Yess! Chapter 10 is up :D! Once again, I THANK THEE ALL LOYAL REVIEWERS :D! Now without further ado…

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Chapter 10: Here is gone

Padme laughed and shook her head. "Oh, Ani. You speak as if ruling the galaxy is as easy as sitting in a throne room and telling people what to do and what not to do. I'm afraid nothing in politics can be as simple as that." She sighed and looked at the balcony from which she could see buildings reaching out to the sky near her apartment.

"And after all, ruling the galaxy is the last thing I have in mind." She said softly. "I would probably decline it if it were offered to me. I'd rather guide the galaxy than rule it with absolute control. I also believe that the power to rule and decide should be distributed amongst wise and just men and women who want the best for their people."

Palpatine was overwhelmed by Padme's words. She always spoke so passionately about her beliefs, but hearing her speak about them in such a personal level added an aura of intensity and truthfulness that made him admire her even more. And despite the fact that she wanted a parliamentary rule and he wanted an empire, he still loved her for who she was. He wouldn't change a thing about Padme. Not a single thing.

Anakin arched a brow and crossed his arms over his chest. "Wise men and women?" He asked with a grin. "Perhaps you're talking about the likes of Bail and Mon Mothma?"

Padme crinkled her eyebrows in curiosity as she looked at him. But an amused smile slowly made its way across her lips. She was quite surprised that Anakin had mentioned Bail and Mon Mothma. Anakin barely knew them.

"Bail and Mon Mothma? Yes, they are good people." She nodded. "I would trust them with my life and the life of those I govern. And yet I'm quite surprised, Anakin. You speak of them as if you know them inside out." She looked at him quizzically.

Palpatine smiled --- an all-knowing smile. He knew she was gradually finding a lot of things different with her husband, but he was not at all worried by her sudden curiosity. Instead, he looked at it as an opportunity for him to become closer to her. What better way to converse with her but through the body of young Skywalker?

"Why, my love? Is it only through conversations with people when we can get to know more about them?" He asked, smiling. He sounded as if he was challenging her into some sort of a social debate. "Sometimes, observation is enough to learn about someone. Because when you watch them from afar and they don't know you're there, that is when you get to see them as a whole --- as who they really are."

Padme couldn't shake the feeling that her husband had somehow matured. But she liked it. She couldn't believe it either, but she liked his unexpected change. Could it be that his involvement in the war had somehow given him a broader view of the world?

"Like Orn Free Taa for example." He continued. "Looks like a nice fellow. Talks like a nice fellow. He says he has the best interest of the Twi'lek people in mind. And for that, everyone in the Senate loves him." He said matter-of-factly.

"Ah," Anakin raised his right mechanical index finger in the air and cocked a brow. "But what you don't know is that our Twi'lek Senator is far too indulgent and far too selfish for his own good. Have you seen his recent purchases? Other than that, do you know of his numerous and uncalled-for extravagant hobbies? If I were him I would rather direct my resources to the people who need me the most."

Padme was once again surprised by Anakin's words. Now he was talking as if he personally knew Orn Free Taa. Moreso, Anakin spoke as if he knew the ins and outs of the Galactic Republic. Something in her husband has truly changed, or rather, evolved. Had he suddenly taken an interest in politics to belong to "her world"?

She slowly stood up from the bed and walked to him. At that moment, she didn't care about Orn Free Taa and his extravagant lifestyle. She was far too overwhelmed by this "new" Anakin to really care about politics and the individuals who composed it.

"My, my, Anakin. Seems like someone's been doing a lot of observing lately." She placed a hand over his chest and smiled.

Her eyes lovingly gazed into his light blue ones as she looked at his handsome face. But it wasn't the perfection of his face that drew her eyes to his. She looked at him because she wanted to discover what was different with him. And the difference was not on the outside --- no. It was something deeper…something that only the heart can see.

