Chapter 26 - The Clone War

The small ship hovers above the arena, a green beam of light shooting straight down into the mess of battle droids and remaining Jedi. They pile into these ships, their brown cloaks flapping in the wind.

I glance back at Anakin, and he meets my eyes. His expression is relieved, but his posture is nervous. Obi Wan stands next to him, almost uncomfortably close, with a look of discernment.

Once all of the carriers are filled, they head off towards the remaining federation ships, screaming as they go. Two bolts of bright red light blow past us, dangerously close.

"Hold on," Obi Wan tells us, and I snag a hold of the fixture hanging from the roof of the carrier.

The hot desert wind blows against my ears, and I can barely hear anything. Anakin says something, but he's facing away from me so I can't really hear. Then I see a beam of light strike the machinery just above the fuel cells of a ship, making the topmost part crash down onto the fuel cells, and explode. Obi Wan smacks his padawan on the arm, and smiles. He says something along the lines of good call.

We race over the sandy terrain, and I keep an eye out for possible landing places, so we can regroup and head out to the cruisers stopped in orbit. Below us is an all-out war.

"Attack those federation starships," Obi Wan orders, "quickly!"

We fly like this for a few minutes, and Obi Wan calls out orders, the white soldiers immediately reacting. They are completely compliant, and don't even think about questioning his authority. At one point, we pass into a late cloud of dust, and can't see where we're going. we fly blindly, and I hope that we can find our way back to the others.

"Look, over there," Obi wan says suddenly. We follow his gesture, and I catch a glimpse of silver hair, and a deep reddish-brown cloak.

"It's Dooku," Anakin mutters. "Shoot him down!"

The pilot turns back to look at Anakin. "We're out of rockets, sir," he says, almost monotonously.

"Follow him," Anakin orders.

"We're gonna need some help," I warn him.

"There isn't time," Obi Wan says. "Anakin and I can handle this."

Then, all of a sudden, the ship is thrown off balance, and I feel my feet falling away from me, and watch as one of the white soldiers falls with me. Anakin reaches out to catch me, but I'm too far away from his reach. Our eyes meet as I let out a scream, and fall to the sandy ground below.

I make contact, and a surge of hot, searing pain courses through my body. The sand is like hot coals, and tiny particles dig their way into my open wound. I feel myself rolling down the side of a wake of sand, throwing dust up into the air.

Then I black out.

oOo

Im standing in a dimly lit hangar. On all sides are orange-yellow lights, which give the room a dingy feel. In the back corner is a small ship, only big enough for one or two people. Sparks fly about the room, from severed tubes leading to the ship. Debris and fallen rocks are scattered along the floor, randomly. Anakin stands in front of me, his eyes darkened, his shoulders heaving. Heavy tears fall from his eyes, dropping onto the fabric of his cloak. I reach out to him, my fingers brushing against his cheek. He leans forward, pressing his whole weight into me, letting out a sigh. He wraps one arm around my back, his fingertips digging into my skin.

He's cold.

I squeeze him closer to me, my fingernails digging into the rough fabric of his cloak. He whimpers, tightening his grip with the arm he hugs me with.

"Anakin, what's wrong," I ask, turning his face to mine. "Why won't you hold me, properly?"

My hands move up to touch his neck, to pull him into a kiss. They move over his body, and my hand searches for his other hand. It starts at his shoulder, traveling gently over his outer arm, over tricep and down to his bicep, when it stops.

Something wet, and warm coats my fingertips, and I pull away, nervously inspecting my hand.

Deep crimson coats my fingertips, and drips down into the palm of my hand. I shriek, and jump back, my eyes immediately shifting to the arm that should have been there. But what is there, is a stump. It oozes slowly, like it'd been cut by a laser. I can't believe it, grasping and clawing at his skin, like my mind believes that if I cover the wound, his arm will grow back.

"I'm sorry," is all he can force out before his legs give way, and he collapses on top of me.

"Don't be sorry," I tell him, tears now welling up in my eyes. "It's not your fault."

He breathes one last time, before rolling over in my lap, to look up at me. I smile down at him, soothingly, and his eyes close, slowly.

In the last moment before his eyes actually shut, I could swear I saw a flash of gold in his iris.

oOo

The hot sun blinds me as I open my eyes. Above me, one of the white-clad soldiers extends a hand, to help me up.

"Are you alright," the soldier asks.

"Uh huh," I mumble, struggling to my feet. Every time I move a muscle, another shockwave of pain surges through me.

"We'd better get back to the forward command center."

