A/N: Here is the next chapter of this story. You know, people, a couple of reviews wouldn't hurt! ;) Many of you have put this story on alert, and hypothetically you should receive 20 reviews per chapter. It costs maybe two minutes of your precious time to press the button "submit review" and scribble two or three words down!

This story is very personal for me, because it deals with the way how I perceive the world of love and betrayal, and I put a small piece of myself into it. If you like, dislike or hate pieces of CrazyAni's soul, I'd really appreciate if you reviewed!

And giving me long and booooring lectures like "you write only for yourself and I should be content with writing alone and see reviews only as a nice extra" or calling me names like "arrogant girl who only wants to get praise". It won't work:P

Anyway.

Thanks for reading, and the more response I get, the sooner the next update will come! It will include the long-awaited Anakin/Padmé conversation, and I'm writing it as we speak. (hint hint)

Enjoy!

Chapter Six

The sun hid behind a thick cloud, and Coruscant looked dark and menacing. It was quiet, the eerie stillness before the storm. The ominous shadows from zooming speeders looked like monsters to Anakin, and he felt his confusion growing. He resembled a thermal detonator, full of conflicting emotions, and Anakin felt as if he could explode at any moment. Only one person could make him feel better, and running up the stairs in the Senate building, Anakin hoped that he would be ready to see him.

Chancellor Palpatine was the only person on Coruscant Anakin always felt comfortable with, and he was always welcome in his office. The Chancellor even used to postpone important meetings in order to have time to listen to him, and Anakin was grateful for it. He had never had many friends, and the cruel fate used to take away those dear to him. First Tak and Darriss… then his mother… and now Padmé had betrayed him.

Feeling his heart screeching in pain again, Anakin fought hard to restrain the growing lump in his throat as he pushed the door to the Chancellor's office. To his relief, Palpatine wasn't occupied, and his secretary Sly Moore kindly invited him to come in.

Palaptine was working, and Anakin's heart screeched again at the sight of this kind old man, over-exhausting himself in an attempt to make this galaxy a better place. Then he asked himself if it was possible. The Separatists were the least trouble in this world, and the Force was suffocated by the shadow of corruption and greed. Even the saviours carried monsters within them, and angels sinned.

"Anakin, my boy," Palpatine exclaimed delightedly, rising from the chair and walking to him. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Anakin replied politely. His throat was dry, and his eyes were burning with unshed tears.

Palpatine scrutinized him carefully. "I'm so sorry you had to see it, Anakin," he said kindly.

Anakin jerked involuntarily. "How do you-" he started bewildered.

Palpatine smiled slightly. "I can see it in your eyes," he said softly. "You love her, but she doesn't return your feelings."

If it only was that simple.

You got what you deserved, a nasty voice whispered in his mind. After all, you betrayed her too.

"I know," Anakin said aloud. "And it hurts," he added in a small voice. Oh, Padmé, why did you have to do this? I'm sorry for what I had done.

Palpatine put his hand on his shoulder and looked up at him with compassion. "You should move on, my boy," he said simply. "You should find someone you love and be together with this person."

Anakin just stared at him, baffled. "I'm a Jedi, and Jedi are forbidden to form any attachments."

Palpatine laughed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Rubbish," he said. "All Jedi form attachments, they are just too afraid to confess it. Even the relationship between Master and Padawan is based on attachment, for friendship is based on attachment."

"No," Anakin protested weakly. "These relationships are based on mutual respect and compassion. There is no attachment."

Palpatine watched him, his gaze opaque. "And do you believe in it?"

Anakin sighed. Obi-Wan was so much more for him than a former Master, and he couldn't imagine his life without him. Dayla, Tak and Darriss were so much more than fellow Padawans…

"I don't know," he confessed truthfully.

"Anakin, you never were an ordinary Jedi," Palpatine said softly. "You knew your mother, and you loved her. You belong with the family that loves you, not with a fellowship of stern warriors."

"Padmé is the only one I want to be with," Anakin whispered.

Palpatine took him by the arm and they walked to the large window. Speeders were whooshing by, and in one of them Anakin saw two people, obviously in love with each other. They were laughing at something, the woman holding a little baby girl. It was a picture of idyll, something he could never have.

