Over The Hills And Far Away - A Star Wars Fanfiction - Chapter 1
Summary: AU. Anakin discovers Sidious' plans and decides to twart him any way he can. That means being his prisoner. He asks Obi-Wan to take care of Padmè then swears he will find them. This is his journey through the galaxy and his soul to find his family.
Rating: Teen+ for some mild curising and some very mild references to sex.
Charachters: Anakin Skywalker. Padmè Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious (mentioned), Luke Skywalker, Leia Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Many OCs.
Timeline: Empire Era. Starts in the middle of Episode III, goes AU from there on, jumps seven years ahead.
Author Note: I started writing this fanfic when I was 15. Now I'm 25. Took me a long time, I kind of rebooted it something like seven years after I started publishing it on FanFiction.Net and there are some inconsistencies here and there. Also, my grammar isn't exactly spotless, I'm not a native speaker and I tend to not notice typos and spelling mistakes. Please forgive me.
The story is complete. As it's its sequel. I'll update from time to time. Some may have already read it. I've been working on the series for nearly 10 years now. I'm just slow.
Also, Disclaimer: I don't own a single thing except the whole idea and some characters. Star Wars is property of Disney and it's better this way, or I'd hack my way through the canon to make a movie out of my fanfics. You're warned.
Author Note 2: There are references and actual mild visuals of torture, phycological abuse, depression, alcohol abuse and some gruesome physical injuries. It's not a fluffy story, at least not until the last few chapters. It's dark and twisty OK? You're warned.
Chapter 1 - End Of All Hope
The war was over, or at least so we thought. For the last three weeks, there hadn't been any battles; the Confederation had crumbled over itself once Dooku had died and they lacked his guide. We though we could start building again what had been destroyed by the war.
Everything had changed for the best, for the Galaxy as well as for me, when the Council had decided to grant me the grade of Jedi Master.
I couldn't believe it myself. It was like a thunder with a clean sky, that night when Obi-Wan called me and asked me to join him during one of the Counsil meetings. When Master Yoda confirmed it and they gave me that grade that I had been seeking for so long, well, everything changed. Suddenly, every doubt that was rooting in me about the Order vanished and my trust in them returned firmer than before. Not even Palpatine could destroy it anymore.
When I returned "home", Padmè's official residence, and announced her the news, well, you can't imagine how happy we both were. We had everything we wanted. She had the ending of the war, I had my new rank and we both had a baby on the way.
Things were going the best way possible. Too good to be true.
Just a day ago, things started going all wrong. The soldiers, by the Chancellor's, or Sidious I'd better say, started a meaningless hunt for the traitor, and killed everyone who Palpatine didn't like. The Lower Levels of Coruscant had become a sort of open morgue, with corpses piling up, because not only the real objective of the soldiers' hunt died, there were many civilians who died during gunfights. Too many. The worst part of it was the fact that the Jedi couldn't do anything to stop them. The Senate hadn't required our help, therefore, we were bound to watch and do nothing.
At that point, something clicked in my head and I discovered everything. The plan to destroy the Order, Palpatine's true nature, everything. I was assisting to one of those boring Senate meetings with Obi-Wan when I suddenly remembered something that Palpatine had told me, not two weeks before. The story of Darth Plagueis. He was a civilian, he wasn't trained in the ways of the Force, he shouldn't even know about the existence of the Sith, how could he know such a story? Probably not even the Jedi Master knew then how could he?
I burst up from my chair, probably scaring Obi-Wan and without a word I ran in his office, taking advantage of his absence to moderate the meeting.
I knew there was a list of secret orders that only the Clones and the Chancellor knew, and I was there to uncover them once and for all.
There were 150 orders in that list, most of them were normal war stuff but the Order 66 and its variant totally shocked me.
Order 66 - Operation Knightfall: Destroy every Jedi
Order 66.1 - Destroy every Jedi except Master Anakin Skywalker
I couldn't believe it. Suddenly, everything made sense. The special power, his reluctance to follow the Council advices, his obstructionism...everything! Palpatine wanted the supreme control over the Galaxy, but not only that! Palpatine wanted the annihilation of the Order, and no one except the Sith could want anything like that. Which meant that...
