Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd. The following work is not intended to add to, promote or distort this series. This is a work of fanfiction, and the author does not profit in posting. This is simply a writing exercise written for fun.

Though she had been in the building while working with Bail, it was nice for Leia to see other areas he did not make trips to. Padme's office was a distance away from the senator and viceroy of Alderaan's, allowing Leia chance enough to see other faces, both old and new. Some were senators she recognized passing her in the halls; these were the ones that managed to appease the emperor, as those that did not usually faced grievous ends. Albeit, secretly.

It took a great deal of Leia's will, a will she didn't even believe she had, to pass by those so-called 'survivors.' Oh, how she longed to talk with them, to tell them how horrible they truly were! Even if their silence was from fear and not greed.

Within three steps of passing them, Leia managed to release that anger into the void. Something that impressed her, given her temperament.

She had other, more constructive things to attend to. For instance, like Luke, she should be taking this moment as a chance to learn more from the past about her role in the republic. Though many survivors still reigned, they held the incredible power of history, which could be bent and twisted to their wills if one was not keen on their research. Even decorating the senate could be trifling. And this senate hall was much more calming. Inspiring really.

This section of the building met the morning sun, which was revitalizing to the young woman. She'd spent the whole evening stressing about how she could even possibly stand up to this enormous task. With Luke, it was surmountable, but alone...

Shaking off those feelings of doubt, Leia continued to follow her mother towards her office, enjoying the sounds of eager workers from an era when they could actually make a difference. The senate itself was warmer feeling, what with the rustic copper and browns on the walls and the various plants placed in gathering areas. She rather enjoyed these features.

When they reached their destination, Padme took a deep breath and braced herself for the day, something Leia had always done. Luke had told her it was a form of meditation years later, but she was relieved to see that such an action was not hers alone.

Before opening her door, Padme turned to her and smiled a little, as though embarrassed at the contents of her work space. Leia only grinned, imagining it was nothing like the mess that was hidden inside the various compartments of her own desk. And she also wagered her office was a bit bigger.

She was not disappointed on any front. The inside of her office was lovely, with a large window facing the rising sun, lighting up the comfortable space easily. Her desk, both large and covered in various implements, sat in front of the window, a large figure already over her desk. Both women nearly jumped at the inconspicuous shadow, whose Force presence was nothing more than a near-figment of Leia's imagination, especially when he turned the chair with a wicked grin.

"Good morning, senator." Anakin's voice teased, "and associate." He added quickly at the sight of Leia, making the woman roll her eyes a little. The two women stepped through the threshold and nodded their greetings to the man, who quickly hopped out of Padme's chair. Leia could only grin; he had an eager smile across his face, as though the prospect of watching over his secret wife was a mere game he enjoyed.

"You certainly are early, Knight Skywalker." Padme said as she closed the door, her smile as wide as his. Once the seal on the door squealed, her distance and demeanor changed. To Leia's slight embarrassment, she kissed Anakin quickly and then walked over to the desk.

Apparently Leia wasn't the only one made a little uncomfortable by the action, as Anakin's glance went over to Leia in a worried way. It was almost as though he'd forgotten Leia knew of his relationship with the senator.

Turning about, the two of them found their ways to Padme's guest chairs before her desk. While Leia had a small smirk on her face, Anakin still looked pensive. And Padme, she had a look of mischievousness in her eyes. A look her husband seemed to understand. "I take it you already have a plan for dealing with these assailants." Anakin noted, crossing one leg over the other as he leaned back in his chair comfortably. Leia's jaw slackened a moment, and she found her eyes returning to her mother.

Smiling, Padme nodded, leaning forward on her arms, "And it should go over a lot better now that Luke isn't here... no offense." She added quickly, her eyes on Leia. "While I think that Luke has sound judgment, he doesn't know Anakin like I do."

Frowning as her eyes grew harder, Leia accused her mother carefully, "You want to tell him."

"I already have." Padme replied, her eyes returning to Anakin's, "He wasn't very receptive to the idea, though I am still not sure of which part." Suddenly frustrated, Leia stood up, her wild hair practically flying with her from the jerk of her movement.

