Here's chapter five. As always, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and who has taken the time to review this story. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 5
She rubbed her swollen belly again and again, trying to forge some kind of connection with her baby. Master Yoda was right: the Force was strong inside her. Much too strong so that probability dictated against the possibility that Siri was the only Force-sensitive parent responsible for conceiving it. And yet, she remained resolute in her lie, hoping that in time she could wear the Council down.
It surprised her the amount of attention that was paid to her unborn child. With all that was going on around her, Siri had hoped that the Council would let the issue pass by the wayside, and perhaps not even discover or acknowledge it. It still baffled her mind even in the midst of the war she still received visits from at least two or three Council members daily, questioning and interrogating her about the child. Perhaps this irrevocable attention to such petty matters was why the Jedi were losing the war.
Maybe she could leave the Order. She imagined being able to raise her child in peace, and in solitude. Maybe Obi-Wan could join her, and they could be a family together. Siri laughed. She doubted that Obi-Wan Kenobi, a member of the Jedi Council, would ever choose to leave the Order. Even if he gave up his relentless pursuit of being the greatest and most perfect Jedi in the Galaxy, Obi-Wan still had much more to lose than her simply because of his position.
And did she even want a family? Siri admitted that she enjoyed the rush of being a warrior. The job of a Jedi was a very enjoyable one if it weren't for all the bureaucracy and the rules. She imagined the prospect of never again being able to wield a lightsaber for the rest of her life, and shuddered at such a bleak thought. No, she decided, she could never abandon her true purpose in life.
Maybe it'll all blow over soon. She'll stay with her story, and maybe one day even Master Yoda would give up. She'd be allowed back into the anonymity of the Jedi and her missions. Perhaps one day she'd even be allowed to train her own child as her Padawan. Obi-Wan would like that. Siri allowed herself to drift to sleep on such a comforting thought, but a chilling voice echoed in her soul and interrupted her slumber.
What makes you think they would let you keep the child?
What else would they do with it, she wondered.
They will take her away from you, purge her of all her memories of her true mother. They will do all that they can to keep her as far away as possible.
How do you know of such things, she questioned the strange voice.
I know of the true heartless nature of the Jedi. Come to me, my dear Siri, and I will allow you to fulfill your true destiny…as a mother.
She still didn't know where the voice was coming from or whom it belonged to. Trying to purge it from her mind, Siri forced her eyes shut and recited numbers to herself again and again.
For a novice star-gazer, a first night spent on the edge of the Unknown Territories is an awesome sight. One does not see the usual panoply of stars scattered across the sky from one horizon to another; instead, the lucky observer sees all the stars concentrated together in complex spirals and weaves in the midst of the dark vacuum of space, giving him or her, literally, a bird's eye view of the galaxy. Obi-Wan gasped when his eyes first glanced upon this amazing phenomenon. It was something any intelligent Jedi Master could have figured out through simple combination of common sense and wits, but for some reason it escaped his intellect until it was blatantly presented in front of him.
"Does it feel different out here?"
Obi-Wan jumped at hearing the voice of his old Padawan. His senses had been so lost in the sight that the tiniest and most ordinary of stimuli proved to be a shock on his system.
"Maybe. I was just observing…"
"…the stars. I know. Padme and I were quite taken by this," Anakin motioned at the sky with his hands, "when we first arrived here."
"Hard to believe it's been seven years," Padme added, and Obi-Wan again was surprised, this time, by the fact that he did not notice the presence of Anakin's wife outside with him.
Anakin walked over beside her and wrapped his arm around Padme's petite form.
"The best seven years of my life, my darling."
He said this to his wife, but Anakin's attention was focused on Obi-Wan, on how much he had changed in the years gone by. The Jedi Master looked the same physically, save for a shorter crop of hair with edges of gray and a more neatly trimmed beard. Anakin could sense something different in the man though, something that escaped observation from just the naked eye.
"I feel more relaxed here," Obi-Wan spoke quietly, almost to himself. "I feel more…free than I have felt in a long time."
Anakin led himself and Padme closer to the Jedi, whose back was still turned slightly away from the couple and whose eyes never strayed from the sky.
"Do you feel lighter here?" Maybe it was his eyes, Anakin thought. They looked like they had seen much in the last seven years: conflict, pain, suffering, loss…and perhaps even love?
"Exactly," Obi-Wan exclaimed, amazed that the young man seemed to know his feelings even better than he himself. "I feel…my shoulders feel lighter here, and…I feel like I can breathe…clearer, fresher than I have in a long while."
So that was it, Anakin realized. The way Obi-Wan breathed now sounded more like random stochastic spasms as opposed to a single calm and fluid motion, the rough contractions in his lungs signaling that perhaps the man was so frail that he could collapse onto the ground at any given moment and never wake again.
"I know," Anakin replied simply, not wanting to betray his new revelation. "I know the night sky looks different from here, Obi-Wan, but I want to ask you, what do you feel when you look up at the stars?"
Obi-Wan acknowledged the question and closed his eyes, allowing the Force to clear and shape his perceptions.
"Relief," Obi-Wan replied after a long wait. "I'm not sure if that's clear enough, but…"
"It's perfect," Anakin assured, a slight smile on his face hiding the fact that his worst fears, the result of the keenness of his own perceptions, had been realized.
"Obi-Wan," he continued, "when I look at the sky I see the stars, the galaxy, for what it is, but I feel that it is surrounded, or submerged, in an…impenetrable cloud of darkness. For someone who has been trapped in such a cloud for so long, I imagine that it must be very different to leave the cloud for the first time…and to actually observe the cloud from the outside."
It took his old Master a long time before he responded.
"Your words resonate with truth and clarity, young Skywalker. I think that I will meditate on this."
"Meditate sooner rather than later, Obi-Wan." His words were strong, but as apprehensive as Obi-Wan felt, he sensed no malice in them.
"Padme and I have made our decision," Anakin continued. "We will leave with you tomorrow."
…back into the darkness was left unsaid, though everyone knew well enough the inference.
They lay comfortably in their bed, but neither husband nor wife slept as they were both deep within their own thoughts and meditations.
"Anakin," Padme whispered softly.
"What is it?"
Padme looked back at her husband and gripped hard the strong hands around her stomach that embraced her close to him.
"Have you thought about, maybe, having a child?"
"Sometimes."
"Do you want one?"
"Yes, I do. Nothing could be better than creating a life with you, Padme, to love together, as a family. But…"
He hesitated.
"But what?"
"Now does not appear to be the best time to bring a life into the world, with the Sith, and the war, and the darkness everywhere."
They were silent again for awhile.
"It'd be something to work for," Padme decided finally. "Our child will give us hope, Anakin, that we will make it through the hard times. And it will give us the resolve to make the galaxy one where we would want to raise our child in."
Anakin cuddled close to his wife's neck and kissed it softly.
"You are right," he whispered into her ear afterwards. "I will not deny you anything."
He pushed his body closer to Padme's, minimizing the distance between the two lovers. Anakin's lips found their way to Padme's as he drew her into a deep kiss.
"Now, Ani?"
"Yes, Padme. This is our last night here. I do not wish for our child to be conceived in darkness."
"So be it," she whispered in a raspy voice, barely able to sound the words out.