Star Wars_ Rise And Fall Of Darth Vader Part 5

Shmi's bruised eyelids fluttered open, and she struggled to focus on Anakin's face. "Ani?" she muttered. "Is it you?"

"I'm here, Mom," he said. "You're safe."

"Ani? Ani?" She seemed confused, as if she were trying to figure out whether he really was there. Then, incredibly, she managed to smile at him. "Oh, you look so handsome." She brushed her hand against his face, and he kissed her open palm. "My son. Oh, my grownup son. I'm so proud of you, Ani."

Anakin swallowed hard and felt the sting of tears in his eyes as he said, "I missed you."

"Now I am complete," Shmi said. "I love y... Anakin tensed as her voice cut off. "Stay with me, Mom. Everything..."

He'd wanted to tell her that everything was going to be fine. And he wanted to tell her so much more. But before he could say anything, Shmi said again, "I love..." Then her eyes closed and her head fell back. She died in his arms.

Anakin sat there in stunned silence, just holding his mother. If I'd gotten here sooner, I could have saved her. He pushed his fingers through Shmi's matted hair. I won't leave her here. I have to get her back to the speeder bike. But those Tusken guards - He remembered the Tusken he'd encountered when he was a boy.

I saved his life!

Earlier, Anakin hadn't questioned the Tuskens' motives. Now, he wondered if they would have taken his mother if they'd known that her son had once saved one of their own. Or is this how Tuskens say thank you? He quickly speculated whether the Tusken he'd rescued might still be alive, possibly in this very camp. I should have let him die! I should have!

He thought of how the Tuskens had taken his mother, imagined what she had endured in the past month ...

Why would they do this? How could anyone do this?

The answer came to him from the darkest reaches of his own heart. They did this because they wanted to. They did this because they could. As his grief transformed into anger, he knew exactly how he was going to dispose of the Tusken guards.

Temporarily leaving his mother's corpse, Anakin Skywalker stepped outside the tent and reactivated his lightsaber.

He didn't stop with the guards.

When Anakin arrived back at the Lars homestead with his mother's blanket-wrapped body, Cliegg Lars, Owen, Bern, Padme, and C-3PO emerged from the entry dome. They watched in silence as he lifted his dead mother from the bike and carried her toward the dome's doorway. Anakin was in no mood to talk, and he had reconsidered his a.s.sessment that the Lars family was made up of "good people."

What's the advantage of being good if you're weak?

His grim, scowling expression locked onto Cliegg Lars, who lowered his gaze.

Perhaps you 're wishing you hadn 't given up on her so soon?

Without breaking stride, Anakin redirected his glare at Owen and Beru.

Maybe my mother never told you about how to be prepared to take care of things?

Anakin didn't even look at Padme or the protocol droid as he descended with his mother into the underground dwelling.

Later, Anakin was standing at a workbench in the homestead garage, repairing a part from the swoop bike, when Padme entered carrying a tray of food. She said, "I brought you something. Are you hungry?"

Anakin continued to examine the bike part, moving slowly, as if he was slightly dazed. "The shifter broke," he said. "Life seems so much simpler when you're fixing things. I'm good at fixing things. Always was. But I couldn't..." He stopped working and looked at Padme. "Why'd she have to die? Why couldn't I save her? I know I could have." He turned away, looking into a dark corner of the cluttered garage. His rage had momentarily given way to grief.

"Sometimes there are things no one can fix," Padme said. "You're not all-powerful, Ani."

"Well, I should be!" he snarled back at her, causing Padme to flinch. "Someday I will be," he continued. "I will be the most powerful Jedi ever! I promise you. I will even learn to stop people from dying."

Padme just stood there, confused and alarmed by his words. "Anakin ..."

"It's all Obi-Wan's fault. He's jealous! He's holding me back!" He flung a wrench across the garage. It smashed against the wall and clattered to the floor.

"What's wrong, Ani?"

Still avoiding her gaze, Anakin tried to calm his voice as he said, "I... I killed them. I killed them all. They're dead. Every single one of them." He turned slowly to face Padme, revealing the tears streaming down his face. "And not just the men, but the women and the children, too. They're like animals, and I slaughtered them like animals!" Then he roared, "I HATE them!"

Anakin began sobbing and slumped down to the floor. Padme knelt and put her arms around him. She said, "To be angry is to be human."

