Author's notes: For betareject This is a preview of yet another fanfic in the works. We have so many novel-length fics and I feel bad that it takes me so long to edit chapters. So sorry about that!

Through the Tempest

Dormé knew of Anakin's death long before anyone in the Jedi Temple found out. The grief ripped through her. She felt as though her very soul was being torn asunder. Her beloved was dead. Dormé had never felt connected to the Force before she met Anakin and now more than ever, she knew it was real. The unequivocal pain she felt, before anyone formally informed her of his death, told her that the Force ripped them apart. He was somewhere else, somewhere beyond this world, and she was stuck here alone.

How she longed to join him! She had never been so overcome with the desire to join her beloved than now. He was too far away and she couldn't bear to remain here in this world any longer without him.

She recalled how just a few weeks ago he had returned from the frontlines, his face scarred and his brow riddled with years' worth of wrinkles. He looked as though he hadn't slept since they last parted and his words confirmed this. She embraced him and held him close until he fell asleep in his clothes. She never spoke of it, but she knew something weighed heavily on his mind.

Dormé didn't ask, but could tell by the burden residing in his eyes that something horrible had happened. She didn't know it was not something in the past, but rather a possible future that continued to haunt him.

They had lived together, not caring about the Jedi rules about attachments. Even the Council came to see the benefits of allowing them to stay together, though it had to be kept out of the sight of other training Jedi. Dormé never questioned why the rules had been bent for Anakin, just that they were able to be together.

Anakin was knighted earlier than his close friend, Ferus Olin. Dormé heard Ferus speaking of how Anakin had never wavered to the dark side, even after the death of his mother. It seemed that their bond formed so early on was able to keep him clearer. Ferus told her how Anakin found out that the chancellor was evil while the rest of the Order was clouded in darkness. Dormé had no idea until now just why all of this came to pass.

'I'm a selfish man, Dormé,' she recalled him telling her one afternoon after they made love.

She chuckled and shook her head. 'What are you talking about?' She had thought that he was just joking around.

'I've been putting this off for so long because I want to spend my time here with you—I want so much—'

Dormé didn't understand the words until now.

He spoke of his dreams, or rather his nightmares of the future, a future that the universe could fall into if he didn't go through with it. It was his destiny, he told her, as the Chosen One, to bring balance to the Force.

'But why did you have to die?' Dormé cried, clutching the corner of a table as she tried to brace herself.

'No, my love,' she heard his voice through the Force, just as though he were standing right beside her.

Dormé spun around, looking all over for the source of the voice, but she couldn't see him. 'Anakin? Anakin, where are you? Why did you go? Why did you have to leave me?' Was she hallucinating out of her devastation and grief? He wasn't here. He couldn't be. He was dead.

Dormé took up her handmaiden weapon, an imperial wakizashi from its resting place, ready to join him. She couldn't bear the pain any longer. She no longer had tears in her eyes as she ceremoniously kneeled and resolutely placed the tip of the blade to her breast.

'Now is not the time,' she heard his voice again.

'Please—' she begged.

'For the sake of our baby, please live, Dormé.'

'Our baby?' she asked, the wakizashi slipping from her fingers as the realisation came over her. 'Our baby…' Could it be? A hand moved to her midsection, wondering if the slight illness she had a few days ago meant what she now thought possible. 'Anakin—'

'It was the only way to kill Palpatine before he became emperor—'

'You said the future is uncertain and you said you didn't know for sure what would happen because of the choices we make!' she argued furiously.

'I saw what would have happened. I couldn't let our child grow up in a world like that, Dormé.'

'It's not fair, Anakin…It's not fair that you had to die!' She fell silent, wrapping her arms around herself as she stood, trying to contain her anger and sadness.

When the thought came to her, her eyes lit up at the possibility. 'If you're the Chosen One, then can't you come back? Isn't there a way that we could put your spirit back into your body? If the Force is all over the place like the Jedi say—We must be able to bring you back!' She rushed to grab her cloak. 'Where is your body? Is it in his chamber? Tell me so that I can help you—'

She couldn't see him, but she felt his presence in the room. She looked around, her eyes flitting over the barren walls and doors. 'Anakin, please—'

'I don't want to do this alone,' she begged the air.