"How dare you!" She cried out, "These are our lives you are jeopardizing! Luke and I felt it was important to keep quiet for a reason... Reasons you can't possibly understand! Not till you've lived them!" Padme stood up as well, outrage in her brown eyes.

"It's our lives too!"

Looking back and forth between the two arguing women, Anakin sighed and shook his head, "This is about them being our children from the future... isn't it?" he realized, his brain still fighting the very idea. He felt Padme's nod and Leia turn away from her. Standing to be at level with the two arguing women, he inserted his own take on the situation. "Do you have any idea how ludicrous that even sounds?"

When both of their brown eyes fell on him harshly, he found himself eating his own words, if only for a minute. Their resemblance alone should have silenced him, not to mention their attitude at the moment. And even he could not deny that. He then sighed and raised his arms in defense, "Okay, say I were to believe this 'hypothesis,' what proof do you have of these allegations? Padme says her only evidence is a vision. Perhaps you could share with us something only our family would know, or maybe an heirloom you always carry?"

Leia sighed and shrugged, "Even if I could, I wouldn't. Telling you this was the last thing either of us were prepared to do, and only if we absolutely had to."

Frowning, Anakin stepped closer, "Why? If I'm your father, why should I be the last in the loop? Especially now that your supposed 'mother' knows." The moment he asked the question, he regretted it. He regretted seeing the cold, hurt stare in Leia's eyes and the way she turned away. Confused, he turned to Padme, only to find a similar hurt in her own eyes. It astounded him to see these strong woman start to tremble, as if stuck in some terrible memory.

Gulping, he tried to smile, to laugh away the discomfort, "Well it can't be that bad. Do I die soon or something?"

To his surprise, it wasn't Leia who answered him. "You turn, Anakin." Padme said, her voice as hushed as a whisper, "You fall to the darkside, become a Sith... and then you kill me."

Everything in his body seemed to freeze; his blood, his breath, his thinking. It wasn't the accusation that stunned him still, it was the source of such a foreboding forecast. It seemed as though ages had passed when he could finally look his wife in the eye, so much hurt in his gaze that it seemed his ocean colored eyes had stormed over.

"You honestly believe that I could do that?" He asked her, his voice shaking. When she turned away, it nearly broke his heart. He found his voice growing louder in his throat, as his breathing became less and less manageable, courtesy of the hurt he felt. "Ignoring all the other impossible things you could believe, this story... I... you-" He was suddenly filled with such anger, trying ever so hard to shield his heart from the pain he was feeling. He was angry at her, but, more so, he was angry at himself. What had he done to make this plausible to her?

How could she, his angel, ever believe something so absurd?

He expected allegations like this from Windu, the council, hell the HoloNet even. But Padme? She was his wife, his beloved... she completed him! And yet she believed he could snuff her out of existence? Something he could never, ever see himself doing. The toxicity of the feelings was overwhelming.

Suddenly very timid, Padme stepped forward and nodded, "After learning about their lives Anakin, seeing all their hurts... I can." She reached up to place her hands on his shoulders, to comfort him, but he stepped back, shaking his head at her. As he trembled through torrents of feelings, not sure which ones to abide by, he reached for his belt and unclasped his lightsaber, dropping it to the floor before the two women. It clanged as it connected with the tile, the only sound in the room.

"There." he said, turning around, "Problem solved."

He was out the door faster than a shadow, leaving the two women in a stupor. Leia was the first to react, running after him in a panic, nearly as much a bolt of lightening as her father. Padme, however, stood still a while longer, amazed by what had transpired before her.

This had not been her plan: with Luke gone, she believed she could reach Leia, the more agreeable, and turn the tide of their future. But Anakin's reaction was... she should have expected it. She knew him better than her actions indicated.

