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CHAPTER 13th:
It was that afternoon, after word from Obi-Wan's informant, that the trio trudged once again through the low dankness of Southern Coruscant. The messy criminal underbelly seemed to ooze tension as if it were holding its breath while waiting for something. Padme, for her part, felt a new anxiety that she hadn't felt on the previous visit.
Glancing at Obi-Wan, she noticed he seemed unusually observant and more alert than normal. Anakin practically buzzed with curiosity and interest.
"Do you feel that?" she asked them.
"Yes," said Obi-Wan, glancing around at the gaping doorways and fizzling lamps in his sight.
"What do you think it is, master?" asked Anakin.
"It's quite hard to say," he said, considering, but his eyes moved up, towards the upper levels and behind them, towards greater Coruscant. He stopped and stared that way for a long moment, but then turned back towards the snaking, shadowed way before them and walked again with narrowed eyes. "I don't know."
"It's like the air before a storm," Padme remarked.
Anakin put his hand on his lightsaber hilt as they walked.
They arrived at the rendezvous point, an alley snaked with detritus and curls of smoke and mist, a foul twist of both. Padme leaned against one side of the alley and studied the opposite wall to take her mind off the buzzing in her head and the refuse at her feet. The fog breezed away on a spot large enough for her to read graffiti on the wall that read-
THE REBELLION
-with a funny symbol beneath that Padme hadn't seen before. She pointed it out.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Looks like a starbird, maybe," said Anakin.
Just then Obi-Wan's friend arrived. He looked furtive. More furtive than usual, that is.
"Hello," said Obi-Wan.
The man looked over Anakin and Padme.
"Still dragging around that senator, I see," said the man.
"I'm not a senator," said Padme.
"Right," said the man, then he turned to Obi-Wan and held up a microchip. "This is what you want, I think."
Obi-Wan accepted it and pocketed it at once.
"I'll see to your credits," said Obi-Wan.
"Yeah," said the man. "I'd be an idiot if I didn't know you of all people were good for it."
The man glanced behind him.
"I've got some people to meet, so," said the man, giving them all a sharp nod, "So long."
As soon as he disappeared into the shadows, Padme and Anakin swarmed Obi-Wan with curiosity.
"Just who is that man?" asked Padme.
"Can we go find out what's on that chip?" asked Anakin.
"Where is he from?" asked Padme, glancing after where the man had gone. "His accent is strange."
"We've got to find out who's behind all this!" said Anakin.
"Why is there a rebellion?" wondered Padme aloud. "Is he from the rebellion? What are they rebelling against?"
Padme let out a little gasp as she thought of something.
"Are they rebelling against the Republic?" Padme asked Obi-Wan. "Why would anyone do that?"
"Maybe it's just graffiti, Padme," said Anakin.
Obi-Wan cleared his throat and they silenced at once, waiting expectedly.
They would never know what it was Obi-Wan was going to say in that moment, however, because at that precise instant came the terrifyingly low boom of a distant but tremendous detonation.
It is almost always the first reaction of any person to freeze at that moment when it is clear that something horrifically destructive has occurred, but there is a general disorientation at first; the unknowing of what it might be, or where it might be, or if the sky is falling or how clear or present or near or far or instantaneous the threat might be. There is a sudden fear that the danger could be anywhere or everywhere or anything until the terror freeze thaws, the overwhelmed senses regain sight, and reason can resume its turn.
A low accompanying rumble, barely perceptible at first, grew into perception and realization that the detonation was large enough to have created a rolling aftershock, and that the proportional effect that aftershock would have on their location was unknown.
"Out of the alley, quick!" called Obi-Wan, grabbing Padme's wrist.
They ran towards the road as the rumbling grew and rattled the Coruscant Underground, causing bits of rubble to pitch and silt to slide into the air from above. By the time they'd reached the alley's opening, the rumbling had faded and the air sirens had ignited the air with a high-pitched keening.
"What do you think's happened?" Padme asked Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan looked at her and shook his head briefly; he was at a loss.
He looked past her at Anakin and gripped the hilt of his lightsaber, and she knew Obi-Wan was coiling back, preparing to spring into some heroic Jedi Knight nonsense. Jedi Knight nonsense was halted, however, by the eruption of another much larger, closer, more ground-shifting detonation that nearly knocked them all off their feet.
It was only after the fact she realized she'd screamed at the sound of this second explosion.
The aftershock rumble came faster this time, and louder, and far more horribly. There was only enough time for Obi-Wan to heave Padme into an old brick archway that housed a door before the blast's eruption blew through the Underground with a gale force wind of deadly debris, crumbling facades, and shards of metal ripped from elsewhere. He had pushed her against the inside edge of the archway with the intent to protect her with his body thrown across her, his hands against the wall above her head, braced for whatever impact may come.
The raging sound of destruction faded into a horrible silence scarcely punctuated by the spare pebble dropping here or there to skitter across a new land. The air sirens had stopped, for now. She became acutely aware of Obi-Wan's breathing, labored, next to her face; the puffs which stirred the wisps of hair against her neck, and the rise and fall of his chest against hers. It had become almost dark too quickly.
Obi-Wan pulled back enough to look at her with concern.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, then glanced over his shoulder.
He followed her glance and when he saw what she'd done his breath caught; it was faint, but she heard it. Once he'd thrown her against the archway, she had thrust her fist behind him and ignited her lightshield, allowing its concave arch to shield them within the archway. Now they both saw that, if she hadn't done this, they might have been crushed by the wall of debris that now leaned against the shield's scarce opacity.
"Oh, dear stars," oathed Obi-Wan, staring at the rubble.
"We have to find Anakin," said Padme, allowing a little panic to leak into her voice.
"Isn't it heavy?" he asked her.
