Chapter 2

Anakin rushed as fast as he could to Padme's apartment. She was standing there looking out the window when he pulled up on the veranda.

"Anakin!" She said with sobs in her voice as she ran to throw her arms around his neck. He hugged her, squeezing her and lifting her until her feet didn't touch the ground. She sobbed heavily into his cheast as she hugged him. "I was so worried! I heard terrible things! What is the truth? Is the Chancellor really dead? Did the Jedi kill him?"

Anakin slowly released his grip on her and her feet rested gently on the ground. He kept ahold of one hand and stared into her eyes. "Yes, Padme, it is true."

She looked shocked. "Who did it?"

Anakin hesitated, but finally spoke. "I did it. Master Windu and I."

"What?" She was still having a hard time believing Palpatine was really evil. "You killed him?"

"I had to, Padme. He was fighting Master Windu. He had already killed three other Jedi."

"The Chancellor killed three Jedi? He's just an old man..."

"Padme you must get that image out of your mind. I know it's hard, it was for a lot of us. He was very strong with the force, he had great power. Palpatine was a Sith Lord."

"Sith Lord?"

"It's the opposite of a Jedi, in every way. They are evil where the Jedi are good. He told me himself he knew the ways of the dark side. He tried to get me to join him."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't tell anyone. I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"If he were that bad, why did everyone accept him as leader?"

"You can best answer that yourself, you are a Senator. It was worse for the Jedi though, as force users we should have known before now."

"Is all this, real, and not just a plot to take over the government?"

"Padme, of course it is! I saw the Chancellor using a lightsaber, he was very well trained in the dark side. He wanted to rule the galaxy as Supreme Emperor."

"Emperor? That is frightening."

"It is, how close he almost came."

"Remember I told you I thought we might be on the wrong side? I was right, then?"

"Yes, your feelings were right. I'm proud of you. I should have listened. But he was controlling both sides."

"I can't wait to get back to the Senate and hear their excuses for this. Both sides of the war, the droids, the clones, the seaparatists, all because of one madman's drive for power! I cannot believe how they gave him so much power!"

"It's all over now, I'm sure democracy will prevail."

"Will the Jedi make a play to rule?"

Anakin didn't answer her right away. He didn't want to admit, it had crossed his mind how easy it might be. Perhaps the Jedi could control the governnent, and he could control the Jedi. If they didn't go along with it, he could still do it himself. His powers were not to be underestimated. Finally he responded. "It's not like he Jedi to do such a thing. If they do, it will only be for peacekeeping and only temporarily. Padme, do you know the significance of all this, not only politically? I have fulfilled my destiny as the Chosen One of the ancient prophecy. I destroyed the Sith."

Padme was awestruck. "I hadn't thought of that. Oh, Anakin, you are the most special person in the galaxy! And you're all mine!" She ran to him and hugged him tightly. He smiled with much pride.

After spending a happy and peaceful night with his pregnant wife, Anakin returned to the Temple the next morning. When he went to sneak into his quarters, he found that Master Windu and Master Mundi were waiting for him.

"Where have you been, Master Skywalker?" Mundi asked. Anakin stood silent. He asked again, and added: "I have it on good authority from a reliable source that you may have disobeyed the code."

"What?"

"Is it not true that you have married in secret, and that Senator Amidala is carrying your child?"

Anakin bared his teeth. "Obi-Wan, I thought I could trust him, why I'll.."

"It was not Master Kenobi." Windu stated, arms folded. "You may recall the things that were said in the Chancellor's office, at the time we destroyed him."

Anakin lowered his head, his golden hair partially hiding his embarrassed face. "I am afraid I let my emotions get the best of me."

"It could have been much worse, Anakin." Windu told him. "If you had not let that out, and I wasn't able to counteract his claims of being able to stop death, can you image what might have happened? You may have killed me instead of him! You may have become a Sith yourself!"

"Oh, no, Master, I ..."

"You came VERY close, Anakin. The lesson of all this is, good or bad, truth is always the best option. Nothing good can ever come from deceit."

"You are right, I am sorry. I was so afraid..."

"You always did have much fear. This time, it almost cost you, dearly."

"Are you going to expell me from the Jedi?"