I collapsed on the Chancellor's chair, desperately seeking a reason to all this madness. I had discovered the true identity of the man we served for thirteen years straight, like blind people follow the man with one eye. For thirteen years we spent every ounce of energy we had looking for Darth Sidious and for all this time we served him reverently. Shit!
We had all been blind, everyone of us, at the point that we couldn't really see anything anymore. The shroud the Dark Side had created was too thick. I had been blind too, considering that for thirteen years I let Palpatine guide my steps more than my own master.
For so many years I let him made machinations over machinations, I gave him enough room to instil the doubt in me, I let him tell me that I was wasted as long as I continued relying on the Council and the Jedi Order, that my talent was held back because they feared me. And during these years, corpses piled up in the Galaxy in a meaningless war, created only to crush the Order.
Not to mention the fact that more than once I had been tempted by the Dark Side of the Force, and it was his fault. I had almost jumped in his trap with both my boots, a trap he had started weaving when I was a kid.
What an idiot...
I had to warn someone. But most of all I had to save Padmè, that was my priority. Order 66.1 was a variation of the original just in case I didn't turn to the Dark Side, I knew it, considering that it was inserted in the list the same day I had been made a Master. Fortunately, I didn't fall. That meant only one thing: she was in danger. In my heard I knew Sidious was well aware of my marriage, even if I hadn't told him. His words, that night at the opera house, they were clear enough. I couldn't allow anyone to hurt her. Even if right after I had been named a Master my nightmares had disappeared, I knew that if something went wrong, they would look for her and hurt her.
I sent a quick message to Obi-Wan, telling him I needed to talk to him in the Council room then downloaded the data from that computer, deleted my traces then ran to the Temple as fast as I could.
I stayed there for I don't know how long, sitting in my chair, thinking and brooding over what was going on and what had happened during the years. Outside night was falling and thick, rainy clouds were gathering on the horizon line, almost mirroring my character in that moment.
As time passed, light dimmed in the room and before my Master arrived, I was bathing in deep darkness. I didn't turn on the light, because the darkness helped me thinking more clearly.
After an endless hour, finally Obi-Wan arrived. I heard his steps outside the door, but I could feel he was approaching through the Force since the moment he had set foot in the Temple. Suddenly I felt a little better, even if I was about to drop a huge bomb. The knowledge he actually suspected something didn't ease the dreadful feeling of betrayal but at least I knew I could trust him. I stood up and walked towards one of the windows. I sought some comfort in the thick darkness spotted with the lights of speeders and ships, a never ending show on that planet.
"Is there something wrong, Anakin?" he asked, slowly and calm, as ever. He didn't even greeted me. I knew he had sensed something was very wrong.
I looked down and in the chaos of the trafficked highways and streets I found a sort of scheme, as twisted as Sidious' one.
"Yes Master, something's wrong." I said, still looking outside the window. I fished in one of my pockets and threw him the datapad with the list of orders I had downloaded an hour before. "When I ran away from the Senate I went in the Chancellor's office and I found this.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look at Order 66 and the following one." I said. I didn't have the courage to tell him myself.
Only then I turned around and looked at him, straight in his eyes. When our gazes met soon after he had read those two lines, I read on his face the same disbelief and fear I had felt when I had read them myself.
"What the hell is he thinking?"
"Master, Palpatine...he's the Sith we've been looking for all these years. He's Darth Sidious." my voice was trembling.
"But why killing everyone except you?" I didn't understand if he was more worried about the fate of the Order or about me.
"Because for the last thirteen years he spent half of his time trying to drag me to his side. His friendship was fake, he only wanted to use me as his pawn, bring me to the Dark Side and I fear he's not ready to let me go so easily, even if he has a new apprentice." I was marveled by my own self control and coolness in that very moment.
"Who's this apprentice?" he asked after a moment.
"Do you remember six years ago, in the Outer Rim, Master Draghil's Padawan disappeared? Aster Landman?" I asked.
