Again, thank you for all your reviews and sorry about the long delay in posting. This past weekend was a holiday weekend, plus I was working on a little story called "First Sight", already posted here. (Sorry about the shameless advertising.)

Chapter 9-The Naïve and Sentimental

Padme picked up the last scattered pieces of her wardrobe and threw them onto the bed. Exhausted, she looked around the room with mild satisfaction and then made her way to the cockpit where her husband was taking a nap. She positioned herself defiantly above him and lightly slapped her husband awake.

"mmm, give me another hour Obi-Wan and I'll clean the," his eyes snapped open. "Oh. Hi Padme." He could tell that he was in trouble.

"Well, I've picked up all the clothing and drywall pieces in the kitchen, repainted our wall, AND moved an extremely heavy dresser back into the bedroom all by myself, without cheating with the Force. Now tell me, Anakin Skywalker, what have you done in the past three hours?"

"Plenty, I assure you," he said, trying to disarm his wife with a sheepish grin. It didn't seem to have any effect. "I set our coordinates, won five games of Holo-Chess against 3PO, and then engaged in though-provoking Jedi meditation."

"Oh really," Padme asked sarcastically as she sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Do all Jedi snore when they meditate?"

"Umm…I also loved you a lot?" Anakin gave his wife another grin, this one an uneasy expression. Padme seemed to be moved by his words as she moved her head towards Anakin's face as if to kiss him.

"I love you too," she said softly and then without warning she gave his ear a quick jerk. Anakin yelped and twitched in pain. "But you're gonna have to come up with something better than that."

Anakin concentrated on his thoughts as he massaged his ear, trying to soothe the pain. "Well, I did save you for a Sith Lord, my dear."

"Ha! Give me another five minutes and I would have cut off his other arm. Honestly, the only thing that 'Sith Lord' knew how to do was to lose his lightsaber."

"Okay, okay. I give up." As if to act out his words Anakin sighed dramatically and leaned back on his chair, raising his arms in mock surrender. "You're right. I've done absolutely nothing."

"Of course I'm right, honey." Padme gloated in her victory. "I'm always right."

"How about this. When I finally face Sidious I am going to demand that he personally clean up and repair your ship, and we'll only pay him two credits an hour and serve him only the cheapest Shuura juice."

"I like that plan. Or we can get him to reimburse us with a new ship." The smile left her face and Padme turned serious. "Anakin," she said in a firm yet apprehensive tone, "what are you going to do when you actually face him?"

Anakin turned away from her and looked into the deep reaches of hyperspace. "I'm not really sure. I think I have a hint of what I'm supposed to do…but, I can't really say that I've formed any sort of solid plan in my mind yet."

"Ani," she said as she took his hand and clutched it firmly, "I don't want to lose you again. Not to death. Not to Palpatine. Not to the Dark Side."

"The Dark Side is a myth," he stated without emotion.

"How can you believe that? After all you've seen, all you've done?"

"I guess I didn't mean for it to come out that way. What I wanted to say is, the Dark Side that the Jedi believe in doesn't exist. They think it's, it's some sort of all-powerful scapegoat to blame all the galaxy's ills on. They think that one can separate themselves from it completely, but once the Dark Side takes you over then you're lost forever, unredeemable. The Jedi believe in absolutes." He paused to allow Padme to digest the information.

"And what do you believe?"

Anakin stood up and bided his time before he finally spoke. "Something happened in there today, in the Sith Temple. I can't really explain it to you right now. I wouldn't know how to. All I can say is that I saw the nature of the Dark Side. I saw it for what it really is." He turned and walked towards where Padme was sitting and dropped down on one knee, his face so close to hers that they eyes almost seemed to merge into one, blue into brown. "Padme, had I killed Obi-Wan on Mustafar, if I remained Darth Vader, would you still love me?"

Padme broke their eye contact. "I don't know. I love you, Anakin. I will always love Anakin Skywalker. But when you were…Vader," she barely was able to utter that last word, "I felt like I didn't know who you…or he was."

"Padme, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader are the same person."

"No, they can't be! Anakin, you told me you returned to the light. Wasn't that the whole reason I came with to Korriban? To keep you in the light?"

"Yes but…" Anakin pulled away from his wife and sat on the cold hard floor, "do you remember what you told me about that Nubian philosopher? The one who divided people two groups?"

"The naïve and sentimental?"

"That one. Can you refresh me on that concept again?"

"Okay," Padme agreed, though confused. "He wrote that all human beings are either naïve and sentimental. The naïve are the people who live according to themselves, their pure emotions. They are people who are still in their natural state, innocent in a way and unspoiled. The sentimental are those who lost all that, all their naturalness. They are imitators, their actions copying what they observe in society. They act according to how they perceive other people think they should act."

"And you told me that I was naïve, a ball of pure emotions. And that you, being the politician, were the sentimental one."

"Ani, I'm impressed you still remember all that." She smiled, the memory of their conversation bringing back sweet memories of the days immediately following their marriage, when they frolicked in the beautiful Lake Country of Naboo just talking and enjoying each other's company as well as other activities that kept them up until the early hours of the morning.

"I remember every word you've ever said to me, angel. About how we were perfect for each other because of our natures. That the naïve crave knowledge of society. They wish to mature to the point where they are sentimentals, while the sentimentals long to return to their natural state."

"Yes. I remember you saying that it was an excessively complicated way of saying that opposites attract."

Anakin stood up again and walked up behind Padme's seat, putting his arms around her. "So what do you think about all that? Do you really believe that all people are to be separated into two distinct groups? Are you so sentimental to the point that you never use your emotions? Am I so naïve that I have absolutely no self-control over my actions?"

"I guess not. I mean, it's only one philosopher's theory from five or six hundred years ago. You're not completely naïve, and I'm not completely sentimental. Most people are probably somewhere in the middle, with aspects of both."

Anakin smiled, a smile that he utilized whenever he knew he had won a discussion of wits or knowledge, which was a rare occasion. "So can you understand why Vader is just as much a part of who I am. Everyone has a measure of the dark side in them, no matter what the Jedi believe, and to rid yourself of that dark side is to rid yourself of who you are. It would mean that I have to rid myself of my love for you, my attachment to you. Don't forget that."

"I would still love you, that's my answer." She turned her chair around to face him. "Not what you do, but I would still love who you are. I would pity the darker part of you and always try to bring the good parts of you out. I mean, especially knowing what I know now about why you became Vader." She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. The two of them shared a keep and satisfying kiss.

"Thank you, angel. That was exactly what I needed to hear."

He leaned forward to kiss her again. As their lips met Padme unconsciously pulled one hand away and clutched the japor snippet around her neck, rubbing it with her thumb. Anakin saw this and spoke to her softly, "Padme, remember this. No matter where I am, no matter what I'm doing, no matter what the situation, the little boy who gave you this will always be somewhere in there. Don't ever give up on him."

She nodded and they resumed their kiss, the tears from their eyes merging into one steady stream.