***1***
Padme went out to rally her senator friends for their democracy cause, leaving Vader at home alone. He locked himself in his office, kneeling in a meditative position. He thought about the recent events, about his life.
Dooku had been defeated. The Separatist movement was falling apart. The Jedi Order would be defeated soon. His Master had consolidated most of the power. The useless democracy would be replaced by an Empire of peace, freedom, justice, and security.
Vader had been waiting for this day for so many years. However, at this moment, he felt nothing but despair.
He would meet his master at sunset tomorrow. Sunset is a codeword for executing the Insurrection Act if the Jedi attempted a coup. He saw Mace Windu's reaction to Palpatine's speech about the Jedi bill. It was almost certain that the Jedi Council would rebel against it.
Vader would be the military leader to crush the insurrection. After the bill's passage, declaring that he was a Sith in public would no longer be a crime. He could use his lightsaber and other Force powers, which would make his job much easier.
The navy was completely under his control. Right after the abduction of the First Family, he ordered several fully-manned Star Destroyers back to Coruscant to enhance defense. Coruscant could be completely locked down in a few minutes.
He had been concerned that the clones might choose to side with the Jedi. This concern was moot now. The clones had no side to choose if Sidious issued an order. They had no freedom of choice in this matter.
The Sith believed that extreme methods were justified if the cause was great and the stake was high, such as saving the galaxy from decaying. But could it justify instigating a war?
What he knew for sure was that his master and Dooku rekindled their relationship and worked together sometime in the middle of the war. But how far did that date back to?
Maybe Dooku started the war, but found he could not win. Had he begged to come back then? It was possible, but Sidious did not tell Vader anything.
A more radical idea was that the two of them had orchestrated the conflict from the beginning. It was plausible because the two of them managed to meddle with the Jedi's cloning program.
The treacheries that Vader suspected Dooku and Yoda had committed indeed happened, except the actors were different.
A few days ago, he was so excited that he could finally take the Jedi Order down, and bring liberty and justice back to the galaxy. He tried to reignite his anger, the righteous anger, against the Jedi, but that feeling was no longer reachable. Now he felt lost.
What was the purpose of his life, if he was not destined to end the Jedi supremacy?
He felt his brain on fire, head-spinning, and breath laboring. He needed answers, but he could not figure out any of them by himself. He had nobody to consult except the Force.
He heard voices whisper to him. A voice told him not to think. Thinking was too tiring and painful.
The voice said that he should do what Sidious demanded. It was the allegiance that he made when he pledged himself to the way of the Sith, and reaffirmed when he was made the Sith Apprentice. It was an oath that only death could break. Either the Master or the Apprentice died. It worked either way.
Vader had to defeat Dooku to reaffirm his status as the Apprentice. It was hurtful for him as a person, but it was the way of the Sith.
Killing Sidious was unthinkable. It was how power was transitioned between different generations of Sith Lords, but, for Anakin, it was patricide. In the history of the Sith, it was not rare that Apprentice used killing their biological family to affirm their allegiance to their Master. But it was not what Vader signed up for. He sought the power of the Force to pursue justice in the galaxy, to fight against slavery, and defend the people he cared about. He had found Shmi using the learned power. He saved Padme from dying.
"Sith knew no love" was the most outrageous lie the Jedi had made up.
Another voice murmured to him, telling him how weak and useless he was.
If he was not the Chancellor's son, he would never be on the High Command.
He failed his mother, letting her die.
His obsession with Jedi had achieved nothing except to make them suspicious of him.
He lied to Padme by hiding his real identity. Their marriage would be fake. No, their relationship was a lie from the beginning. Their friendship since Naboo was a lie as well.
The most unacceptable thing was that he had doubts about Sidious' order. It was the worst failure of an Apprentice.
"Why don't you just die? Your life had no purpose anyway, " Ventress taunted him as she had in the vision on Felucia. "Come to see your futures. Many futures. I checked. None was good"
He saw himself walking in the Jedi Temple, hunting down the ones who were hiding. He killed every Jedi, adult or child alike. He had to kill them all. Otherwise, these Jedi children would come back to execute revenge. They had become dangerous due to Jedi training at a very young age. If it was not the case, why did the Jedi forbid parents from taking them back?
He saw Padme refuse to marry him. She tore her wedding dress apart and called him a liar and monster. She left him without looking back. Later she led a group of senators and Jedi remnants to fight him and his master. The rebels were all crushed. He had to kill Padme himself, feeling her life faded away in his arms.
In another future, Padme married him, but she resented what he was. They had children. All of them were trained in the art of Force and very powerful. Later, he was murdered by his children in his sleep. Everyone hated him.
