505FORGIVABLE SINNERS
By Laura-chan
Summary: What if Anakin never had dreams of Padmé dying? Would he have fallen in the Sith's grasp? In this AU of RoS Anakin and Padmé, while trying to end the war, struggle to keep secret their relationship, even with their two children, Luke and Leia.
Time: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. AU
Rating: R or M
Pairing: Anakin/Padmé, my favorite.
Warnings: This story is rated R/M for a reason; in future chapters there will be strong scenes.
Also, don't mind too much my mistakes, please - I'm Italian and English is not my first language.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything apart from the plot: characters, places and background situations come from the great mind of George Lucas.
AN: Ok, here is next chapter... hope you like it as usual...
Ah, I posted another fanfiction called Shadowed Light: it's a Vader/Padmé with a twist... if you're interested just go and read it... and if you want leave a review. :D
CHAPTER 13
"They are very cute." Obi-wan smiled tenderly as he observed Luke and Leia watching him curiously from their cribs. "The boy just looks like Anakin... and Leia is all her mother."
"Thank you Obi-wan." Padmé blushed prettily.
Obi-wan had come to their apartment to meet his ex-padawan's children and Padmé had been delighted to show them to him: she was quite proud of her babies.
"You don't know when Anakin is going to come back?" the young Senator asked as she sat on the couch with Luke in her arms.
"He went to see Palpatine." The Jedi shook his head. "I don't know when their meeting will be over... but Padmé, watch out: Palpatine is not what he seems."
"I don't think we should trust him anymore... I'm not sure he wants the best for the Republic..." Padmé bit her lip. "And to think I was the one to make it possible for him to become Chancellor..."
"It's not your fault." Obi-wan laid a hand on her shoulder, "You were young and he used you."
Padmé was about to protest, when they both heard engine's noises from the balcony: they stood up as they watched Anakin exiting the starfighter's cockpit with a leap.
"Ani!" she greeted him with a smile that disappeared as she watched his dark and worried face. "What happened?" she asked concerned.
"Don't worry about it, love." The young Jedi's attempted smile didn't convince her, but she decided to ignore it.
"Hello, Anakin."
"Master! I'm surprised to see you here."
Obi-wan chuckled. "And would I miss seeing my apprentice's children?" he joked, patting Anakin on the shoulder.
After having taken a good look at his friend's face, the older Master Jedi said lowly. "You look weary. Do you need to tell me something?"
"Not now." Came the distressed reply. "Let's not spoil the moment."
Obi-wan nodded, then he watched Anakin take Leia into his arms and rock her gently: for the first time, as he watched the new parents playing with their children, he wondered if it was right for a Jedi to never marry and never have offsprings.
It seemed that little Leia was fascinated by her father's leather vest, for she always gripped it like a lifeline: Padmé found it amusing and Anakin tried hard to suppress his laugh.
Obi-wan's comlink bipped and he stood up without looking at it.
"I'm sorry." He excused himself. "But it's time for me to go: I have a meeting with Mace Windu."
Anakin accompanied him to the balcony where the two Jedi stopped for a moment to speak.
"I don't know what Palpatine said to you..." Obi-wan said lowly. "...but don't do anything you feel it's wrong to do: trust your feelings, my friend. We'll talk tonight."
"Yes, Obi-wan."
The older man took another look at his friend's troubled face, then smiled wearily. "May the Force be with you."
"You too."
Anakin watched Obi-wan's starfighter fly away then returned inside the apartment where Padmé was nursing Leia, not without difficulties.
"Mum and Sola made me believe this was easy." She winced when the little one bit on her nipple a bit too harshly for Padmé's taste. "Auch. Leia, don't hurt Mama."
The young Jedi watched the cute scene with a smile, holding back the tears he could feel threatening to spill from his eyes: he hardly cried anymore, his experience in the Clone Wars had hardened his face and his spirit.
But this was a family, his family: a family of his own.
The deep happiness in his gut wasn't something he could just hold back, not even if he wanted to.
Anakin had always believed that marrying Padmé would be more than enough, but now seeing his son and daughter, knowing that they were the proof of their love... it was unbelievably elating, he wanted to run and shout at the galaxy that they were his.
He would do anything for the three of them.
He through back to the Chancellor's words: they had truly shaken him but they had also made him reflect: he had often questioned the Council in the past, so he knew the Jedi Masters were – albeit they would never admit it – full of faults as every other beings in the galaxy.
But what Palpatine had said was exaggerated: the Jedi wanting to take over the Republic? The Order served the Senate and the Republic, there was no way the Council would attempt to do something so... traitorous.
