Title: Consequences of Betrayal and Anger

Author: sparky8me2

Summary: So completely AU it'll make your head spin. Loosely based on an rp I did with a couple friends, and Padme's voice just sort of... stuck in my head. Anakin does a lot of Not Very Nice Things, because Jealousy? Very ugly, very much of the Dark Side. This is my first Star Wars fic in a very long time. Please be gentle. Pleeeeaaassee?

Disclaimer: No one belongs to me. I've nothing worth suing for anyway.

I don't know what's gotten into Anakin, but something is very wrong, and I think I have a very good idea who's behind it.

It started with a lack of trust. A lot of jealousy. Obi-Wan and I were talking and suddenly we heard him yelling- he seemed to be talking to someone that wasn't there. He said something about a dragon. We tried to help, but he was so agitated we were just making it worse...

So, as we were asked, we left him there in peace because the more we tried to speak with him, the more we tried to calm him, the worse he was getting. So outside Anakin's room, Obi-Wan informed me of what Dooku had told him on Genosis. That the Senate was under control of a Sith Lord. That that same Sith Lord might be influencing Anakin.

So inside, Anakin heard every word of our conversation.

And everything started going downhill.

Jealousy, accusations... and so much anger...

Obi-Wan warned me. Anakin came to speak with him- accused us of speaking behind his back. Told him he shouldn't be at my apartment unless he was there in the first place. Ridiculous. Obi-Wan is my friend. Who does he think he is? Saying who I can and cannot have in my own home?

Funny how your perception changes under such stresses.

Anakin... How're you feeling?

How should I be feeling when you and Obi-Wan are talking about me behind my back?

Never a good way to start a conversation. From there, things only got worse. He tried telling me that obviously we aren't being honest with him when Obi-Wan "is over more times than he needs to be" and that we spend more time talking than I do with Anakin. I tried to keep my anger in check, although I wanted to scream at him for suggesting such things- he knows how I feel about him! He knows I love him!

He told me he was leaving, and said that the Council didn't need him and obviously I didn't either since I had Obi-Wan. I tried to reason with him. I tried to tell him that I loved him, but he didn't believe me.

And that hurt more than anything else he had ever said to me. I think that solidified in my head, the idea that there was something else at work. The Anakin I know and love would never be so harsh. I knew in my heart that my Anakin would never doubt my love. No matter what. No matter how angry. I stood there, hurt and bewildered and shocked into silence as I tried to recover my thought process enough to try to continue reasoning with him. To try to convince him not to leave. That whatever troubled him so could be worked out. But he wouldn't have any of it and walked away.

And I ran straight to Obi-Wan.

The irony of which didn't strike me until later. But he assured me that Anakin would not leave. That first, he would go confide in his friend the Chancellor, and that Palpatine would find a way to convince him to stay. Thank goodness for small favours. We discussed the matter for awhile and decided mutually that it would be best to both give Anakin the space he needed and allow him to believe that we were no longer speaking with each other. We would both continue in our search to discover the cause of this madness and have contact only in secret and only when necessary. As we parted in public for what I was certain was the last time, I found myself grieved for this new need of secrecy and comforted in the knowledge that my husband wouldn't leave the planet. If only because of Chancellor Palpatine.

For the next several days, all of my free time was spent on research. Reviewing my own notes, and every official document I could get my hands on. Anything that could potentially hold the answers I was looking for. Signs of anything out of the ordinary in entirely extraordinary times. Essentially, a needle in a haystack.

During times that I could read no more, when my focus threatened to waver. I took walks by myself to try to clear my head. I remained largely undisturbed and my thoughts so often wandered to the task at hand I doubt I would have been much company for anyone wishing to speak with me anyway.

Until I saw Anakin. So Obi-Wan was correct. He was still on Coruscant. For that, I was glad. The conversation was uncomfortable. We spoke not as husband and wife, not as two people very much in love, but distanced from each other. As though our relationship was irreparably damaged. Which, although I wouldn't be fully aware of it until much later, it was. He imparted to me, however, an important piece of information. He told Palpatine about the conversation Obi-Wan and I had outside his room when he was acting so strangely. The Supreme Chancellor knew of our suspicions and likely knew we would both be looking into the matter.

Another bombshell dropped on my head. Anakin assured me that Palpatine felt as he had, that the idea was ridiculous. After all, the Jedi Council would KNOW if evil was lurking in the Republic. But my heart sank. If there was a Sith lord was excersizing some control over the Senate... What better way to do it than through the man we granted emergency powers to for the duration of this war? Thanks to Anakin, thanks to all of his suspicions and all of the faith he's put in the Chancellor... if Obi-Wan's theory is true, then the Sith now know...

And suddenly it hits me that Obi-Wan and I could be in a great deal of danger, and that there may now be avenues of research cut off to me.

I quickly excused myself and headed back towards my apartment. Obi-Wan needed to be warned. I wish it were as easy as just using a comlink, but that was a risk I couldn't afford to take. It'd have to wait until I got to my apartment and could ask Artoo to send a coded message to Arfour. Both droids could delete all traces of the message easily.

"Padme, hello." Bail was smiling upon his approach. His expression quickly turned to worry, however, when he saw that I, on the other hand was not. "What's wrong?"

"I..." Without anyone else to talk to, I wanted to tell him everything. But of course, I couldn't. Telling him everything would mean having to explain about my marriage to Anakin and how everything was falling down around my ears and... No. They were secrets I couldn't allow to be exposed. "It's complicated."

"More complicated than politics?" He asked with a smile. "Try me."

I told him it was much more complicated, and he asked me again to tell him. I couldn't force my thought-process to make an excuse not to, so instead I focused on looking for a way to tell him that wouldn't be saying too much. The truth was, I needed someone to talk to. "A... good friend of mine has been acting very strangely as of late... I'm concerned." It was the best I could come up with.

Thankfully he didn't ask who it was- I wasn't prepared for an answer to that. Or at least, not a satisfying one. Instead, just, "Strangely? How?"

So I told him. I told him there was a lot of jealousy of my relationship with others, I told him there was a loss of trust. A lot of anger, and that I didn't have an explanation for any of it. Just having someone to listen to a great deal of pressure off, it seemed, and set me considerably more at ease. I didn't wish to speak any more of it, so I made a decision to change the subject. To ask a question casually that would come to place Bail and another in as much danger as Obi-Wan and I.

"Have you noticed anything strange going on in the Senate lately?"

He commented on everything being strange lately, with the war going on and asked more questions that I couldn't answer. I told him honestly, I wasn't certain what I was looking for. It was brought up by someone else and I decided to look into it.

We moved the conversation inside to my apartment, for obvious reasons, but I still wasn't able to satisfy all of Bail's questions. I apologized for not being able to give him any details I didn't have and told him that I was just asking if he might have noticed something I've overlooked. He promised to look into it for me and gained my permission to enlist the help of another Senator he knew could be trusted.

After he left, somehow, I felt a lot better with the knowledge that I wouldn't be searching for answers alone. If there was Sith involvement, then certainly Bail would be able to go unsuspected long enough to be able to uncover vital information.

Although, even at that point, I began to worry for the safety of my friends...