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Empty Movement

by Meredith Bronwen Mallory

mallorys-girl@cinci.rr.com

[http://www.demando.net/]

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LEGAL DISCLAIMER:

This old gal,

She writes fics,

And she does it just for kicks,

So if you're nice you will not sue,

'Cause that would make her very blue. ^_^

(Translation: Everything save the story concept itself belongs to George

Lucas. The title of this fic (Empty Movement) comes from the song

"Virtual Star" off the "Shoujo Kakumei Utena" soundtrack.)

PERSONAL DISCLAIMER:

I'm a hopeless romantic, but not a very nice one. You have been warned.

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The Darkness was upon him in an instant- there was no warning, and Anakin

was ill-prepared.

It took the form of Amidala, as it liked to do of late, and stood staring

at him from the recesses of his mind. She looked so like the Queen, too, as

she leaned back, her gaze locked with his, taunting him. Look, it's so

easy... once won't hurt, won't hurt at all. Even through his disgust and

disinterest, the Not-Amidiala shrugged, as if she knew that sooner or later

his denial really wouldn't matter. She moved within her dark aclove, her

long hair a thing alive and her body sculpted black marble.

"Stop it," the nineteen year-old's voice was hard, and held more anger than

he would have liked. The Darkness used Her voice, and Her mannerisms, and

this was a sacrelige. It would not be tolerated.

Anakin Skywalker stood in the tunnel station near the outskirts of Theed,

all alone and listening to those night-sounds unique to Naboo. Master

Obi-wan had taken him out to the cliffs for practice, and after five hours

he had finally found his Padawan's preformance satisfactory.

"Run along now," Obi-wan had said, ignoring the look of annoyance on

Anakin's face. The Master knew very well that his Padawan was no longer a

child, though he still addressed him as such. "I believe I'll stay behind

and get some practice in myself." Exhausted, the young man had left the Jedi

and made his way back to the Palace alone. He'd thought nothing of it then-

but now, in the silent, shadow-draped tunnel station, he wished Obi-wan had

come as well. At least then he wouldn't be alone.

[Or maybe that's the point.]

Anakin turned swiftly, still feeling his fear (fear is of the dark side,

yes) knowing that those words were not his own. The corners of the

brightly-lit station were all the more dark in the contrast, and for a

moment he half expected the Not-Amidala to emerge, her lips turned up in a

sneer he would never see on the face of the true Queen.

Closing his eyes, Anakin willed himself to be calm, to embrace the Light

side and think of something else. Every Padawan is tempted constantly,

Master Obi-wan often said. This was nothing unusual. Nothing at all.

So, waiting for the tunnel-car (why the hell is it so *slow*?), Anakin

turned his thoughts to what the morning would bring. There would be no

practice tomorrow, Master Obi-wan had allowed him some time to himself- time

he would spend with the Queen. It was rare enough that they saw each other

in person, and even more rare that Anakin saw her on Naboo. In the bright,

ever-shinning artificial light of Coruscant, she was beautiful; but on her

home planet Amidala thrived, and was glorious. The Darkness relaxed it's

hold, receding to sulk, as Anakin thought of the next days' events. They

would walk through the garden together, yes, not touching, but close enough.

At last the tunnel car pulled in, a great, streamlined metallic beast,

opening its wide doors. Relieved, Anakin hurried towards it. Temptation from

the Dark Side was an unwanted thing, and it made him feel weak. He hated

that. Stepping onto the platform, he realized with some shock that another

was present. He hadn't seen anyone waiting besides himself- but sure enough

a cloaked figure strode ahead of him. He had not been alone after all. As if

sensing his thoughts, the figure turned around, and the light fell across

its face. At first Anakin was sure, insanely sure, that it was his mother;

then he was certain it was Amidala; and then he knew it was someone whom he

didn't know at all.

He felt nothing, no hesitation, no fear, as he stepped off the platform and

into the tunnel-car. Perhaps, if the Darkness had not chosen to come upon

him then, he might have thought twice- but no man desires to stay where he

is weak. Years down the road, Anakin would cast his mind back, looking for

some transition, but he would find none. The experience was seamless.

