Destruction of the Innocent (Anakin Skywalker)

~36~

                The next morning I wake up confused. Last night was insane and felt like a fever dream. After my talk with my Father, it was late and I practically fell into bed. Not for long though, as I only got a few hours in before the suns rose.

I take a few minutes to wake up, then look over to see it was nearly noon-and today was the last day of the week to turn in my assignment. So I throw my feet over the side of my bed and force myself out of bed.

Throwing on a black pair of pants, a gray shirt, my boots and forest green cloak-I grab my bag and started to walk out of my room.

Along the way, I passed the droid he helped me work on last night and tucked it under my arm before walking out the door.




                 As I walk down the stairs, the guards nod a good morning and I return it before running through the breezeway and toward the Temple.
I hit the elevator and rise to the learning deck. I'm waiting for my floor, and catch my reflection in the wall.

 A quick wince and I tie my hair half up so it was out of my face. The usual tendrils fell in and around my face. I use my thumb to smudge back together whatever makeup I had on the night before.

It was the middle of June here on Coruscant, so I really did'nt look out of the ordinary because we were getting into the hottest part of the summer.




                 The bell chimes above the door and I snap back into reality. As the door slides open, a small group of people on the other side move out of my way.
"Sorry, excuse me", I nod to them as I walk by.  I check my check and hiss then began moving down the hall with a swiftness.


"There you are!", I hear. I turn over my shoulder to see it's Echo as he catches up to me.

"Hey", I smile."I only have five minutes to get to class and turn this in. I woke up late again."

"Me too, don't worry. You go out last night too?", he asks.

I scoff and turn forward again."Yeah, you could say that."

"I gotta get down to the flight deck. Couple more emergency transporters I have to work on in case-"




"It won't Echo", I shake my head. We stop in the hallway outside my class door."I promise you, I will never let anything like that happen ever again to us or any of my people."

"I know, you just never know", he nods at the ground."I'll catch you later."

"Bye", I wave and spin on my heel.

"Oh, if you see Cora, tell her I said hello", he calls back, a smile creeps onto his face and he walks away to hide it.



          I smirk and shake my head before walking into the room. What a love struck kid, I swear.


"Princess", my teacher calls from behind his desk."I was'nt sure if I'd be seeing you today."

"Sorry, Mr. Locke. Rough night", I answer as I stop in front of his desk.

He kicks his legs that were propped onto his desk off and stands to lean on it.

"Alright, I know I did'nt do so good with the last one, but I promise this should work alot better", I explain and set the droid down in front of him.

"ID10 seeker 778-respond", I say and secretly cross my fingers at my side.





     Without fail, it turns on again and hovers between us. It spins around to greet us both with chirps and flies around Mr. Locke's head. I was shocked.

 To be perfectly honest I expected him to mess with it somehow and it to explode again like last time-except I was in front of the entire class.


"You know were supposed to work on this yourself", he states. It was like a rock in my stomach.

"I did. It took many hours of me pulling my hair out to complete it, but I wanted to get it done so I could move onto more important things", I said.

"Power down 778", he says.

The little droid turns to him then folds up on the table and switches off.




He picks it up and inspects it and his eyebrows shoot up.
"Impressive. I've only seen such welding from one other student over the years", he mumbles. I raise an eyebrow at his comment. He looks at me and nods as he sets it back down.
"Well done. I accept."
I nod as a huge weight is lifted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I left my droid with him and met my Mother and Father in the courtyard for lunch. Something that I can't even remember the last time I did.

My Mother was across the yard by the fountain discussing my birthday plans with our cities event planner.



"There's been no other reports come in. As of this moment, Baylon is MIA", my Father mumbles towards the table.

I stop messing with the bouquet of lavender in the center of our table and look to him.

"This is it then. This is when they strike", I shake my head.

"We can't know that for sure", he shakes his head.

"What else could it mean? They talked about moving onto the next step, this is a perfect distraction so they could catch us off-guard and move in", I lean towards him. 



"Alright", my Mother says as she comes back to the table. We drop the conversation as she sits."The catering and decorations are taken care of. The whole city has been invited, now we need to go for fittings this afternoon and we'll be set."

"I can't wait to see, Mother", I smile back.

"I think your Mother's more excited about it than you are", my Father jokes.

"Not true!", I laugh as I pour a spoonful of summer squash onto my plate.

"I just want everything will be perfect for my panemorfi", she smiles. Her beautiful. Her eyes start to brim with tears and she looks down.



"Mother, please don't make yourself cry again", I say, resting my hand on her arm.

"So what?", she laughs, wiping the corner of her eye with her napkin.

"You finish your droid?", my Father asks.

"I did. And this one is much better", I wave my hand and sip my wine.




My transmitter begins to ring on my belt. I ignore it for a moment, but my Father waves at me to answer it. I pull it from my belt and press the button. After I did, I wished I just let it ring.

"This is Godfrey", I say around a mouth full of potato salad.

"Hey, are you busy in a little while?", Ahsoka says from the other side.
"No, why?"

"One of our stand ins got sick and cancelled, and I have to help teach a combat class with Anakin in an hour. You think you could come by?"




My Father stops eating and looks up at me at the mention of Anakin's name.

He sits back and angrily pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue. I look down and think it over.

"I'll be there", I nod.

"Thanks, see you in a few!", she says.



I end the call and plop a stuffed tomato in my mouth, ignoring my Father's death stare as he sits with arms crossed. I eat another and grab my wine glass.

"Mother, these are amazing! You make them yourself?", I asked. She smiles behind her hands and I sip my glass.

"I thought I told you to stay as far away from him as possible until he's dismissed", he says. 

My eyes fall shut as I set it back down on the table.

"I'm going to help Ahsoka", I wave my hand, pick up my fork again."I won't even look at him."

He says nothing and bites his tongue, but leans up to the table and begins eating again.