Meet You at the Dark Side

Chapter 16 - Settling in Home

Anakin paces back and forth outside the Chancellor's office, wondering what exactly it is he wanted to talk to her about. Something about how she was reacting to the thought of seeing him seems off. She shouldn't have been acting like that, even if she has no love for politicians. Anakin can get her wariness to talk to Palpatine to a point, but her reaction shouldn't have been so outright violent.

Unless...

"Don't underestimate him. He has the entire Jedi Council fooled."

"First off, I don't think you could keep it a secret. Secondly, he'd notice you weren't acting right, and one thing would lead to the next, and it wouldn't be hard for him to figure out."

"You think he needs to know what I told the Council? You think he cares?"

Could Palpatine really be the Sith she's talking about? It would make sense, but that's impossible. Or is it?

Anakin tries to push the unsettling thought to the back of his mind for now. The implications are too disturbing, and frankly impossible. He'll have to contemplate it later. At the very least, there's obviously someone close to him who has ties with the Sith. But if he doubts his friends, who is he supposed to trust? The Jedi, who don't even trust him? Most definitely not.

He feels guilty for considering it almost immediately. The Chancellor was the man who looked out for him when he had no one else.

After what seems like forever, the door finally slides open and Ahsoka walks out, looking slightly shaken, but she seems more angry than anything else. Maybe he shouldn't have let her go in there so quickly. And this is why he can never train a padawan. Not only does he not have time, but he doesn't know how to handle one.

"Are you alright?" he inquires hesitantly.

"If by alright you mean alive, yes, I'm fine," she all but snaps, turning and stalking several feet down the hall before pausing to glare out one of the windows. His doubts from earlier begin to surface in his mind again for a few moments, but he pushes them back. Right now, he needs to deal with this. He can think more about that later.

Anakin eyes her for a long moment, waiting to see if she's going to say or do anything else other than not-really look out the window. She doesn't. This isn't working. The hostility between them is making him exceedingly uncomfortable. Things were never supposed to be like this. On hindsight, he doesn't know why he thought she would trust him, or that it would change the fact that she spent her life as a Sith on the opposing side. Of course, she has serious personal grudges against people. He needs to change the topic, and since she won't talk, he'll just have to start. A sigh escapes him as he approaches her.

"Ahsoka, how about I take you to meet some friends here?" Anakin suggests finally. He gets the feeling she's not going to want to tell him anything else about whatever is wrong right now, so it's probably best to change the topic. He's thought about this before, and he honestly thinks it would do the former Sith apprentice a lot of good to be around Padme. Besides, they're both girls. Padme could help and understand Ahsoka in a lot of ways he couldn't.

"Hopefully not just a Sith puppet," Ahsoka mutters darkly.

Anakin clenches his jaw in irritation. He's trying to help her, but it doesn't seem like she's being very receptive of that right now. "I assure you Padme is not a Sith puppet." He doesn't manage to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Senator Padme Amidala of Naboo?" Ahsoka perks up instantly. Her anger seems to disappear, or at least fade significantly. "You know her? I mean... I guess I knew that. Sort of. But I've always wanted to meet her." There. Good mood perfectly restored. And that seems to be a good sign. If Ahsoka trusts Padme, that means she's completely free of the influence of the Sith. Anakin doesn't risk thinking about what that must mean about Palpatine. Either something is wrong, or Ahsoka holds a serious grudge against him for reasons he can't understand. She's not that kind of person, though, so something must be wrong. Or at least she thinks something is. Though to be fair, Dooku probably did fill her head with a lot of nonsense about the Republic, so...