Chapter Thirteen

Anakin woke up a few hours later. Padmé was still nestled in his arms, her hair draped over him, sound asleep. Anakin smiled, and softly kissed her bare shoulder. Careful not to wake her, he disengaged himself from her embrace, and pulled the blanket over her. He pulled his shorts and trousers on and then left the cabin silently.

Anakin headed for the cockpit to check on the progress of their flight. He sat down in the pilot's chair, running a hand through his tousled hair. They were within two parsecs of the Coruscant System he noted as he checked the navicomputer. Not long now, he thought as he sat back in the chair. He couldn't help but smile as he thought back to the remarkable turn of events that had transpired earlier. He had never imagined that he could feel so connected with another human being, and knew that he had never been so at peace within himself. It was as though until now he had been half a person, and finding Padmé again had made him realize this. She completed him, and he knew that his life would be empty without her now. Just as it had been for the past eleven years, he reflected, just as it would have been for the rest of my life if Padmé hadn't come back into my life.

Suddenly he felt warm slender arms wrap around his neck and a soft mouth upon his cheek. He smiled and turned to her.

"I was lonely when I woke up," she told him as he pulled her into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Anakin smiled when he noticed what she was wearing- his tunic, and nothing else. Her long hair was loose and hung down her back.

"You look beautiful," he told her, running a hand up one of her bare thighs. "My clothes never look that good on me," he added with a smile.

Padmé laughed. "I beg to differ," she told him. She turned to look at the navicomputer. "How long until we reach Coruscant?"

"Another three hours or so," he replied. "We should arrive around midnight local time."

Padmé nodded, the thought of what awaited them there filling her with anxiety. "I'm afraid, Ani," she told him, turning back to him.

"You will be safe at my home, Angel," he assured her. "No harm will come to you there, it is very secure."

"I know," she said, stroking his face softly. "It's you I'm worried about, Anakin. I hate the thought of you confronting that monster Palpatine."

Anakin nodded, understanding her fear. "It's unavoidable, Padmé," he told her, capturing her hand in his. "I won't let him run my life anymore," he averred. "Not any more. I've spent enough time in servitude to him, but no more. I mean to take back the life he deprived me of, and I want you to be a part of that life."

"Of course I will a part of your life, Anakin," she assured him. "I want that too."

"I don't think you understand what I'm saying, Padmé," he replied, taking her face in his hands. "I want you to be my wife, Padmé. I want you to marry me."

His declaration took her by complete surprise; not because she doubted the depth of his feelings for her, but she wasn't expecting things to move so quickly. But why shouldn't they? She reasoned. They had already declared their love for one another in the most intimate and binding of manners; she had given herself to him, body, heart and soul, and he to her. Marriage was the logical step.

"Well, Angel?" he asked. "Will you? Will you marry me?"

Padmé nodded. "Yes," she said with a smile. "I will."

Anakin smiled, and pulled her close to him, capturing her mouth in a tender kiss. Padmé ran her hands into his long hair as they enjoyed a slow, sensual kiss.

"Ani, can I ask you something?" she asked a few moments later.

"Of course," he replied.

Padmé hesitated before continuing. She knew that she risked angering him by asking what she was about to ask; but she decided it was a risk she had to take. "Have you thought about approaching the Jedi Council with what you know about Palpatine? About his plans to kill me?"

Anakin did not reply immediately, and she could see in his eyes that he was fighting to control his anger. "No, I have not thought of doing that," he said simply. "What makes you think they would listen to me?"

"Because I will be with you when you talk to them," she told him. "To confirm it."

Anakin frowned. He lifted her up and set her down on her feet, and then stood up and walked away from the chair. "The Jedi are my enemy, Padmé," he said without looking at her. "I thought you understood that."

The tone in his voice was chilling, but it did not deter her. She knew the real man, the man beneath the layers of anger and resentment, the man who loved her with all his soul.

"No Anakin," she said, walking after him. "They are not your enemy. "Palpatine wants me dead, Anakin. He is the real enemy. I thought you understood that."

He turned quickly to look at her, her challenging words shocking him. Before he had a chance to respond, she continued. "The Jedi do not realize the threat he poses to the Republic- only you know that. If you lead them to him, you would be saving the Republic from certain war!"

"How do you figure that?" he asked, starting to be intrigued by her line of reasoning.

"You said yourself that a big part of why Palpatine wants me out of the way is my stance on the creation of a republican army," she explained.

"Yes, so?"

