Anakin, don't let this be true, I think as I see him rush to meet my ship.

Please, don't let it be true, let Obi-Wan be a liar, I pray, already knowing that Obi-Wan would never lie to me.

Without a word to C-3P0, I leave the ship. I pass a storage cabinet, and for an instant, a brief instant, I smell Obi-Wan. His spicy, earthy smell, mixed with the smell of cleanliness. I almost turn back, I almost open the door, I almost look to see if Obi-Wan would truly betray me like that.

But he wouldn't. He would never lie, he would never turn traitor.

And as I run down the landing ramp into Anakin's arms, I pray that Obi-Wan is wrong.

Please, let him be wrong.

But I remember the way Anakin smelled the last time I saw him. There was something metallically wrong in his scent, but it was like perfume to me, seeing him alive again. It didn't bother me, and I almost didn't notice the cruelty in his voice that he tried to hide from me.

"Padmé, I saw your ship," Anakin says softly, embracing me tightly, too tightly.

Please, don't let that be the cruelty I sensed in you last time, love. Please just let that be pure longing.

"Oh, Anakin!" I say aloud, my voice filled with the pain and worry that has been haunting me since I last saw him. I breathe in Anakin's scent, relaxing for a moment, feeling safe, but that metallic smell is there, stronger than ever, and I pull back.

"It's all right. You're safe now," Anakin says gently, concealing that anger I feel inside him. "Why are you out here?" His voice is harsher, more wary, more guarded than I remember.

Please let it all turn out all right, I think. "I was so worried about you. Obi-Wan told me terrible things."

Instantly I can see that something is wrong. His voice is guarded, carefully emotionless. "What things?"

Anakin, please, let it be lies. Let you still be the man I love, the man I married. Please. My voice is hurried, panicked. "That you had turned to the dark side…that you had killed younglings." If he really killed them, if he can return to the Anakin I married, will he one day kill our child?

But I can tell that everything that Obi-Wan told me is true as Anakin pulls back, his eyes flashing, his face gentle. "Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me."

But why would he want to do that? He is like your brother, he is like family to you, to us. Don't be lying to me, Anakin. Don't, please.

"He cares about us."

"Us?" Anakin's voice is angry, and he isn't making an effort to disguise it.

Oh gods, no. Anakin, no. No! "He knows."

"Is Obi-Wan going to protect you? He can't- he can't help you. He's not strong enough."

What are you talking about? When did power become so important to you, Anakin? Was it that time you told me about not being the Jedi you should be? No. Was it when you tried to save your mother? It was before that, wasn't it. It was when you first had those dreams of grandeur, of saving all the slaves on Tatooine. Anakin, you don't need to be more powerful. You have my love- isn't that enough? "Anakin, all I want is your love." It is all I have ever wanted.

"Love won't save you, Padmé. Only my new powers can do that," Anakin says. There is a growing darkness in his voice. It threatens me. He is falling. How could I have been so blind?

"At what cost? You're a good person, Anakin. Don't do this." Not to me. Not to Obi-Wan. Not to all of us who have loved you. Not to the galaxy.

"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother!" Is that why you are doing this, Anakin? "I've become more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of, and I've done it for you." For me? I don't want your power. I just want your love, I just want us to be happy, to raise our child on Naboo.

"Come away with me. Help me raise our child. Leave everything else behind while we still can," I say, my eyes filling with tears. Anakin, abandon this dream of power. Come back to me.

Anakin's features are lit by the lava thundering far below us. "Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be." Oh, Anakin. What are you saying? Do you even know how far you've twisted? That time on Naboo when you said that a dictatorship would work, did you already have plans for this? Just come back, love me again, Anakin. Not power.

The tears are spilling over my eyelids now. "I can't believe what I'm hearing. Obi-Wan was right. You've changed." Oh, why couldn't Obi-Wan have been lying, just this once?

There is no compassion, no love in Anakin's voice anymore. It has been seared away by the furnace of anger smoldering within him. "I don't want to hear anymore about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me." No, Anakin. Don't let that be a real threat I hear in your voice. You know I would never betray you. I still love you. Come back.

"I don't know you anymore, Anakin," I say, emotion filling my voice, and I know my words are true. Did I ever truly know you, Anakin? "Anakin, you're breaking my heart. You're going down a path I cannot follow." And he is breaking my heart. It hurts so much. Anakin, you still can come back. Be the father of our child, live with us, be happy again.

Anakin is no longer looking at me, but over my shoulder. "Because of Obi-Wan."

I don't even notice that it isn't a question. Anakin, come back! "Because of what you've done, what you plan to do. Stop, stop now. Come back! I love you." My voice is dying off, and my face is soaked. Anakin, don't do this to me.

"LIAR!" Anakin screams, the anger inside showing on his face, his hatred directed towards me.

I turn around. Oh, gods, no. How could you betray me like this, Obi-Wan? There he is, standing solemnly at the top of the landing ramp. "No!"

"You brought him here to kill me! You've betrayed me! You're with him!"

Anakin, please, don't think that. I don't want you dead- I could never live without you! Obi-Wan betrayed me, I'm not betraying you! And I will never, never, turn against you. "No, Anakin. I-"

And then suddenly I am in the air, and I can't breathe. What is happening? I meet Anakin's eyes as his fist tightens. He's betraying me! Why would he kill me? Why would he sacrifice his love, our love for each other?

And everything goes black.