AN. I'm so sorry! Especially since I know I left you with a semi-cliff hanger. I meant to get this up last weekend, but it wasn't finished, I'd rather get something good up than something just 'eh.' Thank you for your patience :D

To all of my anonymous reviewers: THANK YOU! Your support means a lot, even if I can't PM you personally!

Novelreader: You've left me a few reviews (thank you!) and I've tried to respond, but it seems you've disabled your PM capabilities, so I haven't been able to get back to you. But you're right, no Threepio. There was no way for him to join in the escape, though there is a reference to him earlier in the story. And yes, Obi-Wan cursed. Although it's out of character for grown-up Master Obi-Wan to curse, I think twenty-something Obi-Wan might curse in his head after failing to protect his friends.


"It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to

admit you can do nothing." — Lemony Snicket


Chapter 5 A Journey in the Dark

"Everybody down!"

Obi-Wan's voice flew out over the droning desert. Drilled in taking orders from that tone of voice, Padme immediately dropped to the floor, hitting the burning sand with a painful thwump. She missed hitting her head on a rather hefty looking rock by mere centimeters. There was an explosion of disorienting sound above her head. It faded off to the right before wheeling and coming back with a renewed roar.

The speeder crashed with a terrible screech, jolting Padme out of her stupor. Padme rolled over to get a look at what was going on, coughing on the dusty air. Obi-Wan had his back to her, blue lightsabre out and humming confidently in front of him. An imposing figure stood opposite him, blazing black despite the heat and the light of Tatooine.

A shiver whispered down Padme's back at the sight.

Anakin and Ms. Skywalker were a few feet from her, splayed out to her right. Through the dust it was hard to tell if they were alright.

She scrambled for the blaster stuck under her jacket, until the harsh noise of the battle pulled her from her controlled panic. She glanced up and saw that Obi-Wan and the man in black were in close, trading brutal blows. Common sense kicked in and the Queen realized a blaster would be useless so long as the two 'sabre wielders were locked in such tight formation

Her comm. She couldn't fight, but she could call for backup! Shifting to her side, the young woman from Naboo scrabbled for the comm unit in that pocket, fumbling with the tiny device, trying to still her shaking hands so that she could flip the device on properly. It snapped alive in her fingers and she waited desperately for a voice on the other end, her attention divided between the snap-hiss of the lightsabre battle in front of her and the silent static from the comm.

Her stomach clenched. Where's the pilot…where's the pilot…where's the pilot…

"Ollie here." Her whole body relaxed at the sound of another voice, a familiar voice, coming from the unit.

"Ric! Its Padme, we need backup!" Grateful for her diplomatic training, the handmaiden kept her voice clear and low, knowing that haste would only slow down any rescue operation. It didn't stop her hands from shivering, though. She kept her eyes on the battle in front of her, watching Obi-Wan flip and whirl around the man in black. Her free hand finally grasped her blaster. That hand went steady.

"Ric, trace this signal—we're being attacked by a being who is very skilled with a lightsabre. We need backup. Now."

The pilot responded something in the affirmative, Padme couldn't tell what. She didn't care, as long as they were coming. Now that she had made the call, there was nothing more she could do for Obi-Wan.

Time to see what she could do for Anakin and Ms. Skywalker.

Tearing her eyes away from the dust and flashing light of the battle in front of her, she searched out Anakin and his mother, who were still lying where they had fallen moments before. Concerned, Padme levered herself off of the stinging sand and scuttled towards the mother and her son.

When she got close enough to them, some desperate part of her wished she hadn't moved. Ms. Skywalker was dead. She lay, twisted brutally on the sand, back bent at a severe angle, her head bloodied shiny red on a dull brown rock. Anakin sat next to her, hands moving around as though he could piece her back together. His empty gaze met Padme's, sharp as betrayal. His face was white under its tan.

