Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing! I'm sorry I haven't had time to reply to all of you individually but I will try in the future.
He waited patiently as she let the news sink in. There were no more tears and her face betrayed no emotion. When she finally did speak, it was only one word.
"How?"
"The mission was dangerous. He knew that going into it. It involved supporters of Palpatine."
"But he's been dead for all these years! What is there left to support?"
Obi Wan looked away from her and wondered where to begin. The Jedi had managed to keep most of the details of the situation quiet and wanted it to remain that way. Even after the revelation that the Chancellor was a Sith lord, there were still those within the Senate that refused to believe that the whole truth surrounding the circumstances of his death had been revealed. It was this underlying mistrust of the Jedi that led them to be secretive in their investigation. They had hoped to gain enough information and evidence to be able to have the support of the entire Senate when the need arose.
"There are things the Jedi have been looking into all these years, actually. Surely you are aware that the Jedi have a few detractors in the Senate?"
She wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Of course, but they are small in number. I don't understand what that has to do with Anakin?"
"I only remind you of those few so that you will understand the importance of keeping most of what I'm about to tell you to yourself for now. Anakin provided us with what we needed but revealing it before we are ready could be costly. He sacrificed everything for this and I want to insure..." his voice cracked with emotion.
He considered something for a brief moment before standing and turning toward the house. He held up one finger as he walked away, letting her know he would return shortly. She closed her eyes and wished for it all to go away. That they could start over. Do so many things differently. The image of him standing before her on their wedding day kept replaying in her mind. His shy smile. The way he hesitated in the doorway before coming to her. She could even hear his footsteps as he walked toward her... She opened her eyes to see Obi Wan approaching instead and her heart fell. He carried a small backpack in his hands. It looked as though it had seen better days but was vaguely familiar. He didn't offer any explanation, just seated himself with a heavy sigh.
"Palpatine had envisioned a great Empire. It was a goal he had patiently worked toward for years. He already had quite a network of people set up under him, to help accomplish the things he had in mind. Anakin was the final piece of the puzzle. Thankfully, he was strong enough to resist the temptation of all that power and he chose to destroy the sith instead of joining him." He stopped for a minute, remembering. "It was the love he had for you and his unborn children that gave him that strength."
She looked away from him, fighting the sting of tears. He continued. "He killed Palpatine but that didn't make all the people assembled under him just disappear. Those that were most loyal to the planned empire stayed together and continued to work to that end. We have kept a close eye on them all this time. Over the past year, they have made significant progress in one of their most important projects and the time had come when it had to be stopped. There have been Jedi investigating all along and... "
"Then why Anakin?" Padme spit out in anger. "If the Jedi have been looking into it all along, why did he have to get involved with it now? He has young children who need him!"
He took both of her hands and attempted to calm her, if only a little. She wasn't going to like his answers.
"Anakin had gifts that the rest of us could only wonder about. He was the Chosen One. It is true that we were aware of many things, but we needed to get ahold of some important documents that had been impossible to retrieve. He was our best hope for getting them. Several Jedi lost their lives trying to.."
"They knew how dangerous this was and they still sent him? What was so important that the council was willing to trade his life for? Why him?"
"He wanted to go! The Council tried to persuade him not to, but he insisted. He knew he was our best chance. He knew the risks but it was important to him! He didn't want his children growing up in a galaxy that allowed this to go on! If these Imperialists, as we call them, succeed, there isn't a planet out there that wouldn't be in danger. They are cunning and ruthless and will stop at nothing to achieve power. Palpatine had amassed great wealth to be able to see his dreams come to fruition and they are doing their best to see that it happens. Do you realize the resources that will be needed to fight against something like this? We needed every bit of information we could gather. Anakin knew this. He knew there was a good chance he wouldn't return. It was a risk he was willing to take to insure the safety of the world his children live in. And it was personal. The Imperialists are using slaves. The most cruel form of slavery ever seen. He couldn't let that go on."
