A/N: So, here is the backstory of Anakin/Dayla relationship! If you hate Dayla, you might get bored to death while reading. ;)

I'm writing the next chapter as we speak, but as always, the real life keeps intervening with my plans. It might take a while till next chapter is up.

You might have not had the time to read the previous chapter, so feel free to review either each chapter separate, or both of them at once!

(BTW, my beta disappeared mysteriously, and as you might know I'm not a native speaker – just wanted to warn you:D)

Enjoy!

CrazyAni

Chapter Eight

Dayla sat on the floor before the suite Padmé resided in. Anakin and Padmé…How were they connected? After she had overheard Padmé calling for him, she was certain that the two of them were more than mere friends.

More than friends. Were she and Anakin more than friends, too? Or were they best friends who had just crossed the line? Her thoughts drifted back to the night that happened nearly six years ago. The night she would always remember.

Water was splashing merrily in the fresher, and standing under the hot stream, Dayla hoped that it would wash away her grief. She closed her eyes and massaged her head. Memories of past days flashed through her mind, each making it impossible for her to breathe.

How elated she had been when the Council sent four Jedi teams to capture the bounty hunter duo, Geed and Eklan Amedda…

How worried she had been when Tak and Darriss had been kidnapped by the bounty hunters…

How she and Anakin had snuck out of the camp at night past their Masters to try and rescue them…How they had fallen into the trap and joined Tak and Darriss in the execution cell…

Tak's wide eyes as he had watched the death taking him…She would always remember the way his bright green eyes turned glassy and lifeless…

Darriss's calm demeanour before the execution…He had always beena by- the- book Jedi, and he tried to find the inner balance and accept the death as a part of the life circle. His face was always calm and serene, and it remained this way even after he had left his corporeal shell…

Darriss had accepted his death, but Dayla hadn't, and neither had Anakin.

She switched off the water, and grabbed a towel. After drying up, she looked at herself at the mirror. Only days ago, a mischievous and carefree girl with vivid grey eyes had been staring back at her. Only few days passed, and they changed so much…

Damp hair fell on her face, and she had circles beneath her eyes. Her gaze was flat and listless, reflecting a great sadness. Her face still had girly features and screamed with innocence, but she felt ancient and dirty.

If only she and Anakin had not been so reckless and waited for their Masters, Tak and Darriss would still be alive. They would now have a sparring session and Tak and she would make fun out of Anakin's crazy stunts. Darriss would look at them disapprovingly, calling to the voice of reason, but the corners of his mouth would twitch in a slight smile.

Tak's smiling face and Darriss's mature glance swam before her eyes, and Dayla slid onto the floor, unable to stand any longer.

"Death is the part of life, Padawan", her Master Sera Caleb had told her. "Believe in the Force, and let go of pain."

But Dayla couldn't let go. She hadn't merely lost two friends, she had also lost a piece of her soul. Tears streamed down her cheeks in rivers, and she couldn't stop them no matter how hard she tried. The void in her soul was singing mournfully to her, and the choking feeling of misery overwhelmed her. Her Master advised her to seek for help in the Force, but listening to the lament of the glowing sea made her heart bleed even more.

A bitter howl erupted from her throat, and cold chills run down her spine. It was cold, so cold without Tak and Darriss in her life…

Anakin. She needed to see Anakin. Only he could understand what she was going through, only he could make her feel better.

As if in a trance, Dayla got up and put her nightgown on. Shuffling her feet, she walked towards the exit, and the door slid away silently. Tears were obscuring her vision, and everything was blurry. Indistinct shadows passed her in the hallway, but Dayla didn't notice them. Her feet carried her towards her destination, and she followed them blindly.

She halted before a dull, grey door like thousands of others at the Temple. But the person residing behind this door was unique. He was everything she had left. She had always loved him in the way a Jedi shouldn't, and in these desperate times, her feelings grew even stronger. She pushed the button, and the door moved aside. Dayla stepped in.

Anakin sat on the floor, spare parts of diverse mechanisms scattered on the floor. He looked as devastated as she did, but he didn't shed a single tear. Anakin used to bottle up his feelings and boil on the inside, not sharing his worries and fears with anyone. He didn't look up when she entered, but she was sure that he was aware of her presence.

"I've wanted to build my own power generator for ages," Anakin said flatly. "Fixing and building things always helped me, but it doesn't now."

"Anakin," Dayla whispered hoarsely. She had a feeling as if her heart was on fire and hurting so intensely that it was impossible to breathe.

Anakin finally looked up at her. "Are you alright?" he asked her gently.

She shook her head, desperately trying to suppress her sobs, but they just burst out of her. Anakin walked to her and scooped her in his arms. "I miss them too," he said softly.

Her shoulders shuddered, and unable to keep her emotions any longer, she allowed to let them out. The Code didn't matter to her, and she didn't care that clinging to the past wasn't the Jedi way. Anakin would never judge her for that.

