It was amazing what a difference only 48 hours could do when you're going someplace, or more accurately returning to it. On his initial return to Coruscant, seeing Padmé's though technically their, apartment was a refreshing change of pace from the endless trenches, battlefields, and Venator-class interiors. It was an oasis, for lack of a better word. From politics, war, Jedi, Sith and all the rest of the galaxy both of them had to deal with regularly. It was a place where they could, briefly, just be married like ordinary people.
But it was also a bittersweet place for them. Where they frequently told one another goodbye, possibly for the last time every time. It made every departure just as hard if not harder than the last. A similar but far more potent apprehension about leaving hung over Anakin's thoughts like a storm cloud. Except a hundred times worse. Before, there was an understanding that Coruscant was safe, even if everything else went to Hell out there, this place would hold strong. It couldn't be further from the truth and now he had to leave all over again. Even Anakin's breathing exercise was being put to the limit as he rode the frankly claustrophobic, secret turbolift up hundreds of stories to the top.
It didn't get any easier even when he could breathe normally once it stopped and the wall hiding it slid open. Anakin saw the central hallway stretch out before him, dimmed lights adorning its sides to fit the evening mood. Stepping outside, he spotted two sets of staircases leading up to the veranda. He could faintly hear the fountain water at the center of it bubbling away. However, it was what he couldn't see yet that brought a soothing feeling to wash over him, dispelling the events of the day into nothingness.
He stood there, smiling, eyes closed and perceptions focused on the three living beings just a short walk away on the veranda. Their signature in the Force remained impossibly pure and bright, even drowning out the brief flashes of worry coming off of Padmé like a beacon. Anakin dearly wished he could take a piece of this sensation with him, carry it out into upcoming battles. Even Obi-Wan's soothing presence couldn't compare.
Guess I'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts... Anakin thought as he refocused his attention to everything else within the apartment. The fleeting sensations left in the Force from visitors, security personnel and others moving to and from the place through the past day or so. It was what or rather who he couldn't sense whatsoever that brought another smile to his face before finally ascending the staircase.
Before even reaching its top, Anakin was already greeted by the lights of Coruscant's Senate District illuminating the night sky. Millions if not billions of them coming from homes, business offices and numerous flying rows of vehicles provided a sight almost unparalleled on the entire planet as far as he was concerned, especially in the very early morning. Only the view from one of the Jedi Temple's spires beat it out. The effect was enhanced by the dim lights in the sitting room itself. The disk-shaped lamps were set to a low setting as was the illuminator.
Padmé sat or rather leaned against the left sofa, attention focused on the view outside while both hands gently stroked her stomach through the nightgown. Anakin gently walked over to her, slowing his pace to take in the third goddess of Naboo on the veranda before gently and noiselessly sitting next to her. She wasn't frightened or even surprised by his presence at all, instead, she immediately leaned into his shoulder while his left arm went around her shoulders. Through the Force, he sensed both of their tensions ease from each other's company and the twins, simple but very sensitive beings nonetheless, shined even brighter with their parents together again.
It was a feeling the whole family enjoyed in pleasant silence. Of course, it couldn't last.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what would happen at 500 Republica," Anakin spoke after a long while, running a hand over her belly. "I know we... Frightened a lot of your friends and colleagues with it."
"I know you are," She answered, taking his gloved hand into hers. "You wouldn't keep this a secret from me unless it was extremely important."
"It was," He sighed. "Maybe the most important thing that's happened on Coruscant so far."
"But it didn't work out...?"
Anakin smiled ruefully. "No, nothing about it went like I expected or wanted. Not in the good way I've been getting surprised lately either."
She shifted position just enough to look up at him and the concern was painfully apparent across her face. "Talk to me, what's going on? Ever since you went to meet with the Council I've felt... Something wrong from you..."
He was very tempted to try and deflect it with a joke about her developing Jedi powers but stopped himself. The circumstances were far too gone to fall back on old, bad habits.
"I told the Council everything, about us, the twins and they're letting me stay in the Order," He decided to start with that, it would be easier for both of them to get the good news out of the way first. "I won't be getting invited to join the other Masters there any time in the next few decades but I'm still in Order itself and they've agreed to help us with anything we need. For ourselves and the kids."
She let out a relieved, silent sigh from the news, almost melting in his arms. He really, really wanted that to be the only thing to tell her but the war, as always, wouldn't let them be.
"But that's not all after I talked to them about our situation... Master Windu took the floor... He told me, told all of us... About a Sith Lord, right here on Coruscant, goes by the name of Darth Sidious" Anakin's lip curled and his family's presence was just barely enough to unclench the sudden tightness in his chest. "They tracked him to 500 Republica."
"500... Oh my..." Padmé gasped, eyes wandering about the veranda as she took in the full force of what that meant. "A-Are they sure."
"Absolutely," Anakin gravely confirmed. "Obi-Wan and I managed to track down a special holoprojector when we raided Nute Gunray's estate on Cato Neimoidia a few weeks back. We didn't get much from it except his name and a specific location in The Works. From there, Masters Windu and Shaak Ti followed a trail belonging to Dooku and Sidious both all the way to 500 Republica."
"And Grievous just so happened to attack before they could go further...?"
"Right, pretty convenient, huh?"
"Do you know anything else?" She rose, sitting up to face him. "What species he belongs to? Is he a Senator? Surely the Sith can't be in there too-"
"Palpatine," Anakin cut her off, deciding now was the time to get to the heart of the matter. "They think it's Palpatine."
