In the Shadow of the Woods, Part 2

Summary: (Horror Movie AU) Anakin Skywalker is trying his best to be a good husband and father. But it's hard to raise two wonderterror babies who can shapeshift and bend the rules of reality. What's worse is when a group of punk teenagers show up to his secluded house when he's already in a bad mood and hungry.

This chapter is rated M for gore and language.

Anakin Skywalker wrapped his arms around his wife; she leaned her back into him. They looked down into the two cribs that stood next to each other. A baby lay in each. The twins had woken up at around two in the morning and had been up ever since. The sun was just coming up and warm light came in through the windows. And finally they were asleep.

"Did I ever mention," Anakin said, tightening his hold on his wife, "that we made some beautiful babies?"

Padmé turned her head to look up at him. "We?" she asked. "The only thing you did was give me the down payment then skipped out on the nine months of construction."

Anakin smiled as he kissed the top of his wife's head. "Forgive me," he said. "Beautiful babies that you made."

"Mmmhmmm." Padmé turned her head to look back at her children.

Anakin could feel the relief in her body at finally having them asleep. Smiling, he gently pressed his face against her hair. He loved the feeling of her silky curls and took in a deep breath. He held it as he savored her smell. Oh god, her smell. A smell that drove him crazy. All of him. Human and inhuman. It always made him want more of her. To touch her more and feel her heat. To taste her lips and to hear her voice. To dig his teeth into her skin and suck her blood-

He pushed that thought aside. It was hard at times to keep those beastly thoughts at bay. Because he hungered after Padmé. No other human had ever caused him to react this way, but he wanted to consume her. There was no other meal he wanted more than he wanted her. There would always be this unsated gnawing inside of him until he had her. If he ate her, then he would be full. Truly full.

But he never acted on these thoughts. He couldn't eat her, because he loved her. He knew his heartache from losing her would be far worse than the hunger. So for now, he just consumed and savored the parts he could. Her smell and touch. The taste of her skin and lips. It was enough just to push his hunger aside. Just to get it to stop pestering him.

"Speaking of making babies, when was the last time we tried that?" Anakin murmured in a husky voice into her hair.

"I don't know about making any more babies," Padmé said.

He understood. The twins were . . . Well, parenthood was hard. Especially with twins. Especially with little Wonderterrors that could change shape and bend the rules of reality.

Padmé turned around to face him. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"But," she said smiling. Oh that beautiful smile that dug past his flesh shell and into the bottomless abyss of his core. "I wouldn't mind some mommy-daddy alone time."

She pulled his head down to her and their lips pressed together.

"Say no more," Anakin said. She giggled as he swept her up into his arms. He carried her out of the nursery and into the bedroom next door.

Oh, he loved her. He loved Padmé. Every part of her. Every particle. Perhaps that was why he hungered after her so. She was one of the few humans to truly accept him for what he was. What he fully was, and even if he himself didn't understand what that was. He was something else. Something more. Something beyond the comprehension of humanity. A bit beyond even his own knowledge.

The Jedi Order had called him the son of Satan. Qui-Gon Jinn had called him a child of the Old Ones. A chosen one. There were other names. Monster. Demon. Wonderterror. Eldritch horror. But none of those were able to completely capture the enormity of what he was, and Padmé didn't grasp it either, but she was ok with that. The Jedi Order had not been. They wanted to understand Anakin. They wanted to use him. He was always seen as a tool or a weapon.

Padmé did not. She loved him, and she didn't deny or reject that other part of him. They both knew she was scared of the non-human part at times. He understood. If he truly reflected on it, he could scare himself sometimes. But she was willing to work past the fear. She was willing to stay with him.

A memory came to him uninvited. He recalled walking down a hallway with a large and heavy hand on his shoulder. He wore a light tan tunic, which was the same as what everyone wore in this place. They stopped at a door. A heavy and thick metal door that had several locks on it.

The memory flashed and he was sitting on a cold hard floor staring up at a door. A door that had several looks on it, but this time on the inside. He eyed the padlocks and deadbolts. Why did his mother use all those locks? She said it was because of all the crime in the neighborhood. She didn't want anyone breaking into their home. It was the truth, but not completely.

He pushed those unwanted memories away. He didn't want to ruin his time with Padmé, because it was a wonderful time. It had indeed been a good while since the two had been this passionately intimate with each other. Anakin had to be careful. Despite what he wanted, he had to stay completely in his human form. Allowing his human form to break even just a little, made sex more pleasurable for him. However, it was that thinking that got them into their current trouble. They had been very proactive in using protection; however, it looked like no human inventions could protect against Eldritch horror sperm. So ever since Padmé became pregnant, there was a strict completely-human-only love making rule.

