Thank you to all my reviewers in reminding me the joys I have to continue FanFiction.

Anakin's POV

I had to keep racing, keep on limping to the cave to save Numa from whatever bounty hunter or opportunist that has wrenched her from me. I swear, this will be the last time I lose someone important. This will be the last time I lose anyone to the horrors of death.

This will be the last time I had to mourn or suffer and finally - finally become a true Jedi. The urgency sprung through my legs as I ignored the persistent cramps and kept on running to what could be a deathtrap...

I slowed down once I made it to the arching entrance of the cave. Spines of igneous dikes snaked around the entrance. Very little life, like liken or insects seemed to line the entrance to the darkness, but I ignored all does needless details...

Once I rounded a corner and couldn't see the light at the entrance to the tunnel I recalled to the days early on in the Clone Wars. I was on Vanqor when I fell, once again, into a nest of gundarks with Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan... He was friendly to me and I knew that he meant well, but he always threatened my very essence: that I wasn't a perfect being. That I wasn't one with the Force. I didn't know anything, and, still, I could sense it in me.

But what I couldn't sense was Numa's presence. She didn't seem to be nearby... Or I could be near a Sith who has Numa and is masking both their presences. Either way, I kept trudging on until I realized that the cave didn't end so quickly.

I was in a luminous bulge in the tunnel system.

Light, pale as that from a moon, illuminated the room inside the cool cave. There was nothing to reveal where this light came from. It wasn't blinding like the sun nor could the source of it be pinpointed... It just was there. It was warm, like Padme's hands, but also nothing. In flew through me, penetrating my body, and I couldn't tell where it was coming from.

Briefly forgetting Numa, I basked in the warmth, circling around the dimly lit room and feeling the surprisingly smoothed walls that its velvety texture may have come from erosion or another unseeing force... There was no plantlife inside and the cave kept tunneling on and on in the direction I was going. But I kept my body here, thoroughly soaking inside the light of the cave.

"Anakin. Anakin Skywalker." A voice sounded in the cave, but I could distinctly tell that it was my imagination. It was of no one that I knew, or everyone that I could acknowledge, but I still believed it was my head talking to me. That it was the desert that blinded me to the rest of the galaxy.

Then I remembered why I was here.

NUMA! I quickly recalled, and so I continued racing towards the hallway when suddenly the rapturous braying came from the opposite side of the tunnel.

"Aaaarrgh!" I heard coming down the sandy hallway. It was distinct. I recognized the dreaded voice like the Force itself. Pure permeation of the Dark Side seemed to have sprung into the room. Or, at least, it was their shadows that came, blocking the vision of the white sand that was illuminated by the Light. The shadows grew longer, as if they formed the V of a gaping maw as they enveloped my body...

Looking forward, I saw Sand People!

A shaman who wore a skinned duneclaw mask saw me first, before others dressed in tacky robed, paced forward, but immediately stopped like a rat after suddenly witnessing a tooka.

The Sand People gazed at me and, as anyone would expect, fear sprung into the chambers of my heart. I wasn't livid. I wasn't shocked. Only petrified.

Sand People were there, basking inside the light of the room as I was. They had no weapons in their hands and, from what I could tell, none anywhere else around their robes. They were absolutely motionless, stationed with no connection to a sentient life or a violent one. They didn't even seem eager to attack.

But I knew what Sand People were like. I've faced their trickery before and didn't wish to deceive myself. To say things like, 'The wielder of the Force, the Chosen One, never takes the lives of others.'

I have. I regret it. It was like the Force acted as a bastion or an emotional vampire, but I regret taking the lives of a Tusken Raiders' tribe so long ago... Still, to this day, I didn't know if they regretted causing the death of my mother...

But, nearly in a realm of timelessness, I gazed at the potential cause to the kidnapping of that Twi'lek girl I was so fond of; almost as sisterly as I was fond with Ahsoka. I took out my lightsaber and ignited it...

Still, the Tusken Raiders didn't reach for their weapons. They didn't attack. They appeared like they were all warriors..., and still they didn't attack.

They took one step forward...

I took one step toward them.

Then, as if they remembered their daily lives, continued to walk briskly closer and closer and closer to me. They came into my wielding distance, but didn't stop, and I didn't do anything.

In a stunning move, I turned off my lightsaber...

They passed by me like rushing water around a spired rock inside a large ravine. I didn't see women and children (thankfully not reminding me of that horrid morning), but all in all, they kept walking around me like I wasn't even there... They walked around me like air rising and falling inside a voluptuous atmosphere. There walked around me like people finding their way around a long table.

I closed my eyes..., lightly...

