Where Am I Going To?
Part Two
Chapter Sixteen
A.N.: If you all read my sideline "Mistrust and Danger," the end of this chapter will make a whole lot more sense. So, sil vous plais?
It was very hot. Hot, muggy, it clung to him, dampened his hair with sweat and made his thick black clothes uncomfortable.
Why was he wearing black?
Retrograde, he thought to himself. He went from wearing black to white to brown to black again. A brief moment of brightness that slowly darkened in shade.
But he didn't believe that. He'd found the Light Side of the Force, and nothing could tempt him otherwise.
He just wished he could find some light here. It was very dark here. There were brief spurts of faded scarlet light that danced in the air, like rubies in sunlight – a distorted vision of red. There was a dull rumbling as if the earth beneath his feat was at war with itself. It was around this time that Luke came fully into his vision.
"Anakin!"
His eyes snapped open and his head whipped around, looking for the voice. And there it was. The same faces from the holo before – his master and his father, at odds ends as Obi-Wan turned his lightsaber off in protest.
"Please, you've got to listen to me!"
But he wasn't listening. Even with his old Jedi blade, he was lunging for Obi-Wan, and Luke found himself standing at the end of the bridge they fought on. Just like his mysteriously reappeared black attire, so was his old lightsaber at his side. With a throaty cry of, "No!" bursting from his lips unbidden, he unclipped it, rushing foreword to stop his father.
I will not watch you kill him twice!
Of course, Luke was hapless to stop anything, as he rushed through his mentor as easily as a specter, his blade an equal phantasm. Before he had time to despair, however, the rumbling from before grew louder until it was a vast roar in his ears and the earth shook uncontrollably. The bridge rocked, and Anakin instinctively turned off his saber and clipped it to his belt, attempting to maintain his equilibrium as surely as Obi-Wan was. Luke, of course, had excellent balance. Just one of those things that happened, he guessed.
Before he had time to blink, however, Anakin went pitching over the railing, and Obi-Wan lunged after him with all the love and familiarity that he had raised that boy on since he was nine. "Anakin!"
Luke rushed to the side, not daring to reach out, but too afraid to stay back.. "Father, take his hand!"
Obi-Wan had managed to grab Anakin's belt, stopping him mid-decent and jerking him around so that his bionic hand grabbed the bar. Another tremor shook the earth, yanking Obi-Wan backward, Anakin's lightsaber going with him. For a brief moment he simply stared at it, trying to fight the mindset of shock as he clipped it to his own belt absentmindedly. He quickly went back to the rail, reaching out again. For the briefest instant, he saw the eyes of his pupil looking back, and that was why he reached desperately for him. "Come on, Anakin." Nothing. "You don't want to die like a dog here! Please, Anakin….not like this." His voice cracked, and the frame of mind of Vader returned. The Sith's only real hand swiped at the Jedi's, making it painfully clear he would rather die than admit to the mistake.
"I hate you!" he snarled, grappling uselessly for the bar.
"Father, you don't mean that," pleaded Luke, looking from Master to man. "Please, just do it. Do it and you and I walk away from here and none of this has to be real!"
But Obi-Wan took the hint, took Yoda's words to heart. There was no Anakin Skywalker. He was a memory of the boy he'd loved that could only fade over time. "You were my son, Anakin," he nearly sobbed, backing away. "I loved you."
"Where are you going?" Luke pleaded, not daring to take his hands off the bar. "You can't just…Master, please!"
Obi-Wan didn't hear him. Another tremor rocked the bridge, and the Jedi latched onto the railing, knees buckling. His former Padawan's grip, however, was lost, and he went falling down, down, down.
"No!" Luke screamed, paralyzed.
"Anakin!" Now Obi-Wan was beside him, focusing all of his energies in trying to protect the young man from the lava below. It was too little too late, and all he was able to do was to roll the burning mess of flesh and bone to the smoldering black stones on the bank of the lava river, Luke adding his own influences in the Force. For a moment, the boy stood there, staring. He turned his head only as Obi-Wan walked away, wondering if he should follow. Luke hesitated.
In an instant, he was off the bridge, rushing down the loose black rocks, stopping carefully at his father's side. "Oh, Force….Father….I….." He sensed only anger there, and it frightened him as nothing could. Carefully, he kneeled, wondering if his hands would simply go through like the spectral image they were. But, no, they stayed, gently lifting up the scared and blackened head. A leg was broken, his remaining arm and probably the other leg were so badly burned they'd have to be amputated.