I'd love to get out of this sun, under the protection of thick shock-proof plastic and durasteel walls, but I can't shake the image of Anakin, in pain. "No," I tell him. "No. Gather what troops you can. We've got to get to that hangar. Get a transport. Hurry!"

The soldier cocks his head at me, but takes my order. "Right away," he says, gesturing for me to follow him. He then lifts his watch to his helmet, and the small device blinks a few times. "We need a carrier at sector 923," he says, in a commanding voice.

"This is commander Cody, sending one unit," the watch blinks back.

"We'll have to wait here until the transport arrives," the soldier says, "then we can follow them."

I nod, and fold my arms across my chest.

"You seem afraid," the soldier says.

"I am afraid. I don't want the Jedi to get hurt."

The soldier laughs. "Im sure they'll be fine. I'm more concerned about the other troopers."

"Where did you all come from," I ask.

"We were commissioned by the Republic. Created on Kamino. We're clones."

"Kamino?"

"Yeah," he says. "Apparently you guys didn't even know our planet existed until a few days ago." He shakes his head. "So, why are you here?"

"Oh, I tagged along. After master Obi Wan got captured I couldn't just let him die."

"So you're not a Jedi?"

I almost laugh out loud. "Of course not. I'm a Senator."

He laughs. "Sorry, I had no idea."

"I didn't expect you to know that."

"Look," the clone exclaims, "there's our transport."

The carrier touches down only for a moment, before I jump on, and they take off again.

"Thank the force you got here in time," I tell them. "That way."

They follow my gesture, and I watch as count Dooku's ship pulls out of the hangar. We jump out and begin firing, but it's out of range now.

"It's no use," I mutter, and rush into the hangar.

Please let them be okay, please let them be okay, I think to myself as I run into the hangar.

My heart drops into the floor, and I feel sick to my stomach when I see him.

He's bartered, and bruised. Obi Wan has to help him up. His name escapes my lips absentmindedly as I run towards him, my eyes scanning his whole body to check if he is alright.

My eyes fall upon his right arm.

Or rather, what used to be his right arm.

It's completely severed, just above the elbow. He seeps blood onto the floor, and his pallor is paler than usual. I'm surprised he hasn't turned blue from shock yet. I barrel past Master Yoda and Master Kenobi, wrapping my arms around Anakin, and brushing my lips against his cheek. I don't really care if the others see us.

At least he's alive.

oOo

Anakin rests his head on my shoulder, while a medical droid inspects his stump arm. His eyes are closed, like he's sleeping, and he breathes quietly. Sweat beads off of his forehead in large droplets, from nerves and exertion. I hold his other hand in both of mine, gently grasping at his clammy skin.

"We should be able to regrow your arm, or rather, part of it," the medical droid says. "We don't have the technology to give you the whole arm back. But we can give you up to your elbow. The rest will have to be prosthetic."

"That's fine," Obi wan says from the other side of the carrier. "He can do that."

The medical droid nods, and wraps up his arm. "Now to you, senator," he says.

"Oh, I'm fine," I tell him, not wanting Anakin to move.

"No, you're not," Anakin mumbles. He shifts, leaning back against the headrest now.

"Turn for me," the medical droid says, and places his cold metal hands against my skin.

I lift the back of my shirt so that he doesn't have to, almost giving Anakin a show. He smirks, the first one I've seen him give today. The medical droid pulls the bits of sand out of my wound. I flinch with every grain, and squeeze Anakin's hand to keep from screaming.

"Just a bit longer," the droid soothes.

"I told you that it was serious," Obi Wan scolds

I shake my head, wincing in pain, as the last bit of sand is removed. "Ugh."

"It looks like this will scar," the medical droid laments, "but you'll be alright."

"Thanks," I tell him as he wraps my back in gauze. "So what happens now?"

Obi Wan shrugs. "I guess we'll find out when we get back."

"Sir," one of the clone troopers says, "I think you should know, but we were told that this is a war. Not just a random battle."

I swallow, hard.

So it's war they want.

Author's note

Hello! I haven't spoken to you guys in a while! I recently stopped writing one of my stories here on fanfiction, a twilight fic called blood moon. I detested writing it, and had only started writing it in a whim. Nobody seems to have cared that I dropped it, so that's fine with me. This leaves plenty more time to work on this story, so I've decided that I'll try to release twice a week. This won't happen all the time, I'm a busy girl. Optimally, I'll release on Wednesdays or Thursdays, like I did this week and last week. Let me know what you think!

See you on Sunday!

Sincerely,

Kitty Greene