The woman is lying on an operating table. She is screaming, her face contorted in pain. Medical droids surround her while two human doctors speak urgently to themselves, their grim faces showing their desperation.
"We are losing her," one says, shaking his head. "The haemorrhage is too extensive."
"At least we were able to save the twins…"
"Yeah…"
The monitor connected to her starts beeping frantically as one of the doctors shouts a series of orders. "Her heart is failing!"
He looks as the scene unfolds from behind a window. He is surprised because he should not be able to see, and yet he does.
His eyes move from the woman to a blond haired young man standing in a corner of the room. He is screaming too, begging the doctors to save his wife, to save his Padme, but the beeping of the monitors grows more and more urgent until the sound changes.
"She is dead," one of the doctors says.
His eyes dart back over the young man. He has fallen on his knees and he is weeping. There is something unsettling in his pain…it is turning into rage. Terrible, furious, uncontrolled rage.
"NO!" The young man screams as he rises to his feet. He waves his hands, causing objects to fly around the room, while all the transpirsteel things in the surgery room, window included, are smashed.
The medical droids are crashed, as if an invisible giant hand is squeezing them, while the two doctors bring their hands to their throats and their faces turn purple, as if they have trouble breathing.
Then the blond man turns to face him, and the onlooker recoils from the sight of his yellow, red rimmed eyes…the eyes of a man consumed by the dark side…
Obi-Wan Kenobi woke up with a start, and sat up on the mattress, his eyes wide open. He blinked them several time, still shaken by what he had seen. After twenty years spent in complete darkness, using his hands, the Force and, rarely, his bond-mate's eyes to relate with the world around him, it was disconcerting to 'see' such incredible images.
Disconcerting and worrying, because this did not seem to be an ordinary dream…
The mattress shifted as his bond-mate turned on her side and murmured, "Are you all right?"
He nodded. "Yes, I'm. Don't worry, go back to sleep."
The mattress shifted again and two feminine but very strong arms surrounded him from behind, as a chin came to rest on his bare shoulder.
"You aren't all right Ben," a rough voice murmured directly into his ear. "Something has been troubling your sleep for the past several nights. You haven't been resting well, and now I want to know why."
Obi-Wan grunted at the strong squeeze his bond-mate gave him to emphasize her words. He deeply loved her, but gentleness and patience had never been among her strongest points.
He took one of her hands in his own and caressed it, enjoying the feel of the soft skin on the back, so different from her calloused palms. There had been a time he too had sported calluses, but they had disappeared in the twenty five years elapsed since he had last held a lightsabre.
"I'm waiting," his bond-mate hissed, nipping at his neck and he realized she would not relent until he told her everything.
"I have been having strange dreams," he began slowly. "I'm outside a surgery room, watching as a woman that has just given birth dies because of a haemorrhage. She is attended by high quality medical droids and trained doctors, but they cannot do anything for her. And then there is her husband…a blond haired young man dressed all in black. He is full of despair and rage and when his wife dies he destroys the room using the Force…and his eyes…his eyes are yellow. It's a frightening sight. I can feel the dark side gather inside him…"
Obi-Wan shivered and his woman hugged him more tightly, before running a hand along his bare back, trying to relax him.
"It's just a nightmare, Ben," she whispered, changing positions and kneeling by his side. She cupped his bearded cheeks in her hands and kissed his brow, nose and closed eyelids. "Only a nightmare."
"No, it isn't. It's a vision. I've always had some prescience, and I know it's the future I'm seeing. I can feel that if this woman, this Padme dies, something terrible will happen to the galaxy. The man in black—he is more than a distraught husband. He is powerful in the Force…too powerful…" Obi-Wan shivered another time and his bond-mate embraced him again.
"Shh…calm down. Release your emotions into the Force. It doesn't do you any good to be in such turmoil. Breathe deeply…in…out…in…out…"
Obi-Wan did as she had instructed and he soon felt peace wash over him. He relaxed in his bond-mate's arms and smiled against her chest, before ghosting a kiss on her pale skin.
"I thought I would never see the day you would be the calm and collected one between us," he whispered.
"You have taught me many things in these seven years Ben, more than you know. You taught me how to control my anger and let go of my negative emotions. You have replaced my hate with love—and I will never thank you enough for it." Her voice trembled with her emotions, and Obi-Wan smiled again as he thought now she would probably deny it if he pointed it out to her. "You are an incredibly gifted teacher, so powerful in the Force…I still cannot understand and accept how the Jedi could cast you away. You know, you could be a master by now. A hero of the Clone Wars as Skywalker, Jinn and Windu…"
There was a familiar undertone of anger in his mate's voice as she talked about the Jedi. No matter how Obi-Wan had tried to explain to her he had not been cast away, no matter how hard he had tried to make her understand it was not the Jedi's fault if her late master had been left alone on her homeworld, he had not been able to completely convince her.
"I wouldn't be here with you if I were a Jedi, darling," he commented, knowing that despite her hard exterior, his bond-mate craved and needed his love and tenderness. "The Jedi Code forbids attachment, as you know well. Also, I'm happy with what I do here on Langara. I prefer to save lives instead of ending them."
She nodded. "I know, Ben, but sometimes I cannot help but wonder. All, right, now that you have finally relaxed, what about returning to sleep? Tomorrow morning I will have to leave to collect a group of refugees coming from Rekam and I am afraid that once they are here you won't have a lot of time to rest."
Obi-Wan nodded, "You are right." He kissed her on the lips, a kiss full of love and just a hint of passion, then let go of her and reclined back on the mattress. His bond-mate imitated him, and soon he fell in a blessedly dreamless sleep.
Asajj Ventress stayed awake a bit longer, idly caressing Ben's hair as he slumbered at her side.
It always made her feel unsettled when he lost his trademark calm and serenity. It never happened for futile reasons, which meant this vision he was having was troubling him more than he wanted to disclose.
Asajj grimaced. She hated when Ben kept things from her in an attempt to always look strong and perfect in her eyes. She hated it because she knew it was her fault if he believed he had to behave like that.
She had despised him at the beginning of their relationship, reputing him weak and powerless because he was blind and used the Force not to fight and destroy enemies as she did, but to help beings more pathetic than him.
His inner serenity, his calm acceptance of all the insults she had covered him with had infuriated her until, little by little, her opinion of him had changed. She had learned to see his real strength and her disdain had transformed into respect, admiration and finally love.
Asajj smiled to herself as she remembered how stunned she had been when she had realized she had fallen in love with Ben. She had always thought love was a weakness and never imagined it could instead be a strength, two people joined so deeply that they became one in front of the difficulties life threw at them.
She was not a sweet or romantic woman, but she had learned to put her mate's needs before her own and found a satisfaction greater than any of her previous, hollow victories against her enemies, in making Ben happy.
Asajj turned her head and kissed Ben's temple, studying his strong profile in the moonlight and felt a familiar tug at her heart.
She was bonded for life to a former Jedi, a kind she had despised for most of her life. A man that could be so infuriating with his selfless, self-sacrificing attitude. That could manage to make her feel guilty with just a whispered word when she lost her temper and gave in to her anger—but she would not trade that bond for anything in the universe. The Force had given them to each other and she would never allow any evil to harm Ben. She would protect him from everything, even from his dreams if necessary.
Her resolve strengthened, Asajj closed her eyes and settled more comfortably at her mate's side, and let slumber overcome her.