'And they earned your anger, Anakin.'
He looked up at her, his eyes wet with tears. 'But it was more than that,' he started to say, and then he shook his head and buried his face against the softness of her breast.
A moment later, he looked back up, his expression showing that he was determined to explain. 'I didn't… I couldn't…' He held one hand up outstretched, then clenched it into a fist. 'I couldn't control myself,' he admitted. 'I… I don't want to hate them-I know that there is no place for hatred. But I just can't forgive them!'
'To be angry is to be human,' Padme assured him.
'To control your anger is to be a Jedi,' Anakin was quick to reply, and he pulled away from her and stood up, turning to face the open door and the desert beyond.
Padme was right there beside him, draping her arms about him. 'Shhh,' she said softly. She kissed him gently on the cheek. 'You're human.'
'No, I'm a Jedi. I know I'm better than this.' He looked at her directly, shaking his head. 'I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.'
'You're like everybody else,' Padme said. She tried to draw closer, but Anakin held himself back from her.
He couldn't hold the pose of defiance for long, though, before he broke down again in sobs.
Padme was there to hold him and rock him and tell him that everything would be all right.
Obi-Wan Kenobi slumped back in the seat of his starfighter, shaking his head in frustration. It had taken him a long while to extract himself safely from the factory city, and when he had at last found his starfighter, he had thought the adventure over. But not so. 'The transmitter is working,' he told R4, who tootled his agreement. 'But we're not receiving a return signal. Coruscant's too far.' He spun to face the droid. 'Can you boost the power?'
The beeps that came back at him were not comforting.
'Okay, then we'll have to try something else.' Obi-Wan looked around for an answer. He didn't want to lift off from the planet and risk detection, but so far out and within the heavy and metallic Geonosian atmosphere, he had no chance of reaching distant Coruscant.
'Naboo is closer,' he said suddenly, and R4 beeped. 'Maybe we can contact Anakin and get the information relayed.'
R4 replied with enthusiasm and Obi-Wan climbed back out of the cockpit to repeat the message with the changes for Anakin.
A few moments later, though, the droid signaled him that something was wrong.
With a frustrated growl, the Jedi climbed back up into the cockpit.
'How can he not be on Naboo?' he asked, and R4 gave an 'oooo.' Rather than argue with a droid, Obi-Wan checked the instruments himself. Sure enough, Anakin's signal was not to be found coming from Naboo.
'Anakin? Anakin? Do you copy? This is Obi-Wan Kenobi?' he said, lifting his ship comm directly and shooting the call out toward the general area of Naboo.
After several minutes with no response, the Jedi put the comm back down and turned to R4. 'He's not on Naboo, Arfour. I'm going to try to widen the search. I hope nothing's happened to him.'
He sat back as the minutes slipped past. He knew that he was losing precious time, but his choices were limited. He couldn't head back to the city and risk capture, not with so much vital news to relay to the Jedi Council, nor did he want to blast away, for the same reasons. He still had so much to learn here.
So he waited, and finally, some time later, R4 tootled emphatically. Obi- Wan moved to the controls, his eyes widening as he got the confirmation.
'That's Anakin's tracking signal all right, but it's coming from Tatooine! What in the blazes is he doing there? I told him to stay on Naboo!' R4 gave another 'oooo.'
'All right, we're all set-we'll get these answers later.' He climbed back out of the cockpit and jumped to the ground. 'Transmit, Arfour. We haven't much time.'
The droid locked on to him immediately.
'Anakin?' Obi-Wan asked. 'Anakin, do you copy? This is Obi-Wan Kenobi.' R4 relayed the response, a series of beeps and whistles that the R4-P didn't normally use, but ones quite familiar to Obi-Wan.
'Artoo? Good, are you reading me clearly?'
The whistle came back affirmative.
'Record this message and take it to the Jedi Skywalker,' Obi-Wan instructed the distant droid.
Another affirmative beep.
'Anakin, my long-range transmitter is knocked out. Retransmit this message to Coruscant.'
The Jedi began to tell his tale then. He didn't know that the Geonosians had picked up his signal broadcasts and had triangulated those receptions to locate his starfighter. Wound up in his tale, he didn't notice the approach of the armed droidekas, rolling up near to him, then unrolling to their attack posture.
Even the two blazing Tatooine suns could not brighten the somber mood, the tangible grayness permeating the air, around the new grave outside the Lars compound. Two old headstones marked the ground next to the new one, a poignant reminder of the difficulties of life on the harsh world of Tatooine. The five of them-Cliegg, Anakin, Padme, Owen, and Beru-had gathered, along with C-3PO, to bid farewell to Shmi.
'I know wherever you are, it's become a better place,' Cliegg Lars said, and he took a handful of sand and tossed it on the new grave. 'You were the most loving partner a man could ever have. Good-bye, my darling wife. And thank you.'