As she reached down to collect Anakin's lightsaber, she ran over the conversation again and again in her head. In the end, it all turned out the same. Anakin hurt. "Perhaps Luke knew him better than I thought." She finally realized before jumping and hiding the lightsaber behind herback. She'd heard a ruckus outside her door consisting of her most loyal droid and wedding present. Soon after, Threepio hobbled into the space, Bail Organa behind him.

"Senator Amidala?" Bail began, nodding to her politely, which she returned in kind. He paused a moment before adding in, "I noticed Knights Skywalker and Darklighter rushing past here... Is everything all right?"

Shrugging at first, Padme eventually nodded to him. It surprised her how relieved he looked to see that. He only paused a moment, closing the gap between them, before adding in the reason he'd come to visit with her in the first place. "Senator Philo has called a meeting I think you'll want to be apart of before this afternoon's vote. It concerns the new privacy invasion laws we've all been discussing."

"That's right..." she muttered more to herself, "That vote is today, isn't it... I was so wrapped up in decelerating the military's arms I'd almost forgotten." She paused a moment, wondering how it all really mattered in the end.

Anakin's face kept coming to mind. His hurt, especially, in the fact that she didn't believe in him. More than once they'd argued the ethics of this war, him assuring her that the weapons and soldiers were much needed. Could she really vote against his needs now? After seeing how betrayed he looked? And what about her duty to her people? Her duty to her convictions that said to press forward on all fronts... Anakin, the republic, Luke and Leia.

"I'm glad I caught you then." Bail replied to her, "Philo hopes to organize for a strong counter against the bill." Smiling, Padme nodded, following after the man as she hid Anakin's lightsaber in her sleeve.

Leia would calm him down, she knew that much. Then she could apologize to him later for her callousness.

It seemed that the farther Anakin ran, the more heavily the words fell on his shoulders. He'd bounded through half the senate hall before finally tucking himself away on a set of stairs beside a small cafe on the eightieth floor. He needed to think. He needed to process.

He didn't know what to do at all.

The silent footfalls on the tiles of the various passages meant nothing to him, even as Leia appeared in the corridor before the stairs, her wild hair and long Jedi robes swishing back and forth as she ran as fast as she could. He watched her a moment, wondering why she even bothered to follow him. She had painted him as a monster after all.

At last, her eyes fell on him, a smile forming on her lips as she walked towards the gloomy man. "There you are." She said softly as she sat down beside him, pulling her knees into her chest, "I was wondering where you'd run off to."

Frustrated, he grumbled, "You'd best just go, Jaina."

Her smile fading, Leia turned her eyes away towards the lowest steps, "So now I'm Jaina again." she remarked, her eyes clearly hurt, "And I'd grown to like you calling me by my real name. I was pleased to learn you'd thought of it."

"Is that so?" he spat, "Despite the fact that I apparently kill your mother?" He stared at her, his gray eyes so filled with hurt and betrayal, it almost brought tears to Leia's eyes.

Frowning, Leia took a deep breath before answering, "I don't believe that this man, right here before me, killed my mother." He turned his eyes away, his jaw slackened by confusion and shock. She was admitting it, standing firm on the idea that this was not her time, and he didn't know what to do about it. Her presence, her will in the Force felt unshakable.

"Then why say such things to her?" he wondered.

Taking his mechanical hand in hers, Leia explained, "We didn't mean for her to find out about us. One day she just woke up and knew." She paused before admitting, "To gain her trust, we told her some of our true past, never revealing the identities of those we spoke of. But her unexpected clarity made the dots easy for her to connect." He then took his hand away.

"And then you wouldn't tell me."

Nodding, Leia's attempted a sad smile, "At first I wanted to... But Luke didn't want you burdened with the things you have not yet done. He didn't want to risk making too many changes to the future. He believed we could just as easily conjure a worse fate by doing so." She paused a moment before adding in regretfully, "And now I understand the full spectrum of why. Seeing you, here, innocent and in pain hurts so much." He turned to find her with a teardrop on her cheek, looking pitiful herself, and it softened his anger just a little.

