Thanks everyone for all of your wonderful support. I can't believe this story's gotten 100 reviews already! Thanks again, everyone!
Okay, here comes chapter 17. This is gonna be good, I finally get to write the Anakin/Ruwee fight scene that I've been planning since the beginning of this fic, to be followed next chapter by an Anakin/Dooku and possibly Anakin/Palpatine fight, though I'm a little iffy on that last one...Don't forget to review!
Here we go!
"Padmé!" Anakin cried, bursting into the hospital room. Ahsoka stood sleepily at his side, her face creased in worry.
Anakin's heart leapt into his throat when he saw the mess of wires and tubes attached to her, and for all splints that covered her, she might as well have been placed in a body cast.
"Padmé..." Anakin gasped, too horrified to form words. "What happened?"
Padmé turned her pain-clouded face toward Anakin, grimacing with the effort. "Dad...Angry...No boyfriends. Please don't...hurt him." She gasped.
"I won't." He said instantly, to appease Padmé-She didn't need anymore stress.
Anakin was appalled; it didn't take a genius to figure out what she was trying to say:
Her father beat her for having a boyfriend...Animal. Anakin's fists clenched, knuckles whitening as rage coursed through him.
Fury broke over him in red waves, its potency unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was almost painful to exist; the intensity of his emotions threatened to rip him apart from the inside.
He couldn't think.
He couldn't breathe.
He was drowning.
Anakin was so overwhelmed that he barely noticed when Obi-Wan and Mace arrived, and barely acknowledged the nurse's existence when she informed the four visitors that Padmé was going to be transferred to a bacta in twenty minutes.
He looked over at Obi-Wan. "Can you do me a favor?" He asked in a low voice, unsure of how it would sound if he spoke normally. Anakin could feel the rage scraping at the back of his throat like acid, and he didn't want to frighten Ahsoka.
Obi-Wan almost flinched at the sound of Anakin's voice anyway.
It didn't sound like the boy who'd become his friend.
It didn't even sound angry.
It sounded...inhuman.
"Sure, man. What's up?" Obi-Wan responded kindly.
"Nothing," Anakin replied flatly. "I just need some air. I'll be back in a little while...Can you keep an eye on Ahsoka for me? If she wakes up, just tell her I went for a walk." He continued, nodding toward the sleeping girl.
"No problem, do what you need to do. We'll keep you posted about Padmé."
Obi-Wan said
"Thanks." Anakin replied. Then, he got up and left the room, almost stalking down the hallway.
He was so consumed with anger, that he didn't even notice that Palpatine was trying to get his attention until he smacked into the man.
"Watch it." He snarled, looking up. "Oh, sorry Mister Palpatine, I didn't see you there." Anakin explained he bent down to pick up the water bottles that Palpatine had dropped.
"It's quite alright my boy...You look awful, would you like a drink?" Palpatine asked, offering Anakin one of his water bottles, smiling inwardly-both of them were full of Vader-tainted water.
"Thanks, that would be great." Anakin took the drink and downed about half of it in one long swig. He stuffed the bottle in his sweatshirt pocket. "It was good to see you sir, I have to go." He said, and continued on his way.
"Of course, my boy." Palpatine said behind him as he walked away.
Anakin's anger increased the closer he got to his car; he was shaking with rage as he slid inside the vehicle. He started the car and sped across town with reckless abandon, making a beeline for the Naberrie homestead. Anakin was even more incensed when he saw that Ruwee was not at his house.
Slamming the car door, he stomped around to the rear of the house and opened the back door. He made his way into the kitchen, taking a long knife from the rack by the stove.
The smell of coffee permeated the room.
Anakin poured himself a cup to keep himself alert, and settled in to wait.
He felt a little out of sorts, almost like he'd been drinking, but he attributed it to sleep deprivation, and settled in to wait.
Ruwee put his keys in the basket by the door, then headed into the kitchen for a drink.
He almost shouted in surprise when he saw his daughter's boyfriend sitting at his kitchen table, sipping a mug of what he presumed was coffee.
The boy looked awful.
His skin was so deathly pale that he resembled a corpse more than a living being; his eyes were red-rimmed, puffy, and bloodshot. His wavy brown hair was disheveled, and had lost it's sheen.
His eyes were closed as he traced the rim of the mug with his right index finger. "I warned you." He paused, gasping as a violent tremor wracked his frame. His voice shook with fury.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, revealing his burning, sulfuric-yellow irises. He stood, reaching into his pocket. "I warned you not to touch her again. I kriffing warned you not to kriffing touch her." Anakin's breath hissed between his teeth; his lips were peeled back in a feral snarl. "But you just couldn't control yourself, could you?"
Anakin's fist came down on the table. His other hand emerged from his sweatshirt pocket, clutching a long steak knife.
Anakin laughed humorlessly, staring at the floor in an expression that was equal parts shame and anger. "I promised her...Promised her I wouldn't come." Anakin gasped as a spasm of pain rippled through his body, ravaging his nerves as it cannibalized his flesh to create strength. His yellow eyes seemed to glow.
"But you know..." Anakin began.
Anakin didn't know what gave him strength, but, secretly, Vader seared his veins, surging through him in hot, fiery waves.
He cocked back his arm, the knife blade glinting in the light.
Ruwee gazed into Anakin's burning reptilian orbs.
He didn't move.
He already knew he was dead.
The knife tumbled end-over-end through the air, completing one rotation before burying itself up to the hilt in his hand, pinning it to the wall.
Anakin sauntered over, ripping the weapon free in a vicious twist-and-jerk.
"I've been having some control issues myself." He leered.
Ruwee howled in agony as the knife was wrenched from his flesh.
Blood spattered onto the floor; creating constellations of gore on the featureless tile.
Anakin's fist shot out, slugging Ruwee hard in the ribs.
The monster made of rage inside him rejoiced at the cracking sound he heard.
Ruwee stumbled back, gasping, only to be dumped to the floor when his body betrayed him; Anakin's follow-up leg sweep had shattered his ankle.
And the boy just kept coming.
A boot rocketed toward Ruwee's throat; only a hasty forearm block prevented his larynx from being crushed.
Instead, his left ulna and radius bones snapped like dry twigs.
Then, Anakin brought the knife to bear.
The blade flashed twice.
The first cut opened a three-inch gash in Ruwee's left arm.
The second cut sliced the other arm to match.
Anakin's voice carried a hint of remorse to the dying man's ears. The yellow in his eyes, faded, revealing the clear blue of his normal irises. "I'm sorry it had to be this way; but, I can't let you hurt her again." He said, and drove the blade into Ruwee's chest.
Anakin sidestepped Ruwee's feeble grab, and stared as the man fell back with a gurgle.
Taking the knife with him, Anakin walked out into the rain, hoping that someday, Padmé would forgive him.
So...what do you think? Review and let me know!
See you next chapter!
~Ink