Explosions: anakin skywalker

chapter 11

Explosions ensue when the darkness and the light collide.

When Elara left the world of Jedi behind at age twelve, her village in tatters as she left, nightmares plagued her sleep. It seemed that she deserved them, that night terrors that tore her apart when she shut her eyes.

At age fifteen, when she began her life anew as a bounty hunter, Elara justified those nightmares as her punishment for her need to be dependent. She had always been dependent on the want- or rather, the need- for love: from her sister, from her parents, from Obi Wan and Qui Gon. She vowed, as she stepped into a life of crime, that she would never be dependent on another ever again.

And soon, with that realization, the nightmares stopped. In ceasing to care about others, the darkness that came with sleep ceased as well. Though her sleep was never untroubled, for darkness still found her, and she has not gotten a good sleep in ages, her sleeping moments were not filled with terrifying nightmares.

Since her capturing, the nightmares have returned.

The first happened the night of her capturing.

More have flooded her since the night of the incident with Anakin.

Previously, the dreams had been filled with the damage she had caused: Obi Wan's disappointed eyes, her home that she grew up in, destroyed, her family rushing away from her with fear emitting from them. Smoke. Screams. It had been her first taste of destruction, and it had tasted bitter. Every time a nightmare washed over her, the same taste came again. It was all too real.

In these new nightmares that have occurred in the past several nights, Anakin is in the wreckage. He watches her, surrounded by clouds of fog. He looks peaceful, but his eyes are sad as he watches her. By his side is a woman. Anakin looks over at the woman, and then turns and walks away, disappearing from view. She loses him.

Elara wakes up every time in those moments, just as his frame is no longer visible.

Tonight is no different. Heart pounding, Elara jolts upright in her bed. Her face is wet with sweat, her blonde hair sticking to her skin. She pants, her head in her hands as she forces her way through the feelings.

Elara watches the moonlight pour into her room through her window, praying for some sense of peace.

None comes.

Drained, Elara lies back down slowly, attempting to fall back to sleep. She knows what awaits her behind her eyelids, but she is too exhausted to stay away from it.

She stares at the ceiling for what seems like forever. Grumbling, Elara forces her eyes shut, over and over, only to find them opening again in defeat.

Elara sits up again, her legs hanging over her bed. She rubs her eyes, knowing that sleep would not return at any point tonight, so she might as well get the exhausted fog out from her eyes. Again, Elara looks to the four moons in the sky for calm. Failure.

Suddenly, she hears her bedroom door slide open. Startled, Elara jumps to her feet, seeing a shadowy figure in the doorway.

He steps into the light, and her heart beat jumps.

"Anakin," her mouth forms his name for the first time aloud in weeks.

He has been avoiding her for so long. Obi Wan alone has taken over her training, and Anakin tries to make it as difficult as possible for him to be seen by her.