Chapter Seven - Father
Lady of Imladris: I meant to address your review earlier but I somehow lost track of it. Yeah, I absolutely despised Movie-Anakin. "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" His lines were so horrid. I understand they had a very limited amount of screen time to go from "happiest day of my life" Anakin to "rawr-angsty Sith" Anakin, so I can excuse that to a limited extent. Clone Wars-Anakin was well done, I completely agree.
Author's Notes: I think I've explained it, or will explain it soon, but Luke has learned more about the Jedi, their ultimate fate, the Clone Wars, Order 66, and his father. What he hasn't learned much about is his mother. After the Jedi Purges, much of the information, history, and relics of the Jedi was strategically wiped out and destroyed. There was very little to connect Anakin to Padmé as anything beyond friends even during the Clone Wars, and after the purges and deaths of the few people who knew, there was even less (i.e. Bail Organa and Obi-Wan).
"What are you doing? Trust him, trust him!"
- C-3PO
#
"I trust him," Anakin finally said after long minutes of silence. In front of him, his wife paced the length of their bedroom. Force help me that she doesn't know that I think her attempt to pace is hilarious, Anakin thought, biting his cheek. As beautiful as she was, pregnancy had made her stressed pacing into an awkward angry waddle. It had been several hours since Luke's revelation and they were still trying to grasp the pronouncement that their son, who even now grew in Padmé's womb, was also a middle aged man, from the future, in the next room over. This new acceptance of his, even if hesitant, surprised Padmé greatly given that his initial response had been...less than ideal.
###
"What?" Anakin said, not entirely sure he had heard correctly. The Force felt heavy around them, pregnant with a deeper and different texture than before.
"Luke is your child," Mara stated, "one of the children that, even now, grows within you, Padmé."
"Children!?" Anakin and Padmé both yelped, missing the shadow of pain that briefly crossed Luke's face.
"What do you mean...children?" Anakin asked, his calm disappearing in the a rising tide of excitement.
"It was supposed to be a surprise?" Mara asked, blinking. Luke's reaction was only to massage his brow.
"Yes!" Anakin and Padmé both shouted in unison.
Mara lifted a shoulder, "Oops."
Anakin laid a hand on his wife's belly looking far too delighted at the possibility of more than one child for Padmé's taste, but he seemed to finally gather the import of what Luke and Mara had said. "Wait, what?" Anakin asked. "What are you talking about?"
"My name is Luke Skywalker, and you, Anakin, are my father and you Padmé, are my mother," his calm remained, but Luke would admit the anxiety that plagued him now. Revealing himself as their child was something he been both dreading and yearning for and while he knew that their initial reaction would most likely not be favorable, that didn't stop him from wanting that sense of belonging he had yearned for growing up on Tatooine.
"What kind of bantha fodder is that?" Anakin nearly shouted. "You may feel familiar...but...that doesn't even make sense! Any Jedi could feel our similar presences, but that gives you no right to come here and exploit Padmé's condition to support some claim of family. Don't you dare come here with such ridiculous nonsense." He had stood by that point, a finger jabbing angrily in the air towards Luke.
Even after everything he had been through with his father, with Darth Vader, he still felt some hurt at Anakin's words, but he pushed the hurt down. The situation was ridiculous, and he couldn't blame either of them for their disbelief. "It's the truth, Anakin. Perhaps if you heard more, you might understand more about my being here."
"He could call you Dad...or Daddy, if it would help?" Mara supplied helpfully. Trying, but failing, to inject a little levity in the conversation as Padmé's face darkened with anger at her flippancy.
"I think you need to leave. Now," she said icily. She looked like she would continue speaking in that harsh tone before she calmed herself down. "Anakin said that you were promised a room for this night. You may stay for the night, but tomorrow you should return to the Temple. I don't appreciate these kinds of games. Anakin says you are family, but that doesn't excuse this."
Padmé levered herself up and made her way to her room, her pregnancy doing nothing to hamper her dignified exit. Anakin looked at Mara and Luke, anger still clouding his eyes, but the anger was now mixed with confusion as he stared hard at Luke and felt the familiarity of his presence and the way everything in the Force was almost screaming at him to accept Luke's words as truth. He opened his mouth as if to speak before closing it with a grimace. After a moment, he tried again. "We will speak more in the morning," he said before leaving to join Padmé.
