Part 3

Strong arms surround Anakin tightly and pull him away from the edge of the lava. Anakin struggles against the grip, kicking his legs on the hot, coarse ground, his arms flailing.

"Anakin, stop. Let me help you."

The familiar sound of his former Master's voice adds to Anakin's anguish as he continues his struggle. How could anyone help him now? Why would anyone want to help him? He struggles harder and manages to his Obi-Wan in the face. Obi-Wan's grip loosens and Anakin breaks free and falls onto the ground. He scrambles onto his hands and knees and attempts to stand up.

He walks on unsteady legs to the rushing lava, determined to reach it. Sweat drips into his eyes, stinging them. Something hard hits him in the back of the head and he crumples to the ground. As the blackness overtakes him, he vaguely feels himself being lifted and dragged and then nothing.

How can the fallen be saved, those who have done evil? How can those lost in the darkness be saved? Who would save those who have done evil and are no longer innocent?

As consciousness returned, Anakin felt a cold wet cloth running over his forehead and his cheeks as his face was carefully, gently, washed. Anakin opened his eyes and saw Obi-Wan's face, grayish blue eyes that looked tired and sad on a stoic face. Anakin turned over, away from Obi-Wan. Why was he helping him? A murderer, a traitor. "Why?" He asks in a whisper. A calloused hand brushes the hair that had fallen into his eyes away from his face.

"You are my brother, Anakin. I can't abandon you to the darkness, I won't."

"It's to late for me." Even as he said that he felt a small thread of hope, could feel Obi-Wan surround him with love, surround him with light like a warm blanket.

"That's not true. You can still turn away from the destructive path."

Anakin did not answer and instead closed his eyes, wanting Obi-Wan to just leave him alone. Then a few minutes later he got his wish and Obi-Wan left the room and with him the warmth of his presence.

The demons returned to prodding him with pointed hot iron bars, mocking him, and spitting at him. Anakin covered his ears with his hands, trying in vain to block the voices.

A choked sob escaped his throat and he felt the darkness pressing in on him, intent on fully devouring him. He thrashed about on the cot as the darkness chocked him with memories of his dark deeds. The faces of shocked horror of those he had slain, young and old, human and nonhuman. His failure to protect the innocent, his failure in saving his wife.

Alone, he was all alone now with only the darkness as his companion.

You are not alone, for I am with you.

"How can you be, why would you be?"

My love is an agape love, a love that is neverending, a love that is pure.

"If you love so much then tell me how I can save my wife!"

Most visions are only possible outcomes based on future choices.

Anakin waited for more but the voice remained silent. Anger and frustration rushed through Anakin and he threw his pillow across the room. He spotted a glass of water by his bedside and remembered his parched throat. He took the water and drank it all before setting it back down.

Getting up he left the room and aimlessly wandered the ship until he came to the cockpit. There he came upon a surprising sight, one that disturbed him. Obi-Wan Kenobi, a calm and composed man in the face of hardship was bent over in the pilot's seat crying.

Anakin's heart twisted, but he couldn't seem to make himself move. The cockpit was filled with such sorrow and anguish. Violently shaking his head, Anakin backpedaled out of the cockpit and ran through the ship's corridors back toward the room he had been in.

He entered a room and stopped in his tracks when he realized it was the wrong room. Inside laid his wife peacefully sleeping on a cot. His feet seemed to move of their own accord until he was by her side. He knelt beside the cot and with a trembling hand stroked her cheek. He could sense her presence, weak and tired.

He searched for the baby's presence and found it lively. Every couple of seconds he could spot a faint kick as a small portion of Padme's round stomach rose up and then back down.

He laid his hand gently on Padme's round belly and soothed the child with the Force, then, that was when he noticed it, a second presence hiding behind the first and more active than the first. Anakin attempted to sooth the second child, but his efforts only intensified the child's movements.

Your son can sense the turmoil and darkness in the galaxy, that is why he is so restless. Your daughter attempts to shield him from it all, but she is untrained and merely blocks his presence. With the combined stress of the Senate, the war, the restlessness of your unborn son, and worry over you, her health has not been good for many months.

"Oh…I didn't realize…"

Anakin attempted instead to shield his son from the things outside of the womb, but only agitated the child more as he felt the darkness that permeated Anakin's presence.

The rejection of his help tore at Anakin and then he openly wept.