He glanced briefly at Anakin, then lowered his head and fought back tears. Anakin stepped forward and knelt before the marker. He picked up a handful of sand and let it slip through his fingers.
'I wasn't strong enough to save you, Mom,' the young man said, suddenly feeling more like a boy. His shoulders bobbed once or twice, but he fought to regain control, and took a deep and determined breath. 'I wasn't strong enough. But I promise I won't fail again.' His breathing came in short rasps as another wave of grief nearly toppled him. But the young Padawan squared his shoulders and determinedly stood up. 'I miss you so much.'
Padme came forward and put her hand on Anakin's shoulder, and all of them stood silent before the grave.
The moment held only briefly, though, broken by a series of urgent beeps and whistles. They turned as one to see R2-D2 rolling their way.
'Artoo, what are you doing here?' Padme asked.
The droid whistled frantically.
'It seems that he is carrying a message from someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi,'
C-3PO quickly translated. 'Does that mean anything to you, Master Anakin?' Anakin squared his shoulders. 'What is it?'
R2-D2 beeped and whistled. 'Retransmit?' Anakin asked. 'Why, what's wrong?'
'He says it's quite important,' C-3PO observed.
With a look to Cliegg and the other two, silently seeking their permission, Anakin, Padme, and C-3PO followed the excited droid back to the Naboo ship. As soon as they got inside, R2 beeped and spun, and projected an image of Obi-Wan in front of them.
'Anakin, my long-range transmitter has been knocked out,' the Jedi's hologram explained. 'Retransmit this message to Coruscant.' R2 stopped the message there, with Obi-Wan seeming to freeze in place.
Anakin looked at Padme. 'Patch it through to the Jedi Council chamber.'
Padme stepped over and flipped a button, then waited for confirmation that the signal was getting through. She nodded to Anakin, who turned back to R2.
'Go ahead, Artoo.'
The droid gave a beep, and Obi-Wan's hologram began to move once more. 'I have tracked the bounty hunter Jango Fett to the droid foundries of Geonosis. The Trade Federation is to take delivery of a droid army here and it is clear that Viceroy Gun-ray is behind the assassination attempts on Senator Amidala.'
Anakin and Padme exchanged knowing glances, neither of them very surprised by that information. Padme thought back to her meeting with Typho and Panaka on Naboo, before she had left for Coruscant, secretly escorting the doomed starship. 'The Commerce Guild and Corporate Alliance have both pledged their armies to Count Dooku and are forming an-'
The hologram swung about. 'Wait! Wait!'
Anakin and Padme cringed as droidekas appeared in the hologram along with Obi-Wan, grabbing at him and restraining him. The hologram flickered, then broke apart.
Anakin jumped up and rushed at R2-D2, but pulled up short, realizing that there was nothing he could do.
Nothing at all.
On distant Coruscant, Yoda and Mace Windu and the other members of the Jedi Council watched the hologram transmission with trepidation and great sadness.
'He is alive,' Yoda announced, after yet another viewing. 'I feel him in the Force.'
'But they have taken him,' Mace put in. 'And the wheels have begun to spin more dangerously.'
'More happening on Geonosis, I feel, than has been revealed.'
'I agree,' Mace said. 'We must not sit idly by.' He looked at Yoda, as did everyone else in the room, and the little Jedi Master closed his eyes, seemingly very weary and very pained by it all.
'The dark side, I feel,' he said. 'And all is cloudy.'
Mace nodded and turned a grim expression on the others.
'Assemble,' he ordered, a command that had not been given to the Jedi Council in many, many years.
'We will deal with Count Dooku,' Mace said through the comlink to Anakin.
'The most important thing for you, Anakin, is to stay where you are. Protect the Senator at all costs. That is your first priority.'
'Understood, Master,' Anakin replied.
His tone, so full of resignation and defeat, struck Padme profoundly. It galled the fiery Senator to think that Anakin would be stuck here looking over her, when his Master was in obvious danger.
As the hologram switched off, she moved to the ship's console and began flicking switches and checking coordinates, confirming what she already knew. 'They have to come halfway across the galaxy,' she said, turning to Anakin, who seemed not to care. 'They'll never get there in time to save him.'
Still no response.
'Look, Geonosis is less than a parsec away!' Padme announced, flipping a few more controls to show the flight line on the viewscreen. 'Anakin?'
'You heard him.'
