Star Wars: the Chosen One

Entry 10

I stood, staring at his decapitated body for a couple seconds. I felt something in me, a raw power that I didn’t know. The feeling was completely alien to me, but I could still feel the anger.

The same anger that I had let flow through me the night I murdered all the Tusken Raiders.

I heard Palpatine’s voice as if from far away. I stood there, breathing hard and staring at Dooku’s body. “You did well,” Palpatine said with finalization in his tone. Without realizing I’d did it, I used the Force to release the shields over Palpatine’s wrists.

“He was too dangerous to be left alive,” Palpatine continued.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” I murmured as if to myself. “He was an unarmed prisoner. He had nothing to defend himself against. I shouldn’t have done that, it’s not the Jedi way,” I said. I stared at the floor, getting a sick feeling in my stomach. I wasn’t just talking about killing Dooku.

Killing the Tusken Raiders had been wrong too. Very wrong, sick…I could hear their screams around me as if it was that awful night again.

“It is only natural. He cut off your arm, you wanted revenge and you got it. It isn’t the first time. Remember what you told me about your mother and the Tusken Raiders?” he asked me. He stood up and looked at me in a way that made me feel uncomfortable.

How could I have forgotten? Palpatine had been the only person I could tell about what I had done. No one else would understand. A Jedi is supposed to let go of his anger and fear and let compassion and the Force replace that. I couldn’t do that when my mother died. That was a mistake, a grave mistake that no Jedi would be able to understand.

Not even Obi-Wan.

All my fear for Obi-Wan’s life returned and I ran over there to him. I used the Force to lift the platform off of him and tossed it to the side.

“Now, we must leave before more security droids arrive,” Palpatine said. He was on his way out when he realized that I hadn’t been following him. He stopped and turned. “The ship is falling apart…we must get out of here. There’s no time,” he said.

“He seems to be alright. No broken bones, breathing is normal. He might have cracked a few ribs, but I can’t tell yet,” I informed him.

“Leave him or we’ll never make it,” he said, looking at me.

“His fate will be the same as ours,” I replied. I picked Obi-Wan up and hauled him over my shoulders. When I stood up, at first I staggered over his weight. I called to the Force, and at once I stood up straight. Together, Palpatine and I walked out of the chambers and down a short hallway. At the very end, there was a line of elevators.

Using one hand to hold Obi-Wan up and another to activate the elevator, I realized the elevator wasn’t working.

“Elevator’s not working,” I muttered. I used my left hand (the hand that wasn’t holding Obi-Wan) to grab the handheld comlink. “R2, do you copy?” I asked. He beeped a short reply. “Activate elevator three-two-two-four,” I continued.

The doors opened at the same time that the ship shifted. Palpatine fell, but I managed to catch him and hoist him to his feet. I grabbed the edge of the elevator doors and called into the comlink, “R2…Come in…R2!!” The ship suddenly moved sideways. Palpatine and I both managed to grab a hold of the side of the doors. I pulled myself in and used the Force to help me keep Obi-Wan with me. I stood up to see that the elevator shaft was completely sideways. It was now a long horizontal hallway.

“We have to be fast. We can’t wait; we have to get passed here before R2 activates the elevator. Come on!” I yelled to Palpatine. Together, we both ran down the elevator shaft as fast as we could. I completely called to the Force so that I wouldn’t stumble under Obi-Wan’s weight.