"Padmé is a very beautiful young woman," Palpatine said gently, watching the speeders zooming by. "She tends to attract a lot of attention from the male population. You are absent from Coruscant for too long to be able to give her what she deserves."

Anakin felt sharp spikes of fear cutting through his heart. Losing Padmé was his gravest fear. What if she met another man and chose that person over him? Maybe, Palpatine was right and it would be better for Padmé to be in a normal relationship with someone who she would see every day and not every few months? But then a voice within him told him that he and Padmé belonged together, he knew from the very first moment he had laid eyes on her.

"I just feel…," Anakin stopped, searching for the right word. It was hard, because he couldn't describe what he felt at that moment – there were too many emotions swirling in him.

"Betrayed?" Palpatine helped.

Anakin looked at him in surprise. "Through all these years I have been able to learn you pretty well, my boy," the old man said kindly. "Betrayal is the only thing that could have shaken you so badly. Alas, it is one of the things that can't be banished from this world. And no one is safe from it."

"I just never thought Padmé would be the one to do something like that to me," Anakin murmured dejectedly. I betrayed her too, and now we are even. But this logical thought didn't make him feel any better. The pressure of long buried guilt and pain suffocated him, and for a moment he thought he would collapse in Chancellor's office.

Palpatine looked at him, his kind wrinkled face shining with compassion. "Padmé didn't betray you, Anakin. If two of you were in a relationship, then it would have been betrayal. But Padmé doesn't owe you anything."

Padmé doesn't owe you anything. Palpatine had been right about that. Padmé had taught him so many things, and she was the one that pulled him from the abyss all over again. Without her, the monster would have devoured him, and into what creature would he have turned? He owed her his sanity, his inner peace and happiness, but she didn't owe him anything. Maybe, she belonged with someone who would give her something in return, with someone she didn't have to save from the darkness?

"It's hard to lose someone you love," Anakin said. "But it is even harder to be close to something you love, but can't possess."

Had Padmé ever been his? He would always be hers and hers only, but did she ever want him in the first place? Anakin didn't know this, nor did he want to understand. The only thing he knew was that he loved her more than anything in the world, and needed her more than the air itself.

"Nothing lasts forever, my boy," Palpatine said slowly. "Even the stars burn out. The ones we hold dear either die or betray us. Even the people closest to us are capable of betrayal."

He turned to him and looked him directly in the eyes. Anakin saw his own image, the one of confused and heartbroken young man, mirroring in them. "You can trust no one, Anakin."

Palpatine's warm eyes became cold, and for an instant Anakin believed to have seen a yellow glint of malice passing through them. "Trust no one. They all will betray you."

The tone of his voice, heavy and ominous, sent shivers down his back. They all will betray you, the voice echoed in his head, and Anakin believed it. And I will betray them all, he thought suddenly.

--------

Padmé sat by the window, gazing at the street. The sky darkened, and the atmosphere was the one of upcoming darkness. Obi-Wan went to the Temple, and Anakin was away. Dayla stayed with her, and from the look of it, she was trying to write a report. Padmé could have helped her, as she always did with Anakin, but she felt a gloating delight, watching the girl struggle desperately with paperwork.

"Senator Amidala?" she heard Dayla asking her shyly. Turning around, she saw the girl watching her cautiously. Padmé raised her eyebrows, urging her to continue.

"Does Mubral lie in the Outer Rim or in the Middle Rim?" Dayla asked, blushing slightly.

"Middle Rim," Padmé replied automatically. "Didn't you have Graphic Description of Galaxy at the Temple?"

Dayla grinned. "We did. But my neighbour kept distracting me."

Padme knew only one Jedi who could have behaved so inappropriately.

"It was Anakin, wasn't it?" she asked. "I didn't know he had any troubles with locations."

Dayla snorted in a mixture of amusement and annoyance. "He kept distracting all of us, but managed to capture everything the teacher said."

Padmé didn't like the girl, but curiosity took over. "Were you and Anakin friends?"

Dayla put the data pad down and pursed her lips, lapsing in reminiscence. "Anakin, Tak, Darriss and I were inseparable as Padawans," she began telling her story. "I was friends with the other two since the Crèche, and one day, we came across Anakin. There were rumours in the Temple that the Chosen One was to be taken Padawan learner by Master Kenobi. The majority was outraged by the fact that the nine-year-old would be trained, and that his fate had already been certain. The rest of us didn't know if we would be taken as Padawans at all, and we didn't welcome Anakin with open arms at first."

