Redemption

CHAPTER TWENTY:

Meanwhile in Senator Amidala's Apartment...

Anakin sat up in his place from the sofa as Padmè re-entered the apartment. "Have Obi-Wan and Opal both been here?" He asked sharply. Having grown up learning Anakin's mannerisms rather well, Padmè took notice of the bitterness in his voice when she nodded in response.

"They came by together this morning. They're both worried about you, Ani. Just like I am." Padmè replied. Opal had expressed the deepest concern out of the two Jedi Masters, confessing that she had seen dark visions while in exile of things that were to come in their future. "Anakin is in the center of the darkness that has yet to come, Padmè. I only hope you are not there to see it."

"I feel lost."

"Lost? What do you mean?"

Anakin sighed deeply as he paced the length of the bedroom windows, his eyes flickering down to the black bracelet that sat on his wrist, a birthday gift from Opal long ago after he'd passed The Trials. "Obi Wan and the Council don't trust me." He said. "Of all the people, Opal is the only one that ever fights for me and I'm tired of being ridiculed."

"Don't trust you? They trust you with their lives!" Padmè exclaimed. "You are one of the two reasons that Opal came back here! How can you say that they don't trust you?"

"Something is happening. I'm not the Jedi I should be, Padmè. I want more." Ah, there it was. That overwhelming thirst for power and the unattainable that he'd had since he was a boy. "And I know I shouldn't.. But my judgement is beginning to grow dark. I keep thinking that Opal is going to turn on me along with Master Obi-Wan and I will be left alone." He buried his head in his hands. "So alone." Padme's eyes softened as she rested her hands against her husbands arms.

"You expect too much of yourself." She murmured. "You know as well as I do that neither Opal or Obi Wan would hurt you purposefully. Opal is like the sister you've never had, Ani. They raised you from a small boy. For Opal to hurt you... it would be devastating. I don't think she's capable of that."

Kenobi Apartment

Opal smiles as she stretched herself across the sofa, the warm Coruscant summer breeze flowing through the open balcony doors. She was desperately missing Obi-Wan who had been sent out on another mission and donned the persona of General Kenobi, but if he was saving planets and species from Separatist rule, she was okay with him being gone to play the hero of the story. "Goodnight my love." She whispered, lightly kissing her wedding ring before allowing her eyes to close and sleep to overtake her.

Over the course of the next several days, Opal found herself more and more at peace the longer she sat in silence. There was no distraction other then when Padmè or Anakin came to visit, but when the young Senator came over the second time, she knew something was wrong the second she stepped into her apartment. "Something is wrong with Anakin." The younger woman cried out, burying her face in her hands. "He's so desperate for power and I can feel something bad stirring, Opal. I just want to keep my husband safe."

After her confession, Opal rebuilt her shields and fortified them to the best of her ability to block the fear that began to creep back into her mind when she dwelt on the possibility of Anakin turning to the Dark Side. If it happened while Obi-Wan was gone on Utapau, it would crush his already fragile spirit. He had already been through so much pain the past few years and to have him lose his padawan, the only brother he was ever going to have, would kill him. It would be the nail in the coffin that had been built when her uncle had died.

She was just praying it didn't come to that.

Padmè had decided to stay the night in the guest room. claiming the Anakin knew she was at the apartment with Opal and fell asleep minutes after her head hit the pillow. Opal felt her stomach clench and then roll and shot up from the sofa to run to the fresher where she then found herself curled over the toilet.

"P-Padmè!!"

"Are you alright?" The brunette exclaimed, hobbling in her direction as Opal continued to vomit into the toilet. "You haven't eaten bad food, have you? Is it a stomach flu?" Opal shook her head and gripped the sides of the toilet with white fingers as her head began to spin. "I hate to ask this. Do you think you could be pregnant, Opal?"

Opal and Obi-Wan had been together in a.. rather passionate night just before he'd been sent on his mission for the Jedi Council. They hadn't been careful, so it was a possibility. "I'm-" Opal started as she swallowed the bile threatening to rise in her throat. "I am not ready to be a mother."