Whoever had gotten on ahead of him had vanished, but Anakin found himself

strangely unalarmed. Instead, he took his seat beside a young woman whose

belly was swollen with child, gazing at her out of the corner of his eye as

the car pulled back into motion. Strangers had always intrigued the young

man from Tatooine, and this was no exception now. The universe held so many

people, all different, all new, that when he found himself beside a stranger

he couldn't help but wonder who they were. The was a shift in the woman's

posture that told Anakin she was aware of his gaze, and he turned his head

to look at her fully. He became aware then that she was not a stranger- he

knew her, or would know her at some later date.

She looked like Amidala, he thought oddly, but with no single detail that

stood out to remind him. Her face was round, more than the sum of its parts,

and she held herself like a Queen. Or a princess, he corrected himself- and

did not know why.

"Where to?" the woman asked quietly, studying him. She turned to face him,

her long, braided hair following the motion.

"Center Court," Anakin smiled charmingly. The woman returned it, but only

slightly. She glanced down at the lightsaber hooked on his belt, then moved

back to a degree, sliding her weight along the bench. In return, Anakin eyed

her pregnant figure, thinking enviously about families. "When are you due?"

the Padawan asked, attempting polite conversation.

"Soon," the woman said, laying a hand over her belly. She looked at him,

pointedly, "Soon enough to be afraid." Anakin might have answered her, if

not for a sudden, new sound. It was painfully clear in the small, otherwise

silent tunnel car- it was automatic, real and terrible. Shuddering, the

young man tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the double fear he saw

reflected in the woman's eyes. Her own fright, and his as well, for the

sound was uncomfortably familiar.

But it could just have been an echo in the tunnel.

As they passed into one of the more well-lit tunnels, he noticed for the

first time that someone else was in the car. Or perhaps, the absence of

someone else. The figure was dark enough to be a void, and stood in the

shadows, patient and waiting. Anakin suddenly knew that the woman had been

pointedly ignoring its presence all along.

"Why are you afraid?" Anakin gasped out, suddenly wondering how long he'd

been holding his breath in terror.

"They will be Jedi," she said it softly, almost as if she was ashamed, and

turned away to gaze out the window.

His destination was close enough that Anakin was now paying close attention

to the display above the door. They rushed past Theed Market, flew by the

Plaza of Towers, but at a speed that paled in comparison to what Anakin

knew. The tunnel car dove out over the moonlit river of Theed, then back

into it's dark, dusky caves as it hurried onward. In the dim light of the

car, the world was reduced to a composite of vague outlines, and Anakin was

startled when a sudden blue glow cast itself over the occupants. The Padawan

turned, and started again. Someone had taken the seat beside him, though he

could not recall the tunnel-car stopping since he'd gotten on. It was the

newcomer's lightsaber- blue like the sky of Tatooine, blue like Anakin's own

weapon- that cast the eerie glow. He was not older than Anakin, no more than

a boy, really, and he never turned his wide blue (blue? how odd...) eyes

from their contemplation of the blade.

"Hello," the Padawan said, as cheerfully as his growing discomfort would

allow. The other man made no answer, indeed, it was as if he did not know of

Anakin's existence at all. The tunnel-car drove back out onto the surface,

and the man turned it off for a moment, until the train was once again

encased in the dark, high-walled tunnel.

When he flipped it back on, though, the blade was green.

Anakin glanced at the display again, but he somehow seemed further from his

destination than he had been before. Settling back to wait, he felt

something press painfully against his ribs, and looked down to see the ebony

handle of a lightsaber gleaming up at him in the dim, emerald light. An

intense wave of sickness- a burning pain- passed through him when he touched

it, but he held it up undeterred and gazed at his two companions. Somehow,

he knew it didn't belong to either of them. Filled with morbid fascination,

he moved a trembling thumb towards the switch, ready to ignite the weapon

even though he knew it was... wrong?... bad?...

Dark.

[The Not-Amidala, gazing at him with borrowed, untrue brown eyes, her lips

a disgusting red.]

It was a relief, a great relief, when the Padawan felt the

stranger-woman's hand over his own.

"Don't," she said, and he moved his fingers away from the switch. For a

single, suspended moment, he gazed that the black figure in the shadows,

considering, but he did not offer up the weapon. Rather, he placed it in his

brown Jedi robes, where it rested uncomfortably at his side, opposite his

own lightsaber.

