The Archer

Chapter Six: Girl With Every Possible Fear

The first thing I realized was that I was running.

I was running through an endless hallway as fast as I could. Somehow I was afraid of falling every step I took, as if an invisible force was pulling me to the ground.

The second thing I realized was that I had gotten lost.

The corridors of the Temple were plunged in almost complete darkness. Was the power out?

I could hear an alarm ringing somewhere in the distance, repeating the same warning over and over again in a robotic voice:

„This is an emergency. Please go to the emergency exit immediately."

Why was I alone? Where was everyone? Where was I?

To my left and right countless other ways led into the unknown. But I kept running straight ahead. Until I suddenly saw a familiar but unexpected face crossing my way.

Becca? That wasn't possible – what was she doing here?

She was different than I remembered her from home. Her gaze hardened as she looked at me with a grim expression I had never seen on her face before.

„What are you still doing here? It's dangerous to wander around all alone. Can't you hear the alarm?"

I wanted to speak, wanted to answer her, but my mouth felt like it was sewn shut with needles.

She pointed in my direction. „Turn around, if you dare."

I dared. And saw dozens of little lights flickering in my field of vision.

A small army of uncannily humanoid droids was walking towards me. I knew these types of droids – I had seen them in HoloNet features, read about them in Holobooks and heard about them in a few lectures.

Still, I didn't have the pleasure of personally encountering battle droids before. And in this case battle droids that were, for whatever reason, targeting me.

I wanted to run away, to scream, to react in any way – but my whole body felt frozen in place.

There were just more and more of them appearing out of the depths of the Temple until an endless mass of droids was surrounding me. I felt my vision becoming blurry and was just about to close my eyes in defeat as a dark shadow passed right by me. Weilding a glowing lightsaber, the shadow immediately began destroying the droids without hesitation.

One by one, they were shattered into pieces like toy figures. They were no match for the shadow. They couldn't hurt him in the slightest as he was slicing through droid after droid. He was a vibrating source of power.

And it was drawing me in. I wasn't scared of the shadow – quite the opposite was the case. I  knew I could trust him. He took all of my fear away in a heartbeat.

All of the droids were defeated - now just mere piles of scrap metal scrambled across the floor. He stood right in the middle of it all, barely taking notice of the mess and slowly turned around towards me.

As the shadow turned around, I recognized that he was in fact a person – and I recognized who he was.

I realized at the same instant that I knew the whole time.

„Are you alright, (y/n)? I hope I didn't scare you."

Our eyes met and he smiled at me and his face was warm and kind, and I looked right into the deep and turbulent ocean that were the eyes of Anakin Skywalker, and this time I actually fell, finally fell through the floor down into a bottomless sea...