It was a while before either Jedi broke the silence.
"You're sure?" Anakin asked Ahsoka, gently.
Her response was to gently slap his hand. "I wouldn't have told you if I wasn't."
Anakin smiled, before taking full control of the hoverchair, and starting to push Ahsoka back through their new dwelling. Able to feel exactly what he was planning, Ahsoka didn't attempt to override the controls.
In the hall, Artoo was busying himself with a haul of cases on a float-pallet. With a gentle smile, Anakin bent down. "Artoo, the bedroom is off-limits if the door is closed. That goes for the holocams as well."
"Bloep." The astromech replied.
Gently, Anakin patted him on the dome, before pushing Ahsoka into their brand new bedroom.
He made a gentlemanly act of lifting her out of the hoverchair, feeling carefully around her lower back, before laying his former padawan on the bed, and starting to methodically remove the various layers of Jedi robes she'd been dressed in.
When she tried to help, annoyed by the lack of real contact, Anakin pressed her arms back onto the bed, before holding them there with the Force, not applying any real pressure to them, but just enough that Ahsoka would have been fighting several gravities of pressure if she wanted to help Anakin undress her.
Once he'd finished, Ahsoka was wearing nothing but her decidedly risqué underwear, which seemed to owe more to metal than fabric, much to his surprise. She'd had several experiences of physical enslavement, none of which she'd enjoyed.
"It's astonishing what you can find in a catalogue." She joked, feeling her former master's shock at the clothing.
"Who gave it to you, Jabba?" Anakin replied, smiling.
"Padmé." Ahsoka said. "Apparently, you enjoy this sort of thing..."
Anakin felt as if his face was on fire. "I... she..."
Ahsoka giggled furiously, before Anakin looked down at her with a very evil grin. (1)
Wrapping bands of Force Energy around her wrists, Anakin pulled Ahsoka's arms away from her body, before imprisoning her feet in the same way.
Then, he extracted a toothbrush from his travel case, and began working the bristles in amongst her toes. With the Force for an ally, he was able to tell very easily that the hoots and screams were of pleasure, not agony.
He kept it up for five minutes, before stopping, looking down at her.
"Ah... that... Ahhh!" She gasped, as Anakin ran the toothbrush across the plane of her stomach.
Stepping away from the bed, Anakin stripped out of his own robes, before removing the togruta's metal undergarments, and thoroughly testing for nerve dysfunctions in the vicinity.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Well, Snips." Anakin said, teasingly. "I think we can reliably conclude that those nerves are working."
Ahsoka's eyes looked back into his with a look he hadn't seen on her face for months: utter contentment. She was sprawled next to her fiancé with an almost feline bonelessness, utterly relaxed, utterly vulnerable.
"I'm not sure." She replied. "It didn't feel as good as it did last time..."
"We can work on that." Anakin said, with a smile, although he didn't pull her closer despise the way she twisted her shoulders receptively.
"Skyguy?" She asked, as Anakin levered himself out of the bed, before heading out of the bedroom.
"I'm coming back, Snips." He replied. "Just getting some crisps. (2)"
Ahsoka lowered her head back to the bed, before hearing the sounds of cupboard rattling from the kitchen. Anakin clearly didn't mean a small bowl each, she judged.
When her lover returned, he was carrying a large tray, laden with a variety of snacks both could share. The first bowl she scented contained a mixture of scratching varieties, smelling of a combination of nerf and bantha based products, variously spiced. The second, which she investigated while still vigorously chewing her selection from the previous bowl, contained cultured protein slices, spiced with the esters from standard crisps.
Anakin had brought his own selection of human snacks as well. For Ahsoka, anything other than sampling would probably leave her doubled over as the cellulose worked through her system.
The bedroom wall featured a holovision, which Anakin fired up, setting it to twenty-four hour news. The news reports on the war had begun to take a decidedly more upbeat tone of recent months, as CIS forces were pushed back. Anakin was just glad that he no longer saw reports about the death of friends. The Jedi left alive after three years of conflict were the skilled, the lucky and the cunning. The rest had been removed from the Order by a Darwinian selection process, usually in combat.
"On Coruscant, the investigation into the attempted murder of Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano continues. Coruscant Security has no new leads, according to their latest press conference. It is believed that the attack was directed against the Jedi Order, by an as-yet unidentified group."
