DISCLAIMER: I own nothing apart from my own work. I do not own Star Wars, LucasFilms, Disney, Anakin Skywalker - fml - and if this work of fiction is similar to any that have been done before, I apologise in advance. I can assure you, this was created from my mind with Star Wars as the basis and my own insanity commingled in.

Author's Note: I hope you're not in public while reading this chapter. I rewatched Revenge of the Sith and tried my best to incorporate the cinematic argument between Anakin and Padmé to this. Tell me whatcha think since I blew my sanity away with this! x


The air around had grown stale, like dead air. The clone trooper, the one Padmé had deemed to be Captain Rex had returned to his station among the rest of the Legion, the 501st Legion - Anakin's own troops. They stood quietly at attention. Too quietly, as if it were the calm before the storm. Just as Anakin had led them to the Jedi Temple, the malice was still present and growing stronger. The clones were growing impatient and so was Anakin. His broad shoulders trembled, his gaze turned downwards as Rex walked back into formation. With the distant engines of the aircraft soaring above, the pillars of the archway echoed the city's sounds. It was the only thing that linked the husband and wife to reality - for what was before Padmé didn't belong in the universe. Anakin? Falling to the Dark Side? That was preposterous. Yet, deep down, if she searched her feelings, she knew it to be true.

Across from her, still looking down, turmoil bubbled ravenously inside the man. Emotions were haywire as a side Anakin once saw as moral was telling him, fighting with him, that what he was doing was wrong. The death of Mace Windu hung heavily over him, but it was nothing in comparison to his most recent doing. He had choked Padmé, inflicted harm to her. Not only that, he hadn't even allowed her presence to be felt when it was what always the second most powerful thing that fueled him behind the Force. To Anakin, she was the colours of a nebula, the sun after a storm and the thousands of stars demanding to shine their brightest. At times, he couldn't even believe that the galaxy hadn't collapsed from the strength she emanated; then, there were times when even he felt like he would collapse from the tethering hold they had on each other. Yet, despite all of that, Anakin had been so engulfed in his hatred for the Jedi - for his order from the Chancellor to be fulfilled - he couldn't even sense her presence. He had simply been guided by the Dark Side of the Force charging in him and it had led him to hurting Padmé. That was no where near keeping her alive as Palpatine had promised.

Anakin stared down at his wife. Tears had begun to fall from the anguish that swept through him as he took her in. What have I done? The very words he had said when he severed Master Windu's hand, realising what he had done were now bouncing back into his mind and wreaking havoc. How could he have allowed himself to hurt her? How? He yearned for her but couldn't formulate any words, only the essence of thoughts. My love...

She felt his calling. Racking up her spine and illuminating her heart, though it didn't fully reach her mind just yet. "My love," Padmé said with great caution, approaching the tall man and reaching up to grab hold of his tear stained face. Thumbs swiped away the liquid and fingers caressing into the sweat drenched curls of his golden hair. "You are a Jedi. You are my husband. Don't go down this path, Ani. Please, don't go down this path, I can't follow you down it."

Anakin's trembling form was hunched over her body as his hands took hold of the sides of her waist. They clenched tightly at first but the squeezing immediately ceased as he realised that he was being too careless with his restraint. Hearing her words threatened a smile to cross his features but it quickly evaporated before it came into view.

"What are you doing here, Padmé?" he asked. His thumbs swiped back and forth against the thickness of her shirt, his face hardening slightly as Anakin remembered that she had to wear clothing like this to hide her pregnancy. Something that made him so proud and love, ridiculed into the dark.

Fingertips traced over his sharp features, searching for something, anything, that would give her some clue as to whether what she felt was true or not. When they went up to trace the scar over his right eye, Anakin tilted his head into her touch, a deafening calm soothing the disruptive waves that had been rolling around them. This peacefulness fueled Padmé, her next words chosen with great delicacy but with pure sincerity coursing through them.

"A darkness woke our child and I," she told him, trying to ignore the fact that he had ignored her previous statement.

Another tactic would be needed, and she knew exactly what to do. Immediately, her thoughts went to whenever they were together, alone and away from the public eye in the Republica after their times apart, Anakin would make no hesitance when it came to attaching himself to her stomach. Pure love radiating from him for both their child and for Padmé in which he would immediately rise to kiss her. He loved her. No one could deny that because with Anakin, yes, he may be the definition of impulsive, but with impulse comes determination and he was determined to never let the impulsive need to love her to ever be diminished. It had only been intensified when she told him of her pregnancy and what love he gave to her, he also gave to his unborn child with her.

Dropping her right hand, Padmé took hold of his left hand. The hardness she felt was expected from the metal ligaments beneath the coarse leather glove he wore to cover what he shamed. She gripped it tightly though, despite knowing he couldn't feel her touch with his robotic hand, and led it to rest on the swell of her stomach, encouraging his left hand - his human hand that could still feel - to do the same. As expected, his left hand moved and rested near the peak of her belly, but there was still hesitance that could be felt jolting through him. "It was the most awful of feelings, Ani. So terrible that it made me sick and all I could think about was you. To be here with you because I had this feeling that you would be here. The Force... It told me to be here with you."