###
"That's a bit of a departure from before, Anakin...what's changed? Padmé asked. She was the picture of calm, but any Force sensitive could feel the confusion, the hurt, the hope, and the utter incredulousness that clashed within her at the man's ridiculous claim.
"When Luke first said that he was our son...I reacted from my thoughts, not my feelings. It should be impossible, it should be ridiculous, a trick or a trap. Though my mind says all of these things even now, I can't help but feel that he is telling the truth. Even knowing and feeling what I do, the disturbance in the Force they caused, the ripples they cause with their very presence...it gives credence to the possibility. It may be that what he tells is a truth that he only believes to be true, but a simple blood test would confirm his claim." Anakin paused, brow furrowing as he finally say on their bed. "This feels right even if I don't know why. Mara and Luke believe they have traveled here, traveled through time, and that they are here to accomplish something. If this is the Will of the Force, Padmé, than something truly terrible must be coming for the Force to act in such a blunt manner."
"Nothing is ever simple with the Skywalkers, is it?" Padmé asked rhetorically. "As if reading emotions, levitating large objects, and destroying Sith Lords weren't enough, our child apparently has to outdo you and time travel." Having heard Anakin's confession about the events aboard the Invisible Hand and Count Dooku's death, Padmé paid close enough attention that she saw the tiny flinch in Anakin's face, and laid an apologetic and comforting palm against his face. Stressed and anxious as she was, Padmé was more confused about the turn of events than truly worried or afraid of Luke.
Anakin believed Luke's claim to be their child, though Luke and Mara were obviously just as perplexed about their presence here as Padmé and Anakin themselves. They seemed confused about their presence here, yes, but they at least had some idea about the why and it was the how that was the most confusing to them. Mara, their son's wife, stated that it was the Will of the Force, the bland answer being all that would ever be needed to confirm her status as a Jedi. Padmé's husband was the Jedi in the family, and though he obviously had some of the same qualms in this situation as her, she was willing to trust his judgment when it came to the Force.
Usually.
Sometimes.
It had been apparent that Anakin and Padmé would need more time to contemplate the implications so Luke and Mara had swiftly made their way to the room Padmé had prepared for them once she and Anakin had finished their initial angry outburst. It was fairly obvious by their expressions that this one revelation was only the tip of the iceberg of what Luke and Mara would be telling them.
Their son.
As usual, Anakin was somewhat torn on what he was feeling. At first, he couldn't deny the rage that wanted to spill over at the absurdity of the claim, but the feeling had morphed swiftly into confusion mixed with a blend of happiness and sadness. They knew nothing of Luke or Mara's lives, but it was clear they had suffered great hardship. They were too...hard, even more so than many of the soldiers and Jedi that he had encountered throughout the war. But for everything they might have endured, Anakin couldn't help but feel proud about the older man who claimed to be his son.
He is a far better Jedi than I could ever hope to be, better than most Jedi could ever be. As powerful as I am, yes, but filled with an innate goodness that reminds me so much of Padmé.
"What now, Ani?" Padmé's voice was soothing as the arm that wrapped around the Jedi's waist.
"We listen. We listen to what they have to say. Tomorrow we'll have more opportunities to speak with them," Anakin stated slowly and thoughtfully. "We should get to bed too, Padmé, you need your rest, too."
Padmé scowled even as she moved to acquiesce to his suggestion. "Anakin, I'm pregnant, not dying."
"Humor me, consider it practice for getting Luke 2.0 to nap. This is a learning experience!" Anakin chuckled before catching a thrown pillow with the Force and pushing it back at Padmé.
"You're awful, Ani. Fine, if I have to sleep, so do you," Padmé commanded with an imperious tone.
"As you wish, m'lady," Anakin smiled as he slipped off his robe and joined his wife in their bed. "He said children, Padmé, children," he had to smile at the thought, though the smile dimmed a little at Padmé's next words.
"If we are to have children, why is it only Luke who came back?" she asked.
Anakin didn't answer, but he felt a sudden sadness that he couldn't explain, so his silence lingered. He kissed his wife and wrapped an arm around Padmé. "Something we will have to ask, tomorrow," he eventually whispered into her hair. He thought she might have gone to sleep but peeked at his wife when she began to chuckle softly.
