Accismus⋆౨ৎ˚⟡.• Anakin Skywalker⋆౨ৎ˚⟡.•

21.

Blades of cyan and blue sliced through bugs and the Jedi were splashed with green blood. Sol and Anakin worked together in trying to clear their path, but it was futile. No matter how much Sol jumped around and cut through bony bodies, more came, and overwhelmed her and her partner.

She threw her hand out to Force push the insects closest to her away, before she turned on her heel to head to where Padme had escaped. As she ran, she grabbed the back of Anakin's robes and pulled him with her. He stumbled at the sudden jerk, but turned while regaining his footing and ran after Sol, their lightsabers in hand and still ignited. The whisps of wings followed after them and Anakin hoped that Sol had some sort of plan, as he hadn't yet thought of one.

With a swipe of her hand, the door at the end of the hall flew open and Sol ran through. But in her rush, she hadn't seen that there was no path on the other end, only a fifteen-foot drop onto a construction line. Anakin had somehow been able to stop himself and reached to grab Sol's wrist, her feet teetering on the edge of the doorway. She let out a yelp in surprise but was pulled back from the drop by Anakin's hand.

'What do we do?' Sol said aloud and Anakin looked behind him, seeing that the insects were gaining on them. They had no choice and Anakin wore it on his face as he turned back to Sol.

'We jump.'

Sol gulped and sheathed her lightsaber. She didn't have time to look down at the drop before she crouched down and asked the Force to guide her. With a leap, she and Anakin left the doorway as the insects reached their original place. The Jedi manoeuvred their jump and landed on a conveyer belt, their boots clinking against the scraps it held.

With a quick look down, Sol saw that the scraps weren't just any pieces of metal, but droid parts. The torso plates of super-battle droids sat in rows as they were chartered down the construction line, the ones that had clinked against Sol and Anakin's feet sitting askew.

Anakin looked up to where they had jumped from and saw that the insects were flying out into the factory after them. He readied his lightsaber once more but didn't have the chance to ignite it after he heard a loud thud that rattled the conveyer belt. He looked to where he and Sol were moving towards and saw a large machine that attached legs to the super-battle droids torso, before another contraption slammed down to ensure that the parts were connected.

'Don't think we want to go that way,' Anakin said aloud, and Sol noticed the possibility of a painful death. She looked around the factory of droids parts before she spotted the white clothes of Senator Amidala, and Sol took back her previous mocking of her 'standing out'.

'I see Padme!'

---

In a dark cell, Sol sat with her hands shackled to an iron loop that was welded to the floor. With her back to the wall and her knees propped up near her chest, she waited for the Geonosian guards to take her to the arena, where she would be executed alongside Anakin, Padme and Master Kenobi.

There had been a mad dash through the droid factory, with the three ducking under large slicers and flying over welders. But it had been futile, as Anakin and Sol were surrounded by the insects that had been after them, and Padme was taken by Count Dooku. Dooku was an ex-Jedi Knight who went to the dark side, which had been believed by Padme to be part of the separatist movement. She insisted that he was the one behind her attempted assignation, but the Jedi Order didn't believe her. But after the failed negotiations between herself and the Count for their and Master Kenobi's lives to be spared, she realised that she was right from the beginning.

They were now to be sentenced to death after a trial that labelled them as criminals of espionage. They had no say in the matter and were sent to the holding cells before they would be reunited with Master Kenobi in unison of their deaths.

Sol spent her last hours in meditation. The cell fell away from her as she was met with the glows of the Force. She manoeuvred out of the cell in her spiritual form of blinding white and found another cell, which contained a ball of pulsating teal. It was the colour of the oceans of Glee Anselm; not that Sol had ever been there, but she had seen it in the Jedi archives back at the temple.

Sol sensed that this signature was Master Obi-wan Kenobi's, who was yet to learn of his Padawan's team's presence on Geonosis. The teal signature radiated light and the good of the Jedi, but it wasn't who Sol was searching for. She headed towards the next signature, which was warm and drew her in without the intention of doing so. Orange hues with a warm centre, Anakin's Force signature was alluring. It called to her, just as her's did to his.

'Don't be afraid.'

Sol jumped in her cell, her Force signature quivering in the spiritual world at the surprise. She heard Anakin's voice, and it came from the orange glow that sat in his cell. It sounded in her head, and she thought that it was the Force's way of calming her, but when his voice sounded again, she knew that it was coming from the man himself.

'I'm sorry I got you into this, Solaris. It was selfish of me.'

'How am I hearing you? Is this something you have always been able to do?' Sol asked, hoping that her voice carried as Anakin's did.

'I'm not sure, but it's happening. But Solaris? I really am sorry,' sincerity filled his voice, and she pictured him shaking his head. 'You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me. We should have just stayed on Naboo.'

'Don't say that. I chose to leave with you, and I know Padme would say the same. Besides, there's nothing we can do about the past. I'm not afraid to die. We will be one with the Force, and we will fulfil our true purposes as Jedi.'

'Do you really believe that?'

Sol paused. 

'After this week, no. Since we're going to die soon anyway, I'll reveal that something has changed in me. I don't know what it is, but I don't... solely believe that what the Jedi Order enforce is right.'

'That's certainly a different tune from you, Solaris,' Anakin sounded amused, and Sol rolled her eyes.

'Please don't say anything when we see Obi-wan. Not that we'll have much time to chat before we're executed, but I wouldn't like his last thought of me to be a sort of traitor.'

'Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. I somewhat think the same. Losing my mother... it made me think about what it's all really for. Why did she have to suffer? What did the Force gain from that? Who is it to choose who lives or dies?'

She had forgotten what Anakin did from the rage of his mother's death. He had slaughtered an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders and didn't feel an ounce of regret from it. She remembered his blazing eyes and the way he had stalked towards her in the workshop on Tatooine. She had been frightened for a moment, but when Anakin broke down into tears, Sol crumbled into a forgiving blob. The two had even embraced and Anakin sobbed into her shoulder, his tight grip making Sol's stomach warm.

She could deny it no longer, and what good was it to continue the deception when she would be dead within the next day? Sol liked Anakin. She liked Anakin, as the butterflies of Naboo loved flowers, and as Padme loved the lake by her childhood home. Anakin was someone who challenged Sol, but she now noticed the small gestures he did that were kind and soft. He grabbed Sol before she could fly off the drop into the droid factory, he sent away the species on Tatooine that tried to sell her into the slave trade, he checked on her in the club on Coruscant after the man said uncomfortable things to her; Anakin had been there to save her more times that anyone ever had.

'Ani?' she called to him, her heart racing, but at peace from the acceptance of her feelings.

'Hm?'

'Don't tell the council in the afterlife, but I think I might like you.'

There was silence in the Force and Sol was ready to retract from the spiritual realm. But at the sound of Anakin's smooth chuckle and the grin that she could somehow feel through the Force, she remained in front of the orange signature she found to be the most pleasant in the entire galaxy.

'Only if you don't hold it against me after death that I'm wholly infatuated with you, Solaris.'