CHAPTER EIGHT

"You have done well, Anakin. Now I have a new task for you."

Palpatine called Commander Cody and ordered him to execute order 66- the destruction of all Jedi!

"Show no mercy. You know what must be done." He told Anakin.

"Yes, my master."

Anakin put up his hood and headed toward the temple, an army of clones at his back.

Across the city, Mace had landed safely in a swimming pool atop an highrise. After he recovered from the jolt of the impact and the shock of what he had just been through, he headed right back to the Jedi Temple. Yoda had returned from Kashyyk.

"Master Yoda, you will not believe what I have witnessed."

"Great disturbance in the force I have felt. This is why I have returned. Imminent is an attack on the Temple."

"We must call back all Jedi to help us defend it."

"No time there is. Beacon I have sent, messages I have relayed. Wait we must."

Obi-Wan came running. "What has happened?"

Windu stared at him. "Anakin has turned to the dark side!"

"I don't believe it!"

"I saw it with my own eyes! He called the Chancellor "master." He tried to kill me! I told you he could not be trusted. Our "Chosen One" has betrayed us!"

Obi-Wan put his head in his hands. "I can't believe it, not Anakin! What abou the prophecy?"

"A prophecy misread could have been." Yoda shook his head.

Windu's eyes shot over to Obi-Wan. "Yoda and I sense a great threat to the Temple and the Jedi. The Chancellor is about to attack us. You need to know that if Anakin is with them, you must be prepared to destroy him."

"I cannot destroy Anakin, he's like my brother."

"Gone is the boy your trained." Yoda sadly told him.

"I cannot believe it until I see it for myself."

Windu glanced out the window. "You will not have long to wait. The invaders are here."

They all looked out to see the line of clones marching steady in their direction, led by a hooded figure looking much like Anakin. Obi-Wan was shocked.

"I can't believe what I'm seeing. I won't until he gets in here and I see his face, until he tells me with his own mouth he is now a Sith."

"You will have that chance, and you know what it might lead to. Rid yourself of your attachment to young Skywalker. You know what must be done."

A shadowy, hooded figure appeared in the darkened doorway. He pulled down his hood and revealed a troubled, worn face covered by a greying beard. He had long grey hair and looked like an ancient wizard. "I have stayed out of your way, but now the time has come for my return."

"Come back to say I told you so?" Windu said sharply.

"There is no time for gloating, though had you all listened to me several years ago none of this would be happening, and countless lives lost in this war would have been saved. Now I am here to help you stop this evil from overtaking our galaxy. Are you with me now?

"Yes, you were right and we were wrong, Master Jinn. We should have taken you more seriously. We were all taken badly. The Chancellor a Sith Lord!" Windu admitted.

"Right you were, cost us it did not to trust you." Yoda sighed. "Come back you did, honored and humbled in our shame we are."

I sensed the disturbance in the force and the danger to the Jedi. I feel the pain of the Chosen One."

"The pain?" Windu hollered. "He is with them now, he is a sith lord!"

"I will not believe that until I see it. I am not sensing Anakin is evil. He is suffering."

While Yoda and Windu didn't believe this, Obi-Wan did. "I sense the same, welcome back, my Master." They embraced, near tears. "You have to help me save Anakin."

The army entered the temple. Prepared because of Windu's warning, many Jedi were ready and used the force, and mind tricks, to weaken and deplete the invading clones. Still, they could not all be stopped. "There are too many of them, what are we going to do?" Asked one of the younglings desperately. Yoda hid the younglings in a stone room and held off all who tried to approach and harm them. Meanwhile, Windu, Jinn, Kenobi and several other Jedi battled the clones bravely. A fire started using the force, and some fallen debris, managed to stop or kill a great deal of them. Still, many Jedi fell in the battle as well. Smoke billowed from the Jedi temple, and Padme saw it on the skyline. She was beyond worry and grief as she lost consciousness in the floor.

Chancellor Palpatine watched it all from his window. He was certain of victory. He had not expected the resistence the Jedi were putting up. He was confident his new apprentice could take care of it all.

