34He had been here for a couple of hours, listening intently to Dormé's descriptions of the past three years in which his friend had lived another life. Obi-Wan had always known that Anakin's affections for Padmé had been more than friendly, but he had certainly never suspected Padmé's sense of duty and responsibility to allow a marriage. He had always thought she would be more controlled. Apparently, he'd been wrong. About everything. And now he was going to pay for his mistakes; the entire galaxy would.
"I will do everything I can to save them," he said, more to himself than to Dormé.
She stared at him strongly. "I know you will, Master Kenobi. May the Force be with you."
Obi-Wan slunk into the seat of his starfighter once more as Arfour emitted a querulous beep. "And may the Force be with you." With that, the domed top of the fighter secured itself with an airtight squeal and the craft shot into the sky within seconds. Alone in the absolute silence, Obi-Wan sighed.
Padmé's eyelids began to flutter open to less than familiar surroundings. Something cold and hard was pressing against her mouth and it had even colder liquid inside. Someone was trying to give her water, or so she hoped.
"Anakin?"
Lack of food, water, and sleep had combined to worsen her already weak condition. Leaving the hospital had been one of her less sensible ideas, a fact which she felt with the utmost acuteness at the moment. Speaking of the moment, she was laying under the covers of the bed with her husband hovering over her.
"Padmé. You fainted. The twins are in the nursery. And until you feel better I won't let you trouble yourself to see them."
She attempted to sit up, but was gently pushed back down by Anakin's mechanical hand. "Ani, please. Luke and Leia will need to be fed."
"Don't worry about the twins. Just rest, my love."
Her mouth opened to protest further, but she felt her own tired body melding into the mattress. She mentally told herself that Anakin was their father, he was capable of taking care of them while she regained her energy. The way that she had to remind herself of the fact disturbed her, but she was almost too weary to think very coherently at all. Vaguely, she could sense her husband's hand cover her own.
A few moments later and she asked, "Ani, what's happening?"
"The Chancellor has uncovered the Jedi's plot. They were trying to overthrow the Senate and the Republic to take over. Chancellor Palpatine delegated me the task of stopping them, as well as ending the Separatists."
"But?" There was more to that in his voice.
"But now he has declared himself ruler of the galaxy. I'm afraid that despite the Jedi's plotting and the corruption of the Separatists, there is still more work to do."
Padmé couldn't believe what she was hearing. None of it made a single bit of sense to her. The Jedi, plotting to take over the galaxy? The very idea was ludicrous. Even worse was what Palpatine had done, although the news did not surprise her quite as much. In fact, from a political perspective everything made sense all but the Jedi's alleged treason.
"Ani, what are you going to do?"
Without hesitation, he replied, "Overthrow him."
"What?" His wife's head turned toward him sharply, her eyebrows narrowing. "Anakin, what are you thinking? If he has appointed himself as Emperor then you need nothing short of an army to be able to do that! You don't think that you can just walk into his office and arrest him, do you?"
He looked her straight in the eye with a chillingly calm expression. "When I said overthrow, I meant that he was too dangerous to be kept alive. Did you know that he murdered Master Windu?"
Her unoccupied right hand flew to her eyes, covering them in frustration. She had been gone from the rest of the world for a day and all nine levels of Corellian hell had broken loose. Her voice trembling, she said, "No. No, you didn't."
Anakin stroked the back of her left hand with his thumb. "Now you can see why it needs to be done. But not yet. Not before I can know that you and the twins will be safe."
It was her turn to squint at him. "What do you mean?"
"Well eventually I'll have to leave you here and return to Coruscant. I need to know that you're strong enough to stay here, hidden for a while."
When Padmé opened her mouth to retort, he held up a silencing finger to her lips. "Rest now, angel." As he kissed her he placed his hand on her forehead. Within seconds she was fast asleep again. Once assured that she was entirely asleep, Anakin retreated back to the docking bay. He needed to make sure that everything was still under control.
"The boy is dangerous Master. They all sense it, why can't you?" He had never been comfortable with the blatant bucking against authority. As much as he had always respected his Master, Obi-Wan could admit to feelings of doubt when it came to the strangely Force-sensitive boy.
"Finding him was the will of the Force, Obi-Wan. There's no doubt about that." What the twenty-five year old man couldn't admit to, not even to himself, were those slight pangs of jealousy.
"Obi-Wan... promise... promise me that you will train the boy..."
"Yes, Master."
"He... is the Chosen One... He... will bring balance... Train him..."
Yet somehow he took the duty without a moment's thought. That was how the world worked - leave it to calm, responsible Obi-Wan. He would take care of it, he knew the rules.
"You will be a Jedi, I promise."
Although somehow, even with all of Qui-Gon's training and the Jedi's strict way of life, Obi-Wan had still managed to lose focus, to lose control. It had truly been like being a single parent with all the responsibilities of a father and a mentor. There had just been so much more to it that he couldn't figure out precisely where he'd made his mistake.
"If only you had paid more attention," chastised Qui-Gon, his beard shaking in disapproval. "You never understood. It was wrong of me, but still, you never understood."
"You never understood...He is the Chosen One...He will bring balance." The Jedi Master repeated over and over...
A series of mechanical beeps and murmurs awakened Obi-Wan from his less than restful attempt at sleep. His ship was approaching Naboo's system and, as he had instructed, his Arfour unit was to wake him from 'charging.' Rubbing his eyes, he checked the coordinates.
"Arfour, activate all cloaking devices and prepare to enter the atmosphere." The astromech whistled shortly in reply.
Shrugging his robes on, Obi-Wan could not shake the haunting words of his former Master. Despite the fact that it had been a dream rather than a prophetic vision, he felt as if it were a sign or forewarning of some sort. He only wished that Qui-Gon would have given him some more substantial advice, like how to solve this galaxy-wide cock up. You never understood was less than enlightening. Of course, there were many things he had never understood about the entire situation, now more than ever.
Above all things, Obi-Wan did not understand why he could not understand what now was so obviously present. He had been a fool to have left Anakin alone on Coruscant when his former Padawan had been so distinctly unsettled. He did not understand Anakin's motives for turning to the Dark Side - there had always been that unsteady nature of his, his uncontrollable anger, and that latent desire for absolute control. Yet he had always though that the younger man's good intentions and caring heart would be his redeeming qualities. It now appeared that not even that had been enough to suppress Anakin's ever-present fear.
The regret stung deep within him for all that was and what he was preparing to do. Finally, his starfighter broke through the clouds. Now all that was left to do was to create a plan that would ensure safety for any innocent parties. He dearly hoped that no unnecessary blood was shed; this was enough tragedy for one day.