There was silence for a moment between them as both contemplated what to say next. It was Leia who continued her story. "Luke and I see so much of you in us," she began carefully, "We understand your pains, opinions, desires. In many ways, I think we embody them. Getting to know you has offered us so much clarity into who we are, into how to move forward with our lives, that I have no regrets over significant changes anymore." He offered her no response, no agreement whatsoever.

"Believe what you want about our origin, Anakin." She stressed to him after a time, "If it comforts you to think of us as spies, then do so. If you enjoy seeing us as your son and daughter, then allow it into your heart. But, whatever you choose, please do not deprive us the chance to earn your friendship." Her hand was on his shoulder again, and he shrugged it off.

"Friends believe in each other." He told her sternly, his eyes still radiating hurt.

Standing up, realizing that he needed ample time to process all of this, Leia nodded to him and smiled, "But we do believe in you Anakin... More than you can possibly believe." After pausing to see he got her message, she made her way towards the direction she'd come from, her footfalls silent as her shoulders shrugged low. He watched her, fighting with the opinion that it was all an act, and his instinct which told him to believe her entirely.

He was just about to say something when the lights in the hall dimmed and all the doors slammed closed. Standing, he and Leia turned about, seeking a source of the strange occurrence.

"What's going on?" He wondered aloud, finding that his time traveler had absolutely no answers.

Her mind was on anything but the bill at hand as Bail and Phillo headed the discussion about halting any motion on the bill. She barely even noticed as five strange individuals entered the room, to of them being droids, and each armed extensively. It was only after their leader spoke that she even began to comprehend the situation.

A slight gunshot and then, "Nobody move."

And in her heart, all she could wonder was if Anakin and Leia were safe.

As the blue faced Duros and his friends encircled the few senators that had gathered on the floor, Padme swallowed all her sorrow. Even her shock at seeing Aurra Sing free so soon from her imprisonment was pushed low. She made concern her focus. She had to. Especially as she watched Senator Phillo attempt to walk out the door past Cad Bane and die. The gunfire alone echoed about the hall as other senators shrilled in panic.

But she forced herself to stay calm. Anakin always did, and he was somewhere in this building with Leia. She was certain that together her husband and daughter would save the day. She had to believe it. After her blunder this morning, she just had to. Even as they began their search for communication devices amongst her colleagues.

Senator Palpatine was focusing deeply on thwarting this new proposition by his former queen when his good friend, Senator Free Ta, walked straight into his office. So much was he transfixed, that he, a great Sith lord, did not sense the man's entrance at first, only looking up when he heard the door slip shut. The blue Twil'ek's countenance told him well in advance of his mouth that something was wrong. "Chancellor," he started carefully.

"Yes, Senator Free Ta?" he wondered, opening himself up into the Force, trying to get a grip on whatever new play was at large. The solemn sentient frowned more and moved towards the projector in the room.

"You need to see this." He said, activating the device quickly. Palpatine frowned as a transparent image of the infamous Cad Bane appeared before him, his customary hat making his deep red eyes almost glisten. There was hardly pause for introduction between he and the chancellor before the fiend began listing off a set of demands that only made the old man grin on the inside. "You have one hour to release Ziru the Hutt." Bane warned, "Or you'll be having some early elections held this year."

Growling a little, Palpatine reminded the man, "The republic does not negotiate with terrorists." Bane only grinned at him, calling his bluff.

"So be it." he replied before cutting the transmission. Oni Free Ta could only blabber on at the issue as Palpatine fought a smirk with the thought, So much for de-militarization, Amidala.

"Mother's in trouble." Leia hissed at him as they stormed down the halls, their speed enhanced by the Force, "We need to hurry."

Anakin turned to her, weary of her statement and exhausted by the question of it. Especially now. But Leia seemed unconcerned with this dilemma, the way he should be right now if he were any good at being a Jedi. He'd sort out these emotions later.

In mere moments, they were in the stands of one of the senate's smaller meeting halls. Various committees met here, planning and preparing various bills. Anakin had sat on the sidelines more than once here, observing the way the love of his life reigned supreme in these forums.

Now, he and Leia did something similar, though their eyes fell on tragedy instead of inspiration.