"Yes..." he paused for a moment. "I remember when it happened but I don't remember him. Wasn't he a friend of yours?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I wouldn't define him a friend. Aster has always been a rather...mute type. He preferred concentrating on his training than making friends. Anyway, I think it's him. I read his name in Sidious' files rather often."
Obi-Wan glanced outside, out of the window behind me, frowning. I heard him drawing a long, deep sigh.
"Right. All we have to do is fight him and replace that bastard. It's not a hard work."
His response was puzzling. I never heard him offend someone, but I could understand him. Many Jedi died during the war. And many of them were too young to die, according to him. Many of them were our friends, and his reaction was understandable.
A long, thick silence fell in the room. He had to draw the words out of me with a wrench, i
"But there's more, isn't it?" he asked, as he saw the look on my face.
I turned again to the windowpane.
I was so tired that I didn't know how I could still be on my feet. I felt my legs buckle as I though about Padmè. She was everything to me.
"What is it, Anakin? Something troubles you, I can feel it." he asked.
I nodded, not trusting my own voice. I was tired, I couldn't stand that torment anymore. It was tearing me apart. I could barely stand up straight as I though about Padmè and what they could do in order to make me falter again and turn to the Dark side. Not to mention that at least for a period of her life she had put her life in Palpatine's hands and she had trusted him with her life, knowing his true identity would have destroyed her.
Power play. That was a huge power play and we were the pawns on the table. They wanted to destroy us. But I could stand the thought that I could die, I was a warrior in the end, I had grown accustomed to the idea of dying but not her. If they hurt her, I would not not respond of my actions.
"Anakin?"
"Senator Amidala," I said coldly, but inside I was burning with fear, tension and love.
"What about her?" he asked, his tone betrayed him. He knew.
"Take her away please, far from here. Hide her someways. Go to my brother's, on Tatooine. I doubt they'll look for her there. Palpatine will surely discover that I've been in his office and I know about Order 66, he'll find a way to make me pay for that, he'll destroy the Order. Probably he'll make up the story that I tried to kill him and will have me arrested, so that he can control me. I don't want Padmè to be involved in this. She must stay out of this." I was losing my temper. The knowledge of what was about to happen and the fact that I could do nothing to stop it made me sick.
"At least tell me why!"
It was almost too much. I closed my eyes, I tried to calm down, I took some incredibly painful breaths and then spoke. "Because she's my wife, Master. I married her almost three years ago and...and because she's pregnant! And I don't want her to be hurt. That's why!"
Their lives depended on me. I had to do something, and if that something was trusting their lives in Obi-Wan's hands while I gave into Palpatine's plan and tried to stay alive long enough, well, I would have done it. I wasn't afraid to die, but I couldn't afford to lose her. "Take her away please..." I was almost crying.
"No way. I won't do it Anakin, she's your wife, that's your child, I can't. You have to take care of them, not me!" what he said, the way he said it and the resolution of his words gave me the final certainty he knew all along that my relationship with her wasn't simple friendship. He wasn't even angry or disappointed. "You can't abandon them!"
"I'm not abandoning her. I'm saving her life. Something big is coming, I can feel it in the Force, and it's not only the Order 66. I'm sure of that, as I know that Palpatine won't kill me, at least not now. But he could use her as a leverage to make me turn. And he will hurt her to do that. I can't allow him to do anything to her. Keep her hidden, make sure she's fine. If I did it, every single trooper, bounty hunter and crime lord of the Galaxy would come look for us, but you can do something about it. You can pretend you're dead, make up something I don't know I can't think straight now. Just, please, do it. I can take care of myself and I swear that a way or another I'll find you. I don't know how long will it take but I'll find you." finally I turned and faced him. "Please, go. GO NOW!"
Then, he went. Not a word, not a nod. It was the last time I saw him for the next eight years.
I turned again to the window and vented out all the rage that was piling up in me against the trasparasteel pane. Thank the Force I did it with my right hand, because large cracks formed from the spot I had hit and it takes a lot to crack that material.