"How did it come to this, Father?"
As gently as he'd cradled the skeleton on Tatooine, he held his father's head now, imparting whatever small mercies of the healing Force he could. What was going to happen? There was a noise. Luke looked up. A ship was landing, and Obi-Wan had had to dodge behind rocks, stalling his own take off. Couldn't risk being seen.
Luke's stomach twisted into a knot; Palpatine. He looked back down at his father – destined for a life of demeaning servitude. "Why did you call him?" No reply, of course. "Why couldn't you have taken Obi-Wan's hand? You must have done it several times before. Even I took his hand once, Father, you'll come to know that in another eighteen years…." For the briefest instant, the yellow-blue eyes of his father didn't look through him but at him, and both father and son's eyes widened slightly before Luke gave a small smile. "I'm here, Father. I'll always be here….."
And then it all faded into nothing. As if it had never really been at all.
…
"Luke!"
Luke was brought out of his trance by Wedge shouting in his ear. He shook his head, eye dilated as he regained his senses. He was hidden in the Rogue Squadron outpost. R2D2 was humming anxiously at him.
Asleep. That's all he'd been. But he'd seen visions through the Force in sleep, too. He wasn't about to be fooled.
"Jeezes, don't scare me like that!" Wedge pleaded, shaking his head. "I thought you were in a coma or something!"
"I'm fine," he grunted, struggling to his feet. "I'm fine. I was just…." He stared at the hologram he'd been watching before.
Father….
"I've got to know who he is…." He whispered, and Wedge gave him a funny look, blinking.
"What?"
Luke wheeled and seized his friend by his shoulders. "It's my destiny, I know it! All this time I've waited and now it's here!"
"What's here? Will you stop shaking me, you son of a-"
"My father! I've got to know who he is!"
Wedge managed to push the other man off, staring slack jawed at him. "You mean was."
"I mean is," he stressed weightily. "There's something there, somewhere, I know it, I've seen it so many times….I…." R2 was squealing again, and he looked down. "I've got to make my lightsaber," he muttered to himself.
"Okaaaay……" Wedge muttered, rubbing at his shoulders. Privately, he was thinking that Luke was having another mental breakdown. In truth, it was a rare moment of clarity. "When you're done with that, there's a message from Chewbacca on the holo, and he sounds hysterical."
Luke looked sharply up. "What's wrong?"
"Sorry, I don't speak Kashyyk. Lando's trying to calm him down. I think the latter of the two was muttering something like Leia and Xizor."
Luke, who had been turning to triple check that he had all the necessary parts for lightsaber construction, wheeled, shouting a furious, "What!"
Wedge shrank again, not liking his friend's insane behavior. "I'm not certain, it just sounded like-"
Luke tore out of the room, his comrade on his heels. "I told her not to go, damn it, I told her! And now she's there, and he's got her, and-"
Wedge snagged his shoulder, spinning him around. "For the love of the Force, Skywalker, will you please tell me what's going on!"
Luke's erratic breathing slowed, and he nodded. "When I was little….I couldn't have been more than nine…he…"
Wedge watched him carefully, not sure he liked where this was going. "He what?"
Luke shook his head, breathless. "I'm not sure." He could feel Wedge staring at him, and looked up. "Damn it, I don't remember!"
"What do you mean you don't remember?"
"Exactly what it sounds like! I do not remember. I pushed it way back into my psyche and hell if I'm dragging it out now. It was just something bad, I don't remember what. I was a kid, and….and I don't know." He broke from Wedge's hand, briefly walking towards the hanger again. "I've got to find her," he muttered. "I've got to protect her." He paused again while Wedge just watched him rant, slack jawed. "But first I've got to build my lightsaber."
"I'm going to go check with Lando…." Wedge muttered nervously, walking off.
Luke just stared at the wall, afraid. Afraid for Leia.
If he's touched one hair on her head….I'll….
Well, he'd do something, alright.
To Be Continued…
There is one day left in the contest. Pleeeeease enter, because I really don't want to void the whole thing. Pretty please? Pweeeease?
HermioneSkywalker: XD! That's nice.
xInuyashaxangelx: Agreed.
Stephanie C: Reasonably so. It's when he accidentally investigates his mother's past that every detail gets explained.
cookiemunster: XD! The "Bucket on his Head," line has forever been immortalized by me and my friend Charlene, who has to put up with all the crap I write. Feel special. Good luck with taking of LucasFilm.