Brightness
It was just after dawn when the two young lovers went to their bedroom balcony to greet the new day. Even though Anakin had his quarters in the Jedi Temple and Padmé had her official residences, this, the beautiful retreat in Naboo's Lake Country, was the place they considered home.
Anakin never tired of the rolling green hills ringed around the lake. He and his beloved wife didn't speak. They just listened to the familiar morning birdsongs. It didn't matter what else was happening in the universe. Here there was peace and nothing else but the simplest things the heart could desire.
Padmé held him close in her arms, her eyes closed, and her cheek resting on his chest. Anakin could smell the wildflowers in her hair. He looked down and yet again marveled at her belly swollen with child, pressing gently against him. Their child. The baby was already leaving a powerful impression in the Force. He would be as powerful as his father, Anakin just knew it. Anakin grinned with paternal pride as he envisioned training his son one day.
Padmé on the other hand, kept insisting she was carrying a girl. She offered all kinds of Nubian wives' tales as evidence along with her sister's and her mother's experiences giving birth to daughters.
Boy or girl, I love you no matter what, Anakin thought, placing his left hand on Padmé's belly. The baby inside turned and kicked, eliciting a gasp from the mother and an "ow" from the father-to-be. "Feisty one," he muttered as Padmé chuckled.
Anakin mused on how good was his fortune. All I ever wanted, all I ever needed, is here in my arms, he thought. He had the love of a beautiful angel, a baby on the way. What else could there be?
There is the Dark Side, a raspy voice insisted.
Anakin blinked at this intrusion into his idyll. Padmé frowned and looked up at her husband. "Ani? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, my love." He closed his eyes and pulled Padmé closer. He wasn't going to let anything interrupt this moment. Nothing would disrupt his happiness.
Only power can bring you true fulfillment, hissed the voice again.
Go away, Anakin thought. I have what I want and I already am powerful.
But you weren't powerful enough to save what you love, the voice argued back.
The retreat, the glorious spring morning, his wife, and their unborn child faded away. They all dissipated like fog, leaving only darkness and the automatic rasping of a respirator.
Let go of those dreams, the voice continued to counsel. They are the dreams of the weak and the foolish. You are a Sith now, not that weak pawn of the Jedi.
The voice sounded like his Master Sidious. But it wasn't.