"Is there something wrong, Padme? Have I said anything to offend you? If I sound like I'm intruding in your political life, then I'm sorry. I'll stop. I know I'm just a Jedi. I have no right to tell you what I think about the Senate and---"

"No." Padme immediately said as she shook her head from side to side. The smile on her face widened. "You're not intruding at all. In fact, I like it." She paused for a while and let the silence pave way to what she was about to say next. "I like you this way." She brought her hand up to his hair and gently brushed it with her delicate fingers.

Palpatine felt his heart skip a beat. He felt as if his chest had suddenly been filled with something and that it was going to burst. Did she just say that she liked him? Did she just say that she liked him as he was now? That she preferred him this way?

"I really do." She said happily. "Remember when we were in Naboo three years ago? Before we got married I told you that we belonged to two different worlds…I told you that I'm a Senator and you're a Jedi and because of that we could never be together. And now, here we are. I'm still a senator and you're still a Jedi, but…But…"

"But what?" Anakin asked. "But what, Padme? Please tell me."

She continued to stroke his dark brown hair. "But now, just this morning, everything feels different…Different, in a good way. Now I feel as if you belong to my world too. I feel like I could still be the Senator that I am and you'd still understand that side of me. I know I'm not making any sense. And you probably think I'm just imagining things, but something really has changed, Anakin…With you, and me. It's like a barrier between us has been shattered." She said as she looked at him.

"Maybe it's because I truly have changed. Maybe it's because I really want to become a part of your world, Padme. I know politics is a part of your life. And that is something I can never take away. But I want to be with you through it all. I want to become a part of the life that you live. For the past few years you've tried so hard to make your life fit into mine, and maybe it's time that I made mine fit into yours too."

But the truth was that he, as Palpatine, would never be able to change his life for her. That was now impossible at this point in time. Truth be told, that was never possible from the moment he started to fall for her. And yet, if he truly had become her husband, he would do as much as realign the moon and the stars if she asked him to.

Padme's confession also proved one thing to him. It proved that Anakin skywalker never deserved her. That boy had been too blind and too selfish to realize that Padme needed someone who could truly understand her, all of her.

She didn't need someone whose love for her was only skin deep. She didn't need an immature lovestruck boy who would only tell her how beautiful she was and how much he loved her like some obsessed fool. What she needed --- was someone who understood her in a higher level…Someone who would be willing to share every aspect of her life…Someone mature enough to love her in the way that she needed to be loved.

Someone like himself…

He suddenly felt her arms wrap around him.

"I love you, Anakin. I don't care if you change for me or not. I just want you to be yourself. I just want you to be who you are." She said softly. She closed her eyes and snuggled her cheek close to his chest. "As long as you love me, then that's enough. You're love is all I could ever need. It's all I've ever wanted from you."

He slowly slid his arms around her and held her close to him. He looked down and saw her eyes closed. A soft and tender smile was on her lips. She looked so safe and warm in his embrace, and the sight of it mangled his rotten heart with guilt. Because he knew that when the time has come for him to claim his rightful place as the emperor of the galaxy, he would need to destroy her very soul as he had planned.

He quickly looked away and stared at the open balcony. The city of Coruscant was once again bathed by the sun's morning light. Soon, soon, all of that would be his…even that which his eyes could not see. He held her tighter. The thought of having it all reminded him of the thought of losing her.

/ "Go now, Palpatine. Leave her while you still can. You know you have to. This is not your place. It never was." / He thought to himself. / "You have already done what you were supposed to do. You have claimed her. You have felt her love. And for once in your life you have actually showed love. And now, now is the time to let it all go."

He swallowed. / "Look at her. Go on and look at her." / He looked down and saw her still wrapped in his arms, comforted by his sweet embrace. / "She doesn't belong in your arms, Palpatine. You think you're comforting her by staying with her longer? You think you're showing her how much you love her by tricking her? You're doing nothing but giving her false hopes. And she is doing the same to you. Don't let your obsession with her blind you. Don't let yourself get attached to the very thing you will soon destroy." /

He took a deep breath and pursed his lips. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He didn't know what to do now. A part of him was telling him that this was all a mistake, and that he should not have done this. His night with Padme did not set him free from his deep obsession with her.

