I decided to walk back to Padmé's senatorial dwelling. She had specifically requested a building away from the Coruscant inner-city so she could see the stars at night. Therefore, her building was fairly close to the Temple. The light from the forest of skyscrapers was so luminous that true darkness was hard to find. Blackout transparisteel windows aided in blocking out the eternal day.
I climbed up the several stories to Padmé's suite, and entering the room, I saw that the bed had been made, and Padmé was in the refresher. She was never one to sleep when she was worried, and she was always worried when I went out at nights. I smiled and stripped down to my gray undershirt and trousers and sat cross-legged on the bed. I closed my eyes and focused on the Force, allowing it to envelop me in its eternity. I tried to see just exactly this dream had been, but if the Force knew anything, it wasn't talking.
After a few minutes of meditation, I felt a soft brushing of lips on my cheek and hands on my shoulders. Keeping my eyes closed, I inhaled deeply. Padmé always smelled intoxicating, like an exotic flower garden.
I opened my eyes and turned my top half to face her. Her hair was tossed back with a ribbon the same color of jade as most of her dress, and her face was glowing as she smiled at me. I had seen her many times in that flowing dress scattered with light pink flowers, but she looked incredible all the same.
She came around the corner of the bed and sat in my lap, leaning her head back. Through the thin fabric of my undershirt, I felt her hair swishing back and forth on my chest as she settled her head comfortably. I wrapped my arms around her tiny waist and kissed the top of her head. She grasped my hands with hers and sighed. After a few minutes of silence, she leaned her head back and gazed into my eyes.
The way she penetrated me with those soft eyes took me back to just a few months earlier, back on the lush emerald orb of Naboo, her homeplanet. The sun had just started to set, casting a golden glow over the whole landscape. I had stood next to her before the holyman on the balcony, which was covered with flowering vines that wound up and down the grand stone columns, overlooking the sparkling reflection of the majestic mountains in the placid lake.
She had been dressed in a beautiful white beaded gown that just brushed the ground, a long train trailing beautifully behind her. Her hair had hung gently underneath the formal headpiece, almost hidden by the veil. I had been wearing my formal Jedi robes, trying my best to keep conscious, despite the rush of emotions running through me and the sight of my Padmé before me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I had glimpsed the only two witnesses to the ceremony: C-3PO, the protocol droid, which I had put together back on Tatooine when I was but a child; and R2-D2, an astromech droid who had saved Padmé's ship when she ruled as queen of Naboo, as she fled from the Trade Federation's illegal invasion of her planet. 3PO nodded approvingly in my direction as R2 let out a jubilant whistle.
This had been just after my Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and I had fought Count Dooku, one of the leaders of the Separatist movement, on Geonosis. So, I had a temporary golden robotic arm to my right side where Dooku had sliced mine off with his crimson lightsaber. Padmé had held my hand just the same as we had said the ancient marriage vows and exchanged rings. As I had leaned in to kiss her for the first time as my wife, she had looked into my eyes, into my very soul, and mouthed the words, "I love you." As she did, a single tear had fallen down her cheek. I had reached for her hands once again, pulled her close, and kissed her.
"Anakin," she said.
I opened my eyes from the memory and looked back at her.
"It's about time for you to go back to the Temple. You better head over there quickly. You're supposed to be in your quarters, asleep."
I looked up at the chrono and started with shock; surely Obi-Wan was up by now and wondering why I wasn't in my bed. I jumped up, dressed quickly, and hurriedly hailed an express air taxi to take me back to the Temple. I entered, making sure no one was in the entrance lobby, and bolted to the turbolifts, punching in the floor number that housed my quarters.
When the doors slid open, I checked up and down the hallway. Upon seeing that the coast was clear, I hastened to my room, threw myself though the sliding doors after I punched in the entry code, tore my clothes off, and jumped into bed. Not two seconds after I had forced my breathing back to normal, I heard the hum of the door as my Master stepped in.
"Anakin," he called. "Wake up. We have to meet the senators for breakfast in an hour."
I rolled over, cracking my eyes open as if I had just woken up, and yawned. "Yes, Master. I'll be right up."
Obi-Wan Kenobi was an interesting man to have as my Master. When he and I had first met, I had been a boy of nine whom his Master, the late Qui-Gon Jinn, had rescued from slavery on Tatooine. I had the impression that Obi-Wan had been jealous of the attention his master had paid me. Qui-Gon's dying wish, however, had been for Obi-Wan to train me to become a Jedi. He had felt very strongly, as did Obi-Wan now, that I was the Chosen One of ancient prophecy: a Jedi, born quite possibly of the Force itself ( I had had no father; my mother, Shmi, had conceived, borne, and raised me all alone.) who would bring balance to the Force once again.
