Star Wars Short Stories

Battle of Mustafar 03/06🔥

Anakin pov (gore warning)

I can feel the flames start to lick at what remains of my legs and I scream in pain, trying to inch up the bank. I look up slightly, avoiding the sight of my burning body. I continue to cry out, and, using what strength I have left, manage to turn myself over, extinguishing the flames. I lay there, letting the pain override my senses, my chest heaving. Just before I black out completely, I feel Obi-Wan coming closer to me. As he kneels next to me, I open my eyes, seeing the glint of metal in his hand, then I feel his eyes on mine, and something changes in him.

Obi-Wan puts his lightsaber back into his belt, and I just catch the words he murmurs, "I'm sorry." I let my eyes shut and the blackness take over.

~~~

I wake, a few hours later, on an operating table. Where am I? I hear something hissing and shallow, like air being forced into a box with a mesh over the opening. It takes me a few seconds to realise that it's my own breathing. I open my eyes and see that I'm in a slightly dark room, with droids situated around me. All of a sudden, the pain rushes back, and I howl, squeezing tears from the corners of my eyes.

I try to lift my right arm, and realise I can't. Something cold and hard presses into my wrist, stopping it from moving. The medical droid on my left says something, but I can't understand what it is saying. Then, a cooling and numbing sensation spreads through my left shoulder, and only when the droud begins to push wires and metal tubes into the exposed flesh, do I start to shriek again.

I shut my eyes and try to block out the pain, try to think of something else... anything else... I try moving my fingers on my right hand, slowing curling and uncurling each one. Only when I touch my first finger to my thumb, I realise that I am trembling.

I can hear the muffled sound of a door opening and closing, and I snap open my eyes when somebody puts their hand on my righy forearm. Obi-Wan.

The same cooling feeling happens to both of my legs, then the wires and metal being slid into them makes me scream again, clenching my right hand tightly, as the pain seemingly erupts everywhere. I suddenly remember that Obi-Wan is next to me, and I try to stop my next scream, biting the inside of my cheeks.

"It's ok. You can let yourself be in pain." Obi-Wan says, and the warmth of his words spreads through me, faster than any painful thing could ever do. I try to smile at him, and my cracked lips move into what seems like a smile, before a slightly cold metal and plastic device attaches onto my left shoulder.

A medical droid speaks again, and I don't listen to it, then the numbing feeling comes back, and I brace myself, sucking in as much air as my charred lungs will allow. Suddenly, it feels like I have a left arm again, and I summon the courage to look.

I let out the breath. The medical droids have not failed me. The design for my right forearm has been flipped and recreated into my left arm. The metal band has been secured onto my left wrist aswell, but it feels as light as the right one. I take slow, hoarse breaths, and fall into the darkness.

~~~

When I wake up, there is a pain in my chest like ten simultaneous heartburns. I try to inhale to scream, but find that only a little air can enter my lungs. I shriek, using up the oxygen in my lungs. I gasp, and my breathing quickens as I understand that if the medical droids can't fix this soon... I don't finish the thought. So I try to suck in more air by inhaling through my mouth and exhaling through my nose. The door opens and closes again, and slowly the pain evaporates. The air enters and exits my lungs slightly more easily, and I slowly relax my right arm.

I see a green head at the end of the table. Yoda says something to a droid, and the droid nods. He then closes his eyes, and I can feel all the pain evaporating. I take a shaky breath and shut my eyes as the healing force from Yoda clears my throat. I can suddenly feel my lower legs. All the wires inside me loose their tension and I can fully relax my body, letting myself go limp, and I black out. Not from the pain, from the relieving effect that the healing force has on me.

~~~

"Ani?" I hear a soft voice pulling me back up into consciousness, and I open my eyes.

Oxygen rushes easily in and out of my lungs.

Padmé is on my left, holding my hand. She smiles at me. "Are you feeling ok?"

I take a deep breath. "Yes..." I say in a raspy voice, smiling slightly.

Padmé looks over to the door and then back to me. "See? I didn't die in childbirth."

My arms free of the metal cuffs, I push myself up into a sitting position. I catch sight of my legs from the bottom of the robe. Entirely metal and plastic, like my arms, from the knee down. I take a breath, before tearing my eyes away to look at the doors.

Obi-Wan stands in the door, holding two bundles in his arms. "Anakin—" he starts to say.

"I forgive you, Master." I say, my voice rough and hoarse.

"Ani, this is Luke and Leia, our children." Padmé says.

I smile at Padmé, with a warmth spreading through me, hotter than fire, or lava, or anything.