04/01-08/08
Redemption
When Padmé saw him coming, she knew something was wrong. The dark silhouette against the crimson sky was only a visual confirmation of the ominous sentience lurking inside her. When she saw him turn and run toward her starcruiser, she brushed aside her fear and hurried to meet him. When he embraced her, to her consternation, she could sense his distraction and frustration. When they pulled apart, they still clung to each other's arms, but Anakin's grip was loose. Still, his love for her was only buried, not destroyed. "I saw your ship," he informed her. "What are you doing out here?"
"I was so worried about you," she admitted, still trembling a bit. Her breathing quickened with her heartbeat at the strange new light in his eyes. "Obi-wan… told me terrible things." She shook her head as she spoke, wishing desperately that her conjectures were wrong.
Anger, tinged with fear, was all too evident in Anakin's eyes, though his voice was only beginning to develop a distinct edge. "What things?"
Against her yearning, she forced herself to list the inconceivable accusations. "He said… that you've turned to the Dark Side…" Was that guilt behind his mask of calmness? He lowered his eyes. Padmé continued, "that you…killed younglings!" That look on his face… he's hiding something. He's shutting out his true love! Does he know it?
"Obi-wan is trying to turn you against me," Anakin assured her, though she knew it was not true. The mystery lay in what had led Anakin to come to such a ludicrous conclusion.
"He cares about us," Padmé reminded the deluded man before her. The anger in his eyes strengthened.
"Us?" It was nearly a hiss, more accusatory than curious.
"He knows." All she knew to do, the only way to save him, was to tell him the truth. She adjusted her grip on his triceps several times, massaging his tensing muscles. "He wants to help you." Anakin smiled, a mirthless smile, and Padmé knew that she was in over her head. "Anakin," she teared up, "all I want is your love."
"Love won't save you, Padmé." He was slipping away. "Only my new powers can do that." New powers? Power was what was stealing Anakin away to begin with!
"But at what cost?" the senator countered. "You're a good person; don't do this!" There was still good in him.
"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother." His voice was calm, but the wall around his heart was not going to give easily. "I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of, and I'm doing it for you – to protect you." Each second was leading him further into the darkness.
There was time for one last attempt before he shut Padmé's love out completely. She tried to mask her despair as she spoke. "Come away with me," she begged him, reaching up to stroke his hair. "Help me raise our child." For a moment, his intensity softened, but the struggle was not over. "Leave everything else behind while we still can!"
"Don't you see?" His voice was soft again, but not with love. "We don't have to run away any more! I have brought peace to the Republic! I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I – I can overthrow him!" Knowing that peace was far from reality, Padmé realized the extent of her husband's delusions. The light in his eyes was hungry for power, angry at life itself. As Padmé fought to keep her hope, she backed away from the twisted man before her, the man who was taking over Anakin. His intensity returned as he continued. "And together, you and I can rule the galaxy – make things the way we want them to be!" Even his face seemed foreign now.
Padmé shook her head as she spoke her mind. "I don't believe what I'm hearing. Obi-wan was right. You've changed." It was the hardest thing to tell him, but she had to know the truth – to see his reaction.
Anakin corrected his posture, his body language conveying the anger and determination within him. No more did he attempt to sugar-coat anything. Obi-wan was the biggest obstacle in his life, and the darkness left no room for a stubborn Jedi Master. He was supposed to be dead, anyway. "I don't want to hear any more about Obi-wan," he announced. His anger spiraled out of control. "The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me!"
Padmé tried to choke back her tears as she watched the man she had married disappear. "I don't know you anymore. Anakin," she spoke between sobs, "you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!" There was no use trying not to cry. She couldn't live without him, not after so long! What had changed? Why were Anakin's visions so selective, so negatively influential? Where were his crazy ideas coming from? The next was the most ludicrous of all.
"Because of Obi-wan?"
"Because of what you've done… what you plan to do," Padmé corrected him. The fire in his eyes was growing, all hope diminishing. "Stop, stop now!" Begging was her last option. "Come back! I love you!"
Anakin froze.
So that was basically a recap of what happened when we first see Mustafar in Ep. 3. Now we find ourselves at the part where I change the story and it goes in a totally different direction than in the movie. Enjoy!