Senate Offices Basement-Next Day

Anakin finally awoke. Since he attempted to kill Sidious, he had been drugged and brought to the Senate's basement, where he was mercilessly tortured. Strangely enough, there were some positive effects of the Sith lightning: Anakin's memories were returning to him. While some things were still quite hazy, he was now positive that he truly was Anakin Skywalker. He felt the now familiar pull on his wrists and looked at his shackles. They were designed to kill any midi-chlorians that inhabited the prisoner's body. It was a slow process, and Anakin knew that when all the midi-chlorians died, he himself would die soon after. He felt a sickening sense of dread as the dark basement door opened, and Darth Sidious appeared before him. The Sith Lord's expression was blank as he undid the shackles. Anakin fell to the floor, feeling the effects of the shackles that he had hung from for the past week. Sidious ignited his lightsaber, and brought around to the back of Anakin, using it to slash the boy's heel. Anakin clenched his teeth, his eyes welling with immense tears. He was not going to give Sidious the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

He felt the blood slowly drain out of his body, feeling weaker by the second. Surprisingly, Sidious applied a bacta patch to Anakin's wound…Before slashing Anakin's other ankle. Anakin felt his eyes roll back and promptly passed out.

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The next morning, Padmè brought Luke to the Healers. Despite what she had said, Luke and getting him well was her first priority. As she left, she gingerly applied the serum the Healers had given her to Luke's ear, and was immensely relieved when she saw the redness of his ear immediately start to fade. She smiled as for the first time in days, the baby cooed happily and snuggled against her chest. She sighed happily, tucking Luke tighter into his blankets as she carefully made her way onto the sidewalks of Coruscant. She had decided to walk with Luke to the Med-center, because it had seemed a nice day outside, and she thought that the fresh air would be good for the newborn's ear. Padmè smiled at him again, giggling as he slowly opened his blue eyes. Now that she knew that Anakin was alive, she no longer felt overwhelming sadness when she looked at her son, but instead she gently kissed his head. She felt a hand on her shoulder and whipped her head around, her heart beating wildly.

"Chancellor Palpatine," she said feeling immensely relieved. The older man smiled at her kindly.

"Padmè," he said looking down at Luke. He touched the baby's head, and Padmè instinctively stepped back, smiling nervously at the Chancellor. Palpatine caught her nervousness and gave her a knowing smile.

"Anakin's son will be powerful," he said after a moment. Padmè felt her blood run cold.

"Wh…What are you talking about?" she stammered, clutching Luke closer to her. Palpatine sighed heavily.

"My dear, did you honestly think that you could bring him out in public and that people would not recognize him as the child of Skywalker? He asked with a chuckle. Padmè felt as if she was going to cry. Palpatine saw her distress and looked her in the eye, again placing his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm truly sorry about young Skywalker's death," he said softly, before walking away with his Red Guards. Padmè remained frozen in place, crying openly. Even if Anakin was not truly dead, it scared her that Palpatine had known her secret, and even more so that Anakin still hadn't returned to her.