the unwanted visions to show him more, to take him deeper. Surely he could not be given such a warning without a solution. Was he destined to only see the sad facts after they were already predetermined? What good would that do anyone other than to hurt them? He was convinced he could do what he needed to do. He had to dream himself into that dream, see what was causing it, and get rid of it.

Padme came home very late. He was glad. He didn't know what he'd do if he had to sit around staring at her beauty all night feeling the way he did and not wanting to tell her. He looked at her face, and down at her stomach, carrying his child. These beings were valued to him, no matter what Yoda said about attachment and fear. If it was the will of the force that they die, there had to be a disturbance in the force, and finding its cause might change the ending? He didn't really believe this but it was all he had to hold onto.

He kept as still as possible in the bed, in the same position he had been before. He let his unconscious mind, and his strong power in the force guide him. Even asleep, he had to keep a bit of his waking mind with him, it was too important. Finally sleep came, and with it, the dream. It was the same as before. Even asleep, his mind was searching for more.

.He found it. Obi Wan! Why was he there? This was his child! Why was Obi Wan there? Was it his fault she died? What did he do? In the dream, he tried to speak to them. He could see them speaking to each other, but when he spoke, no one heard him. He was screaming and they didn't respond. He was reaching for them but could not get any closer. In his tortured agony, he woke up again. This was more than his heart could take for one night, beating out of his chest again, sweaty, again. What did this mean? He got up, patting Padme as she groaned and rolled over. She went back to sleep.

He did not. He went out and sat on the couch, and contemplated what he had been given to see. Padme. Obi Wan. He was seeing and hearing this, but they could not do the same to him. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and asked his aching head to medidate. In the deepest reaches of his mind, an answer came: he could not get to them because he was not there! He was given this vision of them, but he was not in the scene. Why? How could he leave Padme at her hour of greatest need? What did that mean? Where was he? He would never abandon his love like this! Maybe he was back in the seiges, or doing other Jedi work. No, he contradicted himself right away, he would almost certainly have been sent together with Obi Wan, and he was there. What did this mean? Was he, dead? He couldn't think of any other reason why he would not be in attendance at the birth of his child, if Obi Wan was. He searched his feelings again. He wasn't dead. He was being kept from her. But by who? Someone was standing in the way, and he had to go back into the dream and find out who before it was too late.

It was useless. Sunlight came creeping through the cracks in the draperies. Morning was approaching, and he had to get back to the temple before the morning meeting that was scheduled. There was no way he could have slept anyway after what had just happened, his mind was too rattled. His body was no better. His heartbeat had become so fast he felt it was skipping beats and becoming irregular. His stomach churned, his head ached, and he hyperventilated so much that his real arm went numb. His knees were starting to feel that way too. Stop it, no, he told himself. You are a Jedi knight, you have been throughmany battles, countless life threatening dangerous situations, and you had not let your fear get in your way. But this was a different kind of fear, a painful one, a deeply private one, a fear he knew would lead him down the wrong path if he did not conquer it now.

She fell alseep laying on his shoulder, then turned on her side as she always did, made a sweet snuffling sound, and then was still and silent. Anakin stared at the lights that sneaked through into the room racing in strange designs across the ceiling. He tried to fall asleep but keep his state of conciousness so he could remember, and act. It was no more diffucult for a trained Jedi than meditating, he thought as he tried. His tired body finally gave way to sleep.

DREAM WARRIOR

Act III

It came again, that horrid sightmare, Padme crying, dying, and Obi Wan. Anakin tried to yell but his mouth fell silent though he could feel his throat straining. He was just out of reach. He was not there. This was what he had to do now- find out why he was not there, and what was stopping him. He searched until yet another vision came to him. It was a man, a man whose face he could not quite tune in, and he was talking. Comments he had heard before, about how he was unappreciated by the Jedi. About how he wanted revenge and it was okay to kill Dooku. He knew those words, and the face cleared up to him. Palpatine!

Why was the chancellor here? He had been having his doubts about him, and wondering what it meant. There was something strange about him, something, wrong. He searched his feelings. Palpatine spoke again, beckoning him to follow him, he had more power than any Jedi! He asked him to be his new apprentice, the most powerful of all sith- SITH? What? Oh, that was it! Palpatine was the Sith Lord! This explained so much, but in his dream he was not able to list them all. He only knew it was Palpatine who stood between him and Padme! "Come with me, Anakin, I have the power to stop the one you love from dying!" He reached out his hand, ghostly and pale in the haze of the nightmare.

"NO!" Anakin shouted, and this time he could hear his own voice in the dream. "I will not let you take her from me!" He was here now, a part of it! "It's because of you that she is dying, you are doing this!"

