Three years later, Anakin and Obi-wan navigated the messy battlefield in the Gatia system. The uninhabited planet itself was a large size and hosted a massive wind storm beneath them. The two of them blasted what felt like hundreds of droids out of commission as they were swarmed. This was it, the war seemed to finally be coming close to an end.
The clones flying through space behind them fought bravely, but Anakin couldn't help but flinch as he heard their voices fade out and scream in agony through the communicators.
"We should go back and help," he said.
Obi-wan replied, "They're doing what they're bred for Anakin. We have to keep our efforts on rescuing the chancellor from Dooku."
Droids shot out at them and quickly covered both of their ships. Anakin managed to dodge most of them and used the force to keep them away. Obi-wan was instantly swarmed and couldn't see where he was going. He tried to use the force to get rid of them, but more flew in from all directions. Unbeknownst to him, he was heading straight for Gatia.
"Obi-wan!" Anakin shouted.
This wasn't part of the plan. They were supposed to dock on Grievous' ship first, capture him, and trade the general for the chancellor on the ship, not on Gatia. They knew the planet's atmosphere was harsh and unbreathable. If the trade happened on the ship, as it was planned, they would be safe.
"Anakin," Obi-wan said as he felt his ship getting sucked into the planet's gravitational pull, "get to Grievous on the ship. I'll be fine!"
"Shut up and let me save you again!" He blasted the droids off of his fighter without harming the outer shell.
The atmosphere began burning Obi-wan's fighter up first. The droids were either ripped off or burned up on entry. Obi-wan tried to regain control but it was too badly damaged. He grabbed the oxygen mask from behind him, made with goggles and covered most of his head and neck, and braced for impact.
Anakin was right behind him. The wind tossed his fighter around and forced him to nose dive directly into the ground. It wasn't going anywhere. He donned his oxygen mask. Through the power of the force, he felt Count Dooku and the chancellor were nearby.
As soon as he opened his fighter up, he immediately regretted that decision. This wasn't a sandstorm, because this planet wasn't covered in sand. It's entire surface was salt and minerals. It burned as it hit all his exposed flesh-his hand, neck, and scalp through his hair. The air was caustic, and began burning him as soon as it found any of his exposed skin, leaving him with open sores that were literally being rubbed with salt.
As Obi-wan marched over to him, Anakin remarked, "This is way worse than sand!"
"I told you not to follow me," he said, "now we're both stuck here."
"Count Dooku got here somehow," Anakin said, "we'll have to leave in whatever ship he has. Over there." He pointed in the direction where he felt his presence.
Together they walked across the windstorm salt landscape and soon found Count Dooku and the chancellor standing by his side, both donning full face masks. They had no idea this was all planned by Palpatine. Forcing them to come to such a hostile planet, the shooting down of Obi-wan's fighter so Anakin would be enraged and want to fight. For Palpatine, this was all coming together beautifully. He couldn't wait to see his soon to be new apprentice overwhelm his current one.
Obi-wan drew his lightsaber first, "Let the chancellor go, Dooku, and we'll all get off of this horrendous salt ball together." Anakin followed with his lightsaber.
Dooku struck first, and even though it was two on one, Dooku quickly got the upperhand. It helped that he had gloves on and his neck was fully covered. Meanwhile Anakin and Obi-wan still had exposed hands that were beginning to struggle with holding onto a lightsaber.
Obi-wan was incapacitated first. He went down hard against the salt plain. Anakin wanted to check in on him, but Dooku swooped in and went for the kill. He dodged and blocked. He tried to spin around, but Dooku made the smallest of cuts into his oxygen. It only took seconds for the harsh air to reach his lungs and burn.
"Aahhh!" Anakin screamed out in pain and kneeled on the ground. This wasn't over. It couldn't be over, not for him! He saw a quick flash of Padme crying at his funeral and couldn't take it. He leapt up, cut Dooku's hands off, took his red lightsaber and prepared to decapitate him.
"Excellent, Anakin!" Palpatine said excitedly, "Kill him and the war will be that much closer to ending."
Anakin watched as Dooku writhed in pain with the salt pouring into his wounds. He wasn't going to make it even if he did let him live, so he did it. He used both lightsabers to cut off his head.
He dropped both lightsabers and fell to the ground. He could barely breathe now, and his vision was tunneling and fading fast. He still had to get Obi-want and find the ship.
"Let's go," Palpatine said, grabbing onto him, "We have to leave now if we want to live through this endeavor."
"Wait," Anakin said, pulling at his robe and struggling to breathe, "Obi-wan."
"He's as good as dead," he said hastily.
He replied, "He's still alive! His fate will be the same as ours." He turned and crawled over to Obi-wan's unconious body. It took all the strength he had to put him on his shoulders and stand back up. "Where is the ship?"
Palpatine pointed in a direction Anakin couldn't see. "Over there my dear friend, let's hurry."
Through the salt storm and Anakin's fading vision, it was almost impossible for him to keep up with the chancellor. Every breath felt like fire eating away at his lungs and esaphogas. Finally the ship came into view, and luckily was big enough for all three of them.
Anakin's adreneline was wearing off fast. His vision was completely gone, all he saw was whiteness. He felt the ramp of the ship and carefully stepped up it. Once the doors were closed and sealed, he collapsed and dropped Obi-wan.
"Ah," Obi-wan groaned in pain and looked at his surroundings. The chancellor, now without his mask, stared at him in worry and he looked over to see Anakin now unconscious. "Anakin!"
He took his own oxygen mask off first, and then Anakin's and surveyed the damage. His face was covered in burns from the planet's atmosphere.
"It's best we get out of here while we still can," Palpatine said.
Obi-wan jumped into the pilot's seat and navigated them a way off of there. "Mayday!" he called, "I need a medical cot, quick! Anakin is down for the count! We're leaving the Gatia system."