Another future showed him that the Jedi defeated the Sith, and their empire had fallen. He was killed. His children were taken away and brainwashed.
Every future was full of death, betrayal, and destruction. After seeing them, Vader felt he should have never been born to this galaxy.
"But you do not dare to die. Because of who you are, and what you have done," Ventress spoke again and laughed hysterically. "The Jedi have told you. There is no death, there is the Force . You could never die, no matter how you wished it. You will live in your eternal anguish and torture."
"No! The Jedi are wrong!" Vader screamed at her. " Through Victory my chains are Broken. The Force shall free me ."
"Then, go to pursue your victory!" she hissed in his ears before she disappeared.
Vader snapped out of the vision, panting. His hair and shirt were soaked with sweat. He felt weak, cold, and dirty. The vision was gone, but his despair remained.
Ventress was right. He did not dare to die. He still had his duty to perform. He stared outside the window with a lone tear on his cheek.
***2***
After the long meditation in front of Shmi's grave, Palis spent time talking to the locals about Anakin's mother, to gain more understanding of his early life. She was certain that the visions were connected to Anakin in some ways, despite the lack of direct evidence. She needed to do some research on it. A former friend of Shmi, who was the owner of a small diner now, offered her a quiet place to focus on her task.
She needed to dig into her memories, as well as some classified information. As a special investigator of the Sith, she had access to both the Republic and Jedi's database.
Anakin was an old friend. When they first met on Coruscant, he was a child who just went through a war. After they became closer, the boy told her more about his adoption. Shmi was abducted and left her son behind. On Tatooine, being a minor without a guardian was extremely dangerous.
Like a miracle, within a week, the heart-broken child met Senator Palpatine, who was visiting Tatooine for a mining project. They clicked. Palpatine brought him to Naboo and promised to help him look for his mother.
Anakin told Palis many stories that were deeply personal, but he left out the part about being a slave. After learning this omitted information, she saw Anakin in a different light. Many of his behaviors made more sense now.
Anakin was a reckless and almost unruly child, but he was obedient to his adopted father, to a level that was almost out of his character. There was reverence and worship in that relationship, more than gratitude to a man who gave him a new life of privilege.
Palatine was his father, mentor, and most importantly, emancipator.
From child slave to the son of the Supreme Chancellor and a leader of the Republic military, and it all began when his mother went missing. People could say that Anakin had an enormous amount of luck. Truly, the Force worked in mysterious ways, but the chances were extremely low. It just felt unnatural .
She felt compelled to figure out how Shmi ended up on the planet Carajam, which was almost half a galaxy away from Tatooine. It was not profitable for slave traders to take one slave and transport them to places that were super far away. Shmi's abduction and re-sale were unusual as well.
She knew it sounded like a conspiracy theory, but she still felt that Shmi may have been deliberately removed from Anakin's life, so he could be taken away.
Taken away by Palpatine.
Anakin certainly had changed galactic history in many ways, but he showed no such sign a decade ago. Why did Palpatine pick the 9-year-old Anakin? An insignificant kid on Tatooine.
"You know who he is. He is the Jedi's prophesied Chosen One," the Force told her in the vision.
A decade ago, there was a surge of stories about the Jedi's Chosen One was about to come and they will save the helpless galaxy. The Jedi Council dismissed these stories, but Obi-wan's master Qui-Gon Jinn was fascinated by them. If Anakin truly was this so-called Chosen One, it made everything different. Many people would want him.
Palis did not believe in any prophecy. However, for ardent believers of prophecies, they could become extreme if they believed a certain prophecy was true. Taking other people's children for themselves was not unheard of. At that time, Palpatine did not have a child and he was bidding for the Supreme Chancellor position. Maybe he believed the so-called Chosen One could bring him luck.
She spent more hours on Shmi's case. A few names kept on showing up. Besides the pirate gangs, criminal syndicates, a handful of Banking Clan operatives' names were here.
The name Sate Pestage showed up in a report that related to the bank. It immediately caught her attention. He was an advisor to Palpatine, but more importantly, he was a Sith suspect.
The Jedi Council finally agreed to release their list of suspected Sith candidates to her. Pestage's name was at the top of the list. He was found to engage in various illegal activities.
She kept on researching. The database search found Pestage had ties to Carajam. When Shmi went missing, he was traveling in a nearby sector, another record showed.
These could not be mere coincidence. He must have had something to do with Shmi's abduction.
Her heart sank. If Pestage was a Sith, Anakin certainly was more than a secret Sith worshipper. Now she was more certain the Sith Apprentice in her vision was Anakin.
She pulled out her commlink, ready to call Obi-Wan, but stopped herself before she finished typing in the frequency.