Once they finished, the two cuddled up together and fell asleep. Anakin awoke first a few hours later. He checked the clock to see it was near noon. His stirring woke up Padmé. She smiled up at him, and he couldn't help but lean in and kiss her.

"How about a shower?" he asked softly.

"Check on the babies first," she muttered.

He pushed himself up to his elbows to get a good look at the baby monitor. He paused as the screen showed two empty cribs.

"Ah shit."

At once he was rolling out of bed while Padmé looked at the monitor. He pulled on his discarded pants and walked next door to the nursery. He looked around the room. It was painted a light yellow and was decorated with round edged stars and moons. However, there were no babies.

He ran a hand through his hair as he stepped back into the hallway. Padmé was waiting in her light gray robe. She looked at him expectantly.

"Not there," he muttered. At once her face creased in worry. He rushed to assure her. "I'll find them."

He closed his eyes and quickly found the invisible breaks in reality. The small tears that allowed him to delve into the beyond. The Force, as the Jedi had called it.

It was there his other half lived. A large creature that constantly changed shape based on his will. He slid into the inky cold folds of the Force and reached out. It wasn't hard to locate his children; like him, part of them also lived in this place.

Anakin opened his eyes. "They're down in the living room," he said as he walked past her to the stairs.

As he walked down the steps, he recalled the memories he had of the locks on his doors when he was a child. There had always been locks to keep him in. His mother put the locks on the inside, so she could lock herself up with her son. So he wouldn't sneak out at night and eat stray dogs and rats.

Should he do that with his children? Could he do that? Lock them in their room? It was clear their cribs couldn't contain them. Especially when they suddenly changed shape to something that could fly or slither.

Anakin paused as he stepped into the living room. Padmé stopped beside him. They both stood there quietly as they took in the sight.

"Mama. Mama. Mama," Luke said as he noticed his parents.

"Mama. Dada," Leia said.

Neither parent moved. They were in shock. The living room was completely destroyed. The furniture had all been knocked over and torn apart. There were deep gashes in the wall and floor. Stuffing from the cushions was thrown about. There were strips of shredded fabric everywhere. A few of the large windows were shattered.

And everywhere was blood and carnage.

"Anakin . . ." Padmé said softly. "What . . . "

She didn't need to finish. He knew. Where had the blood come from? He stepped forward into the mess. The twins sat in a bloody pool. Bits of blood guts were strewn about. Both twins had handfuls of innards. They were covered in blood, especially around their mouth.

"Dada. Dada," Leia said smiling as her father knelt down beside them.

"Dada eat!" Luke said holding up his chunk of intestines to Anakin.

Anakin had to fight back a smile. He knew Luke was just trying to be a good boy and share his food with his father, but the babies were in trouble. He placed a hand on both of the twins heads and opened himself up to the Force. It didn't take much to reach into their minds. He saw flashes of their memories. The crib. The nursery. The smell of blood. The window. A large deer in their yard. Anakin sighed as he recollected himself. He stood up and looked at Padmé who had yet to move.

"It's a deer," he said. "It had cut itself and they smelled the blood."

"A deer?" Padmé asked, glancing about the room. There was nothing large enough left to indicate it had been a deer.

"Yes. And from what I saw, they decided it would be fun to play with the deer. In our living room. Then they got hungry and well . . . " Anakin waved at the room and the two messy babies.

"But . . . how . . . How did we not hear any of this?" Padmé said.

That was a good question.

He looked down at the babies. Luke had shoved the intestines into his mouth. Anakin could just make out small sharp pointed teeth.

"Surely we weren't . . . that distracted," Padmé continued. Her face was turning red. He couldn't help but blush as well.

"No," he said. "I believe it was them."

Padmé frowned.

"I don't think they completely realized what they were doing, but they messed with the flow of sound waves." Anakin rubbed the back as his head as he looked down at his children. "They wanted to play with the deer. They knew they weren't allowed to leave the house without us, so they brought the deer inside. They also didn't want to bother us. Either because they knew we were sleeping or because they knew they were being naughty."

At that last word, both twins looked up at their father.

"That's right," Anakin said. "Naughty. Naughty babies. Bad babies."

"Bahd?" Luke asked.

Leia frowned. Her eyes were big and wide.

"Yes, bad," Anakin said. "Look at this mess. You two were very bad bringing a deer inside."

