The Lure of the Dark Side: Chronicle 1-The Turning of an Era
Episode IV: The Clone Wars
Chapter 2: Year 1-Anger is a Path to the Dark Side
The first year of the Clone Wars, and of Anakin and Padme Skywalker's marriage, was marked with the secret couple only seeing each other three times.
The first time was after a Senate meeting. Anakin had just gotten back from fighting in the Dark Reaper Crisis and was hiding in the shadows of her dressing room. They were only able to spend a short time together, but it was a loving reunion all the same.
The second time was on more of a sour note. Darth Lady Baynetta, aka Padme Amidala, had returned home from a Senate meeting about the Gungan whip out on Naboo's moon of Ohma-D'un to find Anakin waiting for her in her/their bedroom. Her cheerful hello was answered with him shouting at her about hugging some random guy outside the Senate building the day before.
"Random guy," she'd repeated. "That was my good friend/colleague Senator Organa. You've met him before."
"I don't care," Anakin'd shouted. "No man touches you expect me."
Baynetta rolled her eyes. "Oh honestly Anakin. He's just a friend and friends hug each other. You and Antellica hug each other, and you don't hear me shouting over that."
"That's-different."
"How?"
"It just is."
She sighed irritably. "You can be so immature at times. I maybe your wife, but you do not own me and as such you will not order me around."
The argument eventually ended with Baynetta calling security and having him escorted out of her apartment. He apologized to her the entire, but she wouldn't hear of it and continued to order that he be evacuated from the building.
The third time they saw one another in the first year was after Meena Tills' capture and rescue. By now the galaxy seemed to be split in half, one against the other. Half of mostly all the systems in the galaxy were now apart of the Confederacy, while almost all the rest were still in the Republic. However there were a few systems that simply refused to join or be a part of either. They remained fiercely neutral. Because of this, the Senate dispatched a large group of its Senators to go on diplomatic missions to these planets in the result of persuading them to join the Republic. Amidala was one of these Senators picked, mainly because she demanded of the Chancellor to let her go on one. She was tired of the Senate and Coruscant and wanted off the planet for a while.
Two days before she was scheduled to leave, Anakin and Obi-Wan returned to Coruscant from another mission. This reunion was much happier than the last, though Anakin's anger showed itself a bit during a mid-day meal the couple was having with Antellica.
To be humorous, the fourteen year old handmaiden had bought her friend the 'welcome home' gifts of pet food and a bone.
It took everything for her not to burst into laughter as Anakin looked at his gifts in confusion.
"What's this for?" he finally asked.
Antellica smirked. "That bone is for you to chew on while the food is yours to eat."
Baynetta joined Antellica in laughter at what the girl was implying. For a long moment, Anakin remained expressionless before...
SLAM!
Both females stopped laughing to find that the pet food was all over the floor. Obviously, Anakin had thrown it there. Glancing up at his face, they both shrank back at the constricted look; in Antellica's case, shock and freight, in Baynetta's, surprise and amusement.
"You think you're funny, don't you!" he spat at Antellica.
She simply smirked. "I do actually."
Taking the bone in hand, Antellica threw it across the room. "Fetch boy!"
This brought even more laughter from she and Baynetta, and rage from Anakin. He was swearing every profanity that existed in the 'Basic' language, which only caused the females to laugh harder. Antellica began to mimic a dog.
Baynetta had been laughing with her eyes closed when suddenly she heard a scream. Reopening them, she saw Antellica on the floor crying and Anakin glaring down at her. He'd just punched her to the floor and her nose was bleeding. When the Sith Lady took a closer look, she saw that it was broken.
"How dare you!" she shouted at him. "Apologize to her!"
"She deserved what she got!" he shot back.
"You're a bastard Anakin," she yelled. "A mean, cold animal!"
That seemed to be the last straw for him. He threw himself at her in rage and a hand-to-hand fist battle began between the two of them, both wishing death upon the other.
The fight got so violent that Anakin slammed his wife hard into a wall and threw her on the dining room table, proceeding to sexually assault her. Taking out his rage at her through sex.
Antellica left the room screaming out cries while Baynetta tried fighting against him, but he was much stronger than she. He seemed to enjoy that fact; she was fighting but wasn't able to do any real damage to him.
