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Summary: AU, RotS What if Qui-Gon came back through the Force and stopped Anakin and Obi-Wan's fight on Mustafar? Will Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme and the twins be able to escape the Emperor's clutches? Anakin/Padme

A/N: This is an AU version of what could've happened at the end of Episode Three.

Ch.1: An Old Friend

Anakin Skywalker, now secretly Darth Vader, smiled with grim satisfaction. He had just eradicated Nute Gunray and the rest of the meddlesome Trade Federation, on his master's orders. As his eyes burned a sickly yellow, Anakin went outside to observe the workings of the volcanic planet first hand. Somehow, entrepreneurs had set up a system on Mustafar, where they could harvest the lava from the boiling rivers and convert it to energy. While Anakin watched this process happen, he couldn't help but relate it to his new found discovery of the Dark Side of the Force.

Whenever he had to perform a task that Palpatine had set for him, he'd gather all of the anger, hate, and aggression that been boiling and festering within him for years, and converted it into energy that he could use to defeat his enemies. Yes, tapping into the Dark Side certainly had its uses…

But then Anakin paused for a moment, as he'd sensed a familiar presence. Padme! But what was she doing in this system? Anakin wondered in confusion. She was supposed to be a home on Coruscant, resting. After all, she was carrying his child… He watched as she landed the ship, docked, and carefully climbed out of the hatch.

"Padme!" He called, and she turned towards him, smiling in relief.

"Oh, Anakin!" she cried, running towards him as fast as the pregnancy would allow. "How did you know I was here?"

"I felt you were nearby," Anakin admitted, pulling her into a soft embrace. She closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You're safe now," he soothed, stroking her hair. "Why are you here?" he asked, letting the curiosity get the better of him.

"I was worried about you," she replied. "Obi-Wan told me terrible things that you'd done…"

"What things?" he asked, albeit accusingly. Anakin was instantly on guard…he wasn't sure he wanted to reveal his new position as Palpatine's right hand man to his wife just yet.

"He said you have turned to the dark side . . . that you killed younglings," Padme told him reluctantly, searching his face for any verification of these accusations.

"Obi-Wan doesn't know what he's talking about," Anakin said darkly. "He's trying to turn you against me so he can have you for himself."

"No he's not, Ani," Padme shook her head at the unfounded accusations. He only wants to help us."

"Us!" Anakin cried, already feeling betrayed.

"He knows…" she said helplessly. "I couldn't keep it a secret from him any longer." He scoffed at her.

"Ugh, you just had to tell Obi-Wan our secret." Anakin glared at her, disgusted that she would ever do such a thing. "But can he protect you like I can? No, he can't. He's not strong enough; I am."

"Anakin, all I want is your love," Padme pleaded softly, taking his hands in hers.

"Love won't save you, Padme. Only my new powers can do that," he explained, with a wild glint in his eye

"But at what cost?" she pressed on. "Don't do this, Ani. This is not your destiny; you're better than this!" His wife gave him a pleading look, which he ignored.

"I won't lose you the way I lost my mother!" Anakin screamed. "I've become more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of and I've done it for you. To protect you." Padme shook her head again.

"You're not making any sense, Anakin," she chided him. "Let's leave this place while we still can."

"No," he insisted, caressing her hands with his. "Don't you see, we don't have to run. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him – I know I can - and together you and I can rule the galaxy. We can make things the way we want them to be." Padme yanked her hands away from her husband, staring at him in baffled horror.

"I don't believe what you're saying . . . Obi-Wan was right. You've changed," she told him, slowly backing away towards her ship. Disgusted, Anakin flinched at the sound of his former friend and mentor's name.

"I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me; he turned against me. Don't you turn against me too!" Shaking, Padme flinched as Anakin grabbed hold of her arms.

"I don't know you anymore," she said, staring at her husband as if he'd morphed into a Hutt. "Anakin, you're breaking my heart. I'll never stop loving you, but you are going down a path I can never follow."

"Because of Obi-Wan?" Anakin sneered at her.

"No! Because of all you've done . . . what you plan to do. Don't do it, Ani! Come back to me! I love you," she told him sincerely. Just then, Obi-Wan decided it was the opportune moment to appear from inside Padme's ship.

"You're a liar!" Anakin screamed. Padme turned around and saw Obi-Wan standing in the doorway of her Cruiser and saw how Anakin came to the wrong conclusion.