Luke's lip was starting to tremble as the guilt settled in. He looked over at Padmé.

"Mama," he said.

Padmé sighed and shook her head. "Daddy is right," she said. "You were bad babies."

"I'll take them outside and hose them off," Anakin said. His voice tired.

Padmé nodded. "I'll go get a hot bath ready," she said as she turned to go back upstairs.

Anakin wasted no time in unleashing a small part of his other self. At once black tentacles grew out of his back. They slithered down and wrapped around the two babies. He picked them both up and walked across the living room through a small foyer and outside. Once outside, a tentacle pulled down a metal horse trough that was leaning against the wall of the house. Another tentacle grabbed the nearby garden hose while a second turned on the faucet.

He grabbed Luke with both of his human hands and took off the baby's bloodied outfit and diaper. He placed Luke into the trough then repeated it with Leia. It didn't take long for the twins to start splashing and stomping in the water. As the water got deeper the twins started to change, because their wants had changed. They wanted to enjoy the water. So they unconsciously accessed the Force and changed their physical form. Soon two white little scaly sea creatures were swimming around.

Anakin could only smile as he watched them. He couldn't help but imagine what his family life must look like to the outsider. He could imagine being at some backyard barbeque as other parents talked about their children. They would share their troubles while other parents would give out advice. What would the other parents say when Anakin said he put his babies in a horse trough to hose down all the deer blood they had gotten all over themselves?

He couldn't help but smile as he imagined their horrified looks.

Though sometimes he wanted to be able to talk to other parents. He wanted advice. Like what was he going to do with his adventurous twins? Somehow they had gotten out of their cribs, down the stairs, gotten a whole large deer into the living room, and then ate it. Had they left the house to get the deer? Or had they simply stretched themselves to grab it?

He thought of the locks on his doors as a child. Should he put a lock on the twins door? He frowned. He didn't like that thought. He suddenly thought of putting plexiglass atop the cribs. He had an imagine of the two babies pressing their hands against the glass as they looked up at him with big round eyes. Again, Anakin thought of his imaginary parent group.

"Should I try locking them in? Or put plexiglass on top of their cribs?"

"They're getting big, Anakin," one parent would say. "They'll soon outgrow those cribs."

"But surely by then I'll be able to explain to them why they can't do certain things."

A few of the imaginary parents shared knowing looks with each other.

Cold water snapped Anakin out of his daydream as it splashed in his face. He looked down at his two giggling serpent shaped children. The water was stained red. It looked like they were relatively blood-free.

"Come here," he said as his tentacles reached into the water and grabbed at the babies. Both tried to wiggle away from him thinking it was some fun game. But the trough was only so big and Anakin was faster and smarter. Soon he had two wiggling dripping little monsters tucked to his side as he walked back inside.

By the time he made it upstairs to the bathroom, he held two wet and naked completely human babies in either arm.

"Mama!" the twins cried happily.

Padmé smiled as she walked over and took Luke from Anakin. "Did you have fun swimming?" she asked him as she lowered him into a waiting warm bath.

Luke giggled as he started to splash and reach for a plastic toy whale. Anakin placed Leia in the bath, who also started to play with one of the bath toys. Both parents started to wash the babies with Padmé working on Luke while Anakin washed Leia. Not once did either baby slip from their human form despite wanting to enjoy the water like they had outside.

That was because Padmé was here, and she was their mother. A mother they loved dearly. And somehow they just seemed to know she was human. She was different. So when she was around, they were almost always human. Padmé reported she never saw the twins transform directly in front of her. She might surprise them by walking in on them, but they would change back into humans immediately.

Daddy was a different story.

Bathtime was over and each parent wrapped a warm and clean child in a soft towel. They carried the twins into the nursery. The babies were put into fresh diapers and clean onesies: Luke a light blue one with white polka dots, Leia a light brown one with a white teddy bear head on her chest. Instead of laying the twins in their cribs, Anakin picked them both up and brought them into his room. He set them down on the bed.

"You two don't get to go back to the cribs," he said as he crawled into bed with them.

Padmé joined them. Soon all four of the Skywalker family were under the covers. The twins were nestled between their parents. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep.

"Do you think they'll stay asleep this time?" Padmé whispered. Her head resting against her pillow as she gently stroked Leia's hair.

"Hopefully," Anakin said. "At least they won't go slither off as long as you're with them."

Padmé smiled. He could see the dark circles under her eyes.

"Go to sleep," Anakin said. "I'll go clean up downstairs."

"Are you sure? You don't have to clean up by yourself."