"I'm a Jedi," Anakin gasped between sobs. "I know I'm better than this."

And yet he also knew something else, something far worse than that he'd allowed himself to give way to his anger.

Killing the Tuskens had given him satisfaction.

CHAPTER 9.

Anakin knelt before his mother's final resting place, a graveyard outside the Lars compound, where two old headstones stood beside the new one. "I wasn't strong enough to save you, Mom," he said, trying not to choke on his words. I've failed, he thought. Not just as your son, but as a Jedi. "I wasn't strong enough," he repeated. "But I promise I won't fail again." He rose to his feet. Through clenched teeth, he added, "I miss you so much."

Padme, Cliegg, Owen, Beru, and C-3PO were gathered behind Anakin. As he moved away from the grave, R2-D2 motored toward the group and emitted a flurry of beeps and whistles.

"R2?" Padme said, surprised that he had left their starship. "What are you doing here?"

R2-D2 beeped and whistled more.

Seizing the opportunity to act as a translator, C-3PO said, "It seems that he is carrying a message from an Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi. Hmm. Master Ani, does that name mean anything to you?"

The two droids followed Anakin and Padme into the starship.

Obi-Wan had tracked the bounty hunter - a man named Jango Fett - to the droid foundries on the planet Geonosis, where he'd discovered that the Trade Federation's Viceroy, Nute Gunray, was behind the a.s.sa.s.sination attempts on Padme. Obi-Wan had also learned that the Trade Federation was scheduled to take delivery of a Geonosian-produced droid army, and that various interstellar commerce factions had allied with Count Dooku's Separatist movement. Although Obi-Wan had managed to transmit this information from Geonosis, his holographic recording ended with him trying to evade a hail of laserfire from enemy droids.

Anakin and Padme watched the prerecorded message in their starship's c.o.c.kpit on Tatooine, while the Jedi Council and Chancellor Palpatine simultaneously viewed the relayed transmission on Coruscant. When Obi-Wan's message was over, Jedi Master Mace Windu instructed Anakin to stay where he was with Senator Amidala while the Jedi Council dealt with Count Dooku. "Protect the Senator at all costs," Mace Windu said via holographic transmission. "That is your first priority."

"Understood, Master," Anakin replied. First I lose my mother, now . . . Obi-Wan.

As Mace Windu's hologram faded out, Padme said, "They'll never get there in time to save him. They have to come halfway across the galaxy." Swiveling in her seat to examine coordinates on the navicomputer console, she said, "Look, Geonosis is less than a pa.r.s.ec away."

"If he's still alive," Anakin said grimly.

"Ani, are you just going to sit here and let him die? He's your friend, your mentor. He's - "He's like my father!" Anakin snapped. The father I never had. "But you heard Master Windu. He gave me strict orders to stay here."

"He gave you strict orders to protect me," Padme said as she flicked a series of switches that activated the ship's engines, "and I'm going to help Obi-Wan. If you plan to protect me, you will have to come along."

Anakin grinned.

As the ship lifted off, carrying Anakin, Padme, and the two droids away from Tatooine, it occurred to Anakin that they hadn't so much as said good-bye to Clieg, Owen, or Beru. I didn't have much to say to them anyway, he thought. He looked at C-3PO, who had belted his sandblasted metal body into a seat behind Anakin, and felt some small sense of accomplishment.

At least I rescued someone I cared about from Tatooine.

Although Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi turned out to be very much alive, Anakin's unauthorized mission to Geonosis was almost a disaster. He and Padme were captured by the insectoid Geonosians before they could rescue Obi-Wan, and then the duplicitous Count Dooku and the Geonosians sentenced them to death.

And yet to Anakin, all of this amounted to almost a disaster, because there had been one bright, significant moment on Geonosis for him and Padme. After they had been captured and enchained, and were about to be hauled into a giant execution arena, Padme had faced him and said, "I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life."

Dying? "What are you talking about?" Anakin asked.

"I love you."

"You love me?" Anakin said incredulously. "I thought that we had decided not to fall in love, that we would be forced to live a lie, and that it would destroy our lives."

"I think our lives are about to be destroyed anyway," Padme said sadly. "I truly, deeply love you, and before we die I want you to know."

They kissed then, and at that moment, Anakin believed he had more reason to live than ever before.