"If I only hadn't been so reckless," she choked. "It's my fault they died."

Anakin cupped her by the chin and made her look at him. His eyes, formerly a brilliant blue, were haunted and the sparkles were gone from them. "It's not your fault alone," he said quietly.

His eyes were gleaming peculiarly, and his lower lip trembled, as he stared at her tear-stricken face. "They have left this galaxy…left us."

"They have become one with the Force, and so they will always be with us," she corrected him, though she had never felt so alone and so miserable before.

Anakin blinked several times, trying to cast down tears that were welling up his eyes. "I don't feel them," he said quietly. "I tried to trace him in the Force, but I couldn't…I couldn't-"

He broke off and lowered his head, but Dayla could see silent tears pouring down his face. He looked so young and vulnerable, and her heart ached for him. His grip on her tightened, and they were clutching each other desperately, searching for a source of comfort and forgiveness.

"I couldn't either," she admitted truthfully. "I feel so alone. I'm so glad to have you by my side, Ani."

Instead of replying to her, Anakin pulled her closer, and she felt his body shuddering. Soon, a pained cry left his throat, and he buried his head on her shoulder. He suffered as much as she did, if not more. Dayla pressed tightly on his chest and took his scent in. It sent warm soothing waves over her, and only now did she realise how close to each other they were standing. The absolute quietness ruled the room, interrupted only by their harsh, heart-wrenching sobs.

She didn't know how long they stood like this, rocking each other back and forth, clinging to each other in an attempt to fill the screaming, black void in their souls. Eventually, her breathing returned to normal, and her crying slowed and then ceased.

Anakin pulled away. "Sorry," he said, without looking at her. "You came to me for help, and I let everything out on you."

Dayla smiled through tears. "You helped me, Anakin," she said gratefully. "And I hope I was able to help you, too."

Anakin looked at her the way he never did before, and his facial expression made her body tingle. His face was gleaming with tears – his tears and her tears. He continued to survey her silently, his gaze getting more intense with each instant, and Dayla felt herself losing in the deep whirlpools of his astonishingly blue eyes. He put his hand on his cheek, and she felt her skin burning from his touch.

"You're my best friend, Dayla," he said gently. "I love you."

Dayla drew a shaky breath, and the world began spinning around her once more.

"I love you, too, Ani," she whispered, her heart wrenching painfully at her words. If you only knew how much.

"I will always love you, no matter what happens," Anakin continued, stroking her cheek with his thumb. "Always."

Her eyes burned again, and vision became blurry. Unable to resist the turmoil of emotions, she gave a tiny sob, which was soon followed by others. Anakin looked at her with concern.

"What is it, Dayla?" he asked her, the softness of his voice melting her.

Oh, Ani, I can never tell you

Finding herself at loss of words, Dayla put her head on his shoulder and drew her arms around his neck. Being so close to him filled the emptiness in her heart, but tormented her even more at the same time. Wordlessly, Anakin wrapped his arms around her, his forehead wrinkled in worry. It was too much to take – first Tak and Darriss, and then Anakin telling her that he loved her, but not the way she did.

As if in dream, Dayla reached up and shyly brushed her lips against his. Her mind demanded to stop it, but she continued to cover his face with kisses, not bothered by the fact that he wasn't kissing her in return. She had a feeling as if it were stranger's lips that explored Anakin's face, the arms of another person that rubbed circles on his back.

Anakin pulled gently away. "What are you doing, Dayla?" he asked her quietly, his eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Don't you know?" she asked quietly, attempting to make a brave smile. She failed.

Anakin's eyes filled with immeasurable sadness and misery. "Dayla-" he began after several long moments, but she cut him off.

"You said you loved me," she cried desperately, tears pouring from her eyes. She knew she was embarrassing herself, but she couldn't help it, as frustration and hot passion caught up with her.

"I do," Anakin said earnestly, the tone of his voice gentle. "But not the way you love me."

Her heart breaking into thousand of pieces, Dayla hugged Anakin tightly, and he returned the hug. She could feel his heart beating against her own.

"Kiss me if you care about me," Dayla whispered, her tone almost pleading. "Just a kiss-"

She captured his lips hungrily with her own, each fibre of her soul begging for him to return the kiss, and after what seemed an eternity, he did. In her mind, Dayla knew that he didn't mean it, but her heart was performing a mad dance of joy. The kiss grew more passionate, and for the time being, Dayla forgot about everything – she could only feel Anakin kissing her, and it was all that mattered.

She reached into the Force, and the feeling of terrible sadness and uneasiness unleashed on her. The waters of the Force were screaming in pain so cruel that it nearly suffocated her. After a second she realised that the suffering was emanating from Anakin, and his emotional condition shook the Force.

He is the Force, she thought suddenly.