There reached a point in the conflict in which Yoda decided the only way to save the order was to take everyone he could round up and flee. Yes, flee in failure. He didn't like the idea and it hurt his pride, but he couldn't sit there and have them all destroyed. As Qui-Gon had, they would leave and wait until the time was right. Yoda and Windu took several younglings and other Jedi and escaped in a ship before they could be stopped.

Now no living Jedi were left inside except for Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. They waited for the final confrontation they knew was coming- Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One, the Sith apprentice. He appeared through smoke and backlit darkness. They both stood ready, lightsabers in hand.

"Anakin, come with us, we can save you before it's too late!" Obi-Wan begged. "Look, Qui-Gon has returned! You have been seeking him the last few years, now he is back! Together we can stop all this!" He held his lightsaber down and extended his hand. "Come, my brother."

For the first time, they saw the face inside the hood. It was Anakin's, but it wasn't. The eyes were Sith yellow rimmed with red. There was a look of evil in them they could not see through. His face was stern. He had changed. They sensed no feeling in him for either of them. How had he gone this bad this fast? Was there not a tear of regret, not an ounce of guilt?

"I must serve my Master. All Jedi are evil and must be destroyed."

"Anakin, no!" Qui-Gon shouted, stepping in front of him.

"Anakin, what about Padme?" Obi-Wan begged. "Think of her, don't do this!"

"It is her I am thinking of. Only my dark side powers can save her now."

"What are you talking about?"

"Lord Sidious told me only the powers of the dark side can save her from dying in childbirth."

"Is that why you did this? Oh, Anakin, can't you see, Padme will suffer because of what you've done. You will break her heart!"

"Shut up, Obi-Wan! Do not tell me what I must do with my own wife. I am here to carry out a mission, and you are in my way. The Jedi made an attempt on the Chancellor's life, you all must be stopped for the good of the republic!"

"Anakin, you don't believe that!" Qui-Gon pleaded."Palpatine, I mean Sidious, is evil!"

"From my point of view, the Jedi are evil! Now, both of you, get out of my way or I'll have to kill you!"

"Oh, I don't think so!" Obi-Wan said, igniting his lightsaber. "You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you. But I will do what I must!"

Qui-Gon was stunned and saddened as he saw the two Jedi he loved most engage in battle, and duel to the death. Qui-Gon did not lift his saber. Despite all Anakin had said, he still felt something was wrong. He sensed nothing but evil in Anakin in person, but inside him, he could feel his pain, as if he were crying out for help. He didn't understand this, there must be great conflict inside him. Was it too late to bring out the good in him? What did it all mean?

The battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin continued. They used force pushes, chokes, and of course lightsabers. Qui-Gon had trained them both and thought them eveinly matched, but Anakin's fighting style had changed, as if he had recieved his training from the Sith. He must have been training with Palpatine for awhile preparing for this. How could this be? How could Palpatine have such a hold over him so quickly? The old master continued to watch his former apprentices go at it, not sure what part he should play in this. His cries and pleas to Anakin went unheard and unheeded. He really had thought he could turn Anakin back but it wasn't working. It was like his true self was locked up inside and couldn't get out, couldn't even hear him. He hurt deeply, and his head and body ached from it all. The fight had progressed and became more violent. Qui-Gon watched as Obi-Wan sliced off Anakin's right arm. He winced and turned his head. But without even much of a scream, Anakin had switched the lightsaber to the left hand, and was still fighting as best he could! Obi-Wan sliced off his left arm, too, and Anakin was left with only his legs. Raising high in the air in a complex Jedi move, he used his legs to kick Obi-Wan to the ground, but before he hit the ground, Obi-Wan managed to raise his lightsaber and cut off both of Anakin's legs. Now he lay bleeding, a limbless, defeated mound on the ground. His face was pale, he could barely speak. "I ..HATE you.." were his last words. His glaring sith eyes closed, and his breathing finally stopped. He was dead.

