Thanks for the reviews, LivesForTheReveal and Fleaz24. My first two! : ) And thanks for the follows! I hope you like the next chapter!
Not in His Plans – Chapter 2
The evening began routinely enough. Anakin spent the first hour pacing back and forth across the wide expanse of his office, hands clenching and fingers splaying as he relayed the details of the mission. Palpatine watched him through the eyes of the Dark Side, noticing how the young man held himself rigidly, as though he expected a battle at any moment. His presence in the Force bubbled with barely suppressed emotions.
He smiled to think of it. Placing the Jedi on the front lines of the war had rearranged their peaceful mentality into something resembling proactive aggression. Even if his plans for an Empire never came to fruition – hypothetically speaking of course – the Jedi would be destroyed by the simple existence of this war. There was simply no way he could lose.
"Sir, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately," Anakin's voice broke into his thoughts. "This last mission made me realize some very important things."
"Oh?" Palpatine raised one silver eyebrow and sipped carefully at his small cup of wine. "Reports tell me that your actions were nothing short of heroic. What happened to create this rather sobering introspection?"
The young Jedi sank into one of the chairs on the opposite side of his desk, his eyes dark and closed. "Too much to keep track of, that's for kriffing sure," he grumbled, and then his face went pale. "I'm sorry, sir, I shouldn't have said that!"
Palpatine studied his stricken expression with nothing more than slight widening of his eyes. He leaned forward and slid the glass back onto the smooth surface. "I imagine you hear much worse out there, on the battlefields."
Anakin blushed a deep red. "Ah, yeah, I guess I do. But I shouldn't have sworn, not in front of you. Not here," he waved at their crimson surroundings. "This isn't a battlefield."
To the contrary, my uncouth friend, Palpatine thought. After all, the true battle was unfolding here, the battle for the singular soul of one Anakin Skywalker. It would be a massacre.
Anakin shifted uncomfortably in his chair in the extended silence.
Palpatine let him squirm for a while longer, until he finally tilted his head and inquired, politely, genteelly, as though his words didn't actually matter, "How do you ever keep it all straight, Anakin?"
Anakin's turn came to look surprised. "Keep what all?"
"Diplomat. Warrior. Peacekeeper. Spiritualist," Palpatine ticked the list off on his slim fingers. "The expectations they place on you. The roles they ask you to play, and all at your age. You've not even a quarter of a century in this galaxy, Anakin, and you carry the weight of us all."
Anakin stared down at the floor and mumbled, "I'm a Jedi, sir… We're trained to do that sort of thing," and his humor fell flat, and he knew it, grimacing.
The politician suppressed a smirk. "My point was this, Anakin: I don't mind that you curse in front of me. You have much larger concerns. Besides, after days of being cooped up with suspiciously cooperative senators, your authenticity is…refreshing."
Anakin met his eyes then, and the soppy gratitude in the bright blue orbs sickened him. "Thank you, sir, for understanding. But I don't want to curse in front of you. It feels like… like I'm spoiling one of the last few good things in this place."
How he wanted to laugh! "I'm far from perfect, Anakin. You know, I've been known to say a few choice words now and then, when the situation calls for it."
Anakin did laugh then, a sharp bark. "I don't believe you, sir. Not for a minute. I can't imagine you saying…that."
"You might be surprised at what I can say..." After a short pause, Palpatine found himself wanting to tug the Force close and examine the currents, because the young man was still staring at him with that fixated single-mindedness. Usually Anakin met his gaze for a brief moment and then moved on, always in motion, always looking away first. Now he sat quietly in the chair, but he sat straighter than before, and the Force was fairly humming around him.
The silence grew somewhat awkward, and the Chancellor pushed back from his desk to stand. Anakin hastily copied his motions and came to attention. Palpatine wondered at his uncharacteristic quietness, at the way his gaze tracked him attentively as he stepped around the wide expanse of desk and stopped an arms-length away.
The air buzzed with undefined anticipation, and hesitation too, as if Anakin were struggling to come to a decision. Palpatine barely resisted the urge to tap more deeply into the Dark Side, to discover the meaning of this uncertainty. However, to do so would endanger everything he had achieved to this point. Reveal himself too early, and the delicate balance would shatter. He had not gotten to where he was by tossing caution to the wind.
"Are you all right, my friend?" he finally asked, casting his voice low and concerned.
"I… I think…" Anakin snapped his mouth shut and swallowed hard. Then he stepped closer, until barely a score of centimeters separated him from the Chancellor. Palpatine felt his lips wrinkle back in a snarl at the spatial invasion, instantly forcing them to conform into a genial, questioning smile. The Force grew in turmoil around him, Anakin's presence glowing with an intensity sharp enough to burn. Palpatine pulled the icy shadows closer, nearly backed up to get away before he was seared beyond recognition.
"Sir…" Anakin started again and trailed off just as abruptly.
His emotions were an indeterminate jumble, shifting so quickly and leaving Palpatine with the sense that the ground might suddenly give way. He sensed a powerful tension unlike anything before, and it made him faintly nervous if he were honest with himself. He tilted his head up and caught the younger man's gaze. "Anakin…"
A fire smoldered in those normally clear blue eyes, the smoke creating an unnatural haze that obscured the Jedi's thoughts from the Sith Lord. Palpatine froze, mouth suddenly dry. Even without dipping into the Force, he sensed danger, though the feeling was nothing yet approaching physical harm. He wondered for a terrible moment if Anakin suspected, if Anakin knew… He crossed his left hand behind his back before Anakin could see the twitching of his fingers, the desperate urge to call forth his innate defenses.
Anakin refused to back away or look away. He stared down, breathing softly through his mouth. When he spoke again, his voice dropped lower, becoming a husky growl, "Chancellor, you asked me once what I really wanted in my life, last year."
Palpatine suppressed his more worrisome thoughts, searched his memory, and replied softly as though confronting a wild tusk-cat, "Yes, and I recall that you hadn't yet made up your mind. I take it something has changed."
Anakin still had not moved away, the heat of his emotions blaring through the Force. "On that planet, I faced things, sir. Things you couldn't imagine. I saw things too," he looked down for the first time, drawing his strength around him like a shroud. After a silent moment that stretched into the infinite, he looked back up, licking his lower lip nervously. "You know Obi-Wan and I almost died. I saw what I really wanted. All this time, it's been right in front of me. I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know if… if…"
Palpatine suddenly realized, He's talking about Padme Amidala. He's finally confessing to me his deepest, darkest secret. How delicious. He smiled faintly. "Inaction can take the best of us, Anakin. It's never too late to repair our mistakes."
Anakin moved a centimeter closer. "I'm glad you agree, sir. And I'll never know if it was a mistake until I try."
Palpatine turned his head to the side, uncomfortable with the Jedi's physical proximity and hoping to clear his head of the repugnant emotions that poured from the other man. The air was heavy with expectation, the light and dark mingling together and creating a hideous nausea that threatened his balance. He focused on the twist of sculpture behind Anakin, the blade that waited within for the perfect moment. The sight made him smile; he had always known what he wanted. Now Anakin needed his help in the process. "And? What have you discovered, Anakin? What do you want?"
He was not prepared for the answer.
"I want you."