"What?" he asked, somewhat suspiciously.
"I was just wondering how the kriff that boy of ours managed to bag a woman like that Mara," she answered, laughing. Anakin's eyes had widened at her language, but crinkled as he joined her in soft laughter. Their laughter eventually ceased and soon his eyes were closed and his breathing had begun to deepen when he rested his flesh-and-blood hand on Padmé's swollen belly and whispered, "Luke," before smiling and finally falling asleep.
After he closed his eyes and joined his wife in sleep, his nightmares, as vivid and terrible as they had been about his mother years earlier, came to haunt Anakin's sleep once more.
Anakin was on the veranda, head held in his hands as he recalled the nightmare of the night before. Not again, please not again, he begged the universe, the Force, the Jedi, everything and anyone that would hear. Not again, not Padmé. It had been several years since his mother's death and the day's events and his own actions still haunted him. What do I do? I failed Mom before, I could have saved her if I had trusted my instincts and gone to save her sooner. What do I do? I need help, but who would help me, who can I even ask?
His troubled thoughts ran in circles, his mood failing to improve as he considered scenario after scenario. He thoughts ground to a halt when he noticed that he was no longer alone. Still somehow cloaked within the Force, he hadn't sensed her until she had let him. He realized that he had been crying and hastily wiped the tears away before facing the red-haired woman whose sassy behavior from the night before had been replaced by solemnity and a sympathetic expression.
At least it's not pity, thank the Force. Anakin wasn't sure he could handle pity from this woman, not at this moment.
"Something is troubling you greatly, Anakin, and it's more than your tears that is screaming the anguish and fear you are holding inside," she stated bluntly. Bluntly, but honestly and without any rancor. Her tone could have infuriated him, but her willingness to jump to the issue without dancing around helped settle his thoughts. And thankfully, her comment held none of the recriminations about his emotions that Obi-Wan, Yoda, or even worse, Mace Windu would typically have given him.
For that reason, he held his tongue in check.
###
Pain!
Padmé's pain!
An injury or wound that ached. It ached and burned.
A fading life.
Screams of pain.
Anakin heard Padmé screaming his name: a plea for him. He heard the pain in her voice. He saw the tears in her eyes. He felt the dimming of her light within the Force. Padmé! Agony flooded Anakin's awareness, followed by the fear and anguish that gripped Padmé.
A man's voice telling her to hold on. Obi-Wan's voice!
Pain and grief. Terrible pain!
###
"It was just a bad dream," Anakin said, the doubt and fear that laced his tone betrayed the words he spoke.
"Bad dreams don't cause tremors in the Force," Mara commented softly, "nor does the presence of the Dark Side linger in the air like a bad aftertaste. You're also as terrible of a liar as Farmboy."
Anakin looked at Mara sharply with a rising anger. "The Dark Side? What are you accusing me of, Mara?"
Mara's response was a roll of her eyes as she stepped into Anakin's space and jabbed a finger into his chest. "Calm yourself, Jedi. Did I say that you were a Darksider or that you were using the Dark Side? No." Mara stepped back and stared at Anakin with an unnerving intensity before she continued, "What I'm saying, Anakin, is that those nightmares of yours were influenced by the Dark Side."
Anakin's eyes widened, "What? That's not...what?"
"You may have killed Count Dooku, Fath-Anakin, but his master remains alive and hidden," Luke said as he joined the conversation.
Anakin eyed Luke, hearing the momentary slip on his name; he might have accepted the truth of Luke's identity as his son, but it was still more than a little weird to fully comprehend this mature man being his son. "You think someone is sending the visions to me? Or manipulating me somehow?"
"All things are possible through the Force," Luke stated with a small smile that hinted of past experiences.
"But why? Why would the Sith Lord do...that?" Anakin asked, confused.
Mara and Luke looked at each other in a way that implied a significant conversation or question was being posed. Anakin didn't like that look; it hinted of secrets, painful ones.
Mara pursed her lips and spoke to Luke through their bond. [Well Farmboy, I guess we now know how Anakin began his path to the Dark Side. I think it's up to us to help guide him back down the brighter path.]
[We don't know if this was actually it. Still, we might as well start here. Why don't you take this one, you're still the expert on all things 'His Wrinkledness'] Luke sent back, a smile on his lips as he thought of Han's less than tactful descriptions of Palpatine. The memory of his best friend almost sent him into grief once again, but seeing his father so lost helped him focus on the present.