"It isn't," said Padme, wondering at the shield's vibrancy.
"It must repel through polarity," said Obi-Wan.
She glanced towards the detritus blocking their way out and said, "Anakin would know for sure."
"We have to find him, now," said Obi-Wan, turning out towards the debris. "When I tell you, release your shield."
Padme whimpered.
"Are you sure?" she asked, feeling quite dubious about this idea.
"Yes, I'm sure!" he said, and he appeared to be bolstering himself for an act of unusual difficulty. He drew a large breath in and closed his eyes. She watched him fall silent, and it was as if power grew within him like the building of magnetism in the heart of a blaster cannon. His opened his eyes slowly and his voice came out soft, calm, yet with great intensity: "Now."
She depressed the red button in her palm and the shield blinked out of existence. Before the debris could fall more than an inch, Obi-Wan released a blast of the force so powerful it blew everything blocking the arch back as far as the building facades on the other side of the once-street.
He stood and stared across the ruined road, filled with piles of destroyed higher parts of Coruscant, stunned and working on regaining his breath which was shortened and labored from both physical exertion and the mental stress of the past few minutes. She realized she was doing the same.
Coming to her senses, she ran out into the rubble.
"Anakin!" she yelled, looking around for the padawan.
Obi-Wan followed suit, running the other way and calling: "Anakin!"
"Anakin, where are you?" yelled Padme, turning towards the direction of the explosions. She could hear Obi-Wan, a bit more distant, at the end of the street.
In her direction, towards what one might call "High Coruscant", the street was underneath an entirely collapsed section of the upper city. There was no moving that way any further, for it was nothing but destruction and no evidence of a street remained. However, it was here, standing upon a particularly high mound of rubble far off, she spied Anakin and noticed the city had fallen so far in that place that sunlight broke through the many layers and brightened the small figure of Anakin with a luminous bloom.
He was looking up towards the direction of High Coruscant and almost seemed as if he were listening to something.
"Obi-Wan, I found him!" she called behind her, and the Jedi Master made a sound that could only be described as a relieved yelp and began to come at once.
"Anakin!" she yelled, running and attempting not to trip herself up over the chunks of rock and metal that stood in her way. As she arrived closer, he turned to look down at her from his pile.
"Oh," he said, glancing over her, and then past her towards Obi-Wan far behind. With a little smile he said, "I'm glad you made it."
"Ugh, you idiot! How did you keep from getting crushed?" demanded Padme, though she had little reason to be angry with Anakin.
"How did you?" he asked.
She held up her fist which had the ring apparatus.
"Wow, it even worked on all this stuff?" he asked.
"Yes, it did," said Obi-Wan, finally arriving behind Padme. "It saved us both, Anakin. Thank you."
Anakin grinned. Then, curiously, his grin faded and he looked up again in the same direction as before.
"What is it, Anakin?" Obi-Wan prodded.
Anakin looked troubled.
"I need to go," he said.
"What?" asked Padme in disbelief.
Obi-Wan cleared his throat.
"Where do you need to go?" he asked Anakin, his voice coming through quite calm. Padme looked over at Obi-Wan in confusion, and it appeared that, perhaps, Obi-Wan knew it was inevitable that Anakin would go.
Anakin turned towards Obi-Wan and jumped down off the debris to stand close to them.
"Master," said Anakin. "I … I'm not sure. All I know is I need to go. I'm being called."
Obi-Wan stared silently at Anakin.
"What?" demanded Padme, completely at a loss as to what was going on. Unfortunately, she was entirely ignored.
Drawing a quiet breath, Obi-Wan blinked slowly, and then looked first and foremost as if he very badly didn't want Anakin to go, but also resigned to the needs of the force.
"If you must," Obi-Wan said with quiet percussion. He had become very still.
Master and padawan stared at each other for a long, almost interminable amount of time in which nothing was said, but a lot of things were probably said that Padme couldn't begin to fathom.
"What!" insisted Padme, stepping between them both.
Anakin's gaze shifted to Padme, and his smile was weirdly genuine. As if he was fond of her.
"Where are you going? Are you crazy? It looks like half of Coruscant is destroyed!" she complained.
"Something exceedingly terrible has happened though we know not yet what, nor the extent of it, but I feel some emptiness where there was once presence," said Obi-Wan, subdued.
"I know I promised I would never leave you two alone, again," said Anakin, his smirksome old self showing up. "But it looks like I have to. Try to behave yourselves."
Obi-Wan gave Anakin a look as if he might chasten him if circumstances were different.
"You know, desperate times…," said Anakin, glancing over his shoulder. "Call for desperate measures."
Padme turned at once towards Anakin and demanded, "Where are you going?"
"I need to take the shuttle," said Anakin to Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan glanced over Anakin, and then gave his permission with a slight nod.
They then embraced each other's forearms with solidarity. It felt too much like good-bye. It perhaps felt too much like good-bye forever. As they released each other, Padme grabbed Anakin by the shoulder and turned him to face her.
"Are we going to see you again?" asked Padme, and her voice had an unplanned amount of fear leak into it.
Anakin only smiled at her, still with the unnerving fondness, and gently took her hand from his shoulder and lifted it to his lips. He closed his eyes and kissed the back of her fingers gently, wholly absorbed in the experience, and then released her. Rummaging through his pockets, he produced the tiny droid he had made, having recovered it without any of them noticing from the man with the chip, and placed it in Padme's hand.
"May the force be with you," he said to them both, and disappeared swiftly around the pile of rubble, towards another way.
Padme clenched her jaw and made a deep, loud and guttural sound of frustration.
"Anakin!" she yelled into nothing, "You can't leave us!"
Her voice bounced off the ruins of Coruscant in a broken echo.
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