Leia expected a chorus of demands, but it never came. There was only Anakin, steeped in silent horror so thick that Leia could not bear to watch. Padmè looked sick, her hands splayed over her belly and her face twisted in pain.

In the back of her mind, she could feel Luke. Clawing and struggling to reach her, to tell her words that she didn't want to hear. But Leia merely squashed it away, just as she did her own emotions. As much as her brother's death brought her grief, she was ashamed to admit that there was a small part of Leia that enjoyed the pain in Anakin's eyes.

"No," whispered Anakin, shaking his head as he took an unsteady step back, his movements slow and stilted, as if he was struggling to keep himself there, in that room. His breaths were labored, and Leia could tell that he was trying not to cry— and that effort to not breakdown, to not start sobbing at what he undoubtedly knew was the truth, was taking its toll on him. "No, I would never – you can't be serious. I would never let that happen. Padmè."

He looked away from Leia and towards his wife, as if she was the one he needed to console. As if she was the one who had experienced the loss first-hand and not Leia. As if she were the only one in the room hurting.

But Padmè didn't look at him. Her eyes, rimmed-red and glistening in the light, were trained solely on Leia. But Leia found that hers was the face most difficult to look at. Even more so than Anakin's because while Anakin knew too little, Padmè knew too much. It was everything. Her voice was a rasp that made Leia's own throat sting. "You never told me that," she said, bleakly. "Why?"

Leia had wondered the same thing. To spare the woman whose life she was about to destroy? To protect her from the knowledge of just how much the galaxy would take from her? Leia didn't know— nor did she want to.

"I don't owe you anything," the words hurt, but they were immensely freeing at the same time. "I don't owe anyone anything. I told you what I thought you could handle, nothing more."

(She wasn't there to hurt Padmè like she was Anakin)

"No," said Padmè, anger glistening in her eyes for the first time. "You don't get to decide what I can and cannot handle when it comes to my family," her gaze burned with a fire that Leia didn't think possible, but it was enough. Enough to make Leia realize that her birth mother truly was a force to be reckoned with. "And you certainly don't get to hold my son's death over my husband's head if you're not willing to tell us how to stop it."

"But I don't know if it can be stopped anymore!" cried Leia. "I don't even know what the future holds at this point and so long as Palpatine and Vader live, there's no way to be certain—"

"Palpatine?" said Obi-Wan, his head snapping up in her direction. He had been silent up until that point, stroking his beard and thinking. But Leia's slip had been enough to catch his attention, and consequently everyone else's. "The Chancellor?" he asked, giving her a bewildered look. "How does he play into this?"

Leia frowned. She was about to ask him what he meant by that when realization hit her like a Corellian freight train. She had called him by his real name, not his Sith name. Padmè knew, but Anakin and Obi-Wan didn't.

Obi-Wan continued; "And this Vader character. Who is he?"

Her heart jumped. "No one you need to concern yourself with," yet.

"But he was involved," said Anakin, rising to his full height. In her eagerness to ignore him, she had forgotten that he was there. "Vader," he tested the name out for himself, his mouth twisting around the word in disdain.

Too close. Too close. Too close.

"Was he the one who killed your brother?" he asked. His voice was soft— surprisingly soft. (Too soft for Leia's comfort). He continued, cocking his head and searching her face for any sort of indication that he was on the right track. "Is that why you want him dead?"

She could all of their eyes on her, watching, waiting.

"He wasn't the one who did the act, but he is just as guilty."

Anakin blinked at that piece of information as Leia mentally cursed herself. She had given too much away, her cards splayed out for everyone to see.

"Are you saying that Palpatine was the one who murdered your brother?" asked Anakin, incredulous. He looked back at Padmè, but when his wife did not share in his disbelief, he froze. "The Chancellor—?" he turned back to Leia. "You're joking, right? This is a joke. It has to be."

Leia let out a bitter, cold laugh. "Trust me, Skywalker. I wish it was."

Anakin balked. "But the Chancellor is a good man," he insisted. "A very good man who happens to be old and frail. Are you telling me that in twenty years—"

"— Twenty-two."

"— he's going to—" His eyes widened in disbelief. "No. No," he said, shaking his head. He gesticulated towards Obi-Wan. "Obi-Wan. Tell her she's crazy," he said. "We know the Chancellor. He would never," he turned to look at his former Master, pleading; "Tell her, Obi-Wan. Tell her it isn't so."

But from the look on Obi-Wan's face, Leia knew that Anakin stood alone in his conviction.

Obi-Wan looked like he had just seen a ghost— his face pale and his eyes wide in horror.

"The Chancellor is not the person you think he is," said Leia as she slinked towards Anakin, her nails scratching against the wall. She looked like a Lothcat on the prowl. In earnest, she pitied Anakin for believing that he was. It was almost childlike— his defense of the older man, and she supposed he had a good reason for it. Palpatine was Master of manipulation, and Anakin had been his unwitting prey. "He's a snake," she said, coming to a stop in front of him, her eyes soaking in his pained features. "Evil beyond measure. And cruel," she spat. "He was the one who murdered my brother. He was the one who took his life in this orbit, around this very moon."

"Why?" he croaked.

"To end the Jedi," she said. "Forever. And he succeeded. My brother was the last. With his death, the entire legacy of the Order died. All the knowledge, beliefs, traditions— what was left, perished. It wasn't just Luke that died that day," she shook her head, not talking of Han and the thousands of lives that had perished on the surface of Endor. "It was the Jedi too."

"The last?" breathed Anakin. "But— how?"

His emotions were strong. Even with her Force-inhibiting cuffs, Leia could feel the echo through the Force.

How? How? How?

