Hostage Crisis part 2

The first thing that Anakin was aware of as he came back to flickering consciousness was panic. A cloying rising panic from the senators around him which snapped him awake quicker than anything else could.

He stared up at his wife who frowned down at him. Her hair was still done in the ornate bun that she'd worn earlier on, but some stray strands were starting to come lose and her expression was fearful.

The bounty hunters.

With an annoyed snarl, Anakin rolled out of her lap and then blinked down when his hands didn't move. A pair of heavy binders was keeping him useless. Beyond that and behind the gathered senators, there were laser beams from devices attached to the columns surrounding them, The beams criss-crossed, penning them in like bars in a cage.

"Ani," Padme said as she drew his lightsabre out from her sleeve. "They've gone," she said firmly. "They went to free Ziro."

Ziro. Jabba the Hutt's nephew who was currently in prison. "They used you as leverage?" he asked, as she manoeuvred the lightsabre before switching it on. "It was Bane, wasn't it?"

Padme nodded and ignited the blade, cutting him free. "Luke?" she asked, her voice wobbling.

Force, his son. The memory of him drawing in on himself, looking so lost and small made Anakin want to smash something to pieces. "Hidden," he said tightly.

"Ani, they saw him on the footage. With you. They went upstairs."

He dug the lightsabre into the floor, determined to cut them free into the ground below. He wasn't even sure he could cope thinking about it until he could so something. "Thought all the cameras were down and protected."

When he glanced up, she was chewing her lip a little. "I don't know," she mumbled as he continued to cut into the ground around them all. "I should have handed it back to you," she added, her voice a million lightyears away.

Probably. He should have asked for it. Or never given it in the first place just to get her to agree to go away again. But he'd started to suspect-

Leave it alone, he told himself furiously. Not now.

"Luke's still here?" Bail Organa asked, his voice dropping in horror. Behind him, there were other senators that Anakin recognised and none of them interested him. He needed to get Padme to safety and he needed to find Luke.

The floor started to groan beneath them as he finished the shape he was cutting into it, bring the lightsabre to the original point that he'd started cutting from. The stone beneath them lurched and then they were falling. Yelps and startled cries rung out and Anakin braced himself for impact.

Apparently, he'd moved quickly enough. Just above their heads there was a sudden beep that rang out in an eerie threat. A second later, there was a juddering bang and fire roared out above them, racing over the hole that Anakin had cut and flooring the floor underneath with a blast of uncomfortable heat. It took three second for the alarms to suddenly blare out with painful intensity.

Padme stared up and drew in a shaken breath. He reached out to touch her hand and she turned to him, big brown eyes staring at him.

"Go."

He didn't hesitate. He ran, already feeling the ache from the electricity that the bounty hunters had used on him earlier. His metal hand wasn't quite right and he could feel a burning sensation where the join between his arm and the elbow was.

The second levels were as dark as they had been when he'd left. But his heart stopped beating when he saw the droid pieces in the hallway.

"Luke," he shouted, aiming for the door where he'd left his son. "Luke?" His voice was almost unrecognisable, even to his own ears. "Luke?"

As he got closer and the angle of his line of sight changed, he saw the dead bounty hunter. It wasn't one that he recognised. Perhaps a new addition to Bane's merry band and perhaps he'd seen an opportunity. Bane would do what he was paid to do and was probably being paid enough that going after Luke wouldn't have been worth the risk.

The bounty hunter was dead.

He turned his head back to the droid on the floor and then at the dent in the walls. It had to have smashed into the surface with some force. A quick glance at the body of the bounty hunter showed blaster marks and his eyes were wide with horror.

What the force was up here?

Anakin turned his attention back to the hallway and stepped further along, deeper into the shadows.

He ignited his blade. A blue glow was cast over all the walls, turning everything into an almost ghostly scene. There was a stain on the walls, small fingers prints had smeared them along and Anakin refused to think about the fact that his son was bleeding.

Whatever was up here, he would kill it before he would let his son be harmed.

He tracked the marks to a narrow stairwell, more used by droids than by the senators. It was too narrow to comfortably carry the lightsabre and he was on high alert, waiting and looking for anything that might hint towards movement.

He nearly stepped on Luke. The boy wasn't even registering on his force sense. Stunned, he blinked down at Luke before his brain caught up and he ducked down.

Luke was in the corner of the stairwell, knees drawn up to his chest and he'd made himself into such a tight ball that Anakin wasn't even sure it was possible for a human to curl up like that. With a look up and down, Anakin, knelt down and reached for Luke.