Suddenly, he was no longer in the bed. He now stood beside the bed next to Padmé. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

"You're tired," he said softly. "Just rest. Let me handle the mess."

She rolled over and the two shared a quick kiss on the lips. Then she looked back at her babies and smiled. He watched as she closed her eyes and fell asleep. He stood there for a little while longer watching his three loved ones sleep peacefully. He was tired. He wanted to join them, but he knew the mess downstairs shouldn't be ignored for long.

Plus there was the scent. The scent of blood. Anakin walked downstairs and looked at his torn up living room. He eyed all the blood. It was making him hungry. The easiest way for him to clean this all up would be to simply eat it, but it wouldn't sustain him. It wouldn't stop the hunger pain the bloody scent had brought on. Perhaps he should go out hunting before he settled down in bed.

He ran a hand through his hair. They would have to get new furniture. Possibly look into replacing the flooring. Maybe he should just cover it up with a rug for now. He would have to replace the broken windows. The list of repairs was adding up and there was a sinking feeling in his chest.

Personally he didn't really care about the mess. It was a bit annoying to clean up when he was tired and hungry, but manageable. No, his thoughts were weighed down thinking about Padmé, his wonderful wife. She had given up everything to be with him and the twins. Everything. Her career, her family, and her friends. They all thought she was dead.

He was so happy she had chosen to stay with him, and he wanted to give her the world. He could, couldn't he? That's what Palpatine had whispered to him. Anakin was powerful enough. He could simply unleash himself. This world would be his. But those were Palpatine's words and his desires. All Anakin wanted was to be with Padmé and his children. He wanted them all to be healthy and happy.

And he knew it was hard for Padmé. She tried to make the best of it. To make their home nice, but the two little devils easily made a mess of things. The family photographs had been put into plastic storage containers in the attic. Padmé was tired of cleaning up the broken picture frames.

"We can put them back up when the twins are older," she said sadly.

She wanted a nice house. A nice home. And Anakin wanted to give that to her. And right now that meant cleaning up the mess he had been staring at. He sighed and took a step forward but then froze. His head tilted to the side as he listened, because there was a sound. A sound that didn't belong. A sound that was growing louder.

He soon recognized it was the sound of an engine. A car engine running on diesel. It was approaching the house. Anakin let out a mix of a growl and hiss. Black fur had grown out of his forearms while his hands had morphed into long claws. He made his way to the dining room where the windows faced the road.

He reached out into the Force. He extended himself up into the bedroom and created a bubble around the room. A sound bubble that would block incoming noise. It was similar to what the twins had probably used earlier when playing with the deer. Anakin would deal with whatever this was himself. He didn't want to wake his family. They were all finally resting.

Plus who knew what this threat was. Had Palpatine finally found them? But if so why would he only send in one car? It was sloppy. Yellow eyes with thin black slits watched as a Jeep with four people came down the road and stopped in front of the house. Four youths jumped out of the Jeep. Three boys and one girl. They gaped up at the house and took pictures of it with their phones.

The fur on Anakin's arm was shrinking. He didn't know how these young idiots had gotten on his property, but he would have to go out there and yell at them. Possibly have to follow them back out. There were three locked gates between this house and any major road. How had these kids gotten through all of those? Anakin would have to find out if anything needed to be replaced.

"Oh my god!" the girl shouted. "This place has wifi!"

"Fuck yeah," one of the boys said as he looked at his phone. "Lora messaged me back! She wants to meet up tonight."

"Nice," another boy responded. "Think you'll finally get her back to your place tonight?"

Anakin rolled his eyes as he made his way to the door.

The girl laughed. "Michael already responded to my post!" she shouted. "He says this house is haunted and we're all going to get ourselves killed."

The others laughed as well.

Anakin was frozen. His hand was right above the door knob. A cold wave washed through him as he thought on the girl's words. She had taken pictures of his house. She had posted them on social media. And now others had seen it. Were commenting on it. He was changing. He wasn't even sure to what, because he wasn't paying attention to his physical form as his body flicked between shapes, as it tried to match his desire.

His mind instead was spinning around and around. He had to stop this. It was possible the pictures could make it to Palpatine. That his family would be targeted . . .

No.

He was not going to allow this. He was going to stop this. The door opened silently. He slithered out. The youths didn't notice him as he slid quietly through the leaves into the shadows of the woods. How should he handle this? Electronics were hard to deal with. Organic things were easy. Everything organic was connected to the Force and thus he could connect to it. He could change or attack it. But for electronics he would have to get his hands on the phone and erase the photos and the post the normal way.