Palpatine spoke in his kindliest old man voice. "I am afraid, it is you who kills her" he delivered with another smug smile. Anakin became furious! He didn't want the kind of anger that led to the dark side, that was what Palpatine wanted. It was an anger born of love, and protection for Padme, and deterimination that this was not going to be allowed to happen! It was Palpatine who stood in his way to Padme, therefore it had to be something he did because of Palpatine that caused her to die! He was not believing his lies or playing into his hands. With all his rage in the nightmare, Anakin lunged at Palpatine and tackled him to the ground.

"You will not take her from me!" He cried as he felt himself beating Palpatine over and over again. He did not enjoy the violence but he could feel he was doing the right thing. This was accentuated by the fact that he was getting almost no resistance from the chancellor in his nightmare. He felt strong, he felt exhonerated, he knew, the force told him, he was doing the right thing now. He was sure of it. And he did not let up until he was awakened by Padme shaking him and calling his name. Quickly, he opened his eyes and turned to look at her.

"What?" he said breathlessly.

"You must have been having a terrible nightmare, you were talking in your sleep, screaming even, and thrashing about!"

He sat up and hugged her like he'd never let her go. It was like she had become more real to him than she had ever been because of that nightmare! Suddenly, he felt he had to go. He told her he sensed urgent business at the Jedi Temple and kissed her goodbye.

"Come back a soon as you can." She called.

"You know I will. There's nothing I want more."

Dawn had still not broken when he managed to enter his quarters at the temple and crawl under the covers. He lay there waiting for someone to come to him, for he was sure, he knew it, he sensed it in the force, he just wasn't sure when and why. As he rolled around wide awake, he replayed the dream in his memory. Every detail of it was so clear, and it had to mean something, had to make a difference. Had he saved Padme? What did it mean? An answer was coming soon. After the sun came up, a noise came up through the large city. Deep sounding bells rang, horns blew, alarms went off. Something major had occured, just as he had sensed. There came a knock at his door. He knew it. Good thing he had returned. He opened it, and there before him stood Master Windu. He could read in their solemn faces it was bad news.

"What has happened?" Anakin asked them.

Mace Windu stared at him and spoke up. "Anakin, Chancellor Palpatine is dead."

Anakin's eyes got very wide and again his heart raced. "What did you say? How did it happen?"

"They say he died in his sleep. His body bears unknown trauma, though there is no sign of unnatural entry. It is being investigated. This is sad news for the republic, here in the middle of a war."

Anakin did not share Windu's sentiment. He knew better.

Just then, Obi Wan came running down the hallway. "Anakin! Master Windu! I have shocking news!" They both gave him their full attention. "It appears that Chancellor Palpatine was the Sith Lord we were looking for."

Mace looked at Obi Wan in disbelief. "A Sith Lord?"

"Things were found in his private residence, there is no doubt." Obi Wan looked very sincere. Mace turned away, feeling so much shame he and the council had not seen this! Anakin looked at Obi Wan intensely. He wanted to talk to him in private, his best friend, to share his experiences, but it would have to wait.

"This is not bad news." Anakin almost smiled.

Mace looked surprised. "I do not want to sound uncaring," Anakin continued, "but now the Sith are no more. Dooku is dead, Palpatine is dead, there can only be two Sith Lords, and they are gone. The galaxy is now safe from that threat."

"What if he had taken a new apprentice before his death?" Mace asked.

Anakin could hardly speak, knowing what happened, and how he had been the intended apprentice, and would have been had he not fought and defeated him in his dream. "He had no apprentice, he was unable to turn one in time." Anakin spoke without hardly realizing how it sounded. "I can feel it, I have sensed it. The Sith are destroyed at last."

"I hope you are right." Obi Wan said, trying to sound relieved.

"I know I am." He winked at Obi Wan. He was going to tell him the whole story, but not now.

When they had left him, Anakin dressed and headed straight for Padme's place. He knew she would be devastated at the loss of someone from her homeland she considered a good guy, a mentor. How could he tell her? Would he tell her? The only thing that mattered was that he had conquered Palpatine, fulfilling the prophecy that he would destroy the Sith, and in the process, saved his wife and child. Surely from all he had seen in the dream, he had done what he had to do.

Padme had been called to the Senate building, all of the Council 2000 were needed as much was being discussed now that their leader was gone. When she came home, she was emotionally spent, and he didn't want to bring up anything else right now. She could see in his eyes that something was wrong, and she begged him to tell her, but he only told her it could wait, get some rest, they'd talk later. They'd work it all out later, everything, even tell the truth about their lives. He feared no more, because now everything was going to be all right. That night, asleep in her bed, sleep came more easily, and the coldness and fear of the nightmares did not. They were gone, replaced only by security, peace, and love. Dreams of the future, a happy future, dreams that could now come true.

THE END