Anakin, Padme, and Obi-Wan were nearly killed by monsters in a giant execution arena. Fortunately, their deaths were prevented by the arrival of lightsaber-wielding Jedi, including Mace Windu and Yoda, and an unexpected army of clone soldiers. Although Mace Windu was able to dispose of Jango Fett, who had served as the genetic template for the clones, many Jedi perished in the battle against the Geonosian-manufactured droids.

Count Dooku fled the execution arena, and Obi-Wan and Anakin chased him to an abandoned weapons factory in a high rock tower that Dooku had converted into a hangar for his personal starship, a customized solar sailer. With their lightsabers already activated, Obi-Wan and Anakin entered the dark hangar to find the elegantly attired, silver-haired former Jedi as he prepared to escape from Geonosis. Turning to face his pursuers, Dooku wore an expression of mild annoyance at the pair who now stood across the hangar from him.

Even though Dooku had renounced the Jedi order ten years earlier, Anakin noticed that the man had a curved-handled lightsaber clipped to his belt. Anakin snarled, "You're gonna pay for all the Jedi that you killed today, Dooku."

Knowing Dooku's reputation as a swordsman, Obi-Wan kept his eyes on Dooku as he stepped closer to Anakin and said in a low voice, "We'll take him together. Go in slowly on the left."

But Anakin was all out of patience. "I'm taking him now!" he shouted as he ignored Obi-Wan's protests and charged Dooku. He was barely halfway across the hangar's mosaic floor when Dooku, instead of reaching for his lightsaber, raised and aimed his right hand in Anakin's direction.

Anakin screamed and involuntarily squeezed his eyes shut as brilliant blue bolts of lightning suddenly enveloped his body. Overwhelmed by the intense pain, he could not even begin to think how Dooku was controlling and directing the lightning at him. Anakin felt his feet leave the floor, and then he was hurled across the chamber and smashed into the wall. He screamed again as he landed on the hard floor, still feeling the surge of dark energy that Dooku had unleashed upon him. His body felt as if it had been seared, and as he writhed on the floor, he realized smoke was rising from his tunic.

He struggled to stay conscious. Trying to block out the pain, he was only peripherally aware that Obi-Wan had engaged Dooku in a lightsaber fight. I should have listened to Obi-Wan! He thought of Padme. I can't die like this!

As Anakin lay on the floor and struggled to recover, he attempted to open his eyes and felt more agony. It was as if the electric shock was still licking at his eyeb.a.l.l.s. For a moment, he wondered if he had been blinded by the lightning.

Have to focus! He concentrated, tried to get his breathing under control. A moment later, his vision returned, allowing him to watch helplessly as Dooku's red-bladed lightsaber slashed at Obi-Wan's left arm and leg. Obi-Wan dropped his lightsaber as he collapsed to the floor.

Smoke was still rising from Anakin's clothes. He watched with mounting horror as Dooku raised his lightsaber and prepared to bring it down on the helpless Obi-Wan.

Finding some unexpected reserve from within himself, Anakin roared as he ignited his lightsaber and leapt across the hangar to block Dooku's death blow. While Obi-Wan's limp form lay beneath the crossed light-sabers, Dooku eyed Anakin and said, "Brave of you, boy. But I would have thought you had learned your lesson."

"I am a slow learner," Anakin said as he maneuvered Dooku away from Obi-Wan's form.

"Anakin!" Obi-Wan shouted. He'd used the Force to retrieve his fallen lightsaber, and managed to toss it to his Padawan. Anakin caught and activated it so that he was now using two lightsabers against his opponent. But only several swift contacts later, Dooku's blade swept through Obi-Wan's weapon, shattering the handle and nearly severing Anakin's fingertips. Anakin still clutched his own weapon in his other hand, and the duel continued across the hangar.

Trying to suppress his anger, Anakin reached out to the Force as his eyes locked on Dooku's. Their light-sabers blurred at the edges of his vision, and he believed the Force would guide him to defeat Dooku. But as he continued to meet Dooku's condescending stare, he felt his rage begin to rise again.

And then Dooku made his move, sweeping his blade through Anakin's sword arm, just above the elbow. Anakin shouted and felt his breath go out of him as Dooku used the Force to launch him backward through the air. Then everything went dark.

Anakin didn't know how many minutes had pa.s.sed as he began to return to consciousness. He felt something shift behind his head, and realized he was lying against Obi-Wan's legs. Obi-Wan pushed himself up from the hangar floor, then helped Anakin rise. Anakin saw Yoda standing in the middle of the hangar. Parts of the ceiling had broken away, and there was rubble all over the floor.