"So that tells me that he has a vested interest in the formation of such an army," she continued. "And if that is so, then he is behind the separatist movement."

"Padmé, that's a rather huge jump of logic, don't you think?" he replied.

"Is it?" she challenged. "Think of it, Anakin; if the Republic is thrown into war, the Senate would undoubtedly vote Palpatine emergency powers to make the hard decisions needed to govern in such a crisis. Emergency powers would give him carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, Anakin. He is a Sith- you know yourself what that means."

Anakin nodded, starting to see what she was saying. "He would control the galaxy," he said. "He wants to control the galaxy…."

"Yes," she said. "And you are the only one who can stop him."

"Me?" he asked, not wanting to believe that she was right.

She nodded. "You know it's true," she said. "Don't you remember the prophecy that Qui-Gon Jinn believed about you? He called you the Chosen One, Ani. And even though you have spent the past eleven years living as a Sith, I believe that it is your destiny to fulfill that prophecy."

Anakin did remember the prophecy, he remembered it well. Qui-Gon Jinn had been the closest thing he'd ever had to a father, and he remembered everything the Jedi had taught him. Anakin had secretly wondered many times what his life would have been like had Qui-Gon lived. In fact, when he was still a boy, Anakin had dreamed many times that Qui-Gon had lived, and that he himself had gone on to become a great Jedi Knight, fulfilling the destiny that Qui-Gon had been so certain was his.

Padmé could see that her words were getting through to him, and it gave her hope. "You are the Chosen One, Anakin," she told him, taking his hands in hers. "Palpatine has done his best to make you believe otherwise, but you know in your heart that I'm right. You know in your heart what your true destiny is."

"I'm not so sure about that, Angel," he responded. "If the Jedi were unwilling to train me, then maybe Qui-Gon was wrong. Maybe I'm not the Chosen One. Maybe I'm just an ordinary man."

"There is nothing ordinary about you, Anakin Skywalker," Padmé replied. "And I do mean nothing," she added with a smile.

Anakin had to laugh. "Okay, well maybe not ordinary, but that still doesn't mean that…"

"Anakin, think about it," she interjected. "If you weren't the Chosen One, do you really think that Palpatine would have shown any interest in you at all?"

Anakin knew the answer to her question. There was no doubt that Palpatine had taken in young Anakin because of the tremendous potential the old man saw in him. He had known that Anakin possessed a power unlike any Palpatine or any one else had ever known. Palpatine had undoubtedly known that befriending the young boy would one day mean having a powerful and very useful ally. More than an ally: a weapon, for that is exactly what Anakin had become, an assassin, a hired gun.

"No," Anakin replied at last. "He would not. He would not care whether I lived of died."

Padmé nodded. "Exactly," she said. "He didn't take you in out of a sense of compassion. He has never cared about you, Anakin; just the power you possess; power that he has used to secure his own position and eliminate anyone who dares to present any opposition to his way of thinking."

"You're right," Anakin replied. "You're absolutely right. He has used me all these years. He has done everything he could to try to discourage me from feeling anything at all that wasn't destructive or dark. That is why he forbade me from talking about my mother, even when I started having nightmares about her. But if it hadn't been for you," he told her, walking over to her, "I would have spent the rest of my life never knowing how to love again. You saved me, Padmé," he told her, taking her face in his hands.

Padmé smiled as he pulled her closer, kissing her softly. She ran her hands up over his bare chest, over his pecs, resting on his shoulders. It wasn't long before the kiss they shared escalated once again. His mouth found her neck as Padmé tilted her head back, closing her eyes, reveling in the tumult of sensations he was evoking within her.

But just then from the cockpit they heard the sound of the navicomputer signaling their entry into the Coruscant System.

Finally Anakin pulled back and looked at her, smiling softly. "So much for spontaneity," he said.

Padmé smiled. "Yes, I guess we're almost there."

He nodded, disappointed to have to put a stop to the moment that was just unfolding. "I love you," he told her softly.

"I love you too," she told him, kissing him tenderly. "This is rather addictive," she added with a smile.

Anakin nodded. "Yes, you certainly are," he told her, kissing the tip of her nose.

Padmé laughed. "I'm going to have a shower," she said. "Hopefully there's some hot water."

Anakin nodded. "I'd be happy to give you a hand if you like," he said with a grin.

Padmé laughed. "Anakin Skywalker, you are insatiable," she told him with a shake of her head.

He smiled. "I'm not going to deny that," he said, taking her by the hand. "Let's go."