Day 14: Insult & Possibilities

Summary: Part 3 and sequel to the two previous chapters. Anakin has been captured and taken to the Imperial Palace where he meets his wife, Empress Amidala, for the first time since he defected three years ago.

Anakin woke up not in a detention center or in a medical room, but in a lush and posh bedroom. The bed was made out of real wood with four posts and a canopy overhead made of rich red fabric with vines sewn in gold thread. The bed was far too soft for his liking. He pushed himself up and pulled back the covers and saw the stumps that were now his legs.

He sighed. His heart was heavy as he leaned back into the pile of pillows.

Leia . . .

His own daughter . . .

He pinched his nose with his flesh hand.

He shouldn't have left. He should have stayed. Stayed with Padme. Stayed with Luke and Leia and made sure they went on the right path. He thought he had timed it right. Luke and Leia had just turned eighteen. They were adults. They could handle themselves. He trusted them to do the right thing. He raised them and was so proud of them . . .

But he hadn't expected the blow his own absence would cause. He had no idea what a pillar he had been in their lives, and with him gone . . . Luke had become the dreaded Darth Vader, a highly successful military commander, and Leia the Grand Inquisitor. A spot she earned by disposing of the previous one. Both took up jobs so they could go out into the galaxy to find him. To find their father.

Well. Now he was back. Back in the prison he had lived in for eighteen years. It hadn't been all bad. In fact, as long as Anakin focused on his family, it was a good and happy life. As long as he didn't look outside to see the state of the galaxy . . . Didn't dwell too much on what his wife was doing . . .

This was all his fault. He was to blame for the state of the galaxy. When Sheev Palpatine revealed he was the Sith Lord, Anakin had told the truth to Mace Windu who went to apprehend him. But the Jedi had failed and Palpatine was voted Emperor. Anakin wasn't at the temple as it burned, instead he was by Padme's side as clones stormed their apartment and they were taken to the newly crowned Emperor.

He offered Anakin a place at his side. He would become his new Sith Apprentice, but Anakin said no. That was when Padme called out and fell to the ground. Palpatine laughed and explained she and her unborn child were dying. The only way to save her was through his knowledge of the Dark Side.

He wasn't going to lose Padme or their baby.

But he wasn't going to join Palpatine either . . .

And somehow he saw it. He saw how Padme's life was being stolen away by Palpatine in the Force, and Anakin grabbed it. He wanted to rip it apart and stop it. He wanted Palpatine to give Padme her life back. He wanted her to live.

It went wrong.

It went horribly wrong.

Anakin didn't just give Padme her life back, but he also gave her Palpatine's life as well. Palpatine's power in the Force. Palpatine's darkness.

Palpatine's body died but his consciousness still lived in his wife, so he dove into her mind and destroyed him at a terrible cost to himself. He laid in a coma for months, and when he woke up the galaxy had changed. He was a father to twins and the husband to an Empress.

Anakin had failed in destroying the darkness from Padme, and he had no idea how to get rid of what remained. How to change her back. He was too weak and there were his babies. His precious little babies that he just wanted to spend all the time he had with. Plus, when Padme was home with him and the twins, she was just like the Padme he had always known. Soft and sweet and smart.

If he didn't look too closely, he could pretend it was alright.

The door slid open and he looked up not surprised to see her, his wife, walk in. She was dressed in a simple dress with a dark blue robe. She had no makeup on and her hair was down in loose curls. Even now, seeing her made his heart beat faster. He loved her still.

She came to a stop at the edge of his bed.

"Padme," he said softly.

"Anakin," she replied. There was no venom in her words. No anger. No grief. She sounded tired.

He had thought about this meeting the moment he had left three years ago, and despite all that time, he had never been able to find the words he would use. He still didn't know what to tell her despite having so much inside of him he wanted to say.

Her eyes were looking at his legs.

"I wouldn't have minded fitting you with some prosthetics," she said. But then she looked back up at him with those gold eyes of hers. "But I think we'll forgo them for now."

"Keeps me from running away."

A small frown pulled at her lips. "I don't want to keep you chained up, Anakin."

"Don't need to if I don't have any legs."

She sighed and stepped closer. He couldn't help but hold out his hand, his flesh hand, and she took it. He pulled her hand to his lips and gave it a soft kiss.

What would have happened if he had gone with Mace when he went to apprehend Palpatine? What if he had agreed to become Palpatine's apprentice? There were so many what-if's. So many possibilities. He liked to imagine there was just one thing he could have done differently and it would have been the right thing.

All of them, Padme, Luke, and Leia, could be living happily together as a normal family.

"I missed you," he whispered against her skin.

"Then why didn't you come back home?"

He sighed. "I can't watch the galaxy burn because of my actions."

She took another step closer and her other hand slid into his hair.

"Ani, is that what you think?"

"I'm sorry, Padme. I should have done more . . . I . . ."

"Oh my love," she said softly. "Don't insult me. The galaxy is the way I want it, with a few minor annoying expectations. It could have been perfect if only you hadn't destroyed my pet project. Isn't this what you wanted? A galaxy where people were forced to agree? One of peace?"

"How can you call this peace?"

"And the years of war were peaceful?"

He had to look away. He couldn't look at her right now.

"Don't worry," she said as she started to stroke his hair. "Now that you're home, my military can destroy the Rebellion without restraint. Soon it will be gone and peace will finally come."

He doubted that but said nothing as he leaned forward and let his wife wrap her arms around as he did the same for her.