What happened?

Then Anakin noticed Dooku's solar sailer was gone.

"Anakin!" Padme shouted. She had arrived at the hangar with a squad of clone troopers, and it hurt him to see her anguished expression as she came running toward him, seeing what was left of his right arm. She wrapped her arms carefully around him.

At least you're safe, he thought, wrapping his left arm around her to hold her close. He didn't care that Obi-Wan or Yoda were watching. He was dazed and maimed, and he was afraid if he let go of Padme, his knees would buckle and he'd pa.s.s out again. And so he just stood there, holding her.

In the end, not even Master Yoda had been able to prevent Dooku from fleeing into s.p.a.ce, or stop the worlds of the Republic from entering a civil war. The Clone Wars had begun.

To make matters worse, Count Dooku had told Obi-Wan that hundreds of Senators were under the control of a Sith Lord called Darth Sidious. Although the Jedi did not consider Dooku a trustworthy source, they agreed to keep a closer eye on the Senate.

Following his duel with Dooku, Anakin was outfitted with a cybernetic arm, and he escorted Padme back to Naboo. There, on the same terrace by the lake where they had exchanged their first tentative kiss, they arranged a secret meeting with a Naboo holy man. Padme was dressed in a white gown with flowered trim and Anakin wore his formal Jedi robes. With C-3PO and R2-D2 as their only witnesses, they were married.

Anakin had no idea how long they could keep their marriage a secret, but he didn't care. She's mine. At last, my beloved Padme is mine. It was truly a dream come true. And on their wedding day, it was easy for him to believe that his greatest troubles were behind him.

He never imagined the nightmares that were yet to come.

CHAPTER 10.

Almost overnight, the Galactic Republic acquired a ma.s.sive military force that included interstellar battleships, weapon-laden starfighters, and enormous ground vehicles. While Senators argued whether Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had been wrong to conscript and deploy the hastily raised Grand Army of the Republic, more worlds were quick to join Count Dooku's Separatist movement, which had officially named itself the Confederacy of Independent Systems. As Master Yoda had foreseen, the Clone Wars spread like an explosive virus throughout the galaxy.

Although Palpatine had always presented himself as a cautious, una.s.suming politician, he made it known to all that he would do whatever was necessary to preserve the Republic. Despite his modest protests, the Senate demanded that he stay in office long after his term had expired. But as the Clone Wars escalated, even his most trusted advisors were surprised by his many amendments to the Republic Const.i.tution, which extended his own political powers while limiting the freedom of others.

The Jedi Council reluctantly agreed to allow Jedi to serve as generals to the Grand Army's clone troops. However, not every Jedi was willing to engage in warfare; some chose to serve as healers, and others abandoned the Jedi order entirely.

Compelled to fight on behalf of the Republic, Obi-Wan Ken.o.bi became a general, and Anakin, like many other Padawans, was promoted to knighthood sooner than expected to accommodate the Grand Army's needs. Although members of the Jedi Council observed that Anakin was still p.r.o.ne to arrogance and impatience, no one disputed the fact that he continued to grow even stronger with the power of the Force.

Lethal droids were not the only adversaries to the Jedi, as Count Dooku had recruited such deadly beings as the Sith aspirant Asajj Ventress and the nearly indestructible Gen'Dai bounty hunter, Durge, to fight on his behalf. Dooku himself had trained Ventress in the art of lightsaber combat, but often ridiculed her preference to wield two lightsabers at the same time. Anakin nearly defeated Ventress on the fourth moon of the gas giant Yavin. One of their duels, in the industrial sector of Coruscant, left him with a deep scar on the right side of his face.

Three years after the Battle of Geonosis, Ventress and Durge no longer posed a threat, but Count Dooku led the Confederacy, and the Jedi were no closer to finding the mysterious Darth Sidious. The Clone Wars raged on.

After destroying a secret Confederacy laboratory on the planet Nelvaan in the Outer Rim, Anakin and Obi-Wan were leaving with R2-D2 in a Republic Star Destroyer when they received an urgent message. R2-D2 plugged into a communications console and projected a hologram of Mace Windu, who said, "Ken.o.bi, Sky walker. Coruscant is under siege, and General Grievous has abducted the Supreme Chancellor. You must return immediately. You must rescue Palpatine."