CHAPTER 11

The waters looked endless. With all his force power, and all Padme and Palpatine's political power, there was no help for them. Anakin walked back to where Palpatine lay, trying to regain his full strength.

"Chancellor, we must work together on this. Let's meditate on it."

"Meditate? Anakin, you forget I am not a Jedi."

For a second he stared quizzically at Palpatine. "I thought you weren't really a Sith."

Palpatine laughed. "I'm not! My boy, I do not have 'the force.'" He chuckled again. "If I did, I surely would have tried to attain power and station much earlier in life!"

This was hard for Anakin to accept at first. This man who he had thought had more force power than anyone, the dark side, the power to save the dead, and come to find out none of it was true. There was no power to save the dead. Palpatine, good Chancellor Palpatine, was an ordinary man with no force sensitivity. The Palpatine running the government was really Syfo-Dias, the changeling who had assumed the form of Obi-Wan to order the clones, then kidnapped the Chancellor at his rise to power and took his form and identity. It was all too much. Anakin sat down and lowered his head.

"Chancellor, I fear there may be more clones of myself. Why would he order clones of an ordinary bounty hunter and not ones with the force? He made one clone of me, am I to believe there are not more?"

"I don't think he made many clones of you, Anakin. You see, he would fear them. One, he could control. Many would be a threat to him. I am sure there was only one clone of you."

"How sure?"

"If I'm wrong, we will find out."

"How?" Padme asked. We are so isolated here. We may never get out of here!"

"Don't say that Padme, we have to! I'll keep trying...anything."

Padme put her head down and started to cry. "What about the babies, Anakin? They think we're dead and they are orphans. What is to become of them?"

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon stared at the babies in the medical center.

"How long before they can be taken home?" Obi-Wan asked.

The droid turned to him. "Home? These children have no parents. They are both dead. Child protective regulations require that we know they will be going to a secure home before they are released. We can find adoptive couples if you so request."

"No." Qui-Gon said. "We are going to take them."

"Jedi raising children?" The droid seemed skeptical. "They are helpless infants, not padawans for you to train. You cannot give them the care they will need the next few years of life."

Obi-Wan twisted a piece of his beard. "Qui-Gon, I don't want to give them to Owen Skywalker. I don't feel he is the best parent for them." He said after they were where the droid couldn't hear.

"You heard the droid. They don't accept we Jedi as adoptive parents. We must take them to their uncle."

"Why can't we take them to Padme's family?"

"They never knew of the babies. Besides, if they were with them they'd never be safe. Palpatine is from Naboo, he controls that planet more than any other. He will find a way to take the babies and raise them as Sith, or even worse, kill them."

"I hadn't thought of that, you're right. I don't see how the same thing couldn't happen with Owen, though."

"The empire does not control Tatooine. I don't know if Palpatine even knows where to find that old dirt farm."

"So, we have no choice. The Skywalker ranch it is."

They both had serious reservations about letting the children be raised by someone so hostile to the Jedi. Though Qui-Gon had seen Owen as a good man, and his wife a good woman, he could not forget their first encounter when they first met Anakin. This was a sad situation all around. There was nothing left to do. In a few days, the babies were released to the protective custody of Jinn and Kenobi. They took them on a ship and headed for Tatooine.

"Well, if it isn't the man who killed my brother!" Owen snapped as he saw Obi-Wan approach. "You are not welcome on Skywalker Ranch."

"He died in a battle to the death after turning to the dark side of the force. It was necessary."

"From who's point of view, yours?" Owen protested.

Obi-Wan was getting angry. "As if you cared. You would have killed him yourself if he'd have stayed here."

"The way he killed our mother?"

"Please." Qui-Gon pleaded, his hand extended. "Your niece and nephew need you now. We have brought these children to intrust in your care."

"Do those kids have that 'force' too? I don't want that around here."

"They may." Qui-Gon explained. "There is a chance, since Anakin is their father. Their mother was a non force sensitive, just as you are and your mother was."

"So there's a chance they might be normal?"

Both Jedi were offended by this remark. They did not want to leave the children here. They decided one of them would stay close by at all times in Qui-Gon's old hut to keep watch.

Beru came running out of the house. "Oh, they're here!" She squealed. She walked over and gazed lovingly at them both. "They are so beautiful! I have wanted a son and daughter more than you know. You both have brought joy to my heart!" She smiled at the two Jedi.

Owen scowled. "A good farm worker for me and a house servant for you. That's all I see there in them blankets. And nothing but parasites until they are old enough to work!"

"Owen!" Beru almost cried. "These are innocent babies, your own flesh and blood, please don't think of them that way."

Owen turned away. "I will be tolerant, for you, my dear. But if either of them demonstrate any freakish abilities like their father, I want no more to do with them."

Beru looked timidly and sadly at him, then back at the babies. Jinn and Kenobi sensed her fear, Owen had not always been kind to her. He had the potential to be an abusive father. They committed themselves to keep contact with them.

"You can go now. Get off my land." Owen ordered them both.

"Gladly."

"Ain't you going to help pay for their upkeep?"

"We Jedi have no money."

Owen shook his head and turned away. "Just go."

They left, taking one more glace back. Owen stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the sun. Beru carefully carried both bundles inside.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Obi-Wan whispered to Qui-Gon, though he had already sensed it himself. He took Obi-Wan to his old rugged hermit hideout, and there they both meditated.

Anakin was deep in meditation too, on the island. He was desperate to contact any Jedi still alive, to inform them of his plight, and how important it was that the 'Chancellor' in Coruscant be removed from power. His life force traveled, and a bit of it came through.

Obi-Wan jolted, his eyes shooting open. "Master!" he called out to Qui-Gon, who came out of his meditation too. "The strangest thing happened. I sensed Anakin's life force. I felt it."

"How is this possible? Strange that I have not."

"We were very close in those years after you were gone. He was like my brother. I can feel him."

"Perhaps what you feel is his presence in the force."

"You told me no Sith could survive death as the Jedi can."

"That is so."

"You saw Anakin die a Sith."

"Yes, we did."

"Master, I don't think Anakin is really dead. I don't think that was him who I killed. I had a strange feeling about him at the time, I could not sense him that day."

"That is because the dark side was clouding him."

"Or could it be that it wasn't really our Anakin?"

"Padawan," Master Jinn said, for the first time in years to Obi-Wan. It was almost comforting for him to hear it. "what are you saying?"

"I am saying I sense Anakin Skywalker is alive."

"I understand your deep feeling for him and your regret over his death at your hand, but he is dead, we saw him die in the temple, we saw him burn on the pyre."

"That wasn't really Anakin, I know it."

"Then who was it?"

"Master, why couldn't it have been a clone?"

"A clone?"

"It's not impossible. Clones are made on Kamino, and their growth is accelerated. Could it be that Palpatine made a clone of Anakin and replaced him?"

"That is quite a stretch, but...something in my feelings tell me I cannot rule it out. We must meditate again on this."

After much meditation, Qui-Gon was also convinced Anakin was still alive, though they could not get a clear message from him on what had happened, or his location. They were too far away. In his own desperate prison, Anakin held his head in despair. He felt he had contacted them, but knew they didn't get his message. There had to be something he could do. If only they were closer.

The next day, as the twin suns rose over Tatooine, Jinn and Kenobi headed back to Coruscant. They were going to see Palpatine, or the man they thought was Palpatine!