Distribute as you wish, with disclaimer intact, but please contact me before posting it on another web page. OK? I also must deny permission for this to be posted on any pages that are listed with the "fans.starwars.com" url. I welcome any, and all constructive comments to me at: swbriatharen@yahoo.com :~) You can find my website at the following location: http://fly.to/brias/
Dedication: To Theed. Your stories have put me in a song-fic writing frenzy, and inspired me to write beyond the OT and EU. Happy New Years girl, I hope you like this. Thanks also to Xander for previewing this for me.
Author's note: I took out
one line ("Without you I'm always twenty minutes late") because I couldn't
seem to make it fit into the story. If anybody has an idea for it (it comes
in between "But nothing seems to make sense anymore," and "Ever
since you've been gone") please email me, and I might consider using
it and updating this story. Of course, I would give credit to the person
too. ^_~
The Lover After Me
by Bria
Sunday, December 31,
2000
Here I go again I promised
myself I wouldn't think of you today
It's been seven months
and counting
You've moved on
I still feel exactly
the same
It's just that everywhere
I go all the buildings know your name
Like photographs and
memories of love
Steel and granite reminders
The city calls your name
and I can't move on
Padmé returned to the hidden apartment Obi-Wan had found for her on Coruscant. While she would've preferred to be back home on Naboo, she knew she had to remain here, where it was safe. Only on Coruscant could the Jedi keep her and her unborn children hidden from Anakin.
As Obi-Wan had escorted her from the hospital, she had promised herself she would move on. Nothing could be changed now, and there was no going back. Anakin had moved on, and with the birth of her twins coming up, she knew she too had to move on.
However, once in her apartment, her thoughts turned to Anakin, as they had everyday since he had left her, just over half a year ago. She still found it hard to believe. He had disappeared after a horrendous fight with her over her friendship with Obi-Wan. He had accused her of having an affair with his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. How could he have ever thought such a thing? She had denied it, of course, it wasn't true after all. The only reason she and Obi-Wan had been spending a lot of time together was because they had both been increasingly worried over the anger that seemed to be growing in Anakin.
He hadn't believed her though. Anakin had flown at her upon her denial. He stopped short of hitting her, but the fury Padmé had seen in Aankin's eyes that day haunted her. She knew it always would. Something had taken a hold of her husband, taken him from her, and she hadn't known how to get him back.
Tears gathered in Padmé's
eyes at the memories. Nothing could completely ease her pain. Especially
not on Coruscant. She hadn't met Anakin on Coruscant, but it was here where
he had become the man she had fallen in love with. And it was here he had
began his change.
Ever since you've been
gone
The lights go out the
same
The only difference is
You call another name
To your love
To your lover now
To your love
The lover after me
In some ways, Padmé almost wished Anakin had left her for another woman. It would've still been a cruel blow to her heart, but at least it would've been for something tangible... But no, he had left her not for a women, but for anger, power, the Dark Side.... Padmé would never understand why he had left. What could the Dark Side possibly provide for him that he didn't already have? He'd had power, he'd been a Jedi, a defender of peace and justice. He had the undying love of a wife, and had he stayed, he would soon have two beautiful children.
Instead he was seduced by
the Dark Side. He'd left his wife for it, and instead of making a family
and a home, together Anakin and the Dark Side made... a monster. A mockery
of everything that he had once held dear.
Whoever would've thought Ani,
you'd become the monster, the Dark Man that haunted the dreams of your
childhood? You were always so weary of him, of making sure that he wouldn't
find you. And instead you found him...
Padmé sighed, tormented,
but at the same time glad that Shmi hadn't lived to see what had become
of her special little boy. It would've broken the poor woman's heart. She
knew it certainly had hers.
Am I all alone in the
universe?