Anakin... Skywalker... Trust in the Force.

I opened my eyes again. Distinctly, there was a light at the corner of the tunnel, that I have not seen until now. The room also was different. It seemed to lose its luminosity in exchange for the twilit area of land that was up ahead.

I stepped cautiously, feeling the soles of my boots sink into the sand. Then I took another step, and another. Rounding the corner, I could see not a panoramic landscape, but a rocky bowl that surrounded a pool of water. It was an oasis. There was nobody that appeared there but murky water and no secondary way out.

Slowly, once again, I went down to the edge of the water, as if called by Numa's presence. I kept my strides as I walked closer and closer.

Even though my lips were flaked and chapped, with an uncommon rash in between my chin and lower lip... Even though my face was sodden with dust, boots tight with sand, and saliva giving a begging roar, I did not step or drink from the foul water that was laden with dried algae and unknown microorganisms. Then, left the cool room of the cave behind me... I saw a light. This time, there was a forward point of origin. I just saw the cavernous bowl cast with a feverous brightness.

On reaction, I squinted, looking down, and shaking my head before staring up once again. The brightness glowed, diming slightly, then repeating as I tried peeling the reason for this anomaly.

I saw a bright light of centered source.

I saw a person walk purposefully to where I stood.

I saw a bright, blotched thing of what I could only describe as a ghost walk towards me.

It had the appearance very much like that of a hologram, without the out-of-focus fizz that happened regularly or the subtle horizontal lines rising and falling.

I saw wavy hair, a Jedi tunic, fettered pants, rimmed boots-

This 'ghost'..., was me.

It was a complete reflection of myself in a three-dimensional spectral form that baffled my eyes. Immediately, I was reminded of the illusions I had over Mortis. It was the heat. It must be a mirage.

Then my 'ghost' spoke, "You have lost your way, Dark One. But I have come to collect your cause."

'Dark One'? I'm a Jedi! "What sort of trickery do I see!" I muffled an alarmed breath.

Then, sounding a lot like an insult, he spoke of my exclamation. "Only one who has forgotten himself is afraid of himself. I am you who fully embraces the Light Side in every waking moment. I am your truest potential, if you only let go of your fears and accept death."

'Accept Death'? What does that have to do with anything. Every answer my form gave sparked more questions in my mind. "You are mistaken. I am the-" I stopped before uttering 'Chosen One' and decided to embark with my title. "I'm a Jedi Knight." I muttered. "Ever since I first left this planet, I have dedicated my actions to helping others. I-" Just say it! "I-I am the Chosen One. The one who will bring balance to the Force."

He nodded. "You believe in Balance, but do not embrace the Light Side. Instead you pride on self-preservation and forget why the Will of the Force calls for you to become a Jedi, to embrace being the Chosen One. All your life you have been reliant on fear, grief, and pride, so much that you no longer represent a Jedi. But believe me when I say you are halfway there to fulfill being the Chosen One. You have forgotten what the Light can do to those strong in the Force. With you being one of the purest beings in the galaxy, you can accomplish so much more than any other Jedi can even attempt to do. You are so much more... Or could be."

It was hard to follow the philosophy, but I couldn't trust the spectral form. It may not be Dark Side sorcery, but I knew it was nothing to be trifled with.

"Impossible. You're trying to trick me. To let my guard down and- and make me fail my purpose in this pitiful desert."

"The child, you mean? Numa Kareenta of Nabat, sister to the Separatist operative? Am I wrong?" My reflection stated serenely.

"Wait! Did you see her pass here!? I must find her!" I tried looking around to see if I could spot an inkling of her presence.

"She is here." My reflection pointed to the ground. "She is there." He pointed at myself... I started to grow frustrated. "She is-"

"Enough with your riddles! Tell me where she is!" I pointed to the way I came. "And tell me how Quinn, that man out there, got shot!"

To my despair, my embodiment continued with its vagueness. "This planet, especially this area of the desert, is strong with the Force. Water is what culminates life and that's what this oasis represents. I personify what it means to be Jedi. You, at this era in your life, personify what it means to be in disarray with the Force. Your mind is out of Balance, aligning yourself with neither the Light Side nor the Dark Side, no matter where your leaning is. You must choose one, everyone must choose one to fulfill their destiny in life."

I inhaled deeply, remembering my vow to learn a power to keep the ones I cared about from dying. I said that after losing my mother. I told this to Padme and Palpatine. As selfish as it sounds, I needed that power to prosper in selflessness.

As if he was reading my mind, my reflection answered what I was thinking. "If it's power that you seek, I can tell you how the Light Side is more powerful than you may think. The Sith rely on deceit, cowardice, and terror to meet their ends. This is no life whatsoever. Do not misjudge what I say, it's not mere dogma that I suggest, but the truth of how the universe is bound."