"No!" she protested. "I had no idea he was on the ship; I refused to tell him where you were…"

"You're with him. You've betrayed me!" he yelled, clearly hurting. "You brought him here to kill me!" The crazy glint was back in Anakin's eyes as he advanced menacingly toward his pregnant wife.

"No!" she cried. "Anakin, I didn't know... I ..." Her eyes widened in hear as her husband reached out with the Force, and she clutched her throat, clearly choking. Anakin was using the Force to cut off her air supply!

"Let her go, Anakin," Obi-Wan ordered sternly.

"You - stay away from me!" Anakin yelled, still gripping Padme in a chokehold.

"Let her go!" Obi-Wan repeated, with conviction. Shrugging, Anakin released his grip on the now unconscious Padme and she crumpled to the ground.

"You turned her against me!" Anakin accused. Obi-Wan shook his head sadly.

"You have done that yourself." Anakin's voice shook with rage as he faced his former best friend.

"You will not take her away from me!" He exclaimed, throwing off his dark Jedi cloak in preparation for a fight.

"Anakin, I'm not trying to steal your wife away from you," Obi-Wan patiently explained as he flung off his cloak in anticipation. "She finally saw what you've become. You have allowed the Dark Lord to twist your mind until now . . . until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy."

"Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan," Anakin warned. "I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, justice, freedom, and security to my new Empire," Anakin proudly proclaimed.

"Your new Empire?" Obi-Wan said, skeptically.

"Don't make me kill you," Anakin threatened.

"Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic ... to democracy," the Jedi master replied firmly. Anakin's brow furrowed, and he reached for his lightsaber.

"If you're not with me, then you will be destroyed!" Shaking his head at what his former apprentice had become, Obi-Wan continued,

"Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes. I will do what I must." Obi-Wan ignited his lightsaber.

"You will try." Anakin gave his former teacher a chilling, menacing grin.

But before Anakin could initiate the impending lightsaber duel, something incredibly odd happened that distracted both him and Obi-Wan.

"Stop!" The new voice cried. Both Anakin and his former master stared at the newcomer in shock. In the space between the two Jedi, a shimmering blue figure in hooded robes had materialized out of thin air. But there was something familiar about this man, and Obi-Wan recognized who it was immediately.

"It's not possible…" Anakin muttered.

"Qui-Gon?" Obi-Wan whispered, hardly daring to believe it.

"It is I," Obi-Wan's former master nodded grimly at the Jedi.

"But how?" Anakin asked, incredulous, his quarrel with Obi-Wan all but forgotten for the moment. "You're dead…" Qui-Gon nodded again.

"But I've discovered a way to come back; to speak to the living through the Force. Strictly speaking, there are some guidelines that I must follow, and one of them is to never reveal any possible futures to those still alive. But when have I ever been one to follow the rules?" The dead Jedi master gave them a small grin, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"Is that why you are here?" Anakin said, dubiously. "To reveal the future?" Qui-Gon nodded gravely.

"I have foreseen what will most likely happen if you and Obi-Wan fight. And let me tell you, it's not a good outcome, to put it mildly." He winced, as if watching something play out in his mind.

"Anakin, you will embrace the dark side forever if you fight him," Qui-Gon revealed. "Once you take this final step towards darkness, there will be no turning back." At first, Anakin paled at this, but then he remembered the reason why he was fighting Obi-Wan in the first place.

"But he was trying to steal Padme from me," Anakin accused his former master and friend, his voice filled with venom. "He turned her against me…"

"That's not true, Anakin," Obi-Wan began, trying to reason with him, but Anakin wasn't about to listen. His hand was already reaching for his lightsaber again.

"Anakin, listen to me!" Qui-Gon pleaded. "I didn't return to the land of the living to watch you turn to the Dark Side; I know there is still good in you yet. For the sake of your children, you must return to the light. Yes, your children…you heard me correctly." The Jedi master chuckled when he saw Anakin's shocked expression.

"Padme is carrying twins," Qui-Gon confirmed. "But she most likely will not survive the birth if she believes that you are lost to evil."

"But you don't understand," Anakin stammered softly. "What I'm doing, joining with Palpatine, I'm doing it for her. He knows how to save her life – how to keep her from even dying at all!"

"He's been deceiving you from the start, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head at his former apprentice's naivety. "Not even the Dark Side can keep someone alive forever…it's against the ways of the Force."

