The Edge of the Universe

XLVI

Anakin's POV

I woke up sensing a disturbance in the force, I looked around the room and Ahsoka, Rex and Obi-wan were all still sleeping. I frowned and sat up and grabbed my lightsaber clutching it tightly in my hand as I carefully stood up, I reached out with the force again to try and figure out what was going on but it wasn't me who was in danger, it was someone else that wasn't in this room. I slowly opened the door and crept downstairs where everything was dark and silent, I looked around and peered out the windows but I couldn't see anyone or anything out there. It was around 4 in the morning and the sky was slowly lightening, I looked around the bottom floor and that's when I spotted Owen's door ajar. I made my way over and I couldn't sense anyone in the room which was odd, I entered the room and checked the ceiling and every corner of the room to see if something dangerous was in here. 

The room was filled with a bunch of junk and books and I couldn't see anything dangerous, I turned to leave the room when my eye caught something familiar. I walked over to the desk and picked up a long wire with battle droid fingers strung onto it, I frowned and looked back at the open door to see if anyone was there. I placed the wire in my hand and closed my fist around it before closing my eyes, I reached out with the force and within a few seconds I could feel every crack, bolt and joint in the droid fingers, I took a deep breath and in my head, I commanded what I wanted to see. 'Where is Owen?'  flashes appeared in front of my eyes of Owen surrounded by battle droids in the main market and they had there guns pointed towards him. 

I came back to reality and dropped the string of battle droid fingers, I quietly left the house and then broke into a sprint letting the force guide me towards the market. I ran down the dirt pathways between the large green fields, I passed some native animals that were grazing in the paddocks and they looked up as I ran past but soon returned to eating grass. The sense of danger was growing and I ran faster using the force to make me run faster, the sky was slightly lighter as the moon was disappearing over the horizon. All I could hear were the sound of my feet hitting the dirt and my fast, harsh breathing as I continued to run, I saw the massive town/market place up ahead and the sense of danger was growing, even more, I reached out with the force and slight relief washed over me when I sensed Owen was still alive but I didn't know for how much longer.

I ran into the streets of the market and everything felt weird, it was wrong for a place to be so quiet and empty. I ran to the main central square of the market and droids surrounded Owen and two other men, they had their hands behind there heads and the droids were pointing their guns at them.  

"He gave the order to execute them," the commander droid explained.

The droids took aim and shot, I flung out my hand and the red blasts stopped in mid-air. I flipped over the droids and landed in front of Owen igniting my dark blue lightsaber, I forced the bullets to shoot back towards the droids that had fired them and they fell to the ground. The other hundreds of droids that were there were trying to process what had happened.

"A Jedi!" one of them shouted.

I force pushed some of them away and pulled three of their guns towards Owen and the two other men who caught them. 

"Let's go!" I shouted.

We took off at a run out of the market with me taking up the rear to block the blasts that came towards us. We reached the paddocks and that's when I heard the sound of enemy speeders coming after us, I looked up ahead and I saw the grey, heavily armoured, square-shaped animals that were almost as tall and big as the trees here. 

"Stop!" I commanded.

The three men stopped and looked at me with a questioning look.

"Are these things fast?"

"I mean, yeah I guess, but you'd be crazy trying to tame one," one of the men replied.

"Let's go,"

I walked over to the nearest one and the three men looked at me like I was crazy, they heard the speeders drawing closer and Owen walked forward and look up at the massive grey creature. I held my hands out and Owen took the hint and stepped on my interlocked hands, I basically threw him up onto the creature and he landed on the flat, square back of the creature. I boosted the other two men up before jumping up myself, the creature seemed to register that there were four people on it's back and start rampaging around, startling the other creatures.

I placed a hand on the creatures back and used the force to mentally dig deep into the creature, I could feel its breathing and heartbeat and the panic it was feeling. I dove into the mind of the creature and calmed it down before telling it to run as fast as it could, with a jolt it began sprinting forwards just as the speeders came into view. The three men held onto anything they could as the massive creature galloped across the grass fields, the speeders seemed to pick up speed and they drew closer, the droids on the speeders began firing at me and I swiftly ignited my lightsaber and tried to deflect the bolts back towards the droids. 

I heard the sound of boosters in the sky and when I looked up I groaned, super droids were flying towards us with one of their robotic arms outstretched. Owen and the two other people began firing at them with the guns I had taken from the droids earlier, I began deflecting the bullets again and managed to knock a few down from the sky but I was having no luck with the speeders. 

"Anakin we're headed towards the forest!" Owen cried.

I spun around and fear jolted in my chest as I saw the tree inches away, I tried to command the creature away from it but we hit it straight on. A bullet hit the creatures weak spot at the same time and the creature fell to the side, Owen and the two other men rolled away on the ground while I landed flat on my back. The air was knocked out of my lungs and a sharp pain shot up my back and my head, the large creature began to fall towards me and I tried to dive out of the way but it landed on my left foot trapping it beneath the incredibly heavy animal. The super droids landed and the speeders came unloading some more droids, the three men had taken cover and were firing at the droids. I reached for my lightsaber on my hilt but it was nowhere to be found, I groaned but used the force to pull a gun towards me, from my position on the ground I managed to twist around and shoot some of the droids until they were all lying on the ground in a mangled mess of parts. Owen and the two other men ran towards me dropping their guns on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Owen asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, are you guys injured?"

"Bazer got grazed by a bullet but other than that, we're fine," he replied.

I nodded and slowly used the force to lift the creature up in the air and set it down in the field, Owen pulled me to my feet and a dull pain throbbed in my foot that was trapped underneath the heavy creature but I ignored it for now. I used the force to pull my lightsaber into my hand, it was stuck underneath the creature as well but seemed to be in perfect condition still. 

"We need to get back, can you control one of those creatures again?" Bazer asked.

"Not a problem,"