Finally calmer, I wore my cloak, pulled up the hood and made way to Palpatine's office.
I would confront him, one way or another.
Rating: Teen+ for some mild curising and some very mild references to sex.
Charachters: Anakin Skywalker. Padmè Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Darth Sidious (mentioned), Luke Skywalker, Leia Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Many OCs.
Timeline: Empire Era. Starts in the middle of Episode III, goes AU from there on, jumps seven years ahead.
Author Note: I started writing this fanfic when I was 15. Now I'm 25. Took me a long time, I kind of rebooted it something like seven years after I started publishing it on FanFiction.Net and there are some inconsistencies here and there. Also, my grammar isn't exactly spotless, I'm not a native speaker and I tend to not notice typos and spelling mistakes. Please forgive me.
The story is complete. As it's its sequel. I'll update from time to time. Some may have already read it. I've been working on the series for nearly 10 years now. I'm just slow.
Also, Disclaimer: I don't own a single thing except the whole idea and some characters. Star Wars is property of Disney and it's better this way, or I'd hack my way through the canon to make a movie out of my fanfics. You're warned.
Author Note 2: There are references and actual mild visuals of torture, phycological abuse, depression, alcohol abuse and some gruesome physical injuries. It's not a fluffy story, at least not until the last few chapters. It's dark and twisty OK? You're warned.
Chapter 1 - End Of All Hope
The war was over, or at least so we thought. For the last three weeks, there hadn't been any battles; the Confederation had crumbled over itself once Dooku had died and they lacked his guide. We though we could start building again what had been destroyed by the war.
Everything had changed for the best, for the Galaxy as well as for me, when the Council had decided to grant me the grade of Jedi Master.
I couldn't believe it myself. It was like a thunder with a clean sky, that night when Obi-Wan called me and asked me to join him during one of the Counsil meetings. When Master Yoda confirmed it and they gave me that grade that I had been seeking for so long, well, everything changed. Suddenly, every doubt that was rooting in me about the Order vanished and my trust in them returned firmer than before. Not even Palpatine could destroy it anymore.
When I returned "home", Padmè's official residence, and announced her the news, well, you can't imagine how happy we both were. We had everything we wanted. She had the ending of the war, I had my new rank and we both had a baby on the way.
Things were going the best way possible. Too good to be true.
Just a day ago, things started going all wrong. The soldiers, by the Chancellor's, or Sidious I'd better say, started a meaningless hunt for the traitor, and killed everyone who Palpatine didn't like. The Lower Levels of Coruscant had become a sort of open morgue, with corpses piling up, because not only the real objective of the soldiers' hunt died, there were many civilians who died during gunfights. Too many. The worst part of it was the fact that the Jedi couldn't do anything to stop them. The Senate hadn't required our help, therefore, we were bound to watch and do nothing.
At that point, something clicked in my head and I discovered everything. The plan to destroy the Order, Palpatine's true nature, everything. I was assisting to one of those boring Senate meetings with Obi-Wan when I suddenly remembered something that Palpatine had told me, not two weeks before. The story of Darth Plagueis. He was a civilian, he wasn't trained in the ways of the Force, he shouldn't even know about the existence of the Sith, how could he know such a story? Probably not even the Jedi Master knew then how could he?
I burst up from my chair, probably scaring Obi-Wan and without a word I ran in his office, taking advantage of his absence to moderate the meeting.
I knew there was a list of secret orders that only the Clones and the Chancellor knew, and I was there to uncover them once and for all.
There were 150 orders in that list, most of them were normal war stuff but the Order 66 and its variant totally shocked me.
Order 66 - Operation Knightfall: Destroy every Jedi
Order 66.1 - Destroy every Jedi except Master Anakin Skywalker
I couldn't believe it. Suddenly, everything made sense. The special power, his reluctance to follow the Council advices, his obstructionism...everything! Palpatine wanted the supreme control over the Galaxy, but not only that! Palpatine wanted the annihilation of the Order, and no one except the Sith could want anything like that. Which meant that...