With several sets of eyes, he watched the kids as they started to walk around his house. He located where each of their phones were. He would extend a tentacle out and simply snatch them away. Then he could scare the idiots back into their Jeep.

But before he could start his plan, the wind shifted and he smelled the blood still lingering in his living room. His hunger multiplied. His mouth salvated with black drool over rows of sharp teeth. His hunger, his true hunger, was hard to explain. It was nothing like what a human experienced. His hunger was almost like a beast of its own. It clawed and gnashed its teeth against Anakin again and again. It could be very painful.

He took a long sniff of the air. This time he was smelling the humans. A long black tongue licked his jowls. His hunger dug a hundred sharp pins into him. It wasn't to be ignored or brushed aside. It wanted to be fed. It wanted the humans.

For there was nothing better than eating a human. It was the finest meal Anakin could eat. And it had been a long while since he had enjoyed human blood and meat. Yes, the hunger whispered to him. These four fools had trespassed onto his home. Were endangering his family. His precious family. They deserved to be eaten.

There was a small part that pleaded against this. Four missing youths would cause a headache. But that part was quickly silenced by the much stronger voice of the hunger. One of the kids had left the others. He was wandering away from the house. Most likely he was looking at the view of the lake.

Anakin didn't waste any more time. He quickly and silently slithered out of the woods. He wrapped his serpent like body around the kid, who started to scream. His screams intensified as he finally got a good look at the monster that was wrapped around him. Anakin savored the fear and screams for a moment, before his mouth opened into five parts. Each part had three rows of teeth. Then he took the kid's entire head and shoulders into his mouth and snapped it shut.

There was a satisfying crunch that came with the abrupt end of the screams. Anakin savored the taste of human blood. But the moment was soon ruined by the shouts of the other kids as they came to investigate. Anakin quickly finished eating the first kid. He still had three more to eat.

How many times had Anakin chastised his own children for playing with their food? Hadn't he done that a mere hour or two ago over the deer? And yet, he had been playing with his food. He had been enjoying seeing them run and scream around. He had saved the girl for last, but had slashed her throat to keep her quiet. The screaming was starting to get on his nerves.

That was when the situation got worse. Two more Jeeps showed up filled with more blasted kids. How many stupid college students were lurking in the woods today? What was he going to do now? Eating four kids was pushing it, but a dozen? The hunger inside of him of course wanted him to eat them. Oh how delicious they would be. Weren't the other three amazing? Not just their bodies, but also their very essence? Their soul?

Then the foolish girl stumbled out of the woods. The others had seen her, and Anakin realized their fates were sealed. He couldn't simply let them go. Something had to be done. Force them to look at his true form? Those who weren't Force sensitive would either go insane or their brain would distort their memories.

Just eat them. Eat them all.

He snatched up the girl from earlier. The taste of her moan and blood and muscles and bones was intoxicating. Delicious. How could he stop? So he picked off another girl by turning into a winged creature. The group ran inside the house.

Shit.

He couldn't have them waking up his family. The babies . . . what if they tasted human blood? They would forever crave it. Nothing else would ever satisfy them. No, he couldn't let that happen to them. And what if Padmé saw . . . He had to stop this. Play time was over. He followed them into the house.

And that's when noticed there was something off. The Force stirred. What was wrong? Were one of these youths Force sensitive? That would be annoying, but easily solved by eating them. But then he heard it.

"Dada? Dada?"

Luke!

Anakin's heart slammed inside of his chest. His baby! How . . . What . . . Had Luke left the bedroom? Where? Anakin dashed upstairs. Leia and Padmé still slept peacefully, but Luke was missing.

Fuck. Fuck, Anakin cursed to himself. Where was his baby? Where was Luke? Had he gone downstairs . . . Anakin was back down there in an instant. There was a coldness growing in him.

"Dada!" Luke cried out.

It came from the living room, which was where the youths were huddled up. Was Luke in there with the kids? Anakin decided to go in cautiously to assess the situation. Black tentacles slithered around the corner into the living room.

"Dada!" Luke called out seeing the tentacles.

Every part of Anakin's attention snapped onto Luke. One of the girls was holding the baby. He hissed as his tentacles opened up to reveal a mouth filled with teeth. He was going to have to be very careful. He didn't want to hurt Luke, and he also wanted to prevent Luke from tasting human blood.