Anakin turned to Ahsoka, and gently took her hand.
"We'll find who hired them, Snips." Anakin said. "And when we do find who hired them, then I'll take action on your behalf, if you aren't well enough to help me do so. That's a promise."
"I hope to help." She murmured, before her eyes gently slid shut, and she began to doze, her chest rising and falling in the steady rhythm of exhaustion.
Anakin sat watching her, reminding himself that this was what the world was really about: a moment of utter peace, in the company of one of the beings in the galaxy he wouldn't trade for it.
Then his comlink, entangled in his discarded clothing, began to ring.
Summoning it, along with his tunic, Anakin pressed the accept call button, after checking the caller ID.
"Master Skywalker speaking." He said.
"Anakin." It was the Chancellor speaking. "I was told that you were back on Coruscant. How is Knight Tano?"
"She's out of the medcenter." Anakin replied. And you don't need to know what we were doing for the last hour.
"I hope that she is going to make a full recovery."
"The medics are hopeful." Anakin replied, neutrally. In previous encounters, the man hadn't taken much of an interest in Ahsoka.
"Can you come over to my office?" Palpatine asked, expressing the actual reason for his holocall.
"I can." Anakin replied. "Why?"
"I would like to hear your report about the combat on Utapau. There is something that I need to tell you, about the Jedi."
"I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Anakin said, before hanging up without waiting for the normal formalities. "Ahsoka." It was the Master to Padawan command voice that he only used when he was being deadly serious, or the situation was extremely dangerous. "I want you to go to the Council, now. Tell them…" he broke off, not quite knowing exactly what to say or how to phrase it. "Tell them that Master Skywalker believes that the Supreme Chancellor… is not a friend of the Republic." I want to give the man a chance to explain. It may just be that he reads old legends, and doesn't worry too much about where he finds them. He wasn't willing to voice the alternative in his own head.
"Aye aye." Ahsoka replied, her own cadence picking up on the tone of her Master's voice. It wasn't the sarcastic way that she might have replied to him in other circumstances. She knew Anakin, as a hero, then a friend, her Jedi Master, and as a lover. If something… made him that serious, all of a sudden… it was usually separatist battleships dropping out of hyperspace, or a major battlefield emergency. "Master… May the Force be with you." Anakin paused in the act of dressing, to acknowledge the sentiment.
"I'm going to come back, Snips." He said, jokingly. The tone left her all the more nervous. It wasn't the 'twitting Ahsoka about the holonet idol she had a fifteen year old crush on' tone. It was the 'I am about to go over the top' tone.
As Anakin step through the door, she saw him hang his lightsaber from his belt, where his hand could reach it in an instant, not one of the more open carry positions where the saber drew attention to its presence.
With trembling hands, she reached for the comlink on the bedside table.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
When Anakin arrived, the Chancellor was in session with a number of senators, including a visibly pregnant Padmé.
"I understand your reservations completely, Senator, and I assure you the appointment of Governors will in no way compete with the duties of the Senate." He said, as Anakin stepped into the room.
"May I take it then, that there will be no further amendments to the Constitution?" Padmé asked.
"I want this terrible conflict to end as much as you do, My Lady, and when it does I guarantee an immediate return to democracy..." Palpatine replied, smoothly, although, Anakin noticed, without answering the question at all.
"You are pursuing a diplomatic solution to the war, then?" She asked.
"You must trust me to do the right things, Senator. That is why I am here." Palpatine said.
"But surely…" One of the other senators asked.
"I have said I will do what is right, that should be enough for your... committee." Palpatine almost spat, rounding on the man.
"On behalf of the "delegation of two thousand," I thank you, Chancellor." Padmé said, clearly rubbing the small of her back. Anakin knew that something like minor discomfort wouldn't normally affect her, but guessed she was more worried for the twins than she let on.
"I thank you for bringing this to my attention, Senator." Palpatine replied, smoothly.
As Padmé led the small delegation out of the room, she gave Anakin a look that suggested it was a good thing for the constitution that she wasn't armed at the moment. He returned a nod, before the doors swung shut, and he was left alone with the chancellor.
"Their sincerity is to be admired, Anakin, although I sense there is more to their request than they are telling us." He said, as if teaching from a lectern.