What would be accomplished by telling Obi-wan that Anakin was a Sith Lord? It was still her theory without evidence. Her lack of the ability to see vision was well-known by the Jedi Council. She needed to do more research, and she needed to be fast.
While she was doing research, too many drastic things had happened. The "Children of the Force Freedom Act" aka "Dismantle the Jedi Order Act" had gained sudden momentum. Palpatine's position on this issue took a 180-degree turn, the same way that he made sweeping changes to numerous policies lately. In the name of efficiency, he eliminated institutions and agencies that had been checks and balances on him and his allies.
Now the damn bill passed the Senate, waiting for the Chancellor's signature to become law. The Jedi Order announced that they would protest at the signing ceremony, trying to stop it.
If the bill passed, Jedi efforts to counter the Sith threat would come to an end. They could go after Dooku's trainees for sure because they were against the Republic. But going after individuals such as Pestage would become more complicated and controversial than it had already been.
Ironically, investigating the Sith threat would become illegal. Worshiping the Sith may become a fashion in the future, she thought bitterly.
People already forgot what happened a thousand years ago. They forgot that the Republic was built upon ashes after hundred years of bloody battles against the Sith. They forgot that the Jedi Order sacrificed and maintained the fragile peace for a thousand years.
They didn't know the Light side and Dark Side of the Force were out of balance now. The Dark was growing and the Light was diminishing after so many Jedi lost lives in the war. There would be fewer and fewer Jedi after the policy change.
The senators chose Palpatine's iron fist because the Jedi were not good enough for them.
Yes, the Jedi were not perfect and were hated for it.
Sith didn't have to use brutal force to beat the Jedi. This time they used liberty and justice, a lofty cause as excuses, preying on people's righteous anger and frustration.
The simple but sad reality was the Jedi was not perfect. It was a reality that nothing could change. However, people couldn't accept that, thus the Sith had won from the beginning.
She must take action.
A new idea came to her. She should talk to Anakin directly, as the last resort. If he was indeed the Sith Apprentice, so be it. What could she lose?
Suddenly the images of the Sith from the stories she published flashed in her mind. She felt the people who had been killed by the Sith throughout galactic history were all pleading her to pursue justice for them. They told her that it was her destiny to save the Jedi Order. She should fly back to Coruscant now, and kill Anakin. Anakin was young. If Obi-Wan could defeat Maul, she had a fair chance to defeat another Sith Apprentice.
Yes, Anakin was young. There was still good in him. Another voice whispered to her.
But every cell of her body screamed at her that he was a Sith, and must be seen as a Sith, her hereditary enemy. She was not a member of the Jedi Order, so the Order could not be framed as having a coup. She was the only person to save the Order from destruction.
"I am Anakin Skywalker, I am a person," a young voice spoke from her old memory.
Yes, he was a person and must be seen as a person. She repeated this to herself several times.
Anakin, a traumatized child slave, was radicalized into a religious fanatic. Yes, he was under the control of Sith's indoctrination and power of the Dark Side. But he was a person, meaning he had free will. He could choose a different path no matter how hard it was.
She needed to talk to him. In the past few years, she never talked to him. She only scolded him for what he did. It was her chance to better herself, and she would make it happen.
***3***
After a long wait, Anakin picked up Palis's call. He looked tired and disheveled, a state which she had never seen him in before. He was very troubled and afflicted by something. From the clothing that he was wearing, he was not ready to retire for the day yet. Seeing from the background, he was in his home office.
"I am glad you picked up," she greeted him with a plain tone. "You do not look well," she added cautiously.
"Neither do you," he said just as matter-of-factly.
She was surprised that he responded to her comments about appearance since Anakin was famous for not wanting to admit weaknesses.
Long silence.
"You want to talk about the Freedom Act?" he spoke again.
"No," she answered curtly. "I am on the planet Carajam. In front of your mother's grave." She turned the camera around to show her background.
He looked alarmed, like a Lothcat facing a predator. "How do you know?" he said with narrowed eyes. "No," he quickly corrected himself, "It does not matter. What are you trying to say?"
"After visiting this place, I start to see your perspectives. Your thirst for justice and freedom are not something that I could truly understand. I admire your perseverance, even though I cannot agree with your cause," she tried to control her tone to neutral.
"What do you want from me?" He was still defensive, but less cold.
"I want to tell you something about Shmi's abduction." She quietly waited for his permission. Seeing him nod slightly, she continued, "Your life was turned upside down when Shmi went missing. I suspected her captor was Sate Pestage."
"You know who you are accusing, right? Are you trying to create a division between my father and me?"
She anticipated he would call her a liar who made another baseless accusation. But division . An interesting word choice. It sounded like they were some business partners.
"I know it sounded offensive," she said softly. "I am sending you the evidence I collected."