Her words were canderous and Anakin consumed each one as they were spoken. To know that such a negative energy had done this to her only fueled more anger into his system. It was what this anger was directed to that left his mind in confused shambles. He had always known that Padmé was Force sensitive, now more than ever because of the strength in the Force their baby already displayed. What he wanted to know, though, was how was she so in tune with him that she had sensed what had happened? It had always been a question he'd always ask himself but never brought to light, but now, it seemed to be against his favours.

Another onslaught of questions bombarded Anakin's mind from there. Did she sense him kill Master Windu? Or was it the imbalance of the Force when he accepted the title of Darth Vader, Master Sidious' new apprentice? And most importantly, if Padmé sensed the Dark Side of the Force that was settling in his bones when they had been on opposite sides of the city from each other, what was she perceiving from and of him now?

Broad shoulders straightened as Anakin allowed the animosity of his thoughts to fuel him; his brow scowling deeply and his jaw clenched to the point where he heard his teeth grind uncomfortably. His hands, though desperately challenging his mind's dominance by refusing to pull away from her stomach - their baby - were forced away from their anchor anyways. Honing in on every ounce of passion and exuberance he could summon from the Force, Anakin pulled away from Padmé.

He had to do this. He had to fulfill his duty as Darth Vader because it was for Padmé and their child. If he didn't, he'd lose them both.

The firmness of his stature situated the dynamism of the Force that flowed through his veins, Anakin biting on the inside of his lower lip as he grew in height and strength. Padmé's hands recoiled and he watched as she placed them over her stomach, refusing to flinch as he realized she put them there in a protective manner. With every one of her movements a reassurance settled into his mind, coating over the questions he had been asking with their answers.

A sweat had started to fall from the overexertion of his mind. Thoughts churned and continued to churn as Anakin tried to make sense of it all. He had assisted in the death of Master Windu, doing it wholeheartedly to save the Chancellor. Because without the Chancellor, Padmé would die, he told himself. That meant that he had let emotions that a Jedi should never display guide his actions which lead to the death of the Jedi Master. That surely meant that he was no Jedi for killing another. But I have always been greater than the Jedi, the voice in his mind said. The Jedi are the enemy. They tried to kill the only thing that could save Padmé!

The fury in him raged on like the molten rivers in Mustafar. How quickly his thoughts went from Padmé to the Jedi to what they could have done, which only brought him back to his beloved. Of course she would be able to sense what was growing inside of him. It was a power so strong, even he was amazed that it continued to inflame him with its glory. This was what would save her - what would bring them unity and peace. These powers were what would bring him to lead an empire where he could rule and live as what he wanted a life to be like. What it could… What it would be like.

"So the Force drew you here to me?" Anakin question, the way he said it making it sound more of a statement than a need for clarification. He figured it was the most simplest yet fulfilling question, even though it didn't comment on the darkness Padmé felt. Bringing light to the Dark Side of the Force in which she felt would only further any more repulsion she was displaying towards it.

Brown eyes stared at the sight before her. The change of his demeanor as it radiated something that brought fear into her lungs, as if she were inhaling black smoke rather than the crisp, early morning air. The shadows that were cast onto the left-hand sight of his face painted a canvas of darkened hues that made Anakin's features look both menacingly beautiful and piercingly grim. The usual golden tones of his curly hair looked dull as they wove across his forehead, waving in the wind. Then there were his eyes. Always oh so blue in all their clarity, now had a sickening yellow hue to them that brought the unrelenting tightness to bellow up her body. Small hands tightened over her belly as Padmé let the wave of discomfort pass. It was easy to push aside the sensation when what was occurring before her caused greater pain than what she knew to be labour contractions.

"Yes, Anakin. Yes. I…" she paused, averting her attention to the shifting clones a mere ten feet from them to the stirrings she heard from inside the Jedi Temple only to land back on Anakin. "I had to come. I had to make sure you were safe. That you were all right. That whatever I felt was just a nightmare like so many of the ones that you have and that I would be able to be in your arms before whatever I felt consumed me… Or you."

A part of him far in the crevices of his heart - which beat at an alarming rate with adrenaline - told him to feel pain for his wife before him. Her voice was trembling despite her attempts to make it strong. Its sweet tone tainted with uncertainty and breaks. His heart won over his brain for a split second and he was back in her vicinity. Hands caressing the soft features.

"What you felt was my power, my love. My new found powers that can save you - that can save us! Chancellor Palpatine has given me the title to display what the Jedi have kept me from doing for so long!" Anakin exclaimed. His voice jubilant along with the liveliness in his movements. "When the Jedi Masters attacked the Chancellor, it was brought to my attention that it has been them all along seeking power over the Senate, over the galaxy. The Chancellor knew that I saw the truth and has now given me strength to rule in a galaxy that can be trusted."