She pulled her hands out of his while pushing her chair back roughly. Pacing angrily around the table, she stared hard at him. "Why didn't you go with him? The two of you were always the best Jedi team out there. You had to know how he would be affected seeing slaves like that. Why weren't you there for him? How many times did he save your life? You should have been there!"
He nodded in agreement. " I wanted to go with him. But Anakin and I have not gone out on a dangerous mission together since the two of you divorced. That was his decision, not mine. He wanted to insure that one of us would always be around to look out for the twins' best interest when it came to their training and other things. If he could not be here to do it himself, he wanted me to be."
Padme stopped in her tracks, feeling as though she had been punched in the stomach. "My fault?" she questioned weakly. She sank slowly back into her chair. "Are you saying that this is my fault?"
"Of course not. Padme, Luke and Leia meant the world to him. He would have given anything for them. Even if the two of you had remained married, he would have still wanted things to be this way. He never had a father. He didn't want them going through life without one. Even if it was only someone who could fill in and be a father figure to them. It had more to do with that than with the state of your relationship with him."
Her thoughts turned to the boy Anakin had once been. A fatherless child, born with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had overcome so much. Risen above his harsh beginning to become the greatest Jedi ever known. He could have controlled the entire galaxy, if he had chosen to. But he hadn't. So much had been denied him in his life but he still walked away from the opportunity to have ulitmate power. He had been content to be her husband and the twins' father. And she had constantly tried to take it all away from him. Another reminder of the cruelty she had so easily dispensed. And now there was no way to take it back. She could only go forward from here. Do as Anakin had requested while trying to live with the horror of what she had put him through.
"Obi Wan?" her voice was small and tired. "I want to hear it all. What exactly this mission entailed and what happened to Anakin. I'm sure it isn't pretty, but I don't deserve a glossed over version of events. I was hateful and cruel to him more times than I can remember. He came to me before he left and asked me to do some thinking. Which I have been. You may not believe me, but I was already intending to contact you to find out his whereabouts so I could let him know I was doing what he asked. I've made so many horrible realizations about myself over this past month... I just wanted to ask him to forgive me, to tell him I never stopped loving him. But I just..." she searched for the words that eluded her but came up empty. "The opportunity to make amends to him is gone forever. I will live with that every day for the rest of my life. The only thing I can do is to honor his memory by trying to do as he would have wanted. Firstly, I'd like to apologize to you, Obi Wan."
He didn't try to hide the surprise in his voice. "Me? You have nothing to apologize to me for."
"Ah, but I do. You have always been there for all of us. Always looking out for what was best in every situation. You were put in the middle of far too many, "unfortunate situations" as you referred to them. But you were always fair. You were often on the wrong end of my wrath and you never deserved it. I got angry with you for defending Anakin all the time. I didn't want to admit that you and he were right. Even when you were on my side, I wasn't very nice. "
" I understand and I accept your apology. But let's not dwell on the past. The future is going to be hard enough, none of us need the added burden of reliving the mistakes of the past. Now, if you really meant it when you said you wanted to hear the whole story, it's probably best if I tell you before the twins wake. We're going to have to decide how to break the news to them and how much they need to know. They're going to be lost without him, I'm afraid."
She didn't even bother with trying to wipe the tears that rolled freely down her cheeks. "Go ahead." she whispered.
"Well," he began "Palpatine's ambitions were even larger than we had first thought. He had set up an incredible network of people, money and supplies. It seems there was very little he hadn't planned for. Except for Anakin's refusal, that is. Anyway, the Imperialists have everything at their disposal. We've been sitting back and watching. Hoping they would never completely organize without their leader. Our hopes were dashed when we learned of the huge number of slaves they were acquiring and the hideous things they were doing to them. It confirmed our worst fears."
She forced herself to ask the question that she really didn't want to know the answer to. "And what were your worst fears?"
"That they were moving ahead with Palpatine's largest plan to help achieve total domination of the galaxy. They're working on something called Project Death Star."