Anakin hissed in pain as one of the kids slammed a broken chair leg into one of his tentacles. That idiot was the next to go. The rest of the kids ran, and Anakin ran after them on large muscular legs and paws with long claws that scraped against the wood floor. He let out a low growl of annoyance. He managed to pounce on the last kid in the group but the rest, including Luke, had made it outside.

Anakin didn't even pause to eat the last kid he had killed. He was outside. His form that of a large black bird creature with three sets of wings. He swooped down at the group snatching up two girls. He quickly killed them and threw them aside. He managed to get another girl as she was trying to get into a Jeep with the rest of them.

The Jeep took off with Luke in it. Anakin growled. He needed to get his son back, but he eyed the bodies. He needed to eat them, now. What if Leia woke up and came downstairs? So he quickly ate all the dead kids, and then took to the sky.

He found the Jeep pulled over on the side of the road. He could hear Luke's crying. He was scared and wanted his daddy. Luckily, his daddy was now here.

Anakin landed on the roof and ripped apart the fabric roof. He paused for a moment as he looked around. Luke was no longer in a human form. His anxiety and fear had grown too much. He wanted his daddy. He wanted to go home. So his form had changed to reflect that. The girl holding him and the driver couldn't withstand looking at such a creature. Their minds and bodies couldn't handle it.

They were both dead with the girl half melted into the seat and the boy dripping blood out of all of his orifices. It was a shame, because Luke was beautiful. His other form was always white, a beautiful glowing white. Perhaps it was creatures like Luke that had created myths of angels. Anakin reached down with black tentacles and carefully picked Luke up. Once the baby was in his arms, he started to gently rock and soothe him.

It's ok, Luke, he cooed through the Force. You're safe now. I've got you.

Luke started to calm down as his crying stopped. Luke's little white tentacles wrapped around his father's large black ones. Anakin took to the sky again and flew back home. He brought the baby into the upstairs bathroom. The two were now human. Anakin peeled off the dirty onesie. He had to eat it for he didn't dare leave it in the trash. It looked like Luke hadn't tasted any of the blood. That was a relief.

He placed Luke in the sink and washed him off with warm water. Unlike his previous bath, Luke was very quiet and still. His big blue eyes were red and puffy. His lips were pulled into a frown. He still wasn't over his ordeal. Anakin wrapped him up in a towel and kissed the soft downy hair as he brought Luke into the nursery. Once in clean clothes, Anakin brought Luke back to the bedroom.

"Mama! Mama!" Luke cried. He leaned away from Anakin as his hands grabbed at the air towards Padmé.

Padmé woke up. She smiled up at Anakin and Luke. Anakin lowered Luke into her arms. Mother and son were soon in a tight embrace. Padmé kissed his forehead as Luke snuggled against her. Leia was still sound asleep.

"Come to bed," Padmé said softly. "You look so tired."

He was. Especially after that large meal. But now he had even more of a mess to deal with. He had three Jeeps to dispose of. He also needed to clean up any of the human blood. There was also the matter of the phones and the social media posts.

He leaned down and kissed Padmé on the cheek. "I will soon," he said softly.

He eventually had to tell Padmé what had happened. He had gotten away with it for about a week. But Davis Newberg, the annoying kid who had survived, was proving to be a nuisance.

For one, he had survived. Anakin had been so preoccupied with Luke he hadn't fully searched the Jeep. Two, Davis had stumbled across Obi-Wan's cabin, and the fool Jedi had given him a blasted warded kyber crystal that prevented Anakin from harming him. Three, Davis was Force sensitive, which meant he remembered his encounter. Which led to number four.

Davis was determined to reveal the truth of what had happened to his friends. And that, Anakin couldn't let happen.

Anakin had worked hard to cover up what had happened. The night of the event, he had stayed up all night hacking into the kids' social media and email accounts. He ripped apart their personal lives. Then he created a story for each he could implant into their families' minds as to why they had simply disappeared. It would have worked. This all would have faded away as a bad memory, if only Davis Newberg wasn't working against Anakin.

Anakin couldn't let any news of him slip to where Palpatine might hear about him. And since, Palpatine was president, he had a lot of resources and men on alert for news about the Skywalkers. Luckily, Anakin spent a lot of time in his basement, at his computer, hacking into intelligence databases and making sure there were no reports about him that made it back to Palpatine.

Which is why Davis had to go. His crazy conspiracy theories about some monster in the woods eating a bunch of college students could instantly get the attention of Palpatine's people, that is if Anakin wasn't so on top of it and making sure nothing Davis said or wrote about made it beyond his sleepy little town. But all it would take was one small slip-up to change that.