His night with Padme had done nothing but make him love her even more.

He closed his eyes and composed himself. "I have to go." He finally said. His voice trembled as he spoke those words. He knew that this was the last time he would ever see her like this. When he said he had to go, he meant he had to go --- forever.

Padme opened her eyes and looked up at him. "I understand, Anakin. It's all right." She said, smiling. She traced his cheek with her fingers. "I know Obi-wan needs you. After all, whatever would he do without his heroic apprentice by his side?" She had a cheerful tone in her voice. She gently ran a finger down his lips and his chin.

Palpatine tried to hide the sadness in his eyes, be he couldn't. He couldn't even make himself smile. How could he be happy when he had to part with the only thing he had ever truly cared for? Why did he have to make love to her, taste her, feel her, touch her, claim her for one whole night, only to lose her in the rising of the sun?

He didn't know what to say as he looked into her eyes. He felt mute, like his words had blocked his own throat and were frozen in his mind. Nonetheless, were there even any words that would make this 'goodbye' less painful? Because the more he looked at her, the more he saw her smile and the more he stared back into her dark brown eyes, the more he couldn't say goodbye, and the more the pain grew.

"I really wish I didn't have to go." He said as he looked at her. "I really wish I could just stay here --- with you --- forever. But there are just some things in our life that we can not escape, even if the very thing we have to escape is ourselves."

"I understand, Anakin. I know. And that is why we have to part for now." Speaking those words made her heart ache. She couldn't stand the thought of being away from him again, but she knew that they had to say goodbye. "They need you out there and my people need me here. We both have duties to those who rely on us."

Her eyes looked deep into his. She wanted to hold him again.

"But when this war is over, when no more blood needs to be shed and both sides realize that there is such a thing as peace, then we'll be together again, Anakin. We'll be together again…Just you and me." She said with a faint smile.

Palpatine's swallowed, and his chest tightened as he heard Padme's words. He felt as if his throat had gone dry and his heart had stopped beating. He wanted to tear his eyes away from hers but he could not. He could not look away from the happiness that danced within her eyes as she thought of the future that he knew would not exist.

/ "If only it were that way, Padme…" / He thought to himself. / "If only we could really be together as you want us to, as I want us to…But that could never be." /

He knew, well enough, that when the war between the Separatists and the Republic was over, Padme would be gone. She would be dead. And he would spend the rest of his life emptied of her face, her smile, her touch, her fire. Then she would be nothing more but a mere memory. There would never be a 'just you and me' for them. Padme was placing her wishes upon a star that had already died…

"Anakin?" She asked, suddenly worried about the blank, confused look on her husband's face. She couldn't shake the feeling that he was keeping something from her. She gently held his face by the cheeks and encouraged him to look at her.

When Palpatine sensed her reluctance, he immediately pulled his face away from her hands and took a step back. His eyes that were once locked into hers were now looking away. "I'm sorry, Padme. I…I have to go. I have to." He said hurriedly.

He had to end this masquerade now before it reached the point wherein ending it would be unbearable torture. He had to leave now while he could still bear to part from her. To stay a second longer would be dangerous for his destiny.

He quickly turned away from her and stood still, contemplating his current situation. His eyes looked down at the carpeted floor as he closed his hands into fists. He knew that if he walked out of her bedroom door, he'd never step inside it again. This was the last time he would ever be in this room with her, standing there, not as Palpatine, but as Anakin --- Padme's beloved Anakin. This truly was goodbye.

His chest rose and fell as he breathed in and exhaled. "Goodbye, Padme." He said softly, sadness evident in his otherwise emotionless voice.

Before she could even place a hand on his shoulder, he quickly marched out of the bedroom, leaving Padme alone in her solitude. He didn't even bother to collect the clothes and accessories he had left on the bedroom floor.

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TBC…