I collapsed on the Chancellor's chair, desperately seeking a reason to all this madness. I had discovered the true identity of the man we served for thirteen years straight, like blind people follow the man with one eye. For thirteen years we spent every ounce of energy we had looking for Darth Sidious and for all this time we served him reverently. Shit!
We had all been blind, everyone of us, at the point that we couldn't really see anything anymore. The shroud the Dark Side had created was too thick. I had been blind too, considering that for thirteen years I let Palpatine guide my steps more than my own master.
For so many years I let him made machinations over machinations, I gave him enough room to instil the doubt in me, I let him tell me that I was wasted as long as I continued relying on the Council and the Jedi Order, that my talent was held back because they feared me. And during these years, corpses piled up in the Galaxy in a meaningless war, created only to crush the Order.
Not to mention the fact that more than once I had been tempted by the Dark Side of the Force, and it was his fault. I had almost jumped in his trap with both my boots, a trap he had started weaving when I was a kid.
What an idiot...
I had to warn someone. But most of all I had to save Padmè, that was my priority. Order 66.1 was a variation of the original just in case I didn't turn to the Dark Side, I knew it, considering that it was inserted in the list the same day I had been made a Master. Fortunately, I didn't fall. That meant only one thing: she was in danger. In my heard I knew Sidious was well aware of my marriage, even if I hadn't told him. His words, that night at the opera house, they were clear enough. I couldn't allow anyone to hurt her. Even if right after I had been named a Master my nightmares had disappeared, I knew that if something went wrong, they would look for her and hurt her.
I sent a quick message to Obi-Wan, telling him I needed to talk to him in the Council room then downloaded the data from that computer, deleted my traces then ran to the Temple as fast as I could.
I stayed there for I don't know how long, sitting in my chair, thinking and brooding over what was going on and what had happened during the years. Outside night was falling and thick, rainy clouds were gathering on the horizon line, almost mirroring my character in that moment.
As time passed, light dimmed in the room and before my Master arrived, I was bathing in deep darkness. I didn't turn on the light, because the darkness helped me thinking more clearly.
After an endless hour, finally Obi-Wan arrived. I heard his steps outside the door, but I could feel he was approaching through the Force since the moment he had set foot in the Temple. Suddenly I felt a little better, even if I was about to drop a huge bomb. The knowledge he actually suspected something didn't ease the dreadful feeling of betrayal but at least I knew I could trust him. I stood up and walked towards one of the windows. I sought some comfort in the thick darkness spotted with the lights of speeders and ships, a never ending show on that planet.
"Is there something wrong, Anakin?" he asked, slowly and calm, as ever. He didn't even greeted me. I knew he had sensed something was very wrong.
I looked down and in the chaos of the trafficked highways and streets I found a sort of scheme, as twisted as Sidious' one.
"Yes Master, something's wrong." I said, still looking outside the window. I fished in one of my pockets and threw him the datapad with the list of orders I had downloaded an hour before. "When I ran away from the Senate I went in the Chancellor's office and I found this.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look at Order 66 and the following one." I said. I didn't have the courage to tell him myself.
Only then I turned around and looked at him, straight in his eyes. When our gazes met soon after he had read those two lines, I read on his face the same disbelief and fear I had felt when I had read them myself.
"What the hell is he thinking?"
"Master, Palpatine...he's the Sith we've been looking for all these years. He's Darth Sidious." my voice was trembling.
"But why killing everyone except you?" I didn't understand if he was more worried about the fate of the Order or about me.
"Because for the last thirteen years he spent half of his time trying to drag me to his side. His friendship was fake, he only wanted to use me as his pawn, bring me to the Dark Side and I fear he's not ready to let me go so easily, even if he has a new apprentice." I was marveled by my own self control and coolness in that very moment.
"Who's this apprentice?" he asked after a moment.
"Do you remember six years ago, in the Outer Rim, Master Draghil's Padawan disappeared? Aster Landman?" I asked.