Anakin shook his head: it was useless to think about it, now. He would ask Obi-wan for counsel: the young Jedi knew that his Master was wiser than he seemed.
"Ani?"
He glanced at his wife and found her watching him with a determined look.
"Really, what is troubling you?"
He smiled and shook his head.
"Nothing...Jedi matters."
Padmé arched an eyebrow but then looked back at Leia, who was finishing nursing from her mother's breast.
Anakin sat down near them and enjoyed the comfortable silence in the apartment.
"…I'm sorry Masters Jedi, but I find the situation still not sanguigne enough for me to lay off my special powers: you must understand."
"We understand perfectly, Chancellor." Said darkly Mace Windu, as he stood up to leave the room.
"It's unbelievable!" Plo Koon exploded while the Jedi delegation was in the turbolift. "He still refuses! How could it be?"
"I don't like how Palpatine dismissed us and our concerns." Said Luminara Unduli, her black lips stretched in a frown.
"As Master Joda said, there's nothing we can do in this moment: we have to be patient and wait." The other five Jedi - Plo Koon, Luminara Unduli, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Kit Fisto and Sasae Tiin – watched Mace Windu as he rubbed his chin with his gaze lost in front of him.
"There must be a way to unmask him." The Jedi Master was murmuring.
As the six Jedi Masters entered the hangar, they saw Obi-wan running towards them.
"Masters." He greeted when he reached the delegation.
"Master Kenobi... so, how did it go?" asked Windu.
"The children are both strong in the Force." Said Obi-wan after a moment of hesitation. "The male more than the female." He admitted reluctantly: he hadn't been very happy when the Council had ordered him to go and find out if the Force was with Senator Amidala's children like Yoda had felt. Both Anakin and Padmé were his friends and he felt like he was betraying them.
"Mh. Well, we'll have to see their midichlorian counts before deciding which child we are going to take."
"Have you seen Skywalker, Obi-wan?" Kit Fisto asked, his long green tentacles swishing behind him. "We know he had an appointment with the Chancellor."
"Yes, I've seen him: he was checking Senator Amidala's security cameras." Obi-wan inwardly winced at his lie: this was going to be more difficult than he thought. "He looked shaken and said to me that he needed to talk to me."
The six Jedi looked at each other then turned back to the younger Jedi in front of them.
"Let's hope he found something."
"The Chancellor still refused to lay off his emergency powers?"
"Yes." Ki-Adi-Mundi answered dryly.
Obi-wan shook his head and sighed: the situation was beginning to get more and more exhausting and confusing; he was starting to believe that Mace Windu was right about the Chancellor being the Dark Lord of the Sith.
"I asked Master Yoda to call another emergency meeting of the Council: it's time we start to think how to act."
While the others nodded, Obi-wan couldn't help but feel a shiver snaking down his spine at Windu's words.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
"You wanted to see me, Master Yoda?"
The old Master raised his head and nodded to the newcomer, pointing a green hand to the comfy chair in front of him.
"Master Skywalker: please, sit down, will you?"
Anakin obeyed and watched quizzically the other Jedi, wondering why he had called him for a private appointment.
They stayed silent for a few minutes, Anakin waiting patiently – for once – for Yoda to begin talking.
Eventually, the green alien opened his eyes and observed him quietly.
"As Obi-wan probably told you, doubts the Council has: about your relationship with Senator Padmé Amidala from Naboo."
Anakin almost sucked his breath in wonder. "My old Master hinted something..." he admitted reluctantly, knowing it was useless to lie to Yoda.
"Obi-wan loves you too much: like a brother." Yoda sighed. "I know feel something for the Senator, you do: not hidded it very well, you did, when you began your training."
All Anakin could do was listen silently to the old Master, hoping he hadn't found out the real truth: even after all his plans about leaving the Jedi Order, he had promised Padmé he would wait. And he wasn't ready to go: not yet.
"I believe you still feel something for her: but how deep it is, that I don't know." Yoda's eyes were penetrating. "What I believe is that confess your feelings, you did, three years ago, when to protect her, we sent you."
The younger Jedi willed his heart to beat regularly.
"What did she answer?"
'Oh Force! Please, forgive me... '
"She told me..." he gulped "She told me she would always be my friend, but couldn't be more. I'm a Jedi and she knew it was forbidden for me to love: we decided it was the right and the wisest thing to do. So, we just share a deep friendship." There: he said it.
Yoda nodded, but his wrinkled face was frowning.