There's no love on these
streets
I have given mine away
to a world that didn't want it anyway
So this is my new freedom
It's funny
I don't remember being
chained
But nothing seems to
make sense anymore
Having no one else to turn to that would completely understand, Padmé had turned to Obi-Wan. He had held her that night as months of grief and heartache had surfaced and she had cried like a child in his arms. Anakin had become her world, and she had given everything him she had to offer, all of her love, but he had rebuked it all that night. It was also that night that Obi-Wan felt something in her, something through the Force that she hadn't yet been aware of... she was pregnant.
The news only had only made
Obi-Wan more determined. He would bring Anakin back. He would seek out
his padawan and bring him back from whatever hell he was leading himself
into. It had taken him several weeks to locate Anakin, but he had, though
the meeting had proved disastrous.
Ever since you've been
gone
The lights go out the
same
The only difference is
You call another name
To your love
To your lover now
To your love
The lover after me
Anakin had met Obi-Wan, eager
to have his revenge on the his former Master who had not only tried to
hold him back from his true potential, but stolen his wife from him. He
was determined to make it a fight to the death. With the Dark Side, he
had believed he would win. Obi-Wan later said that the only other time
in his life he had felt the Dark Side so strongly had been in the Theed
palace, battling Darth Maul. But like Darth Maul, Anakin got cocky. One
misstep, one moment when he was concentrating on attacking Obi-Wan, and
not on where he was going, had changed all that.
And time goes by so slowly
The nights are cold and
lonely
I shouldn't be holding
on
But I'm still holding
on for you
Here I go again
I promised myself I wouldn't
think of you today
But I'm standing at your
doorway
I'm calling out your
name because I can't move on
Anakin should've died in that pit. There was no logical explanation as to why he was alive. He'd been burned on over 95% of his body. His lungs had collapsed, and his heart had all but given up. But when Obi-Wan pulled a barely breathing Anakin from the lava pit, he had still taken him to a hospital for her sake.
Upon hearing the news, Padmé had insisted that she be at the hospital with Anakin. Day after day for several weeks, she had stayed there, waiting for her husband to return. She had talked to him, begged, pleaded with him to awaken, but all to no avail. Finally the doctors had had Obi-Wan take her aside and explain to her gently that it was no use. Anakin was brain dead, and nothing could be done. Her husband was lost to her forever. She had sank into her friends arms and wept bitterly at the news, and it had taken about an hour before she had calmed down. When she went with Obi-Wan to say her last goodbye however, there was quite a shock.
Anakin had vanished. The nurses on the floor said that nobody had come to visit him, and no one had entered the room after Padmé and Obi-Wan had left it. A check of surveillance showed this was not the case. Shortly after they had left, a dark figure had entered. A wave of his hand under his cloak, and he was inside Anakin's room. Thirty minutes later, two dark figures had emerged and disappeared out the door.
The tears finally fell from Padmé's eyes. The shock of seeing Anakin walk away, even if only on holofilm, had been great, but she had realized it really didn't matter. Anakin had died in the pit, just as Obi-Wan had said. He was gone, but she still had him alive in the twins she was carrying. Drained of energy from the past weeks of hoping against hope that Anakin would come back to her, she went to bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, Padmé
awoke with a start. It was time. She called Obi-Wan and he came, to be
there in Anakin's place, for the birth of the Skywalker twins.
Ever since you've been
gone
The lights go out the
same
The only difference is
You call another name
To your love
To your lover now
To your love
The lover after me
Little did Padme know, that somewhere across the galaxy, far from the hospital where the children of Anakin Skywalker were being born, Darth Vader awoke and breathed on his own for the first time in his personal chamber. His Master, Sidious, was there, having taken him from the hospital on Coruscant where feeble doctors had made pathetic attempts to save Anakin Skywalker's life. They must've been informed by weak minded Kenobi of what had taken place. They just didn't get it. Anakin Skywalker had in fact died in that lava pit. And in his place, Darth Vader had been born, at one with the Dark Side.
THE END
******************
Love it? Hate it? Please
review in the box below and let me know what you think! Feedback
is life, the rest is just details! :D Flames will be cheerfully ignored,
because I refuse to stoop to that level. Remember, the ability to flame
doesn't make you intelligent. ;)