The trip wore on, the darkness became more prevalent, but Anakin somehow

felt a little sheltered, sitting between the man and woman he knew but did

not know. The car was quiet save for that strange, labored sound. Anakin

never realized, or did not allow himself to realize, that it was in time

with his own breathing.

"You should get off now," the woman drew Anakin's attention once more. She

was no longer pregnant, or dressed in her elegant robes; instead she wore

the garb of a slave dancer, but her wide brown eyes (Amidala's eyes, yes,

now they seemed more Amidala's eyes) were purposeful. Oddly, Anakin felt no

shock or surprise- he could afford it no longer. Something was coming..

something that would require all his terror, all his horrified disbelief.

"You should get off now," she repeated, momentarily eyeing the figure in

black. While no one was looking, it seemed to have grown, to have come

closer. The dim, emerald light reflected off its metallic surface, but the

Padawan thought it looked human enough. The woman regarded Anakin

cautiously, and the young man got the feeling that she was valiantly trying

to pay her shadowy companion no heed. Her eyes fell upon the newcomer and

his lightsaber, and though she looked relieved Anakin thought she might have

known he was there all along.

"She's right," the newcomer took his eyes off the lightsaber for the first

time, seemingly oblivious as that strange, labored sound grew louder, "You

should get off now." The tunnel-car stopped, as if on command, throwing its

doors open with a wild violence. Wary, Anakin looked up at the display, but

though the words were there he found he could not force them to make sense.

"This isn't my stop," he said, and it wasn't. The knowledge came to him

with incredible clarity. Even with the woman's unwanted companion closing

in, even with that horrible (familiar, too familiar) sound, he needed to

stay on the train. He couldn't get off, it wasn't his stop.

"Go," the woman said, having shifted again. Now she was no more than a

girl, dressed in the white of a senator, her hair coiled on either side of

her head. She was weeping into her hands, but Anakin heard her words clearly

enough. "Go now. You may not have another chance." She raised her face, eyes

defiant, lips pursed.

This was the face Anakin would remember, far down the line.

He turned to face the open, wide doors of the tunnel-car, gazing out into

the darkness that lay beyond. Shuddering, he looked back to his companions.

The woman had gone back to her weeping, and, in his place, the man was

trying to comfort her. He said nothing as he glanced up at Anakin, but his

lightsaber had returned to blue.

Summoning his courage, he stepped off the tunnel-car, and onto the platform

he did not know was there.

----

The death and sorrow had drawn him to this place, it was tangiable through

the Force, screaming like an untended wound, and it closed itself around

Anakin unpleasantly. He now stood in the Plaza of Towers, or at least, what

he thought to be the Plaza. In the light of the unnaturally gray sky, the

magnificent Towers seemed old and worn away, as though they had seen much

more than they would have liked. The tunnel-car was gone, if, indeed, it had

ever truly been.

A crowd had gathered in the Plaza, and it was their presence that screamed

so painfully. Anakin found himself jostled and prodded forward with the

general current, watching in strange fascination as the crowd organized

itself and became a single entity- a funeral procession.

A funeral procession for...

No- that's a stupid thing to think. He refused to believe it.

Anakin moved with the mourners, feeling their pain almost as if it was his

own. This was perhaps the greatest gift, and the greatest draw-back, to

being a Jedi.

"Empathy is all well and good," the Padawan had heard Obi-wan say dozens of

times, "But you must learn to tune it out. A Jedi must always be aware of

his physical surroundings." Focusing as best he could, Anakin walked with

the tail-end of the procession, glancing at the faces in the crowd. For a

moment he considered that perhaps they were not people at all, but shadows

that had abandoned their physcial masters. Their faces were hallow, sad and

dark, and they moved with the trembling panic of specters

They were run-aways and rebels.

They were refugees.

"Excuse me," Anakin said, trying to draw attention of the stranger nearest.

The thought he had denied before refused to be at rest- he needed to prove

it wrong.

"Yes?" it was a common man's face who stared back at him with a common

man's eyes. The Padawan felt his sadness, his lose, for the Queen had been

so kind....

No, it wasn't Her. It was some other Queen.

"Can you tell me," he fumbled slightly, more than a little embarrassed,

"Can you tell me who has died?"

"How can you not know?" the question was laced with complete

incomprehension, "Our Lady, the Heart of Naboo..." The man trailed off in

confusion, for Anakin had already pulled away, rushing towards the head of

the procession.