Inheritance


46.

"Noooooo! Nooooooo-oooo!"

The jabuur weki is here!

It came. And it wants me. And it's eating me alive, with its snatching claws, and and – and it's inside me like in my dream and it's all ripping and tearing and burning and –

No! I don't want it to be inside me but it is and now it's like I'm part of it and it's melting me inside of it and its like I'm the thing all made of shadows and black ripped up wings and rotting skin and stuff, and –

I hate this! I hate it! I hate everything!

I hate Master Obi-Wan because this is all his fault! He brought me here and the jabuur-weki found me and – and – and it's like my thoughts are all melting and oozing into other ones, stuff I never thought before, weird stuff like about the darkness and about fire and how I'm going to kill Master, he's standing right there, I could just destroy him and then the hurt inside would go away for a minute and-

I kinda throw myself at him, kicking and punching and stuff, but the jabuur-weki says to do other stuff too. It says to bite and scratch and claw and scream and use the Force.

And now me and Master are rolling on the wet splashy floor and its like I'm going to tear him apart and maybe choke him too – and –

"Anakin!" he shouts with his voice all cracking, not flat like normally. "Anakin! Anakin, come to your senses!"

That's Master, he's always telling me what to do and he's trying to get a grip on me but I'm super powerful now, the jabuur-weki and me are super powerful together and he's no match for us and we throw him across the room like he always does to other people. I can hear his body hit the wall and I can kinda feel the pain, too, and the jabuur-weki likes that part, it feels like something hot and sweet going down my throat and making my tummy all warm. My heart's beating hoocha fast, but – hey!

Master looks scared, but he isn't. He isn't 'cause he jumps right back at me and now we're really fighting, 'cause he's using the Force too and he's trying to –ow!

He hurt me! I'll kill him, I'll really super hurt him and tear him apart and all the whole world and burn it, crush it, destroy it - me, the jabuur-weki, the lord of darkness, the center of the universe, the -

"Anakin!"

I laugh in hsi face 'cause Master Obi-Wan never panics but he sounds scared and I'm more powerful than him and he won't win this time, not now, and -

He's trying to rip the jabuur-weki out of me but his powers are weak and he can't, nothing can, it's too late and I'm the most powerful ever and -

"Oooow!" He's hurting me, my arm, that hurts, and – and-

The jabuur-weki says I should kill him now, just do it, do it Anakin, kill him dead and leave him and -

Leave him…

I won't leave anyone! I had to leave Mom and I hated it and I had to leave Padme and I hated it and I won't leave anybody! I hate the jabuur-weki, too. I scream and scream and it sorta rips loose from me, until I'm all splattered all over the cave like that guy who had the podracer crash out by the Red Arches and his brains and stuff went everywhere, and I must be dead it hurts so bad, and-

"Anakin! Anakin! Look at me."

That's Master. He's white as bones, like krayt lizard bones dried out in the Dune Sea, and he's scared for real, I can see that. And I'm not dead and I'm not exploded everywhere at all, I'm just right here.

And the monster is here too, and it's mad!

"I hate you!" I yell at it. My voice is all broken and scratchy, but I don't care. I hate it cause it made me feel all those things and do all those bad things and it wants to eat me again, to come inside me and be me again!

It looks just like the thing in my dream, the thing Mom turned into, the thing that chased me in my racer and was ripping me apart and stuff until Master came. It's real and it's here and it's coming for me again!

And then Master stands up and his lightsaber is blinding my eyes. It's blue and sharp and you can't see anything else only the blade and it makes a loud sound, like a war-cry like a growling terrible sound like thunder. And Master Obi-Wan is super hoocha scared, I can feel it, but he stands right up to that monster anyway with his laser sword, and you know what?

I think he would blitz it if it tried to get me.

But he can't, not all the way. It's laughing at him, and then it spits lightning at him, awful blue lightning and I can feel it in the Force, it's wicked and it will kill Master if it hits him, and it's bouncing off his saber but he's stumbling back and now he's standing right on top of me. I gotta do something. The jabuur-weki's gonna kill Master and then eat me and then I'll be the jabuur-weki and I'll do terrible stuff, kill all the Feorians and burn stuff down and explode stuff and make everybody hurt, a whole lot.

I gotta do something. I gotta save everybody from dying!

I don't have a vorpal blade.

But I'm still the hero.

And I have Obi-Wan's knife. And the old busted repulsor drive in my satchel. The ground is hard and its wet and I think it's blood, lots and lots of blood, or maybe it's just water I can't tell anymore but I have to get there, I have to, and Master's battling the jabuur-weki, and I can feel him now, he's shining really bright in the Light but he's scared too and he's gonna die if I don't fix this jabuur-weki like right now!.

I'll fix that vaping poodoo-face son of a vetch krayt-kriffer, all right. Watch me.

I flick the drive depressurizer to maximum and shove Master's knife right under the damper shielding. Just a little bit. And guess what? Vespari steel does go through anything. It's totally rugged!

And we've got like about twenty seconds before we're totally dead.

"Master!" I scream. And the jabuur-weki is screaming too like it knows what I just did and its body bloats up all horrible and huge and I can't see and I kinda fall down and I kinda cut my hand on the knife, that's still right here in my hand. But Master's here and he picks me up with one arm, all in a hurry and blood gets all over him too.

"We gotta run!" I scream at him, and he doesn't ask questions or anything. He must sorta feel the danger in the Force I guess. And he shoves me toward the cave opening and I go through, and the jabuur-weki sorta pounces on my repulsor unit, kinda squishing itself into a cloud around it, all crazy hoocha style, like it's trying to fix it before it's too late, like it knows what's happening, but -

"It's too late, sleemo!"

Now Master Windu sorta grabs me and pulls me through super fast so it scrapes and hurts and then he's pulling Master through too and I think Obi-Wan actually said a pretty bad word there but nobody cares. And then I fall down 'cause I'm super dizzy, and Master picks me up again and we're all running like crazy and the Force is twisting in an awful hurting way, all crazy and horrible and danger danger danger –

And the 'splosion like blows us all the way out the main entrance, and that big 'ol rock thing like splits it half and like the sky is full of flying dirt and rock and crystal shards and fire and then the shock wave like rolls the ground and we all get knocked flat on our faces.

Wizard! Wizard! I did that! I made that hoocha big bomb! It's so rugged!

And Master and Master Windu are holding out their hands and the Force kinda shelters us so the rocks and stuff don't hit us. They come raining down like a meteor shower all around us but we don't get burned. And the jabuur-weki is gone, like it got blown sky high into the Force, into nowhere until we can feel it inside ourselves like a huge 'splosion, too. I can feel it, the night isn't heavy anymore and there's no chanting voices and it's quiet and empty and you can even see the stars.

And Master Obi-Wan and Master Windu just kinda lie there, breathing really really hard. Master's hand is squeezing around my wrist kinda too tight but it's okay.

And we just lie there on our backs for a minute, even though we're Jedi.

And then I can't help it. I don't mean to cry but I sorta do. 'Cause that was scary, and I'm tired, so tired. I just… I'm not! Don't look at me, I'm a Jedi not a baby, and- and – okay, all right. I'm crying, just a little bit. But not 'cause I'm scared. I'm just so… tired…. So….