Padmé was of course furious when Anakin revealed what happened.

"You ate them?" she asked. Her eyes aflame. Anakin was an unholy creature that could consume the entire earth if he chose to, but in that moment he was afraid of his own human wife. "You ate them all, Anakin? Why didn't you just alter their memories? Create some car crash? You had to eat them!"

Padmé had banned him from their bed, so he slept in the basement on the couch he kept down there. He sulked around the house for days.

"Dada sad?" Luke asked at dinner one night. His face was completely covered in tomato sauce and small pieces of noodles.

"Daddy has been naughty," Padmé said glaring at Anakin from across the table. "Very bad."

The twins looked at their father.

"Dada bahd?" Leia asked.

"Bahd? Bahd Dada?" Luke asked.

Then they both smiled and started to laugh. "Dada bahd! Bahd!" They found it incredibly funny that their father was capable of being in trouble. Anakin only slid down into his chair more while Padmé smiled at him.

It was Padmé who thought of the plan to deal with Davis. Anakin was quiet for a while after she finished her explanation.

"Ani?" she asked softly. "What are you thinking?"

They were in the basement. The twins were on the floor playing with their toys. Anakin was sitting on the couch while Padmé stood in front of him. His pillow and blankets that he had been sleeping with were in a pile next to him.

"Your plan," he said. His voice distant at first, but then his eyes focused on her. "It's a good plan. Genius. But it's a bit . . ."

"A bit?"

"Cruel?" She tilted her head. Anakin continued, "Dastardly? Dark?"

She sighed and she sat down in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck while he wrapped his around her waist.

"Anakin," she said softly. "I know why you did what you did. I know you would do anything to protect us, but I want you to know I will do anything too. You're not alone. We're a team."

"I know. I just . . . didn't want to worry you. You've given up so much, and I know it's so hard to raise the twins. I just want to make everything as easy as I can for you."

I would give you this entire world if you asked, he told himself. He would make the human race all bow to their knees for her. He would lasso the moon and pull it to earth for her.

She leaned in and pressed her lips against his. He sighed. It had been far too long since he felt her. Tasted her.

"I would rather be cranky and tired and yell at some punk kids to get off my lawn then have to deal with this mess," she said. Her lips brushing against his. Her hands slid into his hair. "But whatever problems there are, we can face them together."

He smiled and kissed her again. This time it was a longer more passionate kiss. He squeezed her sides. She giggled as she pulled away.

"How about you come sleep in the bed with me tonight?" she said in a low lusty voice.

Anakin's cheeks were turning red. "Oh? Is my ban lifted?"

"Just do a round around the house and make sure there are no injured deer this time."

"And no punk college kids," Anakin added as he kissed her again.

They both stopped and looked down as they felt little hands press against them. Luke was standing there looking up at them.

"Mama," he pleaded.

Padmé bent over, picked him up, and placed him on her lap. Then she peppered the baby with kisses. Luke giggled. Leia walked over and also demanded to be picked up. Soon all three were on Anakin's lap. He wrapped his arms as best he could around them. The babies giggled as their parents kissed them and they gave kisses back.

Two weeks later Anakin and Padmé stood outside Davis Newberg's apartment door.

Soon they were inside. Padmé's plan of having them pose as members of a news station was working. She, of course, was amazing as she pulled off her role as a news reporter and put Davis at ease.

When Davis was retelling what had happened, Padmé kept giving Anakin dirty looks. He knew what she was saying. 'Really, Anakin? Really?' When he had told her what had happened, he hadn't gone into too much detail about what had happened to the kids. Hadn't included how he had played with them a bit. He definitely had not included the part about Luke.

It wasn't much longer until Padmé had expertly cut the cord of the necklace freeing Davis of the crystal. Anakin may not be able to take the necklace off, but there were no rules about other humans taking it off. Freed from the protective spell the crystal casted, Anakin could do as he liked with Davis. He waited until Padmé left. He wanted to eat him. Oh, how he wanted to eat this pathetic fool and savor his flesh and soul.

But he would stick to Padmé's plan. Though originally her plan called for Davis' body to burn up in the apartment, Anakin might have added a bit of a creative twist to it. Later, the two stood outside the apartment building as they watched it go up in flames. He stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her.

"Did everything go well?" she whispered.

"Yes," he said.