"But not disappeared, your feelings have."
"My feelings for her will never change, Master Yoda: but I know I musn't act on them." Anakin said, trying to look, to feel, the most sincere and truthful possible.
Yoda searched deep into his mind, but Anakin was quick to raise his shields, and wasn't going to let them down anytime soon.
After a few minutes the green Master nodded and smiled gently at the younger Jedi.
"Heartless, the Jedi are not: your feelings do you honour, but most important is, for a Jedi, to control them."
Anakin stood and bowed his head.
"I'll take my leave then, Master."
As he walked in the hangar of the temple, towards his speeder, he wiped the sweat out of his forehead.
'So close, so close..." he thought, trying to calm himself.
Obi-wan looked to his right, noting Anakin's seat empty: he frowned and wondered what was taking him so long. Usually Anakin was on time when the Council met.
But when the huge doors of the Council Chamber closed, an alarm went on in his head.
Mace Windu was the first one to speak.
"You all are probably wondering why you have been called for yet another special session." His dark eyes sweeped over the room. "Today, Master Koon, Master Unduli, Master Mundi, Master Fisto, Master Tiin and myself went to see the Chancellor, to ask him – again – to lay off his emergency powers."
He shut up, letting the words sink into every Master's head.
"He refused."
The Jedi started whispering among themselves in worried and hushed murmurs.
"I am strongly led to believe," Windu continued, "...that Palpatine is the Dark Lord of the Sith."
Now there was only silence in great Council Chamber as some of the Jedi watched the dark-skinned Master in stunned amazement.
"I think it's time..." Windu said in a low voice. "...for the Chosen One to bring balance in the Force."
Obi-wan closed his eyes, rubbing them with one hand: the moment he had feared about, had finally come.
"So you want him to betray a man whom he believes a friend and a mentor without having any proof of Sidious' real identity?" he asked tiredly, fatigue filling his body.
Mace turned to stare at him gravely. "It's too dangerous for the Sith Lord to remain free in the galaxy: he needs to be eliminated."
"You make it sound so simple." Obi-wan retorted. "But it's not like that for Anakin: he's more loyal to people than principles, as you all know." And he looked at each Master in the room: they wriggled uncomfortably in their chairs as they recognized inwardly that Knight Skywalker was often rash and would do anything to save a friend.
"We need to show him undeniably proof that Palpatine is Sidious and that he had tricked us and betrayed the Republic: only then he will help us." Obi-wan lowered his head, knowing that there was no way of making Anakin Skywalker do something if he didn't want to.
"Anakin asked for my counsel: he had an appointment with the Chancellor this afternoon and he seemed to be disturbed after it." Now he looked straight at Mace, understanding that he would be the most difficult to convince. "Let me speak with him first."
The dark-skinned Master closed his eyes, then opened them and turned to Yoda: the old green alien had been silent most of the meeting, listening to the younger Jedi discuss. Now, he nodded and smiled at Obi-wan.
"Right is young Master Kenobi. Talked to Skywalker, I did, this afternoon: and his soul was worried." Yoda glanced to Mace. "We must not act carelessly. Killing the Chancellor, a bad move could be." He knocked the floor with his can. "Master Kenobi speak with Skywalker, will: then, decide, we will."
Obi-wan nodded his thanks to the wise old Master, sighing in relief.
(to be continued)
AN: Boring, boring chapter: but it was necessary.
Many people are asking me if Anakin is going to turn...well, let's say that I usually love happy-ending stories. Does this answer your questions? ;)
Review Responses
Eilianu, Coral Candy, Anakin's Girl 4eva, PhantomFan13, Mei fa-chan, bittersweetbloodbaby, Cataracta, Eriksleadinglady, MeyaRose, Emily, Snow Lepord, FelsGoddess, dmitchell, LaPapillon, Celtic Cross, Warior, AgnesSophia, HanyouRyn, Vivilp182, Phoenix, pinaykay, rockyrelay, Jokerisdaking.
Janina: Zak will return in a few chapters...and will create havoc! I've never read EU books because I can't find them...but I want to read them,
Eleonora: seee, secondo te lo faccio diventare Vader?
shiningforce081492: Thank you very much, your review was heartwarming... the new story I'm writing, Shadowed Light, will have some hot scenes in it... :hint, hint:
Vatel: I WANT A 'SITH HAPPENS' SHIRT! I want it! Aaaaaaaaarggggggghhhhh!
Kei-kun, jeannie, wes, bdayornite, Adane Skmi Skywalker Vader, PadmeStar (Thank you for your very nice review )