His son didn't respond, but he did allow himself to be moved. Anakin lifted him into his arms, but Luke didn't snuggle in the way that he usually did. Instead, he remained rigid and he was quivering like a desert mouse that had overheated and was struggling to survive. A quick check showed that Luke's heart rate was fluttering frantically and his face was smeared with blood.

Stars above.

"It's okay," Anakin tried to soothe. "I'm back. You're safe."

But his son didn't respond.

Xxx

There were (thankfully) medical droids down with the senators as Anakin returned with his son. The chancellor was there, talking to Senator Organa but Padme was sitting to the side, looking slightly baffled.

The look disappeared when she spotted them. He saw her snap something at the closest droid, her eyes locked on Luke.

"Is that blood?" she asked as he came close.

"Yeah." He lifted Luke up and swung the boy onto a chair. They were in what was a meeting room which had probably seen better days. Above them, the charred edges of the hole was a threatening halo.

Luke didn't react to it at all. He stared at nothing, pale and dazed. Anakin would bet that Luke was barely aware of what was happening as the light was shone in his eyes. His pupils contracted properly, but his expression never once changed.

Padme sat next to him, wrapping her arm around Luke's shoulder. He didn't react, but didn't flinch away either. Anakin crouched down in front of him and started to undo Luke's shoes. Above, Padme was gently rubbing his arms and whispering soothing words at him.

"He is physically healthy," the droid announced before turning away.

Anakin could have thrown him into the wall. But there were more important things to worry about. Once Luke's shoes were off, Anakin rubbed the boy's cold feet and kept his eyes on Luke's face.

There was still no expression.

"Come on, baby," Padme whispered. She looked down at Anakin, tears spilling over and dripping down her face. "What was up there?"

"Dead bounty hunter. Destroyed droid." Anakin tried reaching out for Luke again, but there was nothing, almost as if Luke wasn't even in front of him and he'd never ever felt that before. "Whatever did it was long gone. He was hiding in the stairwell."

Padme nodded and then blinked. She stared down at Anakin and then looked pointedly at Luke.

He didn't get it at first.

"Don't be stupid," he muttered as Luke's little feet started to warm up under his hands. "How would that even work?"

"What else could have happened?" she asked, lifting Luke up into her lap. Luke was almost too big for it now, small as Padme was. But she was strong. Force, was his wife strong.

"It doesn't work like that," Anakin said and looked across the room as one hand held his son's feet. He smoothed a thumb over the soft skin there and watched the holo of Yoda. He and the Chancellor seemed to be discussing something. "There'd be traces of that sort of darkness. He's completely closed off."

"He was scared."

"You'd have to be angry," Anakin said, turning his attention back to her. "Furious. When I…" he trailed off and stared at the floor, trying to get control of his emotions. "On Tattooine. It was… that kind of anger doesn't just disappear. And I've never seen anything in Luke that would imply he could do that."

Padme said nothing to that. "Is he responding at all?"

"The Jedi are coming," Anakin said, glancing as the holo of Yoda flickered and disappeared. "They might know how to reach him." He stared up at Luke and then touched the boy's chin where dried blood was starting to crack over his skin.

A nosebleed. Luke's nose had bled.

Fear welled up within him. Maybe…he couldn't make it fit in his head though. Luke had to have done something, but there wasn't a cruel bone in the boy's body.

The Jedi though. What would they think? What would they do?

Padme was rocking Luke now. And still there was that vacant stare.

It must have been half an hour later amid all the chaos and the scuttling bodies that Obi-Wan walked in. There was a droid trying to inject Anakin with something to help him recover from the electrocution. It would have been comical if Luke hadn't been in the state that he was in.

Yoda was with him, but Anakin didn't care. He felt the start of relief as he spotted his former master because surely, surely if anyone could help it would be Obi-Wan.

And he knew. Somehow. He took one look at Anakin's face and then was coming over. "What happened to you?" he asked as he bent down in front of Luke next to Anakin and started to study the boy's face.

"He was electrocuted," Padme said, her tone scolding.

"I'll live," Anakin said. "Luke was upstairs alone. I had to leave him. Padme had my lightsabre."

Obi-Wan drew in a breath, but thankfully seemed to realise that the lecture wouldn't be helpful.

"There's a dead bounty hunter and a shattered droid," Padme said before Anakin could work out if they should say anything. "Luke was like that when Anakin found him."

"Luke?" Obi-Wan asked in that gentle murmur of his.