Obi-Wan collapsed to the ground in grief and agony. Qui-Gon, tears in his eyes, ran to console him. The two of them wept heavily over each other's shoulders.

"I killed Anakin, Master, I didn't want to do it. I loved him! He cursed me with his last words. What am I going to tell Padme?"

"You have to remember it was not Anakin you killed. Anakin was gone, replaced by this sith monster."

"I will try. I can' t believe it."

"Neither can I." Qui-Gon cried. They both glanced over at the pale, lifeless face, mouth still open as if gasping for air, head bent back in pain. They could look no more. Qui-Gon tossed his robe over the body to cover it and give it dignity. Then, together, they took the corpse outside to prepare for a funeral. Come tommorrow, they'd be burning many brave Jedi, and with them, their own Chosen One. What had gone wrong? They still didn't understand.

It was going to be very hard to tell Padme. As soon as she saw Obi-Wan and the long missing Qui-gon she knew something was very wrong, as she had already felt in her heart. Obi-Wan didn't tell her at first he was gone, he wanted to see what she knew before she became upset. Because she had not seen Anakin on the dark side, she'd find it harder to accept than those who did. She tried to take his word for it, but it was hard.

"He told me he knew the Chancellor was a sith lord and wanted him for his apprentice." She told them.

"He knew this? How did he react?"

"He didn't want to do it. He said he had to think of a way to get out of it. Then came the dreams. He said he dreamed I died in childbirth."

"He said that he had to turn to get power from the dark side to save you."

"Oh, no! I told him I thought Palpatine was sending him the dreams to weaken him!"

"I know he did. I sensed it." Qui-Gon said. "Whatever he did to Anakin, it changed him more than I expected. In the end, I couldn't even sense any remorse."

"The--end? Wh-at are you saying?" She backed up from them both, her eyes terrified, her body shaking. "Is he..did you...no...go away..."

Obi-Wan held her and looked into her eyes deeply. She knew it before he said it. "I am so sorry, Padme. I killed him. I had to. He was trying to kill me. He was killing other Jedi at Palpatine's order..."

Padme pushed him away. "You killed Anakin! I hate you!"

"I didn't want to, but he wasn' t Anakin anymore, he was consumed by the dark side! You didn't see him! The Anakin we loved was already gone!"

"How did he die? Did he suffer?"

Obi-Wan didn't even have the courage to tell her the gruesomeness of his death. He only lowered his head and sobbed.

"Get out of here!" She lunged at Obi-Wan with both fists, crying and screaming. "You killed Anakin! I will never forgive you!"

Qui-Gon held her and subdued her as best he could, but she was heartbroken and hysterical. He felt her body strain as she screamed and struggled. Finally, she passed out, and was silent. They rushed her to the medical center.

Padme was not even awake when the twins were delivered in the emergency room. They were both put into incubators and rushed to intensive care. The boy and girl were alive, but premature and weakend by their mother's recent stress. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan ordered all the droids to silence on the identity. They watched as the tiny hearts made the monitors bleep steadily. Then they returned to Padme's bed, and found it empty.

"Where is the mother?" Obi-Wan asked a droid.

The metal nurse answered coldy and without human emotion. "She expired soon after the birth. We have sent her body to the morgue."

Both Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon cried again. They knew that the horror of losing Anakin in such a way had led to her own death. Though it was out of their hands, they felt responsible, and guilty. When they had gone through all the emotions their bodies could handle, they demanded her body. Leaving the babies unnamed in the medical care of the droids, they escorted Padme's body back home to Naboo. Her parents were devastated by the news. They did not immediately tell them of the babies, they were too important for their existence to be found out. Making her appear still pregnant, a rushed funeral was set for that very night. As countless mourners watched and cried. the beautiful Padme was set out on the beautiful sea she loved so much on a floating pyre. At the last moment, it was lit on fire. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon cried as they watched it sail away. Finally, no one could watch any longer, and did not want to see the flames overtake her. The crowd slowly vanished. As the sun set, she sailed away.