Anakin was distraught with so many emotions at once that he felt he should explode were he to hold them in any longer. Darkness clouded his better judgment and sensibilities within his self-made prison of solitude. He should have gone with them, rather than left to wait. Patience had never been, and never would be, one of his strong points.

Palpatine's words echoed in his mind, taunting him mercilessly. "...rid of me and all chance to prevent the death of your wife..." He struggled with those words as that horrible vision clouded his mind. He moved around restlessly, looking through the window and facing the apartment, dreading the sun as it descended beneath Coruscant's metropolitan skyscape.

He saw her in his premonitions again, her pained image reeling through in his mind as a tear escaped his eyes. For what seemed like an eternity he stood there gazing through that cursed window. The most painful memories of his entire existence pierced his heart:

There was his mother with her kind and gentle face, edged with sadness at the loss of her son, but so glad that he would be safe...then, his mother again, knocking on Death's very door while he held her in his arms...'Ani? Is that you? You look so handsome.' She smiled for the last time before struggling with last words she could somehow never finish. 'I love - I love-'

Gone. Dead. Never to return.

Anakin's brilliant blue eyes were brimming with tears. He swallowed and felt the large lump that constricted his throat. The pain was unbearable, thinking of how many moments she would have left if he couldn't help her. How many more moments, until she joins my mother? Heedless, Anakin rushed to the dock and slipped languidly into the cockpit of his starfighter.

He sped like a bat out of hell, bent on senseless heroism. He made haste on arriving at the Capital, taking what seemed like forever to reach the Chancellor's office. Panting, he opened the doors to the chamber. Strewn across the floor were the dead bodies of Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar and SaeSee Tin. Horrified, Anakin glided through the hall to a startling scene:

The Chancellor was pinned on the bottom of the shattered window sill, with Mace Windu's purple lightsaber a mere finger's width away from his neck.

Anakin heard a relieved and triumphant Master Windu. "You are under arrest, my lord."

"Anakin, I told you it would come to this: The Jedi are taking over!"

Master Windu interjected. "The opression of the Sith, will never return. You, have lost!"

The Chancellor hesitated, but acquired an eerie tone. "No...no...you have lost!"

Beads of sweat gathered profusely on Anakin's brow as his eyes flitted back and forth between the two. He felt on the brink of tears for so much pressure, trying to speak when nothing came out. Instead his breath was labored and the strain was dizzying, so dizzying that he could barely hear the pleas of the two in front of him, nor the conflict that had been sparked. The pressure of lightning against lightsaber was so great that it flapped his robes, yet nevertheless he drew closer. Closer, only to hear feigned pleas of weakness.

"He's...a traitor..."

"No, he is the traitor!" yelled Master Windu, struggling.

"I have the power, to save the one you love...you must choose!"

Anakin noticed the break in his voice, the face that was diminishing into a mess of wrinkles, and the hollow look in his cheeks - he was getting weaker, it seemed. As Anakin witnessed the conflict before him, his mind was going through an internal conflict: What must I sacrifice? The love of my life, or the Jedi Order? When voiced in such a way it seemed easier to choose, but for Anakin, that just made it worse.

Master Windu interrupted those thoughts. "Don't listen to him, Anakin!"

Anakin's brain was going into overdrive, and his whole body felt immobilized by the scene that lay before him. I have to think fast, he thought, the Chancellor is getting weaker.

The Chancellor did indeed have the appearance of weakness: Palpatine trembled with his head to the floor, and the strength of his force-lightning was dissipating. His voice was a lethargic wail. "I can't hold on any longer..."

Anakin's expression was pensive and strained as ever, he felt like the whole world was crashing down on him, or as if he had completely forgotten how to breathe.

Then, he began to stutter in a frail whisper. "I...I...I'm too weak...Anakin, help me, help me!"

Palpatine's strength and voice were fading. "I-I can't hold on any longer." The lightning ceased as its creator lay, shriveled and decrepit.

Resolute, Master Windu raised his lightsaber. "I am going to end this, once and for all."

Gaining his voice, tremulous as it was, Anakin argued. He grasped at the first thing that came into his head - he was basically groping in the dark. "You can't - he must stand trial!"

Master Windu could not believe the boy's stupidity, and looked at him gravely. "He has control of the Senate and the Courts - he's too dangerous to be left alive!"

Another timely feeble whisper escaped Palpatine. "Ah...I'm too weak. Don't kill me, please!"

"It's not the Jedi way!" Anakin was near begging now, and he had taken out his lightsaber. Yet, as the other Jedi gave him what turned into a dark and very dangerousglare, Anakin began to digress.

The glaring Jedi Master looked at the evil Sith Lord across from him. "This is the end for you, my lord."

As Mace Windu raised his lightaber again, a tingling sensation overtook Anakin. He tried to ignore it as he watched the purple blade descend slowly: closer, closer...almost there...ACHOO!

Meanwhile...

Padme had nothing to do all day, being that most of her activities had been postponed, due to her rotund abdomen. Lately, she had lots of spare time, in which she dwelled on things that worried her or, she would spend time with her husband. Yet, somehow these two things merged together, because her main worry was her husband. Times were tense nowadays, and the Clone Wars had come to their peak. Padme had always feared this: the anxiety, the death and most of all, how people got so involved with the war that patience ceased to be a virtue but instead became a necessity. Now it seemed, all she was doing, was waiting. Waiting for the birth of her children; waiting for her husband; waiting for this horrible war to end; waiting for Chancellor Palpatine to give up emergency powers; waiting to go back home; waiting to spend time with the one she loved; waiting, for the time when peace would reign once again.

And what frustrated her most, was that she was helpless to do otherwise.

Padme Naberrie Amidala, who had once been a Queen, now a senator, was not used to being helpless. It just didn't suit her. aving been so involved with politics had always enabled her to be denied of helplessness. But Padme's mind soon drifted back to her husband, and even though she was not Force-sensitive, she knew something was troubling him, hurting him. Ever since learning of her pregnancy, he had been distant, holding back something that hurt him so much he didn't want to tell her. Salty tears cascaded down her cheeks, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, trembling, but not able to stem the flow.

And why?

Because it hurts me too.

AN: I'm trying to leave a cliffhanger here, you'll see. Review please!