Padmé had begun to tremble midway through her husband exclamations. Was power truly what he thought this was? This darkness inside of him? It was what she felt, what she expected, and what she knew to be the dark side of the Force - and it was present in Anakin. Everything inside of her rang sirens and she immediately reached up and took hold of his neck, running her fingers through the curls spiraling at the nape of his neck.

"Ani… Come away with me. Help me raise our child away from this - away from the Senate, from the Chancellor." The woman halted her movements, allowing the discomfort in her lower body to pass before continuing. "From everything while we still can!"

A mask of confusion slid perfectly onto his sharp face and Padmé knew that her words were futile. The smile that was shining with the darkest of lights caused her eyes to water and she pulled desperately at his neck to bring him to her level.

"Don't you see? We don't have to run away anymore," Anakin told her. "I have brought peace to the Republic! I… I am more powerful than the Chancellor, I can overthrow him!"

Padmé let go then, staring up at him with blasphemy coursing through her. Her eyes were wide with fear and pain, and even the growing webbing of tightening strain in the lower arch of her stomach weren't enough to draw her from the revelation of what he was saying. His touch burned and he was only pouring salt into the wound with each word.

"And together you and I can rule the galaxy! Make things the way we want them to be!"

In that moment, a flood of the most murderous regret filled Padmé. Everything stopped - her breathing, her movements, her heart… Oh, her heart. There was a black hole consuming her heart along with her lungs and every other vital organ that was meant to keep her going. Even as a distant, muffled pop rang through her system, the sensation of pressure leaving her body, it still couldn't bring her away from what Anakin had said. Tears had begun to form, falling in a heated blazed, scorching down her cheeks.

"An-Ani… Don't do this. Don't do this, you're a good person," she whispered, still trying to bring light into the essence of the soul that was leaving her.

Panic went through him at her words. Did she see him as a bad person? This was for her, for them! For their family, how could it possibly be of malice? His ears pricked at the sound of voices inclining behind him, but it wasn't enough to turn him away from Padmé's retreating form.

"That's why, Padmé. That's why! We can bring peace to the galaxies as they once were!" Anakin proclaimed, trying to make her see his reason. When her head began to shake, he noticed her eyes look down quickly before they closed and her face distorted, from what he didn't know. He was too busy trying to see why she couldn't understand what he was capable of doing now. They surely can't be bad. They are to save her! To save her and the baby! Does she not want our child to live… For her to live, and leave me?

Shouts echoed around them, a commingle of orders and battle cries. Anakin knew the sound like his own name, yet even the pursuing battle occurring behind him did nothing to divert him away from her. He couldn't leave her, not like this.

"Anakin.." her voice trembled, throat too tight to even allow her to breathe. It hurt her to speak, to see him... To see what he had become. "You're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!"

Anakin felt his legs give out under him, but he forced himself to hone in on the violent energies around. The emotions being the only thing that could keep him stable after what she said. Darkness clouded his judgement, but at what cost? He trusted Padmé when nothing else in all the worlds could give him reason to trust. But he had trusted in the Jedi Council, and he had trusted the Chancellor. But she has put trust in you, he heard the moral side of his conscious tell him.

The internal conflict was making him sick and the sounds of lightsabers igniting was doing nothing in quelling the nausea. Anakin couldn't function from the contorted thoughts and questions that were coming in tidal waves. Then, a memory came to mind. The time on the crashed Endurance on Vanqor with Master Windu, the bridge collapsing on top of them after the helmet he had picked up was set with a bomb. It pained him to think of the man, having saved him from death, yet he couldn't do the same to him. Instead, he had inflicted it.. No, Anakin's mind shouted, face contorting with pain. He ceased all thought on the subject, even though he felt the pressure of a demolished bridge on top of his chest still.

The words she had chosen had hit clear, and though that wasn't the intention, Padmé could still see it. In his eyes, the colours battled for dominance and she could hear him gasping for air as a hand went to his chest. Both of her hands had already placed themselves over her heart, trying to control the agony retching through it. The words had come out unfiltered, and they were true. Her heart was breaking and the sobs racked her body as she tried to regain something, anything inside. What she was given, though, made her keel over.

Padmé's shout brought Anakin from his darkened mind. This particular voice sending chills down his spine despite the shouts of pain and murder from afar. Her small body was bent over with both hands holding onto her stomach.

"No, no, no. Padmé!" Anakin shouted, closing the distance between them before she could fall to the floor. Arms held her, his droid arm pressing too tightly into her skin from the horror radiating from him. His nightmares infiltrated his mind and he began to tremble with the fear that this was it. "I will not lose you the way I lost my mother, Padmé!"

Sobs racked her body as the pain shot through her like lightning. Her hands tried to grasp onto his arms but her mind was holding her back, telling her to get away from him. Anakin brought her suffering, and Padmé could feel it worsening whatever condition her body was going into. "I… I can't," she whispered, a cloak of unconsciousness threatening to consume her as she finally let go and allowed her husband to hold her.

"Padmé, no!"