The wave of sharp pain and desperation flooded over her once again, and then, a barrier appeared before her, blocking her. Anakin's hands made way to explore her body, and he was clinging to her so tightly as if he was afraid to collapse if he let go of her.

Never letting go of each other, they stumbled towards the bed, and Anakin gently pushed her down. She saw a peculiar gleam in his brilliant blue eyes, and at the next moment he crumbled his mental shields and let the Force envelop them. Dayla opened her mind to his, and bathed in his bright Force light, she felt all her dreams coming true…

"Dayla?" a tentative voice spoke behind her.

With a great effort, she pulled herself back to the reality and turned around. Anakin Skywalker stood before her, his eyes radiating the same sadness like at the night she would always remember.

"How is Padmé doing?" she asked him emotionlessly.

Anakin sighed wearily. "I don't know," he said heavily. "We need to talk."

"What about?" she asked him gloomily, though she thought she knew what would be coming next.

"You should know who Padmé really is."

Dayla stretched her lips in a thin smile. "You don't have to tell me anything, Anakin."

He lowered himself on the floor next to her and ran his hands through his hair, looking very tired. There was a silence that stretched into minutes, and Anakin still hadn't told her anything. Dayla didn't know how she felt about it. On one hand, she was bursting from impatience to learn her place in his life. On the other hand, she still clung to the ray of hope that Anakin might have returned her feelings, and somehow she knew that his confession would diminish this feeble light. They just sat silently next to each other, but this silence wasn't a comfortable one.

At last, Anakin chuckled quietly. "I don't know where to begin," he confessed. "It's complicated."

"Do you love her?" Dayla asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. The words have left her throat before she had had time to think over.

Anakin smiled slightly. It was a sad smile, yet full of infinite love and devotion. "I love her more than anything in this universe."

Dayla's heart sank somewhere to the region of her navel. Numbness took hold over her, and black circles danced before her eyes. "Who is she?" she distinctly heard her own voice asking as though from under the water.

"She is the only light in my universe. She's the air I breathe and the strength that flows through me," Anakin said vaguely, his eyes bearing a far-away look.

He looked her deep in the eyes, and his eyes were sparkling like two brightest stars in the black infiniteness of space. "She is my wife."

She is my wife. Padmé is his wife. He is married. My Ani is married…

One thought after another crossed her mind, and the choking feeling of despair returned. The dancing circles before her eyes turned into black puffs of smoke, and Dayla's head ached so much it was impossible to breathe. Vaguely, she felt two arms grasping her by the shoulders and laying her down.

Black smoke turned into a flash of blinding light, and the edge of her consciousness perceived someone inhaling loudly, almost hysterically. Then she realised that the sound belonged to her.

"Dayla?" she heard a voice calling her as it seemed to her from somewhere in the Outer Rim.

She blinked several times, and her vision cleared slowly. A blurry figure bent over her, and a pair of blue orbs drifted into her sight range.

"Are you alright?" a voice asked her anxiously. She knew this voice. It was the best music to her ears.

"Are you happy with her?" she asked him weakly. Her head ached terribly, and her soul screamed.

"What?" Anakin asked, perplexed.

"Are you happy with her?" she repeated her question, her voice growing weaker with each second.

Anakin smiled slightly. "She makes me happy," he said softly, but his eyes bore a pained look.

Dayla made a strange sound, a mixture between a sniff and chuckle. "Congratulations," she managed to say.

Her heart bleeding, she threw her arms over his neck, and he hugged her tightly in response. Dayla closed her eyes, the black feeling of hopelessness and despair claimed her again, and she could almost hear her heart breaking into pieces. The pain she experienced was also physical.

------

For what it felt like hundredth time in three days, Padmé lay on her bed, sobbing madly.

Dayla and I were intimate. His voice rang all over again in her mind.

How could Anakin do that to her? How could he make love to another woman? And the way he treated her given that she had only kissed another man?

Through her life on the political arena, Padmé experienced many feelings, from triumph to anxiety, but betrayal had never been one of them. A person dearest to her stabbed her in the back, and the pain was unbearable.

Padmé thought of Dayla, the way her eyes shone each time Anakin's time was mentioned. She recalled again the look of elation on Anakin's face when he had seen the young Jedi. She felt a strange uneasiness at the sight of two of them, looking intensely at each other, but she could never imagine in her wildest dreams that they had had a relationship.

Dayla and I were intimate.

Did he kiss Dayla exactly the same way he kissed her? Did he whisper the words of love into her ear when they were united? Did his eyes shine like stars during that night as they did whenever he loved her? The unwanted images of Anakin and Dayla together swirled in her head, each more horrible than the previous, and Padmé felt herself bursting from jealousy.