It was on the tip of Anakin's tongue to snap at him. But then Luke blinked down at Obi-Wan and flung himself forward into the man's arms, sobbing suddenly and his words going a million miles a minute.

Padme sucked in a relieved breath and then reached for Anakin's hand, even as a wave of jealousy reared up. Anakin stood, useless, as Luke sobbed away into Obi-Wan.

For his part, Obi-Wan shifted so that Luke was in a better position and sighed. "I've seen a few instances of trauma where children simply detach themselves." He stroked a hand up and down Luke's back, his eyes narrowing a little and Anakin could feel his former master reaching out with the force. "He's locked it away tight again."

Yeah. Anakin could feel that now. He could almost see the shields that Luke had surrounded himself with. He bent down, reaching out for Luke-

His son flinched away.

It hurt. It was a pain that he couldn't really describe except that it made him freeze and feel a terror that he'd never really experienced before. His hand stopped where it was and he looked up at Padme as if she could give him an answer.

When he looked back down, Obi-Wan frowned and cupped Luke's face making the child look at him. Anakin watched as Luke squirmed and then blinked and drew in a shuddering breath. Obi-Wan's face become more pensive, if such a thing was possible.

Anakin ignored it. Instead, Luke's face shifted a little more as the boy blinked, almost like a ship coming to life after going through the ignition sequence. He sniffled a little and then pulled away from Obi-Wan before turning his attention back up.

This time Luke leaned into him when Anakin bent down to him. His son wrapped thin arms around Anakin's neck and Anakin could feel Luke lean his cheek against Padme's as she wrapped an arm around his back.

"Do you remember what happened," Anakin heard Padme ask. Cheek resting against Luke's hair, Anakin tracked Obi-Wan's movements as the man stood, looking older than usual. There was a pointed glance at Padme which Anakin didn't appreciate, but there was no-one he was willing to leave Luke with so he sighed. Pressing a kiss to Luke's head, he sat the boy on the edge of a table and bent down in front of him.

Mercifully, colour was already starting to come back into Luke's cheeks and he was starting to look around curiously. Anakin couldn't stop running his hands over his son, trying to check for any indication that he might be hurt. Luke blinked down at him, his face curious and the expression was so cute that Anakin wasn't entirely sure that he could leave.

"You all right?" Anakin asked as Padme took a seat next to Luke.

Luke nodded, leaning into his mother. "You saved her," he said, sounding pleased. Then he squinted up at the hole in the ceiling and looked absolutely fascinated.

He seemed fine. Force knew how, but his son was absolutely fine, as if he'd forgotten what has happened. The only sign that something had happened was the blood on his chin and the fading red rimmed eyes. Padme wrapped an arm around him and looked down at Anakin, her brown eyes too bright for the light.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan said behind him. "We need to have a conversation."

Xxx

"Hm," was all that Yoda said as he bent over the body of the bounty hunter.

Anakin stood in the open doorway, arms folded as he watched. Behind him, Obi-Wan was studying the droid pieces as if there were hidden clues that had been left behind. As if Anakin was still a child who couldn't look for his things properly.

"What was in his mind?" Anakin asked, staring at the blaster that was now splayed across the bounty's hunter's hands.

"If I had to put a name to it?" Obi-Wan asked as he stood up. "You."

What?

Spinning around, Anakin glared at him. "You saw what happened when I reached for him"

"No, I felt what happened when you reached for him. Something that felt like you flared up and the boy's mind couldn't process it. But he locked it away." Obi-Wan stroked his beard thoughtfully, a motion that Anakin hated. "Quite impressively too."

"I didn't-"

"Know that we do not," Yoda said quietly.

They both turned to him.

"Heard if it once I have. A Jedi there was who loved. And when her love was dying, poured all of herself into him she did. Kept him together. Protected him. Dead I do not believe you were in that future."

He almost stopped thinking. But…how? Baffled, Anakin looked over at Obi-Wan. "Have you-"

"Ah," Obi-Wan's voice almost cut over him. "It might go some way to explaining those shields he has around his mind." He turned to Anakin. "There are theories that when we are one with the force we can be like echoes. A presence still in the universe. This simply…it meant being a presence within one person." He turned back to Yoda. "The meeting with the sith lord. It would have taken at least two of us to get Luke out and then…the damage…"

"I was dead," Anakin snapped. "I wasn't… I would never have left Padme on her own. Left Luke or…" he broke off, almost unable to bear the pain that was the memory of that lost child he would never know.

"Injured you might have been. Lost to us. Imprisoned. Know we cannot," Yoda's hand raised and the body raised with it. "Rebounded, the blast did. Do that, a youngling cannot, no matter how strong. Knowledge and practise is needed."