As to how long this went on, Baynetta had no idea. All she remembered was her pain and the sense of superiority coming from Anakin as he continued to overpower her and let out groans of pleasure. Her body being slammed on the table with each thrust and he finding release within her.
Throwing her away from him in disgust, he snarled, "You will treat me with some type of respect when we together! And you will desist with your arrogant bull. I am not a dog and as such will not be treated like one."
He threw her into another wall to evasive his point.
It was at that moment that he seemed to realize what he'd just done. He saw his beloved Padme lying on the floor, parts of her face bloody and she looked quite shaken.
"Oh God! I-I-I-" He collapsed to the floor and cradled his head in his hands.
"Oh Padme," he sobbed. "I am so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. Or punch Antellica. I-I should go."
Despite her shock over what Anakin had just done, she wasn't about to let him go anywhere, but before she could stop him he was out the door.
By the time Anakin came back a few hours later, Baynetta had cooled down quite a bit, cleaned up the mess he made with the dog food and healed Antellica's nose with the Force.
He didn't knock upon arrival, simply barged his way into the apartment apologizing over and over.
Baynetta didn't exactly want to, but decided to forgive him. Just this once. "Let it happen again and you don't want to know what I'll do. We were just having a few laughs. This quick to anger stuff with you has got to stop."
"I know, and I'm sorry. Really I am."
"I don't believe I'm the one you should be apologizing to," she reprimanded. "Antellica thinks of you as an older brother and how do you expect her to feel towards you now?"
Anakin simply nodded and proceeded to Antellica's room. Baynetta sighed and sat down on the sofa, all the while listening to Anakin and Antellica's conversation.
She heard him knock softly on Antellica's door.
"Antellica," he called softly.
Baynetta heard a sniff before Antellica spoke. "Go away you savage monster!"
She had to laugh at this. Although Antellica was fourteen, she could still act like a scared little girl at times. She even said it in her little girl voice. Most of the time, she spoke in a normal tone that sounded more like a teenager, but since her voice was still changing Baynetta guessed that was the reason she spoke like a little girl occasionally, but a teenager most of the time. And it was in that way Antellica and Arica were different. Although Arica was more sensitive than Antellica and shy, she always made it out that she was this big tough girl. As such her voice had matured a lot quicker and sooner than Antellica's.
But enough thoughts about Arica.
"Antellica please, I'm really sorry," Anakin was saying. "I just let my anger get the better of me."
"Get out of my room!"
"Antellica-"
"You can't just go bursting into people's rooms. It's uncivilized, but than again you are uncivilized!"
"You idiot Antellica, shut up!" Baynetta urgently thought to her handmaiden. "He just calmed down not too long ago; we don't need him to fire back up again."
But to Baynetta's surprise, Anakin seemed to be laughing. "Antellica, Antellica. Come here."
"Get away from me!"
There was a moment of silence before... "Put me down!"
Glancing towards the hall, Baynetta she saw Anakin carrying Antellica into the room. She'd stopped shrieking, but was now wearing a pout. Anakin merely laughed. "I'm sorry about your nose, but it looks like you already had it looked at." He took a closer look. "It looks like I didn't even damage it at all. What did you do to it?"
Antellica thought of the first thing she could think of. "We went to the hospital and they patched it up real fast. It wasn't broken after all, just banged up."
Anakin nodded and attempted to smile, but Baynetta still sensed an element of shame coming from him. She took this as her cue to speak up. "Listen Anakin, let's just forget about what happened today and start over."
She smiled and after a few moments hesitation so did he. They both looked over at Antellica and she also smiled, throwing her arms around Anakin's neck.
"I'm really sorry there Tweety," he said in a mock playful manner. "Please forgive me, and we can still be friends."
"Tweety?" Antellica asked.
"My nickname for you," he clarified. "Arica's was chick, chicky, or chicka; whichever I felt like calling her but..."
He trailed off and Baynetta guessed that Anakin missed Arica just as much as they did.
Adopting a sly smile, she put a mock hurt expression on her face. "What about me? What's my nickname?"
Anakin laughed, but thought a moment. "I kind of like your middle name, Zandeleigh. So how about Zandel or Leigh?"
This brought a laugh from the three of them.
