Okay, so it wasn't until someone left a review that I realized I re posted a chapter. I had forgotten that I had combined Chapters 4 and 5. So here is the next chapter and I hope ya'll didn't get too confused. Hope you enjoy.

Months Later

The fire crackled and spat, reaching upward into the heavens, battling the inky blackness above. Fire and Sky. Light and dark. Anakin thought about all the ways they were different, thinking long into the night. About how the dark always seemed to swallow everything up, and how it wasn't until the light fell that all the truly frightening animals -the predators- came out.

Anakin had spent the first few weeks sleeping in the cramped cockpit of his ship until he had finished constructing a more permanent structure. Even inside the insulated walls of the ship, those first few nights he had lain awake listening to snarls and yips of the hunters and hunted. At first it had disturbed him - he had gone to such great lengths to avoid the darkness, and he had stepped into a place that was consumed by it a third of every day.

Even now, long since accustomed to the wildlife and knowing how to protect himself against it, Anakin still liked to keep a fire in front of his hut, counting on the nocturnal animal's instinctual fear of the glowing brightness to keep them at bay. He had grown accustomed to thinking of the light as his friend and his ally in the months since he had secluded himself, because no matter the noises at night, they always abated at the first crack of morning light. It wasn't until he entered his third month on the jungle planet, as he sat eating his breakfast of fish and berries, watching as the morning dew evaporated on the leaves from the sun's harsh glare that it occurred to him that the light consumes, too.

He had established a steady routine ever since completing his hut. The majority of his day consisted of trying to find and catch food. When he did have down time, he spent it either napping to escape the heat of the day, or watching the birds interact with one another. He had found a sort of peace in the quietness of this new life; it wasn't until he had started to heal that he had realized he had been so broken. It was no wonder he had spent so much of his life always feeling so inadequate; always drowning. He had never stopped long enough to take a deep breath and relax. He had always felt he had something to prove.

At first he was trying to prove his humanity in the face of slavery, and later, faced with the knowledge that he was not truly welcome amongst the Jedi, he was always trying to prove his worthiness to be there, always focused on trying to earn their respect and acceptance. Even as a husband, he was riddled by fears of inadequacy, always feeling that he was not worthy to have his wife. He had always assumed that his path lie with the Jedi, but it was only now that Anakin was starting to realize that he had never stopped to consider who he truly was, what he really wanted out of life.

The night took one final, desperate dip into blackness before the dawn broke over the horizon, but by that time Anakin was already up. He sat by the dying fire, letting the embers warm him as he poked at it with a stick, reviving it. He sat for longer than he should, looking at the glow instead of getting up and starting his morning routine. He felt exhaustion steep into his bones and had to work not to close his eyes, terrified of what he might find there. Because now, after months of working to find his inner peace and coming to terms with his dark destiny, there were new images to see when the light left and the darkness closed in.

Her face, twisted in agony. Begging for him, always begging and reaching towards something he could never see, like she was trying to fend off an invisible threat. The blood was especially disturbing and he felt helpless every time he had to watch her face grow ashen from the loss of it.

He felt torn. He had made a commitment to stay in this place and he could feel its healing effects on him every time he took a breath, like the fresh air was coming in and cleaning out the rot in him. Like every breath meant that he was becoming more like the man he wanted to be and less and less like the… thing inside him that only wanted to destroy. But the new nightmares- the visions, had started nearly a week ago, and were growing stronger and more foreboding every day.

To know that she was in trouble, that she needed him, was relying on him. That she could be in danger and no one might know about it until it was too late and he could stop it except he was too afraid to leave his place of exile… He took in a deep, steadying breath. He had to go. The closure would be good for her, he reasoned. She could finally move on once he left her again. He wouldn't have to feel so guilty for leaving her. He was nothing like the man she had fallen in love with, there was something inside him that he could not take out, could only manage, and once she saw that, once she saw what he had become, her interest would wane. He could protect her and then he could withdraw again, back to this place. He did not have to be gone long…

His love for her wasn't like before. The months in seclusion had shifted his perspective and he found himself more grounded than he ever had been before. He still loved her just as fiercely, but it wasn't the all consuming love that it used to be. It was a warm, steady love that pulsed with every beat of his heart. He could see things in himself that he couldn't see before. He realized now that the kind of love he had coaxed her into was toxic, heady like a drug but with a bite like a viper. She had been right that night by the fire on Naboo. They would have destroyed each other, because the love he had expected was a so uncompromising that there wasn't any room for it to grow – only wither and die. It wasn't like before, he told himself. This time, he loved her more than he loved himself, and knew that when the time came, he could let her go so she could find love elsewhere.

His decision made, he rose from the fire he had been tending and stamped it out with his foot before starting towards the cave he had stored his ship in.