"How would you know?" Anakin yelled angrily. "You just want to keep Padme away from me - "

"Anakin," Qui-Gon interjected sternly. "What Obi-Wan says is true; there is no technique available using either the Dark or the Light side of the force to keep those we love alive forever. Palpatine has been playing off your worst fears, and has turned you against the very people that you hold dear the most…"

Anakin started to protest; it couldn't be true! But then he stared at the man that he'd considered to be his only father figure, and he knew that man wasn't lying. Realization that he'd been going down the dark path all along hit him like a cold bucket of ice. Obi-Wan and Padme weren't trying to go against him, they were trying to save him from falling deeper under Palpatine's influence.

"Qui-Gon, I…" Anakin trailed off weakly, but the dead master shook his head, hiding a smile.

"Don't tell me," he said. "Tell my old padawan – he is the one who needs to hear whatever it is you have to say."

"Obi-Wan, I didn't mean to go this far," Anakin apologized, his voice cracking with emotion. "I honestly don't know what came over me…" Obi-Wan sighed.

"I do. You were blinded by your love for Padme that you allowed your senses to be dulled to anything other than protecting her."

"Obi-Wan, what can I do?" Anakin asked, his fair featured filled with remorse. "I fear I can never truly return to the light – after all that I've done. I've practically be come a Sith Lord, I've murdered younglings in cold blood not to mention I've eradicated the Jedi order. And to top it off, I've assisted a dictator in the building of his empire and helped him take over the entire galaxy…"

"I don't mean to interrupt," Qui-Gon cut in, "But we have a problem. Emperor Palpatine, as he has now proclaimed himself, is heading straight for Mustafar." Both Anakin and Obi-Wan gulped.

"Padme," Anakin breathed, concern for his wife seeping into his worried voice. "We have to deliver her to safety – I can't let Palpatine find her!" Now that Anakin recognized Palpatine for the fraud that he was, he all could imagine was forcing the twisted politician turned Sith Lord to endure a slow and painful death.

"Anakin, you must get control over your feelings," Obi-Wan warned, feeling a particular surge of anger emanating from him. "It is the only way that we will be able to save Padme."

"Obi-Wan is right," Qui-Gon voiced his opinion. "If you are to leave, then you must leave now." He watched as Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed to the fallen Padme's side. As Anakin tenderly gathered his wife in his arms, she began to stir. But when she opened her eyes to see her husband holding her, she let out a tiny gasp of horror.

"Padme, it's alright," Anakin tried, but to no avail.

"No," she whispered, and without another word, she fainted dead away, going limp in Anakin's arms. An anguished Anakin turned to Qui-Gon, to see his reaction to the heart-breaking turn of events.

"Don't worry about that now," Qui-Gon advised. "You must hurry!" The whine of the engines drowned out his words as Artoo prepared Padme's ship for departure. Qui-Gon's form was starting to fade, and he waved to his friends.

"I can stay no longer. Farewell, and may the Force be with you," he murmured, not resisting the call of the Force.

"Master, don't leave us!" Obi-Wan cried, but it was too late. He had disappeared, to rejoin with the Force.

"Qui-Gon!" Anakin moaned, extremely upset that he'd left them at such a crucial moment.

"Anakin, there's no time!" Obi-Wan yelled, and Anakin knew he couldn't dwell on Qui-Gon's appearance until they'd safely left the planet. Carefully, Anakin and Obi-Wan carried the pregnant Padme inside the ship. Once they had her strapped into the crash-webbing and under Threepio's care, Anakin slid into the pilot's seat, and Obi-Wan sat beside him.

"Okay, Artoo, let's move!" Anakin cried, and with a small shudder, the sleek silver ship ascended away from the fiery planet. As they left the planet's atmosphere, Obi-Wan sent soothing thoughts through the Force, directing them toward his distressed friend.

"I'm so afraid for Padme," Anakin's voice cracked as he explained what was bothering him. "Obi-Wan, what if I've endangered her or the babies when I lost control and choked her back on Mustafar?"

"Anakin, while you and I know she's been through some mild distress, I doubt that –" Obi-Wan was interrupted by Threepio, who'd just entered the cockpit.

"Master Anakin," Threepio announced albeit worriedly, "Mistress Padme has just exhibited the first signs of labor." After punching the autopilot, Anakin leaped out of his seat to go check on his wife.

"Her water's broken," he announced, returning a moment later. His intense blue eyes burned with concern for his love.

"We need to land somewhere, and quickly," Obi-Wan voiced his former apprentice's thoughts exactly. Hold on Padme, Anakin thought. I won't let anything happen to you or our children. Just hold on…

End Ch.1

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