Desperate to ease the loss, Padme darted forward, accidently dropping the communicator in her haste (but not her blaster, she kept a firm, steady grip on that) and scooped Anakin up into her arms, twisting him around, away from the battle, away from his mother's body. He resisted for a moment, just a moment, before he buried himself in her arms, shivering violently. Padme felt her eyes water up as the boy clutched at her waist, but she forced herself to shake the tears out. She had to keep an eye on Obi-Wan. She steadied her blaster and kept an eye on the battle over Anakin's head.

Anakin's voice shuddered into her stomach, "Padme! Padme, she's dead, my mom, she can't be…Padme…"

The Queen's heart broke.

"Padme! She pushed me down! The speeder, the speeder flew right on top of us…and she pushed me down…Padme, is that why she got hurt? 'Cause she helped me?"

"Anakin, I, of course it wasn't—"

But there was nothing she could say. Not really. She resolutely kept her eyes from drifting back down to the tragic sight at Anakin's feet.

Instead, she focused in front of her. She watched Obi-Wan took a hit that sent him flying. The fall winded him, kept him down long enough for the man in black to stalk closer. He raised his lightsabre for a kill blow as Obi-Wan struggled to regain his breath. Padme took advantage of the opportunity, firing off a series of well aimed shots at the creature's back.

Not one of them hit.

Faster than light, the man in black flicked his red blade around and sent each and every one of them hissing into the sand.

But the volley made the man in black pause just long enough to allow Obi-Wan to breathe and regain his focus. Obi-Wan leapt forward, engaging his opponent, taking advantage of the opening. Padme desperately hoped that the ship got there soon. Although both duelists were obviously tiring, Obi-Wan was taking the brunt of it, favoring his right shoulder so much that even she could see it; it was only through sheer determination and stubbornness that he kept fighting.

Come on come on come on.

The dull roar of a spacecraft at low altitude filled the air and kicked up sand. Come on come on come on….

Obi-Wan fell a second time. Acting on some instinct, Padme dropped her blaster into the sand at Anakin's feet, and reached for the blade hidden in her hair. Obi-Wan got back up and reengaged. Padme pulled her hand away, dart held loose and ready in her hand. Padme shifted out of Anakin's grasp. The creature tossed Obi-Wan down a third time. Sand went flying as the Nubian cruiser closed in. Obi-Wan wasn't getting back up. He's not moving at all, Padme realized.

The man in black's eyes flicked to the ship, and then back down at the prone man near his feet, before he raising his arms for a two-handed kill.

Anakin shouted in protest.

Fluidly, Padme let loose the old-style dart from her hand.

The man in black's arms descended towards Obi-Wan's chest.

The silent, dark blade nailed the Zabrak in the shoulder, causing him to stumble forward.

His lightsabre hissed down next to Obi-Wan's head, melting the sand next to the Jedi's face.

The cruiser landed and the ramp hissed down. Fine sand billowed into the air. Cries of anger rang out, followed by a series of blaster shots.

Forced to deflect the bolts, the Zabrak decided that he no longer had the chance to kill Obi-Wan. The man in black leapt over Obi-Wan's prone body towards his crashed speeder. With a flick of his wrist, the motorbike was jerked upright as if on a line and pulled towards him. His black cloak glistened in the sunlight as his blood soaked through the material. Leaping astride his bike, he fled into the desert, dodging a hail of blaster shots. He abruptly disappeared from sight when he dropped over the edge of the ridge.

The echo of his bike was quickly lost in the hum of the Nubian engines.

Relief made Padme weak. She reached down and scooped the distraught Anakin into another hug. He clung to her desperately, grabbing handfuls of her tunic into his fists. She heard footsteps all around her, voices shouting and worried. She buried her face in Anakin's yellow hair, hiding from the attack, from her responsibilities as Queen, the knowledge that her planet was under invasion, from Ms. Skywalker's death and her role in it, Anakin's pain, Obi-Wan—

Around her, voices blurred together: what happened here—milady—who is this?—someone grab the generator, we need to get it installed—get the medics—he's going into shock—we need ice packs—Padme!—check the child, is he ok?—Padme!

