THE SKYWALKERS: book one

CHAPTER TWO - Painful Truths

"Anakin, you're scaring me," Padmé said timidly, sitting down across from Anakin on one of the sofas.

"Don't be afraid," he tried to soothe her. "I will protect you."

"Can you please just explain to me what's going on?"

Anakin sighed. "I've done something, Padmé, something terrible."

She laid a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he still wondered if he had the strength to admit all that he'd done.

"I...I betrayed the Jedi. I swore myself to Palpatine."

"What?" Padmé's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'swore yourself'?"

"Palpatine is the Sith lord the Jedi had been looking for all along."

Padmé gasped. "But Anakin, why? Why would you do that?"

"I was going to save you," he looked down at his lap, ashamed. "I can't lose you."

"Did it not occur to you that by going to the Dark Side you would lose me?" Padmé stood, facing away from him. "How very selfish of you. That you would turn your back on your fellow Jedi for your own desires."

Anakin's expression hardened, and he rose to his feet. "Now wait just a minute. I'm selfish? I'm selfish for wanting to save my wife over people who abduct children and who didn't let me save my mother?"

"You're selfish for wanting to save your wife over the galaxy," Padmé snapped.

Anakin staggered back, plopping back down on the couch. "I can't let you die," he said softly. "You're my angel—my everything."

Padmé turned back around. "If you saved me by being a Sith, I would resent you for the rest of my life."

Anakin groaned and put his head in his hands. I can't win. He didn't look up when he felt a dip in the couch beside him and Padmé's gentle but strong arms wrapped around him.

"I love you, Ani," she whispered. "So much. I don't want to see you go down that dark path."

"As I love you," he turned and pressed his lips to her forehead. "And I couldn't do it. I wasn't strong enough to join the Dark Side. I couldn't kill the younglings in the Temple."

Padmé rubbed slow circles on his back. "To me, that makes you the strongest person I know."

Anakin leaned into her and enjoyed her warmth against his for a while before standing. "I have to set things right."

"How?" Padmé placed her hands on her baby bump.

"By killing Palpatine."

"No! Anakin, you can't!"

"You have so little faith in me?" Anakin smirked, but Padmé didn't laugh. She stood and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"You can't go!"

"I must," Anakin looked off to the distance, out the window at the rising sun and the ships zooming by in its dull light. "And you have to get as far away from here as possible. Leave the planet. Go somewhere safe. I'll meet you there."

Padmé shook her head. "I'm not leaving yet. The Senate is still intact, democracy may still prevail. If my voice can change anything, I have to give it my best shot."

Now Anakin shook his head. "I won't let you anywhere near that bantha fodder fire."

"I'm not asking your permission." Padmé's mouth was set in a hard line.

Anakin sighed. "Just please be careful. Palpatine already doesn't trust you."

"If your," she jabbed a finger at his chest. "plan succeeds, there will be no Palpatine to have at the session."