The conversation than turned to Amidala's diplomatic mission the day after next. Anakin was disappointed she'd be leaving so soon after he arrived back, but than remembered the meeting he and Obi-Wan had with Palpatine the day before then. It was about their next mission which meant he'd properly be leaving for the field again as well.
The next morning, when Baynetta woke up, she wasn't surprised to find Anakin gone. What she was surprised to see was a little piece of paper lying on his pillow. Picking it up and seeing it was a note from him, she smiled and began to read.
Dear Padme (and Antellica of course),
I'm off to the Jedi Temple. It's currently 0500. I'll try to drop by again before we go, if we go that is. We may not. I hope we don't. But, if we do than this is goodbye for now.
See ya Zandel, little tweety bird.
Anakin
P.S.-I'll ask the Chancellor where Arica is. He likes me. I'm sure he'll tell me where she is if I ask.
Baynetta gave the last sentence a thoughtful look. Hmm, I hardly doubt that. But you never know.
It turns out that Anakin and Obi-Wan did go on another mission. She'd found out later through Palpatine that he'd dispatched them to lead an assault on Muunilinst. The outer rim world was the headquarters of the InterGalactic Banking Clan, a heavy monetary and battle droid contributor to the Separatists. Cutting off their supply of resources for the Confederacy would be a major victory for the Republic.
During her scheduled meeting with the Chancellor concerning her own mission, it was decided that she'd go to the planet of Labor, located at the edge of the Core and near the Colonies. Because this system wasn't that far from Alderaan, Amidala asked why Senator Organa hadn't gone instead. It turns out that Palpatine had originally scheduled for the Alderaanian Senator to go there, only Organa insisted upon going anywhere but there.
"According to him, the planet's very strange," the Chancellor explained. "He says he'd gone there once and refuses to return. It was just too strange for his tastes."
With each Senator going on missions, a Jedi Knight or Master was to accompany them.
"Why?" Baynetta demanded.
"Because the Jedi are the protectors of the Republic, and with all the chaos going on in the galaxy it's only fitting that we have some of them protect the few Senators we have left," Palpatine calmly said.
"I can protect myself," she snarled.
The Chancellor smiled. "Of that I am aware Senator, but this is standard procedure."
"Of course, of course," she said with a sigh.
Palpatine continued. "When Queen Jamilla found out you were one of the Senators going on these missions, she suggested that Captain Typho and," he gave a small cough, "Junior Representative Binks accompany you as well."
"Oh no. Ooh no." Amidala was furiously shaking her head. "Captain Typho yes, but that Gungan freak isn't coming with me anywhere."
Palpatine chuckled. "I figured as much."
"So which Jedi have I been paired up with?" she asked. "Do I really want to know?"
"Actually, it's Master Yoda." This took her by surprise. "He specially requested to be the Jedi accompanying you on your mission."
"Really," she asked with interest.
"That outta be interesting," Antellica added from beside her.
They were sitting on one of the couches in front of the Chancellor's desk. The droids, 3PO and R2, were flanking either side of it.
"Yes, he says he's taken a fine interest in you and your handmaidens," Palpatine added.
There was a moment of silence before...
"Father-"
"No."
"But-"
"No."
She sighed and put her head down in defeat. Glancing at Antellica, she saw that her head was done as well.
"Anakin asked me where she was today also," he stated.
"He told me before he asked that he was going to," she said with pleading eyes. "He misses her just as much as we do."
"Hmm…" He appeared to be in thought. "I'll just say this." Both girls sat up eagerly. "You will see her again, one day. Perhaps once the war's over."
"What is she in hiding or something?" Antellica asked.
"Yes…and no actually." And before either of them could ask anything else he continued. "Listen, as I said before, try and forget about Arica as of now. Focus on your mission. You're scheduled to leave for Labor at 1100 tomorrow morning. It should take about four hours to get there so you should arrive by mid-day their time. Both Master Yoda and Captain Typho will be meeting you at your apartment."
Author's Note: I'd just like to say that 'Labor' is not a planet in the Star Wars universe, so don't go to the official website looking for it. It's something I made up entirely. The planet of Muunilinst though is not something I made up. That's a real planet in the universe. It was in a few episodes of Star Wars Clone Wars Volume 1.