"Count Dooku is dead, Anakin," Mara commented.
"Yes...I know…I killed him," Anakin replied blandly, his memories of executing Dooku still harsh in his mind.
"Anakin, the Sith Lord's apprentice is dead. What do you imagine the Sith's next move would be?" Mara questioned, trying to lead Anakin to the desired conclusion.
"'Always two there are,'" He recited. "He would seek out a new apprentice," Anakin stated, speaking slowly as he nodded to himself. Frustration leaked into his tone, "But what does that have to do with me?"
Luke spoke up once more, "A Sith Lord is sending you nightmares somehow. Or perhaps merely augmenting your own existing fears. Perhaps it is not even a directed effort. But I, too, felt the Dark Side last night. You are prone to premonitions, I take it?" Anakin's nod confirmed the question. "Premonitions are dangerous things, Anakin. They can lead you down a dark path if one doesn't understand the context or full path of the vision."
Anakin wanted to yell at Luke, but feeling Padmé's slumbering presence kept his volume low, but harsh. "Believe me, I know, Luke, I've had visions before, and I failed to take heed of them last time, and in consequence, my mother died."
Luke remembered what Leia had told him years ago when she had gone to Tatooine to recover a painting that had a hidden device with sensitive Alliance information embedded within it. She had discovered a diary by Shmi Skywalker and had met Kitster, the best friend of young Anakin Skywalker. Leia had discovered the 'ghost' that haunted the Sand People, and the scar in the Force that had been left by Anakin in the wake of Shmi's pain. "Tatooine," Luke spoke after a moment.
Anakin's face went white and his gaze darted everywhere, his eyes refusing to meet anyone else's. "Yes," he whispered.
"Always in motion is the future," Luke quoted. "I've had such visions before as well, Anakin, and they led to one of the darkest days in my life. I left to rescue my friends, my friends whose pain I felt and saw in my meditations. They did feel pain, Anakin, they were tortured, but they had already managed to rescue themselves by the time I came along. In the end, I lost my hand and it was I who ended up needing to be rescued."
Luke would never forget that day in Bespin, the revelations he had learned had cut far deeper than Darth Vader's lightsaber. A dark day, but one that also helped him realize that there was still a spark of Anakin left in Vader. A day that also helped him truly mature and see his way forward through the Force. Such is the Will of the Force, all things happen in their own time and way, Luke mused.
Anakin thought about Luke's words carefully before he finally asked, "How did you lose your hand?"
Mara's expression remained blank, though her words to Luke through their bond were dry. [Telling him that Daddy did it would be a bad idea, Luke.]
Luke shot a glare at Mara, [Thanks Mara]
"The vision was a trap, a lure for me to finish my training prematurely. My friends' pain was designed to bring me to them, and to the Sith Lord that held them prisoner. There, I faced him, and in our duel, lost my hand before I managed to make my own escape," Luke said softly, a grimace on his face as he recalled that moment where he fell from the gantry rather than join his newly discovered father.
"So the Sith are still around then? I suppose that has something to do with why you are here, then? Where was I exactly, shouldn't I have been with you?" Anakin asked, anxious despite the fact that the events wouldn't occur for at least two decades.
Luke looked like he wanted to laugh, "Don't worry Anakin, you were around."
Something in Luke's voice and flare of emotions made him want to ask more, but the noise of his communicator interrupted his train of thought.
#
Luke and Mara watched as Anakin held a conversation with someone as the two went to the edge of the veranda to look over the Coruscanti cityscape.
"I was never all that partial to Coruscant," Luke said after a few minutes, "But now I think I might have truly missed this sight."
Mara put an arm around his waist, "I grew up here...even under the Emperor, it didn't quite look like this. It always seemed so much darker, like he cast a pallor over it all." Mara continued to gaze out and looked at the elegant Jedi Temple in the distance. "What now, Luke?"
Luke followed her gaze and pursed his lips, "One thing at a time. Start with the Jedi Council, I suppose. Perhaps follow that with Mothma and the other Rebellion founders to gain civilian support? If the Jedi take action, it truly might look like treason. If that happens, legitimacy would be a nice thing to have." Luke's last words were posed as a question which was answered by a slow nod by Mara.
