Anakin, who had been expecting to hear the sound of a lightsaber igniting, was surprised when the sound did not come. The Jedi were evil; he'd seen them try to kill Palpatine, and now their plot had been defeated, they would surely try to kill him too. Obi-Wan had clearly already turned against him, and tried to turn Padme too. She'd refused to understand he was doing all this for her! But once he defeated Obi-Wan, he could leave with her, and they could raise their child together.
Yet he still held a hope that Obi-Wan would accept the fall of the Jedi – he wouldn't draw his lightsaber until Obi-Wan did, because once Obi-Wan drew, Anakin would have no choice but to defeat him.
Something behind him moved, and Anakin spun around. Obi-Wan never liked blasters, but would he use one if he found it? He'd certainly use a vibro-blade, and Anakin knew Padme always carried one of those.
Obi-Wan wasn't holding a blaster or a vibro-blade. He was only holding Padme, who looked terribly small and fragile in his arms.
Obi-Wan started walking towards the ship and Anakin saw red. "Where are you taking her?"
"Somewhere she'll be safe," came Obi-Wan's infuriatingly vague reply.
"She's safe with me!"
"Anakin, you were trying to kill her!"
Anakin couldn't deny it, but equally wasn't willing to admit it. Frustrated by the dilemma, he reached for the Dark Side, pulling it close and wrapping it around Obi-Wan's throat. "Padme is mine."
Through his gasping breaths, Obi-Wan managed to say, "She's a person, not property." Even as the power of the Force around his throat lifted him off his feet, he still refused to let go of Padme.
Anakin let the pressure drop, caught off guard by words so similar to what he'd said to Padme when they first met. Every after he'd been freed, it was still a struggle to stop people from seeing him as just a child, just a Jedi, and to make them see him as a person. He'd never see Padme as less than a person, never! But she was his wife, and carrying his child – surely that gave him some rights to her. He'd done all this so he wouldn't lose her.
Unwillingly, Anakin followed Obi-Wan, still carrying Padme, up the ramp and into the ship. He refused to lose Padme, but Obi-Wan wasn't wrong when he said she needed to be safe. Anakin refused to admit that he could be a reason for her being unsafe, but Mustafar was a dangerous planet, and the bodies of those who'd wanted Padme dead were lying in the control room not far away. Padme deserved something better than the furious heat of a traitorous planet. She deserved softness and beauty, and so did their child.
While Obi-Wan laid Padme on a chair, Anakin muscled past him to the controls. "I'm taking her to Naboo."
"Won't Palpatine be able to find her there?"
"He'd never hurt her!" Anakin snapped, but he wasn't quite sure that was true. He'd never thought Palpatine would hurt anyone, but Sith weren't known for their friendly and peaceable natures. Palpatine had shown not a single qualm over killing Mace Windu. And as good as Palpatine had always been to him, Anakin wasn't inclined to trust anyone right now. His nightmares could still come true, and Padme would be safest with only him.
She'd especially be safer without Obi-Wan, Anakin thought with a mental sneer. Obi-Wan was the one he'd seen with her in his nightmares, and Obi-Wan was wanted for the crime of being a Jedi. If any clones saw him, he'd be shot on sight, and that could endanger Padme.
Jealousy sparking within him as he saw Obi-Wan at the still unconscious Padme's side, he abruptly declared, "You're not coming."
"You're not leaving me behind here," Obi-Wan countered. He ran a hand over his face, suddenly looking exhausted. "If you want to kill me, Anakin, you'll have to do it yourself."
Anakin's anger flared higher. If he had killed Obi-Wan, it would have been because Obi-Wan forced him to, by being a traitor to the Empire. Besides, Obi-Wan had come to kill Anakin first, Anakin was sure of it. That he hadn't followed through was immaterial – he had still come, and that action was enough to show his loyalties still lay with the Jedi. "You're a traitor, and I don't want you near my wife!"
"I'm the traitor? Anakin, you tore down everything we fought for! If I hadn't come down from the ship, you would have killed Padme as well!"
"I never would have killed Padme!"
"Once I never would have thought you'd hurt her at all," Obi-Wan said quietly.
Frustrated, unable to deny that he had hurt Padme, Anakin pulled Obi-Wan off his feet with the Force, choking him. He wouldn't kill Obi-Wan, not until Obi-Wan proved himself the traitor Anakin knew he was, but first Anakin would make Obi-Wan see that Anakin was the one with the power now. He didn't have to put up with any more of Obi-Wan's endless droning about the Jedi code and the rules against attachment – the Jedi were dead, and he'd been the one to kill them. Obi-Wan could no longer hide his emotions behind the Jedi Code.
Obi-Wan's face grew redder, and Anakin smiled, relishing in the power he felt. The Dark was so velvety, so comforting, like the fabric of Padme's dresses running through his fingers as she slept beside him. It was everything he shouldn't want, and a Jedi couldn't have, but he'd had it anyway.
"Can you feel that, Master?" he crooned. "I have power now to save Padme, power you never could have given me. Only the Dark has the power to save her. Only the Dark truly understands love."
Obi-Wan's eyelids were starting to flutter as he reached the verge of passing out, so Anakin dropped him, letting him collapse to the floor, and stepped over him to reach Padme's side. He ran a gentle finger down her face. "My wife." He let his finger skim down her side, ending at her stomach. "My child. All mine, Obi-Wan. What could the Jedi offer that's better than this?"
Obi-Wan coughed, not yet having regained enough breathe to talk.