Slowly, one voice penetrated the panic driven fog in the Queen's mind. The voice was sharp and demanding, expecting things from the Queen of Naboo and not from a terrified child.

"Padme! Padme! What happened?"

Recognizing the voice of her security chief, she pulled her head away from Anakin's. Her eyes skittered over Shmi's body as they made their way up to Captain Panaka's face. The reminder that all of this was real was almost enough to send her back into hiding, but she refused to back down. She met Panaka's eyes as squarely as if her entire body wasn't shivering, shoving the panic back, forcing herself to think and to act.

"Obi-Wan? He is ok? Is he still alive?" she inquired, eyes darting over to where her few med-trained staff were clustering around Obi-Wan's still form.

"Yes. The staff is working to stabilize him right now," the Captain replied. His eyes darted around the scene. Padme nodded, relieved but not comforted. "But, milady, we need to know what happened."

"We were ambushed." She tilted her head towards the ridge where the man in black had disappeared. "That…thing, it dropped out of the sky. Ran us over. I think…I think he knocked Mrs. Skywalker over." Anakin's body shuddered convulsively against Padme.

"The impact broke her back," a voice interrupted. Padme jumped in surprise. It was the Jedi master. He was kneeling over Mrs. Skywalker's body, studying it. Padme hadn't noticed his approach, but then she hadn't been paying much attention.

"She died before her head even hit the rock." Master Jinn's words were impartial, clinical, but he glanced at Anakin with pity before levering himself off the ground. "She died almost instantly." There was a sympathetic pause. "Here, this way. Out of the sun," Master Jinn suggested, gesturing towards the shade of the Nubian.

Padme was grateful for the move. Anakin didn't seem to notice.

"Now, what happened next?" the giant man prompted Padme to continue her narrative.

"The man in black came back and Obi—Padawan Kenobi," she corrected herself, "confronted him. They fought. That's when I called for backup." She gulped before continuing, giving a brief but accurate account of the fight.

But the Jedi master was not satisfied. He continued to grill Padme, taking over the interrogation from Captain Panaka, asking her questions about the duel and the man in black. She answered them as best she could, but her eyes kept straying behind the Jedi Master, flicking from Obi-Wan's wounded body and the people working to stabilize him to the mechanic shifting the hyperdrive generator into the ship. She felt exposed and open on the surface of this inhospitable planet, guilty that her crusade to save her planet had gotten Ms. Skywalker killed, nervous under the complete focus of the intense Jedi master.

Finally, Master Jinn was done with his questioning. Padme didn't know if it was because he was finally satisfied with her answers or because he realized that she had already told him all she knew. She was just relieved that the interview was over. Master Jinn excused himself to check on his Padawan. Heartsick, Padme watched as the scene until Sabe came and ushered her and Anakin into the ship.


They gave his mom a spacer's funeral.

They laid her out in the airlock, laid out all pretty in a bright red dress. It reminded Anakin of the blood that had stuck in her hair after she fell, of the blood that still stained his old clothes. They washed her hair, combed it out. Despite the almost waxy cast of her features, she looked pretty. It made his heart burn to know that his mom would only ever look this pretty when she was dead.

They did it on the aft airlock, where there was a small room in front of it, just big enough to cram the entire ship's population. Padme made him stand up front, by the airlock, where everyone could see him. Normally, he would've loved the attention, but right now, he didn't even notice. But she said that's where he had to stand 'cause it was his mom and that was the Proper thing to do. Still, Padme stayed with him.

They said it had to be a spacer's burial. That they couldn't afford to stay on Tatooine 'cause that thing might come back and attack again. That they couldn't take her with them to Coruscant because they had nowhere to keep the body, 'cause they said needed the stasis pod to keep Obi-Wan alive and the cooling unit for their food supplies.