"Yes...we'll have to play it by ear, but that sounds like the beginning of a plan," Mara replied. She might have said more if Anakin hadn't rejoined them.
"Sorry about that, I actually received two messages. The Jedi Council wishes to meet with us this afternoon, for a more rigorous interrogation, no doubt," Anakin said with a small chuckle.
"That's perfectly fine...what was the other message?" Luke asked curiously.
"Oh, that was a friend of mine...the Chancellor actually, I'm guessing you might know him? He wanted to meet with me in a little bit," Anakin told them, pride at being the friend of the Chancellor of the Republic lacing his tone. "I should actually probably head to the Senate to see him...would you guys like to meet him?"
Luke felt his stomach drop as he contemplated facing a younger Palpatine still in his prime, "Ah, no, if you don't mind, I think I'd like to rest here for a while, still a bit sore." The words were true and Anakin looked oblivious to his initial reaction.
Mara looked at Luke with a long stare, [Looking at your father now, and remembering him in my time as the Emperor's Hand...I feel pity more than anything else. Your father should have had a better life. He made terrible choices and suffered terrible consequences because of it...so much chaos just because he called the wrong person 'friend.']
Anakin didn't seem to have noticed the pause and Mara's glance because his mood suddenly shifted, becoming alert and agitated. "Shavit, I never even really thought to ask. You mentioned that Dooku being dead meant the Sith Lord would be looking for a new apprentice...you believe he wishes me to be that apprentice?"
"You are one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy, Anakin, and you are well known to be one of the more temperamental ones. Add in the fact that you have a pregnant wife and he has a lot of ammunition in his hands to control, manipulate, or coerce you," Luke said, his voice even.
Anakin looked like he wanted to argue and opened his mouth before closing it sharply. His brow furrowed and responded, "I've done things I'm not proud of...Tatooine," he nodded towards Luke and Mara, "and some other things...but to become the apprentice of the Sith…" He shook his head resolutely, "I can't see myself doing that. Padmé would-"
Anakin's face went white and his body almost seemed to sway. Mara reacted first and guided Anakin towards a nearby chair. "Anakin, what's wrong?"
"Kriff me," Anakin breathed, arms trembling and voice shaky.
"Pardon me if I don't, kriff you," Mara responded dryly, earning a choked laugh from Luke and a surprised cough from Anakin. "What is it, Anakin?"
Anakin looked down at his hands, looked at Luke intently, and at Luke's right hand. "You said that a Sith Lord cut your hand off, Luke. When I asked you where I was and why I wasn't there to help you, you said that I was…" Anakin swallowed hard before he continued, "And now you're warning me that a Sith Lord may be trying to coerce me into becoming his apprentice, using my fear of Padmé's loss as a lever. You're from the future and you know all this."
Anakin looked at Luke right in the eye, his face was calm and his voice more composed. Even his emotions seemed a little more steady. "I turned...didn't I? I joined the Sith...and I'm the one who cut your hand off, wasn't I?"
Mara left this one in Luke's hands and was badly tempted to leave and give them privacy. This conversation would be hard. Even decades later, it was hard for Luke to talk about, and that was after redeeming Anakin and forgiving him, so she was surprised when Luke answer with a simple, "Yes."
"Oh...shavit," Anakin muttered before putting his head in his hands. "I turned...and I'm guessing that Padmé died?"
"I don't know, I have no memory of her, but it would be a safe assumption," Luke replied.
"So what do I...who is...what does this mean, Luke?" Anakin asked, his voice quiet and filled with anxiety.
"You change the game," Mara responded, "one of the things that can be used against you is your relationship with Padmé...not that I am condemning your marriage in anyway," she added when a flush of anger colored his cheeks, "but the secrecy of it...secrets hurt people, Anakin, and keeping this one is hurting you and hurting Padmé even if neither of you realize it. You are not the only Jedi who got married, you know, there are others in situations like yours."
"Nejaa," Anakin murmured.
Luke started, "Halcyon, you knew Nejaa Halcyon, and that he was married?"
"I found out he was married," Anakin explained, "and I told him that I was too. He was a good friend, he died a little while back in a battle against some cult of Darksiders. How do you know of him?"
"Nejaa has a grandson, a good friend of mine actually, and one of the finest fighter pilots in the galaxy. Corran is his name, a good man," Luke said, smiling.