Windu looked at Mundi with concern. Mundi shook his head. Mace and Yoda had already agreed they didn't want this. "No, but you and Master Kenobi will be brought before the council to discuss this."

"Not Obi-Wan, he didn't do anything."

"He harbored your secret. His attachment should not have stopped him from coming straight out with it."

"He didn't even know until very recently, after the Chancellor was destroyed."

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Yes."

Windu could sense in Anakin's heart that he was. "Still, he should have told us immediately."

"It is dishonorable to betray a friend's trust." Anakin defended him. "Perhaps the code needs some restructuring, to allow for human, or humanoid, emotion and nature."

"There will be a meeting of the council in one hour. You will be there."

"I will."

Anakin stood before the council in the center of the chamber, on the ancient symbol. He faced the masters, and was asked to explain why he disobeyed the code and married Senator Amidala.

"I have no other excuse for myself other than that I am a man, and that I have feelings."

"Put such things away, Jedi must." Yoda grunted.

"We are living beings too, and these things are a part of us. It is unnatural to deny them."

"Are you calling the code wrong?" Windu asked openly.

Anakin hesitated for a moment, then answered, "Yes. It is asking too much."

The council was silent. "But surely you knew what was expected of you when you joined us." Mundi countered.

"I was a child. All Jedi are brought in as children, most younger than I was. It's too much to ask such a commitment of such a young being. You take them from their families and never let them see them again. I don't understand. You want us to have compassion and caring, yet you try to strip it from us by forbidding us to be close to our families, or to feel love for another being. How can this be right?"

The council mumbled among itself. They had never heard such brash, open dissent.

Anakin continued: "Love gives a person more compassion, more feeling, more caring. If we are allowed to love, we can only be better Jedi!"

"But love can come between a Jedi and his mission." Windu spoke up. "Look at how it almost turned you to the dark side."

"This is true." Anakin admitted. "But if I had been allowed to reveal my feelings and discuss them with you all it never would have come to that."

"So you blame the code for your own mistakes?"

"That is not fair, Master. Yes, I made mistakes, but I also feel it is a mistake to disallow personal relationships for Jedi."

"Change the code will not." Yoda stared at him.

Anakin was having a hard time controlling himself. "You will not take me from my wife and child."

"Then perhaps you are not meant to be a Jedi any longer." Mundi moaned.

Anakin's eyes widened and he stared around the room at the circle of masters. "You can't mean that! I am your Chosen One, I fulfilled the ancient prophecy! Doesn't that show you that the force itself is on my side? It chose me, perhaps it has also chosen me to right the wrongs of the ancient ways and improve this order!"

Again the masters clammered quietly. Obi-Wan stared intensely at Anakin. He knew he had his support, if no one else's.

"I will hear no more of this!" Mundi spoke up. "You are no greater than the rest of us."

"I beg to differ. I believe the force has chosen me to rule over you all!"

"Are you saying you should control the Jedi council?" Windu asked.

"Yes." Anakin answered.

There was silence. At last, Yoda spoke. "No more of this will be speak for now. Go, Skywalker. Ponder what you said, we must. Return in one week's time for our final decision."

"How dare you think you can judge me. The force has spoken. It is I who shall show you the way."

"Leave us."

Anakin turned and walked away. He was met downstairs by Obi-Wan.

"Anakin, I can't believe it. You have put yourself in a very difficult situation."

"I don't care, Obi-Wan. I'm right. They need to listen to me."

"You truly believe the force wants you to run things?"

"Yes, and not only the council. The government. The galaxy."

Obi-Wan looked shocked. "Anakin, you don't mean that!"

"Yes I do. It is my destiny. It is best for everyone. Why are those old codgers on the council and those stonefaces in the Senate more qualified than I, the one the force has chosen as its own? This time has been foretold since ancient days. I will not deny my destiny."

Obi-Wan sighed. "You really seem to believe this."

"That's because it's true. Get your mind out of the rut of the same old familiars and you will know it to be true! Something great it about to happen here!"

He stared into Anakin's eyes. "I hope you know what you're doing. You take care, and be careful."

"I will. I'm going home now, home to see my wife!" He announced right in the temple, with no shame. His cloak flew out around him as he spun around. Obi-Wan watched him stride down the corridor until the was gone, deeply concerned of what was to come.