Chapter 13
Breaking Point
Anakin couldn't tell whether it was because he was in so much pain or because of the events that had occurred but he saw a silvery figure sitting in the back of his room.
"Hello." The figure said. Anakin found himself looking at a young teenager not much older than himself with short straight blonde brown hair and an old Jedi robe.
"It's been a while since I last visited any one of the planets. Though I'm surprised that it's you that I'm here to see." The figure looked at Anakin. "You've taken the wrong step forward."
Anakin stared at the figure. "You're Anakin Skywalker."
"Yes." Anakin Skywalker said, though he did not sound very pleased by the fact. Anakin Solo understood perfectly. After all, he shared the same name and fate.
"You are mistaken, Anakin." Anakin Skywalker said, watching his grandson.
"About what?" Anakin Solo asked.
"You have no reason to think you are like me. Because you have lost nothing."
"I let Chewbacca get killed." Anakin retorted frostily.
"You saved what was possible to save."
"Now you're the one who's crazy." Anakin Solo glared at the figure who didn't flinch or even move at all for that matter.
"You can always return, Anakin. Your name does not prevent you from being with those you care about."
Anakin shook his head. "I don't want to be with them. They don't deserve to be with someone who tries to kill everyone who does something wrong to him."
"What you are obsessed with is the inhumane side of me." Anakin Skywalker went on as though he had not heard his grandson's ranting. "The spirit of the person you see before you is human. So are you, Anakin. If that is what you choose to be. Right now part of you wishes to be more than that."
"I just don't want to be the reason everyone is afraid."
Anakin Skywalker inclined his head slightly. "Are you afraid?"
"Yes." Anakin heard himself say, though for the first time he realized he'd been the one who was afraid.
"You will find that if you are afraid, the whole world seems to be a frightening experience." Anakin Skywalker gazed off into the darkness of the room, not quite looking at his grandson. "What is it you fear?"
"Becoming you."
"Then embrace your fear."
"But that's the dark side."
"If you do not face your fear it will conquer you."
Anakin snorted, "That's easy for you to say, you're dead. You were Darth Vader, how can you lecture me on how to deal with fear?"
"I lost all that I cared about, Anakin. It is quite easy to forget what is right when you put your fears of loss first."
"Even if that loss is yourself?"
"Yes." Anakin Skywalker waved his hand and another figure appeared in the room. A gray haired man in JedI robes stepped in, his old and aged body lined with wrinkles but he still seemed youthful in his own way.
"Hello, Anakin." The new figure said. "You are more grown up than I thought. It seems Luke has done his work well."
"Thanks, Master Obi-Wan." Anakin lowered his head respectfully to the elderly Jedi. Obi-Wan nodded.
"It is easy to forget that you are able to make mistakes and be human when you are a Jedi."
"It is better to be flawed than to destroy yourself trying to be the ideal Jedi." Anakin Skywalker added. Both of the figures looked intently at Anakin Solo. He was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest.
"What should I do?" Anakin asked after a few minutes.
"Break whatever role you are trying to play." Obi-Wan said. "Do not confuse yourself with Anakin Skywalker, because no matter what, he will never be you and you will never be him."
Anakin shook his head. It wasn't that easy. They didn't understand. He'd tried to kill Synthor. He didn't deserve a second chance. He had given up. Anakin had decided he wasn't going to come back this time. He was going to leave because it was too painful.
"You cannot run from fear." Both figures said in unison.
"Stop lecturing me!" Anakin screamed. He clamped his hands over his ears. "You don't know what it's like to not want to kill someone but something inside you just does it for you."
"I do know." Anakin Skywalker said, suddenly his form shifted into an older Anakin Skywalker. "I killed Padme. Then later Obi-Wan."
"You cannot expect yourself to follow the same path when it is not where you are meant to go."
"Don't tell me where I'm supposed to go. I've already decided I'm not going back. I don't want to be alive any more. Just leave me alone!" Anakin hid his face in his covers and when he looked up both Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan were gone. Then Anakin let out a loud wail.
Synthor pulled the blade out of Anakin's abdomen. "Anakin!" He cried, but Anakin was already unconscious, his face pale as snow and shaking. "He's going into shock!"
Synthor wrapped a bandage over Anakin's now open and bleeding chest. "Get him to the med-center. We can't go on the mission now. He needs to be treated at Tatooine." Synthor helped lift Anakin onto a stretcher to be carried into the med-center.
"Don't worry, Anakin Solo, I shall not let you die." Synthor said as he gripped the handles of the stretcher tightly in his hands.
Zekk whirled around and found himself face to face with another warrior. This time it was one with thicker armor and it spoke basic, "You, Jeedai, will come with us." The warrior signaled to the other warriors and they surrounded Zekk.
"Don't resist, we will kill you, Jeedai. You are valuable."
"If I'm valuable then why do you think it's okay to kill me?" Zekk knew he had to break away, he wasn't going to let these Yuuzhan Vong kill him or take him captive. He'd been captive of the Second Imperium and that was enough torture for his entire lifetime.
"Then you're just going to have to take me down," Zekk snarled back and raised his lightsaber to deflect any blows. The leader yelled something in Yuuzhan Vong and the others charged Zekk, who sidestepped them and cut the legs out from under two warriors before attacking the others in quick succession. He sliced an arm off and got struck in his side. He cringed but kept fighting. He had to defeat them. There was no choice. Zekk stabbed through the abdomen of one of the warriors, yanked his blade out and then crumpled as the leader struck him over the head with his staff.