"I'm not surprised. Nejaa was a good man, makes sense that his grandson would be, too. I'm glad to hear that his descendant is the friend of my own. Feels right."
"Enough talking about Corellians, lest we invite them into our presence." Mara's voice was dry as she continued, "they already have large enough egos. As I was saying...you are not the only Jedi who married. Tell someone. There is a man who thinks of himself as your friend and brother. He is one who has stood with you when few others would. Tell him."
"Obi-Wan?" Anakin asked, considering the suggestion.
"Of course Obi-Wan, nerf-for-brains. He may be a straight-laced bore, but he values you more than a typical Jedi should value their apprentice. It is obvious he cares for you. He will help you, or at the very least, he will support you if things go badly with the Council," Mara stated. "He has always tried his best to help you, Anakin, perhaps even when he shouldn't."
"Obi-Wan…" Anakin murmured once again, "Padmé wanted to tell him about our relationship, too-"
"Just goes to show that the fairer sex truly is superior," Mara interjected with a sickeningly sweet voice.
Anakin rolled his eyes, "For a woman who is decades older than me...you are very convincing at acting my age." Anakin huffed and Luke let out a snort that was quickly cut off by Mara's elbow jabbing his rib. "Anyway...you might be right. I'll tell Obi-Wan," Anakin stated with more surety and calm than he truly felt. Anakin stopped and considered the situation, "What else? And who is the Sith Lord? You must know."
Yes, but first, we need to talk to the Council. We tell them some of our story, and we tell them what needs to be immediately addressed. We have a great deal of foreknowledge and much of it deals with events that have little bearing on the Sith. Remember our wounds, Anakin, there are many dangers that our galaxy will come to face. There have been wars with the Sith in the past, there will likely be wars with the Sith in the future. No single Sith Lord would cause our travel here, but it was a major stepping stone, one which may have allowed all the other terrible events to fall into place. One thing at a time," Luke answered.
"One thing at a time," Mara echoed, "sounds like a plan. Our plans usually work out...right?"
Luke's answering glare did little to comfort Anakin.
On a planet far from Coruscant, a young Togrutan stared up at the night sky with furrowed brows. The Dathomirian who had been walking at her side gave her a raised eyebrow. The Togrutan's concentration persisted for several minutes before a smile appeared on her face. Turning to her companion, she finally spoke, "There has been a disturbance in the Force."
"I have felt it also," the other woman said.
"I believe SkyGuy has found himself in a mess."
"And of course, we are the ones who have to go rescue him?" The Dathomirian's voice was dry and did little to conceal her distaste at the idea.
"I may have left the Order, but I don't think I'll ever be able to truly leave him. I feel I should go."
"A freighter is scheduled to make a run to Coruscant tomorrow." Seeing the Togrutan's surprised look, the Dathomirian smiled. "Please, you and he were always predictable, as soon I figured out the source of the disturbance, I booked us passage."
The Togrutan smiled widely, "You're coming with me?"
"Someone has to keep you out of trouble while you keep Skywalker alive, and I would hate to have to find another partner. Our current bounty isn't worth much anyways."
"That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Asajj. Come, let's start packing."
Author's Notes: Leia and Han did find the diary of Shmi Skywalker mentioned in this chapter in the book, Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning. They both also meet Kitster Banai, the childhood best friend of one Anakin Skywalker.
I'm still struggling to get Anakin right. I'm trying to portray him as emotional and still within "acceptable limits" for Palpatine to try to turn. But I also don't want him to be overly whiny, angsty, or suddenly all boyscout "do the right thing" and such. He is an intense character who had an unusual childhood and has an incredible amount of power, and as such, his emotions will always be closer to the surface than with most Jedi.
I don't think I did the best job at portraying Luke's revelation of his familial status and Anakin and Padmé's reactions. I tried several different scenarios, but this one seemed the best. I don't think I really got the lines right.
As mentioned before, Luke and 'the gang' had been able to piece together the details of Anakin's fall fairly well by this time. Most of the unknowns were the ultimate motivation in that final night of the Republic as well as the full identity of Luke and Leia's mother. Learning of Anakin's nightmares was sort of a 'the pieces suddenly clicked together' in that the nightmares of Padmé's death was what helped drive him down the dark path.
