Chapter 25 - The Great Wail
"Try it now." Anakin shouted.
"Nope," Obi-Wan shouted back at him. "How did you do it? We were only supposed to fix the hyperdrive, yet somehow we ended up shutting down power on the whole ship."
"Hey, it's not my fault they needed a new Levox Power Ring, was it? Oh there it is," Anakin saw the one last piece that needed connecting. Before he could shout up to Obi-Wan to try it again, he heard a purr and the lights came back online. "Yes!" he shouted, and he ran out to join Obi-Wan.
"Is it just me, or is that a working hyperdrive I hear?" Kirak asked as he walked in.
"I fixed it!" Anakin shouted, feeling quite proud.
"And we thank you. Without your help, I don't think…" Kirak paused, staring at a monitor.
"What?" Obi-Wan inquired, and he scanned the monitor screen as well. "Oh my!"
"What is it?" Anakin asked.
"Yoda's ship." Obi-Wan said.
"How long ago?" Kirak asked, as Obi-Wan went over to the controls.
"The distress signal was released over an hour ago. And remotely too, from an escape pod."
"Where?" Anakin asked.
"I'm sending you the coordinates," Obi-Wan said.
"Got them." Anakin punched wildly at the controls to change the course of their ship.
When they arrived at the location there was no ship. No pieces of wreckage either. Anakin looked around him in disbelief.
Then a proximity alert beeped. A small shuttle could be seen coming towards them, and then another. Anakin recognized the shuttles. They were all escape pods.
"Open the bay!" Anakin shouted. Obi-Wan opened up the hangar bay doors in just enough time for the first small vessel to enter. Silently, they all shared a worried look, and got up to go get answers to their many questions.
Yoda emerged from the first vessel, holding a wrapped infant. Numerous other Jedi stepped out of the other pods.
"Is that Maris's baby? Where's his mother?" Anakin asked the obvious.
Yoda looked up seriously. "Fallen to the dark side, Tel-Mac has. Escape, Maris could not. Her death, I have felt."
"What! No!" Anakin slammed his fist against the wall, then collapsed as he started to cry. "We were supposed to change things. What good are these visions if I can't do anything."
Obi-Wan looked down, then took a long breath and released his own emotions. "We have to get everyone settled. Kirak, see if you can find room for everyone in the passenger bays."
Kirak nodded. "We'll have to squeeze in, but I'm sure we'll find room."
Anakin knew he'd just added another face to the countless faces he saw in his nightmares. He tried to do as Obi-Wan had taught him. Tried to release his emotions to the force, but whenever he did it seemed like more emotions only filled their place. All he could ever do was to push it away for a time. Only it would always come back later on, in the middle of the night when he'd cry himself to sleep unable to be comforted, not even by his wife.
Anakin's face formed a cool, emotionless facade as he followed his Master back to the bridge of the ship. Master Yoda told his story as they went. Anakin didn't really listen. When he got to the bridge, he went right to the control panel and ran another system scan, diverting power through half the ship's systems to boost it's range.
"I have it!" Anakin shouted. Making the others look up, suddenly dropping their conversations. "Master Yoda's ship, I've located it."
"It's where the other one was. That unidentified ship we saw on the long range scanner. It's gone now," shared Kirak.
Anakin started pushing buttons on the control panel, completely ignoring Obi-Wan's rattling about caution and soon they were approaching the ship.
"I don't see any damage to the hull," Obi-Wan observed. "Wait. The Hangar Bay Door was peeled open. Someone forced their way in."
"I'll prepare to board." Anakin almost jumped out of his seat.
"No! Too dangerous it is," said Yoda.
Anakin sighed. "Fine, but I'm sending in the droids. We can watch from their holocams."
Anakin sat with Yoda, Obi-Wan and Kirak around the controls of the droids as they boarded the ship. Nearby numerous other Jedi had gathered and were watching. They all tried to stay calm, though occasional looks of worry and horror leaked through.
"Does this look like your vision?" Obi-Wan asked.
"No. There were more bodies," Anakin answered with no amount of glee. The droids passed empty chambers and halls.
"Stop. In there we found the first bodies." Yoda said, pointing to the holo display. "Something was wrong, when we found them we knew."
Anakin tapped at the control, and the droid entered the room to find three bodies, all of them killed by lightsabers. Names were whispered by those watching, who recognized the Jedi. Immediately feelings of grief and horror were released to the force from all around the room. Three of the droids picked up the bodies and turned to return to their ship. One continued on. Next it approached the bridge. Anakin gasped. This part was almost exactly like his vision.
The door opened and they saw the temporary shield walls of the pilot's bay had been descended. The space was filled with ash, but the doors to the pilot's bay had been ripped off. By Anakin's estimates they must have had a droid with a powerful saw do it, because the door was completely cut off its hinge.
Inside the room there were two bodies. One was Maris brood. The other was the inquisitor prisoner they had been carrying. As the droid picked up Maris's body, Anakin noticed the clean spot it left on the floor. There was another similar clean spot near the door where another body had been retrieved much earlier.