Before them, nearly fifteen senators stood in a ring, one of their members dead on the floor. He recognized Phila as the unfortnate one. While some of the senators appeared strong in the situation, several of them began to tremble in fear. Padme, he soon noticed, was not one of them. She stood with her hands clasped together and a proud look upon her face. He would have reached out into the Force to check on her, but he was well aware that at least one of her captors was Force sensitive.

"Who are they?" Leia inquired, her eyes scanning the scene, "I only recognize one." Anakin frowned at the statement. These fighters were easier to deal with when you knew what to expect from them.

He immediately knew these men and women as bounty hunters, having crossed paths with a few multiple times. It sicked him to see how bold they were getting, behaving as assassins and how terrorists of some kind. Especially now as they gathered the various communication devices used by the partisan senators below. Padme included.

"Well," he tried to be calm and collected like he usually was. His imagination attempted to view Leia as Ahsoka, though the image didn't sit right with him, "The blue guy in the big hat is Cad Bane... he's likely the ringleader. You know Aurra Sing already... she's just a Kath-hound with some Force sensitivity." He heard Leia snort at that one, "Hey... I'm entitled to my own opinion, aren't I?" Again, she snickered a little, even rolling her eyes.

That calmed him down a little more, so he continued with a little grin, "Shahan Alama's got a bit of a temper you can use... get's frustrated pretty easily. And... the rest are droids, so..." They continued to watch, looking for an opening as the group was searched for their communication devices. All they had to do was wait for the right moment to strike. Preferably a moment after they had finished searching Padme and moved on.

And then it struck him. "She still has my lightsaber." He hissed to Leia, knowing full well what would happen to her if the fiends discovered it. He could hear Leia curse something fierce off to his side, her eyes scanning below for a solution to the problem as Cad Bane approached her mother, who quickly whispered something to Bail beside her.

Anakin turned back to look ith her, all the while noticing how Leia's hand rested on the hilt of her lightsaber as she watched too. As though she was ready to take these brigands on alone. Something I would do.

Cad Bane was a bold one, taking Padme's face into his hands as he inquired, "What's your name?"

Padme frowned, "I am Padme Amidala, senator of the Naboo System, and I demand that you release us." Cad and his lackeys all seemed to laugh at the audacity of her statement. Even the confederate droids attempted a chortle.

"Demand, eh?" he retorted, a large grin on his face, "And why should I listen to you?" Even as he spoke, Padme's eyes caught sight of the equally pale Aurra Sing, widening them in surprise at the way the woman looked ready to kill her. Cad noticed this and chuckled, examining her face once more, "I see. Young and impetuous... with nothing to back her words. And how does one so pretty and young as yourself become a senator?" he wondered.

Yet, even as he asked, her eyes found what she'd hoped to see tucked behind the railings of the second level stands. Anakin. Leia. They were there.

Cad must have noticed her gaze, as he turned round and spotted the two, opening fire. Leia was swift to react, returning his bolts into two of the others in the group. They were injured, but not significantly enough thanks to their armor.

Leia and Anakin jumped down from their position, each landing lightly on their feet. As Leia continued to move forward, her defense functioning well as an offense, Anakin quickly crept into the cluster of senators in search of his own weapon. Padme smiled, ready to pass him the lightsaber the moment he approached her, a story of how she'd obtained it already planned.

But, as he drew near her, his eyes suddenly returned to the fight, where Leia was squared off against four assailants. He watched her a moment, his eyes scrutinizing her movements, noticing how unnatural they looked on her, even if they were correct. Her steps were boxy, almost reminding him of the constrictions Threepio moved under.

And he couldn't help but call out to her, "Leia!" she flinched, but only a little, "Quit imitating someone else! Make the forms your own!" She flinched again, and he saw her jaw slacken a little, as though something long sought for had finally appeared before her.

In an instant, he saw a change in her stance, her style, her moves. Her steps drew in more energy, turning almost into dance moves as she adapted Djem So into her own movements. A bolt from the slightly force sensitive Aurra Sing was soon deflected back at her droid counterpart, another bolt thrown into that same droid's shoulder.