I sighed, knowing that I had to hear him out to find Numa. However, what he was telling me, as far as I knew, was more questions, not answers.

He continued, "If one values the Dark Side, their lives will be fraught with paranoia and suffering. The Light Side values others to rise before oneself. When one gives, they feel good inside." I recalled some points in the Clone Wars when I would rescue refugees. There is no better feeling. But to 'give' in order to feel better sounded like encouragement for the self-righteous.

"Isn't that selfish? To commit to 'good' only to feel more enlightened? If the Jedi believe that, then they're as selfish as the Sith." I cut the air with a flat hand to emphasize.

Remarkably, my 'Light Side' seemed to grow perturbed. "The Light Side values love. The Dark Side values hate. Which is more important to you?"

Is he kidding himself?!

I sneered. "I thought the Jedi forbid 'love'."

The specter raised his voice, though it wasn't out of anger. "If you confuse true love and true hate, so be it. But you persist to walking down a dark path. If you refuse to be your pure self, then you must rid me in your mind. You must choose one or the other. I only beg you to choose the Light Side in order to reach, in your narrow opinion, true power."

"The Light Side is not enlightening. It's given me nothing but pain."

"You define pain; the Light Side never acknowledges it."

"Unlike you, I carry a sentient mind!" I roared suddenly. "A living thing feels pain all the time! That's truth...! You lie!"

I Force Pushed the illumination backward, as it dissipated into nothingness the more it fell to my power. Swiftly, the light source that was in front of me was gone.

The night made the oasis felled in darkness, but strangely I discovered a presence that was familiar. Turning around abruptly, I saw no one but the entrance to the cave from where I came.

'The Darkness removes oneself from life.' I heard a voice inside me, whether it sprung from my own conscience or from the specter I just witnessed, I could not tell.

But then, a telltale voice resonated in the bowels oasis's sinkhole. "Nerra!" The voice cried out in anguish.

I spun around once again and I quickly noted that the water from the oasis has completely vanished, without any fallible explanation. But to my horror, only one thing laid there. "Nerra!" A strained plea for help once again came out. Numa was coughing water and sand out of her throat as she splayed out in the cooling sand.

"No... NO!" My voice changed suddenly from the swell of sadness that ruptured beneath my aching ribs. "No..." I rushed to where she laid and picked her up into my arms. I knew what was coming. It's happened way too often for me. Far too often! "Don't die..." I brimmed with grief already. "Don't you dare die."

I knew nothing about Healing! Damn my ignorance! How can I disregard such a method when I needed it most. I needed some sort of Healer like Barriss. Oh, what I give for Barriss to be here right now. What I give for her to be present and helpful when my mother died in my arms.

I heard labored breaths from the little girl, as if she drowned in the waters of the oasis. It made no sense, but right now, I only focused on bring her back. Foolishly... I had nothing to bring her back to health and no one was there to turn to.

Still, I looked around for aid. Seeing none, I called for anyone, anything to show itself. "Help! Help me! Someone, please, help me...!" No one answered as I continued to jerk my head around for some form of life, someone to be there in the void of the desert. I balled in tears. "D-don't let her die." I half-spoken to myself as I persisted in sobs.

With my eyes glued shut to held back anymore tears. But out of the darkness, I heard the little Twi'lek girl sing. Yes, she was singing in her native tongue...

"Vaikene nyt, Nerra. Etkö uskalla itkeä. Sain tavata sinua viimeisen kerran. En valehtele: minä kuolisin. Mutta tiedän välität minusta. Sinulle, niin minä." I looked at the girl that I saw as my daughter. My face was just blank but still teary as I tried to look into her for one last time.

She was dying and there was nothing I could do to prevent that inevitability. She coughed in my face as I sensed her insides shut down on me... But not before she said one last thing: "Brother... Brother..."

She closed her eyes swiftly as she fell into death's embrace, leaving me so alone... Never..., never in my life has Tatooine felt so cold.

Thank you for putting up with the ridiculously long wait. I wrote Twi'leki in an English to Finnish translation. I'm sure it's not a perfect rendering, but I thought it would go well with the sound of the language you hear in the episode "Innocents of Ryloth".

And here's the translations for Numa's Last Lullaby: "Hush now, Nerra. Don't you dare cry. I got to meet you for one last time. I won't lie: I may die. But I know you care for me. For you, so do I."

Please review, but I don't want to read anything that says "How dare you take so long! Don't you dare do that again!" I don't appreciate hearing anything like that.