"I can't…" Anakin broke off annoyed. Part of him was convinced he was simply wasting time when Luke actually did need him. "I can't even do that. It wasn't-"

"Seven years from now, you might," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully and Anakin could have hit him in that moment. "Anakin, are you telling me that if you saw your son, his mind ripped apart or harmed by the force in such a way that he was unravelling, are you honestly telling me that you wouldn't do anything to hold him together?"

"I wouldn't know how."

"Yet."

Anakin stared down at Yoda and then almost collapsed against the doorway, feeling the day's events starting to catch up with him. "He didn't know me," he whispered. "If…If I was alive-"

"They'd have hunted you," Obi-Wan said.

"And you."

"Hence Luke was alone," Obi-Wan said. "Perhaps we were concerned about the connection the two of you might have had. Perhaps you were hunted more than I was. Perhaps the sith knew you might have a child and therefore watched you more closely. I don't know. But that was you I felt in there. Not as you are now, it was…muffled and twisted. Whatever happened…but it was you."

He didn't know why that made it all the more agonising. There had been…perhaps an escape from responsibility. He'd died before Luke had been born. He'd let them down, but not knowingly. Now? Now, he might have stayed away from his son. Left him to that hideous life on the run where no-one seemed to remember that he was just a little boy.

That kind of anger…that was what he had said to Padme. And he knew that he had it in him. Knew that if he had been there when the bounty hunter had tried to shoot at his son, he would have done exactly what had been done.

It was part of what scared him when he woke in the middle of the night. Part of the terror that reared up whenever Luke flinched away from him because what if? What if he couldn't control it? What if he hurt someone unintentionally or did something that he couldn't take back?

And Luke?

If Luke had that part of Anakin inside of him then he would be protected. That was…a relief. But he would also always know what Anakin's temper was like. And whatever had happened in Luke's mind had hurt the little boy.

"I need…" Anakin turned away. "I should be with them."

Padme, Luke and…and the suspicion that he had from his wife's behaviour recently.

Neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda called him back. Truthfully, he had no idea what he would have said had they tried.

Xxx

That night, he lay with his son in his arms, curled up and snoring gently into his chest. Padme was on his other side, a hand on Luke's back and completely silent. The window was open and the curtains streamed into their room in the wind. Anakin watched the movement, his mind racing.

What would that have been like? If he'd been kept from Padme's side when she'd given birth and had found out about her death. About the twins. If he hadn't been allowed to have contact with Luke or had been forced to watch him from a distance.

He cupped the back of Luke's head, his left still under and around Padme. His entire world was in this room.

How had he let them down?

"It could have been so much worse," Padme whispered suddenly and Anakin stirred, trying to refocus and follow where her thoughts had gone. "You shouldn't have come after me."

"It wasn't just you that I was coming after though, was it?" Anakin said to the ceiling.

Padme was silent. "The medi-droids confirmed," she said after a few seconds. "How long have you-"

"Last week. About the same time you started to wonder," Anakin said before he shifted a little. Luke stirred a bit but their gentle touches lulled him back to sleep.

"You're not happy?"

Happy?

The last time she'd been in childbirth, she'd died. And they'd lost a child they'd never met and the other one that they had was traumatised and how would that work with a new baby? And the war?

But…a baby? To see everything that they'd missed out on with Luke. To have a proper chance to keep a child safe and loved and… well.

"I am," he said, turning to press a kiss to her head as he tightened his arm around her. "Scared," he admitted. "But…happy. Never doubt that."

She snuggled closer to him and he felt her heavy sigh of relief. Then: "I think…maybe I should step down."

That surprised him. Anakin turned to look down at her. He'd been half sure that she'd work until she gave birth in the senate chambers.

"It's been a long day," was all he said, tightening his arm. "We have time to decide."

She nodded. "For a moment I thought that…" she trailed off and he could hear the threatening tears. "When I realised I had your lightsabre and you two were in the building-"

He rolled and carefully put Luke in the space between them, his son facing him but snuggling close. Padme's face was streaked with tears and he cupped her face, pressing his lips to hers. "I nearly kicked something," Anakin confessed. "Luke was staring at me and I…I thought I'd hurl from the horror. Two of you…three of you to protect and I couldn't…" he shook his head. "Whatever you decide with the job, I'm staying here. With you."

She smiled at him through her tears. "It's been a long day," she parroted back at him.

Yeah. He didn't think he was gonna change his mind, but they'd see.