Satisfied with what he saw, Anakin returned to his search, only to stop when he heard Leia cry out in agony. And he knew it was bad when Padme covered her mouth, her eyes streaking with tears.

Turning about, he found Leia clutching her leg, a bolt from Cad Bane himself having passed through it. Anakin cursed to himself, knowing full well that correcting a Padawan should not happen in the midst of real conflict. And yet I couldn't resist! Leia was likely so focused on changing her style around that she missed some crucial inkling in the Force.

As she struggled to stand and resume her battle, Cad encroached the space between them, his blaster ready to fire. A sight which, needless to say, woke a feral aspect of Anakin.

Filled with primal rage, Anakin raised his hands and bellowed out, "Get away from her!" Almost like a strong gale had entered the hall, the whole of the space grew pressurized, pushing the remaining three bounty hunters back into the steel-paneled wall behind them. Anakin seethed in fear and anger as he pressed harder on them in the Force, their bodies creaking and cracking as he did so. The wall eventually began to give way to his power, cracking and groaning as the three became breathless. And he didn't care.

It wasn't until two hands fell on his own that he regained an understanding of what he was about to do. Turning to find Leia attached to those gentle hands, her eyes saddened as she stared him down, he began to lower them just a little. "We've won." She told him, "No reason to kill them." When he heard that, his hands dropped to his sides and his eyes returned to the three, now passed out entirely as they lay against the walls. Aura and Cad both had blood dripping from their mouths, likely a result of the intense pressure on their bodies. Their friend was black and blue everywhere.

As the whole of the hall gasped at the sight of what had just occurred, Anakin turned round to look into the eyes of the only person that mattered to him. He was horrified to see Padme, her hand covering her mouth as she looked at him in complete fear. What she was afraid of, he could not fathom, but he knew he was the source of it.

His knees buckled a little as his strength gave way, the way it always seemed to when he had these peculiar 'paternal' episodes. He didn't understand them, but he knew that they always seemed to agree with the odd story these future children seemed to share. It was getting harder to deny it with each passing day, though he so desperately desired to do so.

Especially as he saw how terrified Padme truly was of him.

But then his eyes fell on Leia and hers were filled with pride. Tears even. She seemed so happy to see him at the moment, it confused him. He'd just done something terrible and yet...

"Thank you, father." She whispered to him as he slipped into unconsciousness. It was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard.

Palpatine smiled to himself as his door was opened by his Jedi rescuers. He'd sensed it, something marvelous in the Force. Something primal and angry.

Deep down, he sensed that he owed this new discovery to the now infamous Darklighters that had hindered his foresight before. It seemed that even their peculiar, faceless guardian could not put a stop to his real plans.

"Master Ti?" He soon asked the Togruta Jedi that had led the team to his rescue. She had been on her own DataPad, reading over the accounts several had of how the senate was so easily overtaken. It was likely she'd be tasked to this all night. "Who was it that rescued us? I'd like to personally thank him when the time calls for it."

Suspicious at first, likely wondering how he knew a single entity had saved the day, Shaak Ti was slow to react. Eventually, however, she relented, "Knight Anakin Skywalker and Ms. Jaina Darklighter were apparently in the hall. Witness accounts indicated that they are to thank for this rescue." Smiling wide, Palpatine genuinely thanked her. She then turned away, returning to her readings. And he returned to his musings.

She'd just confirmed it, everything he'd been working for for the better part of ten years now. Something he hadn't expected to have happen so soon.

Anakin was ready.

Author's Note: Fun fact: I actually envisioned this entire story around this scene. It's changed a lot since I came up with the original idea, but the essence is still the same. This is also, probably, one of my favorite chapters for this reason. I wasn't planning on revealing the truth to Anakin so early, but the story took a life of its own and I think that change really made this last part so much more powerful. But that is my opinion: I want to hear yours!

Please don't forget to review! And also check out "Heritage Foretold," I'm having a blast writing that one and would love more feedback!