Padmé listened to the tale closely, recalling Anakin telling her how lonely and lost he had been at the beginning. Dayla looked up at Padmé, her face twisted with embarrassment. "He was very open and friendly to all, but none were to him. I guess people were jealous. Then, one day, I saw him in the Room of Thousand Fountains, and he looked so lost and lonely that I forgot how annoyed I had been with him. I approached him, and we started talking about everything. It didn't take long before he became friends with Tak and Darriss, and the four of us became nearly inseparable."

The young girl paused and stared at Padmé. "Anakin is the most compassionate, brave and devoted person I've ever met," she said. "And I've never encountered anyone as annoying and crazy as him." She chuckled. "He tends to exert bad influence on the others."

Padmé couldn't help but laugh with Dayla. She loved Anakin with all her heart, but his annoying habit to make fun of her drew her crazy. He also seriously lacked discipline, and that's why he was the only Jedi she could ever love.

"Darriss was the most responsible and disciplined person I'd ever met. He had never broken any single rule. Not before he had met Anakin, anyway," Dayla said, grinning from ear to ear. "One day, he persuaded Darriss to borrow some speeders to do some midnight stroll, don't ask me how he managed to do it. Deep in the night, they snuck out of the Temple and went flying in Coruscant. I don't know exactly what happened, but they wrecked their speeders. When they came back, all torn and dirty, they were greeted by their very angry Masters – Obi-Wan Kenobi and Meshok Bulok."

Dayla broke into laughter, and against her better judgement, Padmé joined her.

"The best part is that Obi-Wan had to endure a long, boring lecture from Master Bulok, and Anakin came clean out of it!"

Padmé laughed hysterically, imagining the always composed and dignified Jedi Master Obi-Wan, timidly listening to another Jedi Master criticising him about his Padawan. Then a question popped up in her mind.

"What happened to Tak and Darriss?"

Dayla's laughter died off immediately, and the cheerfulness of her eyes was replaced by a haunted look. "They are dead," she whispered shortly. "And it is my-" she broke off and looked down, suddenly looking very young and vulnerable.

"I'm sorry," Padmé whispered sincerely, forgetting that she disliked Dayla.

"It's okay," Dayla said weakly. "It was horrible at the beginning, but with every day, it got a bit better. Anakin and I supported each other through these difficult times, and I could have never managed it without him."

Padmé frowned. The gleam in the girl's eyes told her that there was more to the story.

"Anakin is the best friend I could have ever wished for," Dayla said vaguely, staring blankly into the space. It seemed as if she wasn't even aware of Padmé's presence. "He is my best friend."

She blinked sadly and lowered her eyes, but Padmé captured something that unnerved her. Dayla's eyes were shining with infinite love and devotion, and her face lit every time she mentioned Anakin.

She loves him, Padmé thought with a sinking feeling in her stomach. And she wouldn't betray him the way I did.

--------

Muffled footsteps sounded in the Republic's maximum security detention block, as the hooded figure slowly and unstoppably made her way to the cell. Stopping right behind a heavy durasteel door, the figure waved hand, and the door slid silently open.

A man lay on the floor. His dark blonde hair was filthy, and he was deadly pale. At the noise of the hissing door, he stirred, and his metallic arm gleamed in the dimly-lit room.

The hooded figure approached the prisoner. "It's time," it said, the voice harsh and low.

The man sprang on his feet, the sound of his metallic legs clanking dumbly in the eerie quietness. His icy cold blue eyes shimmered dangerously.

"Thank you, my Lord," he said quietly. "I won't fail you."

The cloaked figure drew back his hood, and the prisoner stared bewildered upon the most horrible face he had ever seen. An old man was standing before him, whose wrinkled face could be called sympathetic if not for his chilling yellow eyes.

"Make sure you don't," the old man growled in a low voice that didn't match his fragile stature at all.

The prisoner clenched his fists. The metal glimmered feebly, and the quiet mechanical noises could be heard in the black silence.

"Skywalker will pay for what he has done to me."

Quiet footsteps were joined by loud mechanical steps, and two figures left the detention block unnoticed by the sleeping guards.