"Yes..." he paused for a moment. "I remember when it happened but I don't remember him. Wasn't he a friend of yours?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, I wouldn't define him a friend. Aster has always been a rather...mute type. He preferred concentrating on his training than making friends. Anyway, I think it's him. I read his name in Sidious' files rather often."
Obi-Wan glanced outside, out of the window behind me, frowning. I heard him drawing a long, deep sigh.
"Right. All we have to do is fight him and replace that bastard. It's not a hard work."
His response was puzzling. I never heard him offend someone, but I could understand him. Many Jedi died during the war. And many of them were too young to die, according to him. Many of them were our friends, and his reaction was understandable.
A long, thick silence fell in the room. He had to draw the words out of me with a wrench, i
"But there's more, isn't it?" he asked, as he saw the look on my face.
I turned again to the windowpane.
I was so tired that I didn't know how I could still be on my feet. I felt my legs buckle as I though about Padmè. She was everything to me.
"What is it, Anakin? Something troubles you, I can feel it." he asked.
I nodded, not trusting my own voice. I was tired, I couldn't stand that torment anymore. It was tearing me apart. I could barely stand up straight as I though about Padmè and what they could do in order to make me falter again and turn to the Dark side. Not to mention that at least for a period of her life she had put her life in Palpatine's hands and she had trusted him with her life, knowing his true identity would have destroyed her.
Power play. That was a huge power play and we were the pawns on the table. They wanted to destroy us. But I could stand the thought that I could die, I was a warrior in the end, I had grown accustomed to the idea of dying but not her. If they hurt her, I would not not respond of my actions.
"Anakin?"
"Senator Amidala," I said coldly, but inside I was burning with fear, tension and love.
"What about her?" he asked, his tone betrayed him. He knew.
"Take her away please, far from here. Hide her someways. Go to my brother's, on Tatooine. I doubt they'll look for her there. Palpatine will surely discover that I've been in his office and I know about Order 66, he'll find a way to make me pay for that, he'll destroy the Order. Probably he'll make up the story that I tried to kill him and will have me arrested, so that he can control me. I don't want Padmè to be involved in this. She must stay out of this." I was losing my temper. The knowledge of what was about to happen and the fact that I could do nothing to stop it made me sick.
"At least tell me why!"
It was almost too much. I closed my eyes, I tried to calm down, I took some incredibly painful breaths and then spoke. "Because she's my wife, Master. I married her almost three years ago and...and because she's pregnant! And I don't want her to be hurt. That's why!"
Their lives depended on me. I had to do something, and if that something was trusting their lives in Obi-Wan's hands while I gave into Palpatine's plan and tried to stay alive long enough, well, I would have done it. I wasn't afraid to die, but I couldn't afford to lose her. "Take her away please..." I was almost crying.
"No way. I won't do it Anakin, she's your wife, that's your child, I can't. You have to take care of them, not me!" what he said, the way he said it and the resolution of his words gave me the final certainty he knew all along that my relationship with her wasn't simple friendship. He wasn't even angry or disappointed. "You can't abandon them!"
"I'm not abandoning her. I'm saving her life. Something big is coming, I can feel it in the Force, and it's not only the Order 66. I'm sure of that, as I know that Palpatine won't kill me, at least not now. But he could use her as a leverage to make me turn. And he will hurt her to do that. I can't allow him to do anything to her. Keep her hidden, make sure she's fine. If I did it, every single trooper, bounty hunter and crime lord of the Galaxy would come look for us, but you can do something about it. You can pretend you're dead, make up something I don't know I can't think straight now. Just, please, do it. I can take care of myself and I swear that a way or another I'll find you. I don't know how long will it take but I'll find you." finally I turned and faced him. "Please, go. GO NOW!"
Then, he went. Not a word, not a nod. It was the last time I saw him for the next eight years.
I turned again to the window and vented out all the rage that was piling up in me against the trasparasteel pane. Thank the Force I did it with my right hand, because large cracks formed from the spot I had hit and it takes a lot to crack that material.
Finally calmer, I wore my cloak, pulled up the hood and made way to Palpatine's office.
I would confront him, one way or another.