"Any longer in that storm and his lungs and eyes would be too badly damaged to heal," the medical droid remarked as he placed Anakin's oxygen. It hissed and hawed as it forced him to breathe. His eyes were covered in medical gauze, and his neck and natural hand were wrapped up to stop the bleeding from his sores. Mace Windu, Yoda, Obi-wan, and the chancellor stood in the room and looked him over.
"It was an incredible act of strength and heroism," Palpatine said, "when Count Dooku severed his oxygen, I feared he was done for."
Obi-wan said, "Without him I likely wouldn't have made it."
"Glad I could help," Anakin's voice came through his ventilator and gave him deep satisfying breaths. With his eyes taped shut with medicine over them he couldn't see a thing, but with the force he knew exactly who was in the room.
Mace said, "As heroic as it was, it was also dangerously reckless. Now that Dooku is dead we can't interrogate him."
Yoda said, sitting on a high stool, "Critical, you are, Master Windu. Grateful young Skywalker and Master Kenobi are alive, we are." He nodded.
"Both of you should be dead," Mace said, "but I am glad you're alive to fight another day."
"Will I ever see again?" Anakin asked, "Or be able to breath without feeling like my lungs are on fire?" The pain medication was finally kicking in, so his lungs were slowly going numb with every breath.
The medical droid explained, "Your vison will be fully restored in a few days. The leisons in your lungs will take a bit longer, you may have a lingering cough and shortness of breath. The sores and wind burns on your hand and neck are already healing over."
Obi-wan said, "So you should be back in the action again in no time, Anakin."
"That's great to hear," he replied.
"We'll keep him on the ventilator overnight," the droid added, "as long as there are no complications, he'll be out of here tomorrow morning."
Obi-wan said, "We'll leave you to it then."
As the group was leaving, Mace said, "Once you're recovered enough, young Skywalker, the council will have a meeting to discuss everything that happened on Gatia, and what our next move will be against the separtists."
With that, Anakin was alone with only the sound of his own breathing. Once the medical droid was done, it turned the lights off and let him nap.
Later, Anakin was woken up by the sound of someone entering the room. He knew the presence immediately. "Padme," he scolded softly, "you shouldn't be here. What are you going to say if someone sees you?"
"It's okay," she whispered next to his face, "no one knows I'm here. I've missed you, Ani."
"I've missed you too."
Padme tenderly took his injured hand, carefully wrapped in gauze, and explained, "It's been so long since I've seen you in person. I've been waiting all this time to show you something special. I know you're blind at the moment, so here." She took off her thick and heavy over-robe, took Anakin's hand, and pressed it against her belly.
At first Anakin had no idea what he was feeling. Why was her belly so hard and large? And what was that little thumping he could feel pushing against his hand? He turned ever so slightly to face her better, despite being blind. It hit him all at once. He couldn't believe it. She was pregnant!
"What?" he gasped when he finally got it, trying to keep his voice down, "You're pregnant!?"
"Yes," she replied, unable to contain her excitement, "We're going to be parents, Ani!"
He asked, "Who knows about this?"
"No one," she insisted, "I've been wearing increasingly looser clothes and have only seen one doctor in secret every once in a while. It's our little secret." She placed his hand back down by his side.
Even without being able to see her, Anakin could feel her glee and it spread to him. How could he be a father and a jedi without anyone finding out? It was hard enough trying to hide his marriage, and now they were going to have a child running around. He told himself he could spend his time figuring out the details later. He was going to be a father!
That night Anakin had a nightmare, Padme was going to die in childbirth. It terrified him, but he kept his fears to himself. He was allowed to leave the medical bay that morning day. He could breathe on his own again, but still needed painkillers to get by. The council convened and asked for both him and Obi-wan to explain what happened the day before.
"Start from the beginning," Mace said.
Obi-wan explained, "We were flying our fighters and heading to General Grievous' ship, as planned, when destructive droids hit my ship moreso than Anakin's. I ordered him to stick to the plan."
Mace asked, "And what did you do, General Skywalker?"
"I disobeyed orders and continued to follow Obi-wan's fighter into Gatia's atmosphere," he confessed. His painkillers were beginning to wear off. He wheezed and crossed his arms to hide the pain in his chest.
Obi-wan continued, "Thanks to Anakin's help, I landed safely on the planet, but the droids had done their work on my fighter."
"I followed him to the planet's surface," Anakin explained. He held his chest. He could feel his lungs wanting to burst as he coughed.
"Once we were on the planet I figured it would be best to find the chancellor and get to Dooku's ship," Obi-wan said, "but as we were fighting Dooku, things took a turn for the worst." He glanced at Anakin.
He explained, "Dooku cut into my oxygen tank and exposed my lungs and face to that caustic air." He coughed.
Yoda remarked, "A miracle you're alive, it is."
"How did you survive?" Mace asked, "That much exposure to Gatia's salt and air should have killed you within minutes."
Anakin didn't know what to tell them. In those moments he could only think of Padme, and not wanting to leave her alone to mourn his death is secret. He coughed a few times and answered, "I just thought of the war finally ending. If I managed to kill Dooku, save the chancellor, and save Obi-wan, then the war would be over that much sooner." He coughed. "I couldn't die, not there! Then the war would go on even longer." He coughed once more and looked down at his sleeve to see blood.
"Are you alright?" Obi-wan asked.
He tried to answer, but instead he wheezed and choked on his own blood. He kneeled down to contain himself but his sight faded and he passed out instead.
When Anakin woke up, he had an oxygen mask on his face and everyone in the council kneeled over him, staring directly at him. His lung leisons had started bleeding again. That's when he knew this wasn't going to be a quick recovery.