"Take him." The leader ordered and the warriors dragged the unconscious Zekk to their carrier. Jaina turned just to see them getting into their ship. She let out a yell and pushed through hundreds of warriors, slicing limbs left and right to try to get to the carrier but the carrier door closed and lifted off. Two more remained but Jaina's energy had taken a dive.
"Jaina, look out!" Jacen cried and rushed over to his sister as a warrior stabbed forward with his staff, Jacen's back took the blow and he collapsed. Jaina stood up and readied her lightsaber to defend her brother. More of Lando's soldiers came running down through the doors and opened fire on the remainder of the Yuuzhan Vong.
Tenel Ka had seen Jaina almost get hit. She would not let her friends die, any of them. It was unacceptable. She pushed another warrior over the ledge then heard Jacen's yell. She turned briefly to see him stabbed through the back and Jaina jumping up to take down the warrior. Tenel Ka had to hurry. They needed her help. She reached out with the force and shoved several warriors off balance and then sliced their legs out from under them.
She ran, cutting down all the enemies in her path, using her strength as a Dathomir warrior, clean, flawless movements like a dance with her lightsaber. As she neared Jaina she looked around. Zekk was nowhere to be found.
"Jaina, where is Zekk?"
Jacen replied for his sister, "They took him." Jacen gritted his teeth. Tenel Ka's focus went to Jacen's wound in his back. It was a deep wound and if they didn't treat it soon it would become infected. Another Yuuzhan Vong warrior came towards Tenel Ka and she brought her lightsaber up in defense and cut the warrior in the arm but it didn't step down.
The warrior roared and struck down without stop on Tenel Ka's lightsaber, which was taking all the blows. More warriors arrived and joined the fray. Tenel Ka renewed her efforts to fight them off. She struck once, twice and then stabbed the heavy set warrior through the chest. She breathed heavily, the armor kept getting thicker with each new wave of reinforcements. How did they know Jedi were going to be here?
Her thoughts drifted and then she felt a sharp pain in her arm. A warrior had broken away from the new reinforcements and attacked her from behind.
"Attacking from behind is cowardly." She stated coolly to the warrior and struck it right on its head, slicing the skull in half, the bone now visible as the warrior's limp body fell to the platform. She kicked it away from her with disgust and examined her arm. A deep cut was bleeding. This was not good. She still had her mechanical arm but it wasn't as quick as her biological arm. She went at the warriors again and out of the corner of her eye she could see Jaina struggling to defend Jacen. Tenel Ka left off trying to stop the incoming warriors and started to go over to help her friends.
Another pain seared through her, this time she looked at her shoulder. It had a staff protruding from it. She tried striking out but couldn't move because of the staff. Then she went limp as a strange looking bug was placed on her back. Two warriors caught her limp form and the one who had stabbed her pulled his staff out.
Jacen jumped up despite his numerous wounds. "Tenel Ka!" He half limped and half ran towards her, slashing down anyone who was in his path. "Tenel Ka!!" He screamed and ran so hard he felt like his legs would break out from under him.
He drove hard through the masses of warriors, force pushing them into each other's staffs and decapitating any that didn't go down. The ship's doors were beginning to close and Jacen sped up, ignoring all the warriors who now struck at his undefended body.
"Jacen, stop!" Jaina fought her way towards her brother with Lowie close behind her. The two cleared a path, stabbing and slashing aside warriors.
But Jacen didn't stop. He kept fighting and cutting down every warrior in sight and then his body gave out as the ship lifted off and the remaining warriors were taken down by blaster fire as the wookie warriors and Lando's troops arrived from clearing the other platforms of enemies.
Lando himself came over to the young JedI. He looked around. "Not bad. Where're Tenel Ka and Zekk?"
"They're gone." Jaina said, now holding Jacen's battered unconscious form in her arms. Lowie let out a low mournful roar. Lando's face fell. If there had been any joy from driving the enemy away, it was drowning out by Lowie's wail and the sound of Jaina's strangled sobs. They didn't even know where the Yuuzhan Vong were taking their friends if the Yuuzhan Vong even intended to keep them alive.
A solemn walk back to the main base with Jacen on a stretcher filled the cloudy skies with silence and the occasional sounds of the wookie ships fighting off the remaining coral skippers, lasers streaking the skies.
Synthor rethought his original orders. Even without Anakin they had to finish their mission. That was a promise they had made to their gods and to themselves to accomplish. It was important to get the help of the Jedi and to save any prisoners. Anakin would have to be treated on board.
"Turn around." Sythor commanded as he strode into the cockpit. The other Sytars turned around to face their Captain.
" Captain Synthor?" One of the Sytars looked questioningly at his leader.
"Do it. We will rescue the Jedi for the sake of this galaxy. This is our world too. The gods have spoken to me." Synthor's loud and confident voice received hands in a praying position as the Sytars lowered their heads, the saluting gesture of the Sytar race.
"Yes, sir!" The Sytars all said in unison and the ship whirled around, heading for the Yuuzhan Vong base the Sytars had discovered some time ago on Belkadan. Synthor was sure that if he could manage a successful rescue, he could help turn the war around.
One rescue at a time would destroy the Yuuzhan Vong once and for all. Of that Synthor was sure. Without leverage, the Yuuzhan Vong would have no way to bargain. The way would be clear for complete annihilation of the Yuuzhan Vong race.