"The Order is made up of tens of thousands of Jedi," stressed Obi-Wan. "If what you are saying is even true, how do you explain a single Sith Lord being capable of such power?"

"He is the Senate," hissed Leia. "Even now, he has so much political power, he might as well be the Senate. Haven't you wondered how he's been able to stay in power for so long? He's well past his term limit, and even you can tell that he has no intention of stepping down anytime soon."

Obi-Wan swallowed at that. He looked nervous.

Leia narrowed her eyes. "But that doesn't surprise you, does it?" she tilted her head, curiously. "Did you know that Palpatine was a Sith?"

"Of course not," Obi-Wan was quick to defend himself. He looked between Anakin and her, anxiously before he shook his head. "But I do admit, I did have my suspicions."

"You did?" asked Anakin, incredulous. But his shock quickly turned into anger. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Because it didn't concern you," was Obi-Wan's truthful response. "At least, not yet it didn't. The Council has their suspicions. We all do. We know he's up to something, we just had no idea that it was… This."

"But you knew," Leia said. "Even before the Council grew suspicious."

Obi-Wan's eyes darkened visibly. "When I was on Geonosis, Count Dooku said something to me that I could never forget. He asked me what I would do with the knowledge of a Sith Lord being in control of the Republic. I told him it was impossible, but—" he exhaled deeply. "I thought he was speaking figuratively, not literally."

Anakin blinked. "How could you keep this to yourself?! How could you—"

"Because he was trying to rile me up," Obi-Wan said. "He wanted me to join him, and he thought that if he shook my faith in the Republic he could get me to go to the Dark Side."

"Why would he want you?" snapped Anakin. "He knows you'll never join him. He'd have a much better chance at convincing Yoda to allow marriage in the Order than he would in getting you to join him."

"Because even Dooku knows that Palpatine is ruthless," said Leia, interrupting the two of them to put her two cents in. "I mean, Dooku is evil, but even he has morals. Palpatine doesn't, and Dooku knows this."

"He wants to rebel against his Master?" asked Anakin as Leia shook her head.

"There comes a point in the apprentice's life where they must either kill their Master, or be killed by their Master," she said before adding; "it is the way of the Sith— the way that Darth Bane intended."

"The Rule of Two," commented Obi-Wan.

"Correct."

"Have you killed yours yet?" asked Obi-Wan, curiosity getting the better of him. "Or are you just an apprentice?"

"I am the last of my kind," was Leia's empty response. "Where I come from, there is no one else."

Anymore.

"Wait, hold on," said Anakin, holding his hands up in front of him. "Slow down a minute. Are you serious?"

Leia blinked at him. "Am I not speaking clearly enough?"

"You are," said Obi-Wan. "Anakin just never cleans out his ears."

If looks could kill, Obi-Wan would be dead. "Pardon me for not being able to take any of this seriously," he snapped. "But this is ridiculous. Preposterous," he looked back at Leia. "Palpatine? A Sith Lord?" he scoffed. "He isn't even Force-sensitive!"

"Palpatine is Sidious. He is the Sith Lord you've been looking for since the invasion of Naboo, the one who orchestrated this entire war," she breathed, allowing the words to permeate everything and everyone. The truth was more potent than any stench Palpatine could muster, so much so that the very air around them felt lighter, cleansed.

"I used to wonder," Leia began, traveling down a path she knew did not need to be explored, "how a Sith Lord could hide and operate in such plain sight, right beneath the noses of the Jedi and the Republic alike without getting caught. But now I can see how," she said before adding; "truth is a much harder burden to bear, and even harder to see if one does not wish to see it."

Perhaps Sidious was right to purge the Jedi, ached at the back of her mind, clawing at her as she did her best to will the intrusive thought away. She would not give in to such thinking, and she certainly would not entertain the idea that Palpatine had been right about anything.

But still, the thought lingered at the back of her mind, whispering.

Anakin paled. Before, he had been the shade of Alderaani ivory, but now he looked like a ghost. Leia thought he might keel over and vomit at any moment. "What?" he let out a sharp gasp, his posture beginning to sway.

Had she said that out loud?

Obi-Wan swayed, shock written all over his usually calm and collected features. She had.

'You don't mean that,' said Luke in her head, having finally been able to reach her. 'Leia—'

"He didn't act alone either," she spat, squashing Luke's hold over her mind as she directed the conversation to a place she knew she could control. "He had help."

"Another apprentice?" questioned Obi-Wan.

"Yes."

"Who?" asked Anakin, his eyes narrowing. "If not Dooku, then— was it Vader?"

Anakin was unknowingly treading on very thin ice at that point. Very, very thin ice.

"He does have another apprentice lined up," confirmed Leia, looking Anakin square in the eyes. "He's had his eye on this Jedi for years. He's been manipulating them, grooming them to take Dooku's place ever since they were a young child."

Obi-Wan paled.

Anakin shook his head. "Doesn't sound like anyone I know. I'm the only Jedi from the Order that he's friends with," he said as he pointed towards himself. "And he tells me everything. I would know if another Jedi was close with him."

Leia blinked, and Obi-Wan had an interesting mixture of horror and disappointment on his face. And Padmè looked like a woman who was re-evaluating her life choices.

Obi-Wan shook his head. "There isn't another Jedi, Anakin," he whispered. "It's just you."

Anakin's brow furrowed in confusion. "Wait, but wouldn't that mean—"

"That you're the next apprentice he has lined up," was Leia's merciless response. "The one who helped him destroy the Order. The one who watched idly as his Master murdered his son. The one who could've saved Luke but didn't. You," she breathed, nostrils flaring, "are Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith," she said before adding; "and my former Master."