At first, the Jedi High Council wouldn't let me be trained since I was too old to begin the training, even though I had an extraordinarily high concentration of midi-chlorians in my bloodstream. (Midi-chlorians are microscopic lifeforms that reside in the cells of all living things. They form a symbiont relationship and reveal the will of the Force. When one learns to quiet the mind, one can hear them speaking.) All Jedi were identified within their first year of life, tested for Force-sensitivity, and taken from their families to learn in the ways of the Force under the Jedi Masters at the Temple. Eventually, after Qui-Gon's death, Yoda had reluctantly agreed to allow Obi-Wan to train me after the newly-pronounced Jedi Knight had threatened to train me with or without the permission of the Council..
Obi-Wan was a little shorter and stockier than I was, had light reddish-brown, shoulder-length hair and facial hair; his bright blue eyes rivaled my own. He was a determined man and a great Jedi Knight. He and I had grown very close, as teacher and student and best friends. I looked to him as the father I had never had.
Even so, I knew that I had to sneak around to be with Padmé in situations other than those of business. Jedi Knights were outright forbidden to marry. If Obi-Wan knew Padmé and I had eloped as we did, he'd have been furious and probably would have told the Council, who would no doubt expel me from the Order. I had to be careful.
As I sat on the side of my bed and stretched sleepily, lifting my left arm and new, realistic-looking right arm prosthetic above my head, Obi-Wan eyed me with suspicion. He looked as if he were trying to read into my thoughts, but I had learned to bury them deep down, out of even his reach.
He finally gave up, reached down, picked up my undershirt, and threw it at me.
As it landed on my face, he said, "Learn to be a little more tidy, Padawan. This room is a mess, clothes everywhere. You would think that a bantha had been in here.
"Sorry, Master. I'll pick them up."
He nodded and left the room. Rolling out of bed, I breathed a sigh of relief and started to dress.
An hour later, Obi-Wan, Padmé, Jar Jar Binks, and I were seated around the breakfast table in the Temple's dining hall. Padmé and Jar Jar were talking politics while Obi-Wan and I politely listened.
Jar Jar was another life form Qui-Gon had saved. He was a Gungan, an amphibious species native to Naboo. He had come a long way from the swamp he used to call his home by cultivating an interest in politics and becoming a representative from Naboo, along with Padmé. Jar Jar had become a representative after Senator Palpatine had been elected as Finis Valorum's successor as Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Senate of the Republic.
"Mesa tink," Jar Jar was saying, "wesa should squash 'em like da bugs." He pounded one webbed-fingered fist into another open palm. "Boom! Theysa gone bye-bye." His long earlobes flapped against his shoulders as he laughed at his own joke. He then shoved some more purple fruit into his protruding snout and smacked noisily.
Same old Jar Jar, I thought to myself. You can take the Gungan out of the swamp, but you can't take the swamp out of the Gungan.
When we were finished eating, everyone stood. Jar Jar and Padmé had a Senate meeting shortly and had to prepare themselves. On her way out, Padmé sneaked a wink at me, and I smiled as the door slid closed behind her. Obi-Wan and I went out a door on the opposite side of the hall and down a corridor, toward the Council Chamber where we were expected right after breakfast.
"So, Padawan, how did you sleep?" asked Obi-Wan.
"Like a baby," I replied, somewhat dreamily.
"Have good dreams, did you then?"
I snapped back and darkened a little. Master Yoda said not to dwell on it, but I must tell my Master. I told Obi-Wan about the dream and asked his thoughts on it.
"Well, it could be one of many things. It could have been a glimpse into the future, or a memory of something you might have heard and long since forgotten about, or merely a bad dream."
"I asked Master Yoda about it this morning, and he said the same, but not to dwell on it."
"Pay heed to his advice then, my young Padawan."
We were approaching the doors to the Chamber. Obi-Wan stopped about ten feet from them and said quietly, "I know you weren't in your own bed last night, but I think I know where you went."
I glanced in his direction, quickly removing the fear from my eyes. He squeezed my left shoulder with his right hand and smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. I won't tell. You are grown enough to make your own decisions, be they right or wrong. I warn you, however, to proceed with caution."
I let out the breath I had been holding in and said, "Master, I've just never felt this way about anyone. It's wonderful to be around her. She never ceases to cheer me up, no matter to what extent I'd been upset. She loves me deeply, and I her. I can't leave her, but I can't leave the Order either. I couldn't let you down, Master. Just please, give me some time."
"Make sure you think it through thoroughly before you do anything rash, Anakin. I only want the best for you. You know how fond I am of you, like a father for his son."
I nodded and said, "It's mutual, Master."
He smiled, and we entered the Chamber.