I held on for dear life to Anakin's waist as we zoomed through the canyons of the Jundland Waste. We had stopped for directions briefly, inquiring of the Jawas the whereabouts of the current Tusken camp. I just hoped they had been correct. The suns were setting fast and we were quickly losing daylight as the miles stretched on.
It was dusk by the time the canyons opened up into the vast Dune Sea and we saw the beginnings of an encampment. The moons were bright overhead, the stars giving us light as we parked the speeder some miles away and scaled one of the cliffs overlooking the oasis below. Meeting Anakin's ocean gaze in the darkness, he nodded to me once before we both took a flying leap down, down, down until we hit the ground feet first while using the Force to lessen the sound.
Creeping through the maze of huts noiselessly, together we made our way to a much larger hut being guarded by two Tusken males watching some massiffs play-fighting near the fire. As the Tuskens were preoccupied, we activated our lightsabers. Cutting a gaping hole into the back wall of the hut, the light of both sabers - aqua and amber - melded into emerald green before we finished and Anakin kicked the hole in.
I heard the shuddering breath emit from between his lips before the sight even met my eyes and I knew we had found Shmi Skywalker. There in the middle of the tent was an older middle-aged woman, dark hair matted with blood and her wrists bound tightly to a wooden frame that kept her painfully in place. More splatters of blood crusted at the corners of her mouth and the days-old cuts on her cheek and forehead. It made me feel physically sick.
Swiftly, I cut the binds on one hand while Anakin did the other. Together, we carefully lowered his mother to the ground where he cradled her tenderly in his arms.
"Mom... Mom... Mom... Mom..." he murmured over and over, smoothing the hair from her eyes.
Her eyelids fluttered open into the cerulean gaze of her son, "Ani...? Is it you?"
"I'm here, Mom. You're safe," he told her softly in the darkness.
"Ani?... Ani?" she repeated in disbelief before a beautiful yet weary smile split her face and she cupped his face with gentle fingers, "Oh, you look so handsome!"
He bent his head to place a sweet kiss on her palm and bowing my own head, I ducked to exit the tent in order to give them some privacy. But just before I did, Shmi's dark eyes flicked to mine and she sent a slight smile my way - almost as if thanking me for bringing her son back to her. Nodding once with a smile of my own to this, I left the tent and took a seat on the sand outside with my lightsaber clutched tightly in my hand as I waited.
I sat there for a few minutes, watching the moons in the sky overhead and hearing for any signs of danger when it happened...the ominous rattling sounds that signified death. Seconds of silence reigned and my brown eyes widened in shock and sympathy as a roiling wave of terrible pain washed over me through the Force... Anakin's pain...
Oh, Ani, no... I ducked back inside and knelt beside him just as he closed her eyes with his fingertips, still holding her lifeless body in his arms. Tears formed in my eyes as I felt his deep agony as if it was my own. My heart ached for him to be finally reunited with his mother only to lose her minutes later... If the Jedi hadn't had such steely resolve that we cut all familial ties as soon as we were snatched from the cradle then this wouldn't have happened - it was unjust, it was unfair! Suddenly, like a switch being turned on, I felt the intense swell of unparalleled fury from Anakin.
Glancing up, I met his quickly darkening gaze, the blue eyes I loved so well turning hateful as his anger overtook him. Gently lying his mother down on the ground, he stood up with one hand on his lightsaber. His eyes met mine once more in the dimness of the tent and I knew if I begged and pleaded that I could make him see sense... Yet in that one moment, I made a grave mistake that would haunt me in later years - had I truly set him on a path of destruction?
But as his eyes asked a silent yet deadly question, I answered it with a hard gaze and a wordless nod. As he stalked out of the tent, I sat there alone in the sand as I cried - cried for Anakin's all-consuming grief, cried for the unfairness that we as Jedi were subjected to, cried for all of it...as Anakin unleashed his unbridled rage and took revenge on those who had caused such misery this night.
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter, guys. I promise the next one will be much longer! What did y'all think of Jetta's decision to not stop Anakin? Shocked or did you see it coming? In the meantime, I wish everyone a very Happy New Year! <3