"What do you mean?" Anakin asked.
"They are not to be trusted." Palpatine stated.
"Surely Senator Amidala can be trusted." Anakin said.
"These are unstable times for the Republic, Anakin. Some see instability as an opportunity. Senator Amidala is hiding something. I can see it in her eyes." Like the identity of the father of her children. Anakin thought.
"I'm sure you're mistaken." Anakin said, fighting his urge to… react.
"I'm surprised your Jedi insights are not more sensitive to such things."
"I simply don't sense betrayal in Senator Amidala." Anakin replied.
Palpatine gave him a look that suggested 'you do, but you would never admit it to yourself.' "What happened on Utapau?" He asked, instead.
"We engaged General Grievous's forces." Anakin replied. "A… a lot of clones died winning the battle."
"How did he die?" Palpatine asked. "At your hand?"
"Master Kenobi struck the final blow." Anakin told him. "I duelled him by myself, and survived the fight thanks to the Force. Master Kenobi arrived, and we were able to defeat him with the aid of a distraction."
"I see." Palpatine replied. "It is upsetting to me to see that the Council doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talents. Don't you wonder why they wouldn't make you a Jedi Master for so long?"
"I wasn't ready." Anakin replied, woodenly. "I'm still not ready."
"That is what they have convinced you of." Palpatine replied. "They don't trust you, Anakin. They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control. Anakin, you must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you. Let me help you to know the subtleties of the Force."
He barely controlled the urge to draw his lightsaber and… use it, as Palpatine rose from his chair, taking the conversation into the hallway outside his office.
"How do you know the ways of the Force?" He asked, cautiously, one hand resting next to his lightsaber, and on the activation stud of the tiny recording device he was wearing. It had been a joke gift from Ahsoka, brought in a child's 'espionage' shop.
"My mentor taught me everything about the Force . . . even the nature of the dark side."
Anakin stopped in his tracks as if he'd run into a brick wall.
"You know the dark side?!" He asked, in consternation, taking several steps back from the chancellor, as if preparing to duel him.
"Anakin, if one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force. Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin." Palpatine said, as the two circled one another, like a pair of predators, both considering whether to pounce. "They fear you. In time they will destroy you. Let me train you."
"I won't be a pawn in your political game. The Jedi are my family." And one of them… Force willing, will be my wife. Anakin said.
"Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your children from certain death."
"What did you say?" Anakin asked.
"Use my knowledge, I beg you…" Palpatine said, before Anakin's lightsaber ignited, cutting off the rest of the sentence.
"You're… the Sith Lord!" Anakin spat, his lightsaber going to the chancellor's throat. "You're… Darth Sidious…!"
"I know what has been troubling you . . . Listen to me. Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council! Ever since I've known you, you've been searching for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi . . . a life of significance, of conscience." Palpatine said, searching for hooks to grab onto, to twist Anakin's mind.
"You're wrong!" Anakin said.
"Are you going to kill me?" the Chancellor asked, almost casually. Anakin could feel him tensing, like a nexu about to spring.
He didn't respond verbally. Instead, he flicked his wrist.
Palpatine nearly made it to his lightsaber in time to deflect the stroke. His hand brushed the phrik hilt…
Then his head landed on the floor.
"Yes." Anakin replied, talking to the wide-eyed head on the floor. "I am." Consciousness was beginning to fade from the former chancellor's eyes as he lifted the head. "That was for Ahsoka, you son of a bitch."
Then twelve Jedi knights, along with four masters, including Mace Windu, Yoda and Shaak-Ti, burst into the room, lightsabers drawn.
This was about the third scene I planned for this story, when I was first brainstorming ideas after writing the first couple of chapters. I wanted to make sure I got the execution (in both senses of the word) perfect before I published it.
(1) This was the point at which I discovered that preventing a breach was impossible, as Anakin was going to do that no matter what I did.
(2) For my American readers, this is the same as chips, in UK English. In the UK, chips are what American English knows as fries, and come in a variety of sizes, with fries reserved for thin versions such as those served by fast food franchises.
I'd like to thank CardiacCane and MagnusAccipiter for their reviews to the last chapter, along with Bradon66 for his comments via PM. Reviews make me want to write more, as do any form of feedback.