Padme said everyone on the ship was there to pay their respects. Except everyone wasn't there. Obi-Wan wasn't there. Obi-Wan was hurt bad and stuck in stasis, all because he'd tried to do what Anakin had been too scared to do—protect his mom.

Tears filled his eyes and splashed down his cheeks. He kept it quiet though. He had learned how to cry silently when he was little. Safer that way. But the tears burned down his hot cheeks, stinging his eyes and skin like the Tatooine suns at noon.

Someone started talking. Through the watery blur, the child couldn't see who it was, but they talked about his mom, saying things about her, about death, about stars and space and endings and peace and freedom.

What did they know? he thought bitterly. It wasn't supposed to be an ending! It was a beginning! Mom had been so close! he raged. So close. So close to freedom—to real freedom—that Anakin almost choked on the wrongness, on the unfairness of it all.

Distantly, he heard the speaker call for a moment of silence. The engines hummed in the quiet. The airlock door hissed. Anakin's head shot up, eyes wide in panic.

The airlock was closing, shutting away his mother, taking her away. Anakin lurched forward with a cry, trying to get to his mom before it shut her away completely—

Arms grabbed him. Stopped him. Held him back. Padme, wrapped in red and yellow like the rest, she stopped him with a hug, kept him away from the doors.

Keeping him away from his mom.

Or what was left of her.

The door shut with a click and a pneumatic hiss. A low klaxon warning sounded. Then, suddenly, it all went quiet for a long moment before everyone began leaving, talking in quiet tones.

And that was it. His mom was gone forever. Blown out like a candle 'cause he'd been too weak to keep her safe.

Anakin felt cold, inside and out.

He didn't know who it was, but someone gave him something to eat. He ate out of habit, with the self-preservation instincts of a slave who knew what hunger was like, but he didn't taste the food or see who was around him. When he was finished, someone else showed him his bunk. He changed into the clothes someone had left for him, even though they were too big.

Night cycle started. The sounds of the ship's company slowly faded into a hymn led by the engines.

Anakin curled up, tried to sleep, but it was cold and he hurt and there was sense of aloneness in his head that made him want to run and run and run.

Putting on his shoes, Anakin got up. Restless, he left the room and wandered into the hallway. He meandered past the galley and the 'fresher, poked his head into a few rooms, but there was nothing interesting in any of them.

Then, he found the medbay.

The room itself was tiny, white and sterile, with machines set into the walls, all connected to the bed that rested on the far side of the room. Obi-Wan was in the stasis pod, hooked up to a bunch of quietly humming machinery. Anakin tried not to look at his friend, but it was impossible to ignore his presence. A sense of Obi-Wan-ness filled the room, bright and bold, despite the fact the man looked as dead as Mom looked.

Anakin shivered despite the blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

Anakin stepped just inside the door. The lights rose a bit, from a pre-dawn glow to a bright dusk. Darker than the corridor, though. It meant he couldn't see Obi-Wan, which was fine. This way, he could pretend they were still on Tatooine working on the hyperdrive. As long as he couldn't see Obi-Wan, Anakin didn't have to remember that the man wasn't really there. He crept into the room until he was near the stasis pod. He sat down, back to the base of the machine, huddled inside the blanket he'd grabbed from his bunk.

Something made his heart twist, and rage swirled in Anakin's gut in response to his helplessness. His fists tightened against his pants, knuckles going white. His mother was dead and gone and Obi-Wan was almost gone too and Padme was worried and busy and they were still days away from Coruscant and there was nothing he could do.

Leaving Tatooine was supposed to fix everything! It was supposed to make everything better! Anakin raged. The thing had happened. It had shown him the choices and it had never been wrong before but now his mom was dead. He had chosen to help these people and to leave Tatooine and now it was all his fault his mom was gone.

She was dead.

And it was his fault.

His fault and that creature's fault.

Anakin would never be able to pay for what he had done, but making that thing pay would help, right? It would have to help. He thumped his hand hard against the base of Obi-Wan's bed, the pain that radiated from his knuckles totally submersed under the pain in his chest.


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