She patiently waited for him to finish reading. "Search your feelings, you know what I said was true."
"There were other possibilities." The young man's voice showed resignation, "Too many years had passed, many things cannot be undone."
"I understand." Now it really sounded like Anakin and his father had some serious divisions.
She started to try her luck. "During my journey, I learned about an oath. It goes like this: your soul is bonded to mine by the Covenant of the Sith, until death does us part. Have you ever heard about it?"
Anger flashed in his eyes. Imperius hissed in the background.
"You indeed know many things, Master Athia," He said defiantly. "What else do you want to share with me?" This was an interesting answer. He did not fight her for suggesting he knew Sith tradition.
"Just Red. I have not been a Jedi for a while." She took out her necklace, showing him the crystal. "It was green."
"Yes, I remember." Anakin stared at it intently. "Is it white now?"
"Recently, I entered a vision about an unknown Sith Apprentice. He chose to learn about the Force because the galaxy was riven with injustice." She deliberately quoted the words she heard from the vision.
Anakin looked thoughtful and stayed quiet, so she went on. "He shared life Force with someone who he had been in love with for a long time, to save her from dying. He didn't want to lose her the way he lost his mother. The anguish of the Sith Apprentice bled my crystal." She pointed at her necklace. "I purified it. So, now it is white. I was surprised by that Apprentice's journey. I no longer feel every Sith is purely evil."
"It will never return to its original color. Many things cannot be undone. It is too late." He smiled faintly at her.
"It is never too late," She asserted. "I know even in death, his mother still had good wishes for him. She wanted him to choose wisely when the time comes, to choose freedom, not to be enslaved."
Anakin's body tensed, then he looked away. "I have to sleep now," he changed the topic.
"Then have a good night." She turned off the commlink and laid on the ground. She did not care about whether Anakin was a Sith operative or Sith Apprentice anymore. It would make no difference in a few hours. Sate Pestage was a criminal, and should be arrested and persecuted as such, regardless of whether he was the Sith Master. She only wished the Force would fulfill her and Shmi's wishes-let the young man be a free person.
She called Obi-Wan next. "You go back to Coruscant. The Jedi Order will need you. That protest probably will not go well."
"Sure. I feel the same," her friend immediately replied. "Anything else to tell me? Your new conspiracy theory?" Obi-Wan teased her.
"No more conspiracy theories. I did everything I could." She shook her head. "Tell Master Yoda and Master Windu to arrest Sate Pestage immediately. I think he is Darth Sidious. See you on Coruscant soon. May the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with you as well, my friend."
***4***
"A long night. We are almost at dawn," Bail Organa said to Padme as they walked out of the Senate building. "We did not stop the Children of the Force Bill, but we have a plan to challenge Palpatine. We are making progress. Today must be an extremely long and difficult day for you."
"Yeah. That abduction was like a lifetime ago. I am used to life-threatening situations now." Padme yawned. "The Jedi have become an obstacle to Palpatine's dictator dream, so he wants to weaken it. That is all. After Palpatine steps down, everything else can be re-negotiated. We must stay focused."
"You are absolutely right. I am tasked by the Jedi Council to lead the opposition. But I failed. Obi-wan would be disappointed. There was no channel for Jedi to give their input. Most senators voted blindly without knowing the real consequences." Bail said with renewed conviction, "I will push for an amendment after the mess is solved."
"Exactly. At this moment, nothing else is more important than stopping democracy from falling apart." Padme felt so tired. She was no stranger to working overnight, but recently she had been more easily tired. "I need sleep before we confront Palpatine."
When she arrived home, she found Anakin asleep in his office. If she was stronger, she would pick him up and carry him to the bedroom. She did not want to disturb his much-needed sleep. He at most had a couple more hours to rest, then he would go to his Freedom Act signing party with his activist friends.
Padme would not attend. She wanted only two things: a good rest and Palpatine stepping down.
She threw herself in bed, hoping to make up her lost sleep. She woke up a few hours later. Anakin was already gone.
She felt nauseous and ran to the fresher to throw up. It was practically a morning ritual at this point.
An idea struck her. Her period was late. Maybe she was pregnant? Anakin and she were using protection, but they were not exactly very careful. This was not the best timing, but if it was the case, it would be a blessing nonetheless.
She called the medical droid to her bedroom. It drew some blood from her.
A few minutes later, the droid announced with an excited tone, "Congratulations, Milady. You are pregnant."
It was great news. She felt that she was blessed to know it today, not the day before, otherwise, the experience of being abducted would be much more traumatic.
She was going to be a mother soon. Anakin and she would become parents. Anakin was committed to his work, but she knew deep down he cared about family a great deal. This thought alone lit up her mood.