Padmé looked around the room – the layer of feathers covered the floor, and pieces of shattered lamp were scattered all over the room. Anakin's pained face swam into her mind's eye, and Padmé felt a stab of shame. Even if Anakin had made a mistake, it was wrong of her to behave as hysterically as she did. She should have given him the opportunity to explain himself. After all, she wasn't exactly innocent, either.

Anakin wasn't married to you when he deceived you, a quiet voice whispered in her head.

Padmé sat up on the bed and gripped her head tightly. Was it deception at all? Technically, at that time he didn't have any commitment to her. Why was she so mad at the idea of him being with another woman before her? And she didn't preserve herself for him on purpose either.

But still, how could he be so cold and distant to her while he didn't have a pure consciousness? She didn't get intimate with Kayle – it was only a kiss.

But if Anakin hadn't come in, it would have been more than a kiss, the voice contradicted her.

The venomous spikes of guilt regained their grip on her, and the infamous sour taste in her mouth returned.

You were unfaithful to him, but he didn't do anything forbidden.

Her chest tightened, and the air left her lungs, as she thought about Kayle's seductive speeches and Anakin's shocked face. Padmé stood up, and wiping her tears with her sleeve, walked to the exit. She and Anakin had a lot to discuss.

The door moved silently aside, and Padmé stepped into the hallway. As her gaze fell onto two figures, sitting by the door, blood seemed to freeze in her veins.

Dayla's head rested on Anakin's chest, and he bent down to her. They were entwined in a tight embrace, his hands rubbing circles on her back. Were they going to kiss?

As if struck by a bolt of lightning, Padmé stood still, and neither of them noticed her presence. It seemed to her that she stood there for years, but in reality only few seconds have passed. Feeling as if she was going to be sick, Padmé turned around and ran down the hallway to the exit.

"Padmé!" she heard Anakin's voice calling after her, but she only fastened her pace.

Choking with a new wave of tears, she ran out of the guest house and headed outside with no fixed idea where she was going to. Rain was pouring madly, and water splashed under her feet.

How could Anakin lie to her? They were married for three years, and he kept telling her at every opportunity how much he loved her. But as soon as his first lover returned, he chose Dayla over her. Her heart breaking again, Padmé ran randomly through the Coruscanti streets. It was already dark, and the way before her was only lit by feeble lights of occasional speeders. Her hair was wet and hung loosely on her face, and her cheeks were wet from strong rain and her tears.

Anakin, how could you betray me?

Sunk deep into her thoughts full of misery, Padmé didn't notice a man standing in her path as she bumped into him.

"Sorry," she choked, determined to run away, as far away from Anakin as possible, but the figure gripped her tightly by the elbow. It hurt.

Baffled, Padmé raised her eyes and found herself staring into a pair if icy cold blue eyes. With a sickening feeling in her stomach, she recognised the eyes' owner. A strange gleam caught her attention, and as she cast a glance down, she saw drops of water running on a metallic surface. This man had two mechanical arms.

"Kayle," Padmé whispered incredulously, a savage panic rising in her. Several battle droids, armed with heavy blasters, surrounded them.

He grinned maliciously. "And so we meet again, Senator."

She heard a quiet clanking noise, coming from the pair of magnetic binders being put on her.

"Lead her away," Kayle ordered, his voice as cold and expressionless as ice.

"Anakin!" Padmé shrieked desperately.

Her captor sneered gleefully. "He won't come for you."

"Because he doesn't love me," Padmé said dejectedly.

Kayle laughed loudly. "No, he loves you," he said, his inhuman face bearing a disgusted expression. "That's why I'm wasting my time to get you."

"What do you want me for?" Padmé whispered her mind numb.

Kayle clenched his metallic fist. "To repay him for what he did to me," he said shortly. "I have waited too long. Unfortunately, you were under close surveillance until now. I think I should thank the Force that you ran away."

Second time in a few minutes, Padmé thought she was going to be sick. It is a trap for Anakin, and I'm the bait.

"Anakin won't fall for this," she said firmly, though her insides were squirming with fear.

"Oh, he will," Kayle said with a mock gentleness in his voice. "He loves you too much."

I'm so sorry, my love. I've been foolish.

Kayle's hungry eyes ate her body. Suddenly, Padmé felt very insecure. She was clad only in a nightgown, and it adhered to her slender body from the water, revealing each curve of it.

"In the meantime, we can continue where we broke off," he said maliciously, tracing his metallic finger back and forth her bare arm. The feeling of Kayle's artificial fingers on her body felt so different as when Anakin touched her…

A wave of blind panic overtook her, and Padmé's knees gave way. She sank helplessly into a pool, and an instant later two robotic hands pushed her roughly to her feet and steered her forcefully away

"Anakin!" she yelled desperately into the rain. Kayle laughed heartlessly.

Her soft footsteps were drowned in a noise of metallic feet and pouring rain, and streams of water washed away all traces of the crime.

"Anakin, help me!"

But she wasn't heard.