Beginning

It was her, he just knew it, but it couldn't be - she was dead. His mind was replaying the last moments they had together. When he had truly still been himself. He needed to do something to block the pain as the medical droids tended to his wounds. Her face was soothing. Hadn't he said so much when they were on Naboo? He couldn't remember. His memories were just a jumble now and the pain was beginning to win.

Laying on the table, the only sound he could muster from his blistered and dried lips was a cry of pain. It wasn't just the pain of the horrific wounds which were now being tended. It would have been easier if it was, but the pain of knowing he would never see her again. The pure anguish of never feeling her skin against his. The pain of knowing he had ended it all because of what he had become. If only he could have rushed to her and explained. Told her he had been wrong. Had he been wrong though? Wasn't he doing this for them?

Flailing his stumps of arms and legs, he knocked several of the medical utensils from the arms of the medical droids near him. He had to get up, to find her and tell he was sorry. He was only doing this for her. She would understand sometime when they were all safe. It would be easy to make things right if he could just talk to her. He knew it wasn't possible though. Her bright and shining presence in the force was no longer. She wouldn't have the ability to hide. Once again he writhed and cried in pain.

He was still the scarred and damaged monster who had been pulled from the shores of the lava flow on Mustafar. Only there he didn't know. He didn't know she was dead. If he could just speak her name one more time. Maybe she was still alive and due to the pain he had been experiencing, he was unable to find her.

As the mask lowered onto his eyes and face, he knew he would survive. It was an unfortunate turn of events for everyone he would encounter. Now, he would carry the hate of everything he was and use it to make those around him tremble. Utilizing his anguish over the death of his beloved wife, he would be the most powerful man in the universe, save one. As the table lowered, the most powerful person in the universe now was speaking to him. A challenge to say the least. The emperor would be a challenge.

"I'm afraid in your anger you killed her," the emperor cooed after he had asked what had happened to her.

Jerking awake Chancellor Palpatine glared around his brightly lit office. Pushing a button on his desk he summoned his secretary.

"Yes Chancellor?" she asked.

"Summon Anakin Skywalker to my office," Palpatine said.