Her reaction wasn't what he expected either. There was shock there certainly, from her widening eyes and the sharp intake of breath. Never mind the sensations he felt through the Force. However, it was far too... Muted. As though Anakin had revealed something she'd felt or suspected for a while. The surprise lasted only a few moments and Padmé calmed herself down with far, far greater ease than he did just days ago.
A stupid, childish instinct to snap at her crossed his mind for a minute with equally stupid questions about what she knew already and for how long. Anakin ignored it almost a quickly as it came. Padmé knew he was curious about her reaction, could tell it alone from the way she didn't quite meet his eyes for a good minute, steeling herself for something difficult of her own.
"A few Senators and I..." She started half-heartedly then took a deep breath, transforming into the person who regularly stood her ground against the representatives of thousands of systems in a matter of seconds. "We've been discussing what's been happening on Coruscant, in the Senate. How the Security Act has gotten out of control, the reports of abuse coming from across the whole planet being done to its non-human populace... And Palpatine too.
"I... I didn't really notice it until Bail said trying to get an audience with the Chancellor was like waiting for a high emperor of old, barbarian worlds to grace you with his time. It's a stupid little detail I know, I even laughed at him for it the first time. But when it kept happening over and over again, and when I started noticing how the kind, approachable man I knew started... Changing in ways I didn't like... I knew something was wrong."
"In what ways, besides just the waiting?" Anakin leaned forward, putting the husband aside in favor of the Jedi. "What did he say or do?"
"His warmongering for one," She said with a matter of fact bluntness he blinked at. "Before, there were genuine efforts of some compromise or reasonable solutions to the war. When we asked for the consideration of peaceful negotiations, Palpatine seemed to listen, we even made several potential proposals with him after long hours of deliberation. But the longer war dragged on, and the... Stronger his position became... He listened to us less and less. Any proposal or plan, no matter how far along for a peaceful resolution we put forward he rejected or half-heartedly said he'd consider. I was beginning to get the impression he was growing to dislike us more and more too, even if he kept calling us friends and how everything would be all right when we finally won.
"One time, Fang Zar actually challenged him, calling the prolonging of war nothing but opportunistic bloodshed. Palpatine... Looked at him in a way I'd never seen before, it lasted just a second but... I swear I thought he was going to attack Zar for saying that, physically. Zar must've thought so too, he quieted down after mumbling an apology. Palpatine smiling right away like a switch flipped in his head didn't make me feel any easier about that."
"... How long have you been having doubts about Palpatine?"
"A few months, since before the last time you were on shore leave."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
She smiled at him then but it was one of pity. "Oh Anakin, really? Palpatine is like a kind uncle to you, he's been one of your best friends since you were a boy. You've told me a million times how great a man he is, how he'll definitely fix everything and how everyone should follow his lead no matter-"
"All right," He almost snapped again but fought the childish impulse back. His interruption thankfully came out far calmer. "All right, I... I see your point. I admit it, I wouldn't have listened if you told me then. To you or anyone else."
This, however, made Anakin pause. A simple question he didn't bother to ask himself ever since Master Windu's faithful accusation: why was he so quick to doubt the man? Nothing had changed between him and the Chancellor before that to taint Anakin's view of the man. If anything, they'd grown closer than ever before, there were things Palpatine could know nobody else was allowed to, not even Padmé. Secrets, thoughts, aspirations, and ambitions he would've rather died than to share with anyone except the Supreme Chancellor.
And just as quickly as Anakin asked himself this question, he knew the answer: because the Masters had good reason to be suspicious. Anakin felt that for himself that day, in 500 Republica, listening in on the conversation through mundane and Force-related means. Absolutely nothing Palpatine said during his whole monologue about his past was untrue, not a word of it. However, it was the way he said it that made Anakin's well-honed instincts scream. Everything he said was detailed just enough to give whoever was listening to a good enough picture of what happened but still worded in such a way there weren't any exactly precise details to look into. Or to fumble lying about.
Masters Yoda and Tiin warned him about such a tactic, how one was able to lie far more effectively to others and to themselves by simply delivering partial truths and then using clever wordplay or other phrasing answers and explanations in deliberately vague enough sounding ways to mask true intent or meaning.
Beyond even this point, however, Palpatine's advice to him from the past was wrong. Many, many times Anakin complained to him about the Jedi, how they were too rigid and incompatible with him and upon replaying these conversations... Palpatine never disagreed with him outright. He would say this Master or that was wise indeed but there was always something... else, something more Anakin could aspire to get. Something the Jedi couldn't give him, even if Palpatine never used those exact words. He was special, destined for greater things and so on. He didn't admit it to himself until that moment but all those words seemed targetted specifically to cater to Anakin's ego. And to divorce him from the Jedi...
Sometime during his considerations, Padmé put her arms around him in a hug, one he immediately returned. He must've freaked out again without even realizing, judging by the way his chest was painfully clenched and a hard lump appeared in his throat. Stretching out with the Force to his immediate vicinity, Anakin relaxed and allowed his family to wash his fears and pains away again. Yes, he'd miss them terribly when he left in the morning, back out into the war to capture General Grievous and Dooku both. The thought would've excited him like nothing else before, now? It just felt like a distraction, because the real fight would clearly be elsewhere. More than likely on Coruscant and there was no way he would be there to make sure the right people won it.
But he didn't tell that to Padmé, not yet at least. He wanted to give them both just a bit more peace of mind before the messes of the galaxy interfered with it again.
A/N: So, this come back came out a bit shorter than I expected but I am overall pleased with the conversation. Chapters are NOT back in a regular release like in January but I'll endeavor to do as much as I can for the story update wise in the coming weeks. At the very least, I hope to sort out the Utapau & Coruscant Investigation business before the next hiatus inevitably happens.