Anakin ignored him. "The Jedi only ever cared about control and duty, not emotions, not love, not family. The only thing they loved was power, and keeping that power from those who could use it more wisely. Now they're dead, and I have all the power."
"Palpatine?" Obi-Wan wheezed.
Anakin waved a hand carelessly. "Once I have what I need from him, I'll kill him. Padme will make a beautiful Empress, and we will rule the Galaxy together."
"On Mustafar it didn't sound like Padme was interested in being Empress."
Anakin felt a flicker of rage at the reminder that Obi-Wan had been there, had hidden away in his wife's ship to try and kill him, but he pushed it away, down into the deep well of anger that had been brewing inside him for years. Padme didn't need his anger right now, but she would later. His anger made him powerful, and with his power he could save her. Then she'd understand. "She'll understand," he repeated aloud. "She just hasn't seen what my new power can do."
Padme understood power. Padme had been a queen. She had led her people through a war. She understood what it was like to hold in your hands the power over people's lives, to know you could change them, save them, or end them. His brilliant Padme had never shied away from violence when it was necessary for the greater good. She just needed to see how great a good it would be to have the galaxy under a single ruler.
Anakin knew he could convince her. As Empress, she could make the galaxy a safer place for their child, and he'd slaughter anyone who came against her; and once Padme was established as Empress and Supreme Leader of the Galactic Army, all the clones would obey her orders. He could bring the entire force of the Army down to bear on anyone who thought they could challenge Padme's rightful rule.
Padme moaned, and instantly all Anakin's attention was on her. "My love, what's wrong? Is it the baby?"
"Ani?" she whispered. "What happened? I dreamt you'd done something terrible."
"Everything's alright now, Padme," Anakin said, stroking a piece of hair away from her face. "You're safe, and I'll never let anyone hurt you again." He heard Obi-Wan move behind him, and he wrapped the Force around Obi-Wan's mouth to stop him from interrupting their moment. Padme didn't need to be stressed about anything right now. He would look after her.
Obi-Wan tried to resist, so he poured more Dark power into the gag, until he could feel Obi-Wan's pain. It made him smile. Maybe now Obi-Wan would learn, and would leave him and his wife alone. He was stronger than Obi-Wan now, more powerful than Obi-Wan could ever be. He didn't need Obi-Wan anymore. His new Master would teach him what he needed to know to save Padme, and then Anakin would kill him.
Despite his reassurances, Padme's brow was still furrowed. "Anakin, I'm so cold. Something doesn't feel right."
Anakin looked around desperately for a blanket, but couldn't find one. This area of the ship was sparsely furnished, and he didn't want to leave Padme alone long enough to find a blanket in another room. For once, Obi-Wan didn't even have one of his absurdly large cloaks for Anakin to take, and Anakin had left his own cloak back on Mustafar.
He pulled on the dark side, wrapping the Force around Padme to try and keep her warm, but instead she began to shiver. Anakin began to scowl again. What good was all this power if he couldn't even keep his wife comfortable?
His anger flowed through him, and he didn't try to hold it back. Unwilling to use more Force on Padme in case it made her colder, Anakin pushed it towards Obi-Wan instead, slamming him into the ship wall. Obi-Wan offered no resistance, and Anakin, faintly surprised, realised he must have passed out from lack of oxygen. Even Jedi couldn't hold their breath forever, especially when they were still recovering from being choked again just minutes before.
Padme was still shivering. He had to fix that. Padme should never want for anything ever again, not now he had the power to save her. She needed to live and be happy, because he could never be happy without her.
All other thoughts disregarded, Anakin left the room, his long strides quickly taking him through the ship in search of anything that would keep Padme warm. If she was any less pregnant, he would have picked her up and carried her with him in his arms just like he did on their wedding night, but he couldn't risk hurting the babies.
It only took a few minutes to find a stash of blankets hidden away in a cupboard, and he took them all. It was Padme's ship, after all, and they were married. What was hers was his, and he needed her to have a blanket. Still, coming back into the main cabin, he knew he'd taken too long.
Obi-Wan was holding Padme's hand.
Overcome by the similarities between that sight and the one from his nightmares, Anakin wrenched Obi-Wan away, throwing him to the ground. "You do not touch her!" he shouted.
Obi-Wan rose to his feet, still refusing to show anything so human as an emotion. "She needed help, Anakin," he said firmly. "She still needs help."
"She doesn't need anything but me!" Anakin snarled.
"So you've learned how to help a woman give birth?" Obi-Wan raised one eyebrow, and in that moment, Anakin hated him more than anything. How dare he stand there, making Anakin feel inadequate, telling him he couldn't be enough to save his wife?
"Just stop!" Anakin screamed. "I can save Padme! I don't need you! I don't need anyone!" He lifted a chair with the Force and threw it at Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan deflected it, which only made Anakin angrier. "The Jedi were always trying to hold me back! You never wanted me to just be happy!"
"Is this making you happy, Anakin?" Obi-Wan continued to deflect the objects Anakin was throwing at him, and it just made Anakin's rage and hate roar ever louder.
"Padme has always made me happy! And you're trying to take her from me!" Vision tinging with red, Anakin shoved all the power he could muster into one final throw at his former Master, and this time, it managed to get through. The mouse droid hit Obi-Wan in the upper chest, slamming him backwards into the wall with a sickening crack. His limp body slid down to the ground, leaving a dark red streak along the wall behind him.
Anakin stared, dark satisfaction rising in his chest. "You never did like droids, Master." Ignoring the weak part of him that wanted to check if Obi-Wan was dying, he turned back to his wife. Only Padme and their children mattered now. He had to save her.