She sighed. Despite this being her plan, he knew it bothered her. He had killed Davis, and that life weighed on her. But it was more than that. In the basement were eleven bodies that had been made to perfectly match the eleven other college kids. It had taken a lot of work to remake hunks of flesh and bone to the right sizes as well as to make sure he had the right DNA. If Padmé's plan played out, which it should, Davis Newberg would be seen as a mass murderer who had some mental breakdown and killed his college friends. Then he committed suicide by setting his apartment on fire.

"Let's go home," Padmé whispered.

It didn't take them long for Anakin to bring them back to their house in the dark woods. He gently set her down on the porch. She had gone quiet and distant. Was she angry with him again? Due to what she had heard from Davis? The two entered the house and shed their wet jackets. Anakin took off his baseball cap. Padmé headed upstairs first.

Anakin looked up the stairs and could see that the light from the nursery was still on. Had Obi-Wan not put the twins to bed?

"Luke and Leia Skywalker! You know better! Anakin!" Padmé said in a stern voice. Her the-babies-are-in-trouble voice.

Anakin hurried up the stairs and into the room. Padmé stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. Her jaw set. She was glaring at Luke, Leia, and Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan sat in the corner of the room. His back resting where the two walls met. The twins were sitting on his lap with a storybook open. The only problem was they were all upside down and on the ceiling.

"You know no going on the ceiling," Padmé said. "Come down at once!" She pointed to the ground.

Luke and Leia exchanged a look. Then slowly they started to drift down to the floor. They landed softly and looked up at their parents with large sorry eyes.

"Anakin, please get Obi-Wan down," Padmé said as she looked at her children.

Anakin scowled and rolled his eyes. He could have floated Obi-Wan down, like the children had done, but instead he let his tentacles grow and reach up. They wrapped around Obi-Wan. He could feel Obi-Wan's displeasure, and Anakin could only smile. He slowly brought the man down to the floor.

"Thank you, Anakin," Obi-Wan said dusting himself off.

"Obi-Wan, let me fix you a cup a tea," Padmé said.

"That would be lovely," he said as he followed her out.

Anakin heard Padmé as she walked down the stairs. "I hope you weren't up there too long. Please tell me they altered gravity for you so your blood didn't rush to your head."

Anakin looked down at the babies. They toddled over to him and grabbed onto his pant legs. Tentacles came out and circled around them. He hoisted them up. Human arms and legs wrapped around him.

"Did you two put Uncle Ben up on the ceiling?" Anakin asked smiling. "Yes, you did. You did put Uncle Ben up on the ceiling."

He walked over to the large rocking chair and sat down in it. The babies cuddled against his chest as Anakin rocked them. Luke grabbed a fist full of Anakin's shirt. They were tired; they were up past their bedtime. Anakin smiled as he watched them start to nod off. As he was rocking, something on the floor in the corner of the room caught his eye. He sent out a tentacle and picked it up.

Padmé returned a while later. She gently picked up Leia and placed her in her crib. Anakin slowly stood up and put Luke in the other one. The two were sound asleep. The parents watched their babies for a moment before they stepped out in the hallway and gently closed the door behind them.

"Obi-Wan is still here," Anakin muttered.

"He's enjoying his tea," Padmé said as she walked to their bedroom. "I offered that he could stay the night."

"Did he lace his tea with whiskey?" Anakin asked as he started to pull his shirt off. "Here," he said as he tossed her the thing he had found on the ground in the nursery.

Padmé caught it and looked at it. She gave him a pointed look, but he looked away. He heard her chuckle softly.

"I'll go give it back to him," she said as she left the room.

He paused as he considered what he had done. Obi-Wan's green kyber crystal had fallen off. Anakin should kill him, eat him, as he had all the other Jedi Knights and yet . . . he had given the necklace to Padmé to return it to Obi-Wan. Another time, Anakin told himself. He would eat Obi-Wan another time. He had just done the Skywalkers a favor by babysitting the twins.

He sighed as he walked to the window and looked at the dark trees. His hands twitched by his side. He recalled the smell of Davis' blood and burning body. It was like charred meat on a barbeque. Anakin licked his lips. The large meal of those kids was starting to wear off. The hunger was starting to claw at him again, and this time it wasn't going to be sated with a deer or a bear. No, it had been reminded of the taste of humans and now greedily yearned for more.

Anakin agreed. Yes, he wanted to eat, and he wanted to eat humans. For a moment he was reminded there were two humans in the house. But he shook his head. No. Not them. Not Padmé or Obi-Wan. Not when there were so many others out there. He would just have to be careful. Really careful.

He smiled and saw his reflection in the glass. He could easily make out his yellow eyes rimmed in red with black slits and his mouth filled with sharp pointed teeth.