"Hmm," Master Yoda hummed. Anakin guessed he was noticing the same thing.
The bodies had been moved to a cold-storage room on the lower deck. Maris had died of smoke inhalation from the exhaust fumes of the ship. Though she also had numerous burns on her face and arms from the burning hot ash raining down at her. Anakin didn't know what caused her to do it, but he recognized what she'd done to the engine immediately. He was slightly in awe of it, for he knew how hard it was to cut an exhaust pipe.
It was clear they were going to have to leave Yoda's ship behind. The repairs would take too long and they wanted to be long gone in case anyone returned to finish what they started. Anakin had the droids strip it of a number of useful components. He always had a knack for making use of very little. It came from his childhood as a slave, he figured, and he couldn't let anything go to waste. He did notice that the Kyber crystals they carried were gone. Fortunately Kirak's ship also carried some too. When he was done he joined Obi-Wan and Yoda who were trying to tend to a screaming infant.
"It's no good. He misses his mother." Obi-Wan lamented.
"Shhh." Yoda ignored him and continued rocking Mace-Ti.
"Here, let me have a try." Anakin offered. Picking up the baby, he began rocking him like he'd done with his own children.
"We're going to need to talk about what to do with him?" Obi-Wan said.
"What do you mean?" Anakin turned to look at him. "Lattita Moon is the Creche master in this clan. We'll ask her to take him in."
"No, I'm talking about his permanent placement. We should choose where he goes with care. Maris would want that," said Obi-Wan. "I speak as a father. He deserves a family that will love him, not a bunch of Jedi uncle's."
Yoda hummed, "Yes, this Maris would ask. A family to adopt him we shall find."
Anakin looked up. "I know where he can go." And he smiled gently down to the infant in his arms, who was beginning to settle.
Anakin dialed a comm as soon as they got to Tatooine. Shmi's face came on the holo.
"Mom, can you get Owen and Beru for us. We need to ask them something."
"Okay, is there a problem?" Shmi read the stress on Anakin's face and became alarmed. In the background they heard Cliegg calling for Owen and Beru.
"Difficult, our journey has been. Some losses, we have had." Yoda explained.
When Owen and Beru got to the comm, Anakin bit his cheek out of nervousness. "Hey guys, listen. I need to ask you a favor, and it's completely up to you to accept or not. We understand how much we are asking of you."
"Go ahead and ask, brother," Owen said.
Anakin smiled, then looked grim. "Maris brood had her child, but she didn't survive the journey. There were some, uh, issues. Tel-Mac is missing, presumed fallen. And now their child needs a new home."
Beru was smiling. "Yes," she whispered.
"He's not force sensitive, but he's a beautiful boy. He just needs a family," Obi-Wan put in.
"Yes, we'll adopt him," Owen answered even louder.
"Good news, this is. Bring him tonight, we will," said Yoda.
Then Cliegg turned the comm towards him. "Do you have her body?"
Yoda nodded. "The bodies of four dead Jedi, we have."
"Then we'll need to prepare for a funeral. How do you want it handled?"
"Burn them on a pyre, the Jedi way is to." Yoda answered.
Cliegg nodded solemnly, "I'll call some other farmers. We'll prepare for four pyres."
"Thank you, we appreciate everything," said Obi-Wan.
Later that night they landed at the Lars Homestead. Obi-Wan had wrapped the youngling to keep any blowing sand off of him, and Master Yoda carried him off their ship and up to the door. It opened to the hopeful faces of Owen and Beru.
Anakin and Obi-Wan stepped inside, and walked up to Owen. "Mom and Dad are up in the west field. They say to bring the bodies when you are ready," he told them.
"Is this him?" Beru asked as she walked up to Yoda.
Yoda hummed and handed her the child. She unwrapped him right away. The youngling had silvery skin, similar to his mother's, with some light bumps on his forehead that would eventually grow into vestigial horns. He also had blue, quite human eyes and a light fluff of brown hair starting to grow in.
"Oh," Beru let out a sigh.
Anakin could feel a mess of emotions spilling out of his sister-in-law in that moment. He saw tears in her eyes and felt regret. He never intended to cause her pain by asking her to do this. Then Anakin looked up and around.
"What is it?" Owen asked.
"Did you feel that? I thought I felt something." Obi-Wan looked at Anakin and shook his head.
Then Beru walked up to them. A smile was on her face. "Owen, look at him. Isn't he just beautiful?"
Owen leaned over and kissed his son. "Beautiful, little Mace-Ti Linnon."
"Don't you mean Mace-Ti Lars? He's your boy now," Anakin pointed out.
"No, we could never take his name away from him. That's Sacrilege. The name is his by rite, and we will keep it." Owen put a hand on his wife's back.
"Matronymic, the Zabrak culture is," Said Yoda.
"Yes, that would make him Mace-Ti Brood," Obi-Wan completed.
Both of the new parents smiled and looked down at their son, who smiled back at them. "That's perfect," Beru said. "I think he approves."
Eventually they had to leave the beautiful scene of the newly formed family, and make their way to the west field, with the bodies they needed to put to rest. The field was already very full, both with other Jedi and many citizens from Achorhead. Anakin walked up to his mother, who was having a discussion with a few colorfully dressed women he did not know. "Mother. What is all this?"
"They all wished to attend the funeral." Shmi looked over her son's shoulder and saw several Jedi carrying four bodies. As they brought them closer, men from the crowd stepped forward and helped to carry the bodies.
The bodies were placed on special cloths, laid out on the ground. An older woman came up and began treating them with spices. When she gave her signal the cloth was wrapped around the body and it was carried to a pyre reserved for it. When all four bodies were prepared and placed on their pyres, Yoda was given the honor of lighting the first pyre. Once it was lit the fire spread to the others quickly by design.
Anakin stood back and watched with his family, both Jedi and naught. He was feeling his emotions returning. Some women were starting to gather now near the first pyre that held Maris Brood. They wore the same colorful costumes as the woman Anakin had seen his mom talking to earlier. They were starting to sing a song in another language, but Anakin couldn't bear to listen. He stepped away and collapsed to the ground. He felt moments away from breaking out in sobs, but he tried everything to hold them in.
Shmi walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come son. Mourn your friend. It'll help." She helped him to stand again, then said, "Go up to the fire, and say what you are feeling. It's always good to let it out. It will help."
Anakin didn't want to dig into his emotions. They hurt too much. So he said the first thing that came to his head. "This isn't… Why are they even singing that song? It's so old, no one understands the language anymore."
"I do," Shmi said. And she began to translate,
"Let Chenini say it's last goodbye
Let the Pooten grass be still this night
As the Kryat feels you pass.
Though the twin suns sleep tonight,
In the morrow they will rise again with light.
As I send you on your way tonight,
Let your bonds formed in life remain unbroken
And when you hear my funeral song,
Pull them taunt so I can find my way along."
As she finished, Shmi pulled Anakin with her and brought him back to the pyre. The singers hands were touching their hearts and stretching up to the sky, to signal the bonds from the song, he guessed. Several in the crowd let out a loud cry. This shocked Anakin, and the rest of the Jedi gathered. "What's going on?" he asked.
"They're mourning. It doesn't always have to come out in words. Go ahead," she encouraged.
Anakin turned back towards the pyre. And as he stared at it, he remembered being at a similar pyre years ago, when Master Qui-Gon passed. 'I felt so helpless,' he thought. Tears welled behind his eyes, and he didn't hold them back. Next he thought of the men who'd died in the war. One's who's funerals he'd been to and ones he hadn't. By the time he got to the purge, and the many Jedi who'd died that day alone, he was on his knees. 'It's my fault. I should've seen something. I should've done something.' As the grief spilled out of him he cried.
When Anakin had finished, he felt… Different. Different from the times he'd released his emotions to the force, to be left unsatiated. Different from the times he'd cry himself to sleep, and the heavy weight of more tears that he'd refuse to let go nearly suffocated him. No, he felt peaceful. He closed his eyes and he could almost feel waves of forgiveness being sent through the force from somewhere he didn't know. Anakin smiled and breathed it all in.
Then he looked up and around him. The Pyres had burnt out and the Tatooinians had all gone home. All that were there were Jedi, and they were like him. Obi-Wan stood not too far away, eyes pointed to the sky, and tears were streaming down his cheeks.
"A wise woman, your mother is. A fine Jedi, she would have made," said Yoda, on his knees beside him.
"You don't say," Anakin remarked. His jaw was still dropped from shock.
Anakin hadn't seen it but his conversation with his mom was heard by not just them, but by many Jedi there. And he wasn't the first to try her suggestion, some were moved by the song she'd translated alone. That night they made history in this small town on Tatooine. For years later they'd call it the great wail, and some even said a sandstorm started that night because the Greater Kryat heard their cries. But that's a legend, of course.
Hi Everyone,
My thoughts in writing this, I had 'saved' Anakin by preventing his biggest loss, when I kept his mother alive. But I didn't want to leave it at that. Anakin still has a weakness in that he can't handle grief, and I put it as a weakness of the whole Jedi order by extension. When you don't allow yourself to form attachments, you don't allow yourself to learn to mourn them either. And since you can never actually live without attachments 100%, all it takes is some big disaster, like the Jedi purge, to cause some distress. I had to solve this problem by giving them all a mommy to show them how to grieve.
I wrote that song/poem myself. And thus ends my career as a poet. Chenini is one of the three moons of Tatooine. I think everything else is self explanatory.
Next chapter there will be a time jump. I'm not completely sure how much yet. I've got no more major plot points planned until the twins are nine, basically. But I will try to do a few chapters between then and now, so you can see Luke and Leia growing up.
