Finally, we have something about to actually HAPPEN. The previous chapters were used mainly to explain my take on what turned Anikin into Darth Vader and how Padme might feel about it. Now we shall see something resembling a plot come of this. Here you go, chapter four (five if you count prologue) even if it is WAYWAY short.

Chapter 4

"No, Padme," Obi Wan insisted again. "It's to dangerous! He will kill you. Besides, you're sick anyway. You don't have the strength for an 'adventure' like that."

Obi Wan should have known that he was fighting a loosing battle. My mind was made up and there was no way I was going to let him talk me out of the only thing that could ever give me peace.

"What difference is there if I die here or if I die at the hands of the Emperor?"

"I wasn't talking about the Emperor." I knew who he was talking about, and If I know Obi Wan, he knew I knew who he was talking about. I had just hoped he would not correct me. It wasn't that I was afraid, but I had to keep faith in what I was doing. The thought of Anikin killing me was only depressing and in no way deterring. "I'm going to find Anikin, and you can't stop me."

"Oh yes I can," he scolded me like a father would a rebellious daughter and it made me wonder how many times he had used that tone with Anikin. "I am a Jedi and you are a senator. It is my job to protect you."

I froze. The humor of the irony of those words suddenly made me angry. Did he not understand what had happened? "A Jedi? A senator?" I laughed bitterly. "Obi Wan, in case you haven't noticed, let me open your tunnel-vision eyes. You are not a Jedi because the Jedi order is gone, and I am not a senator because there is no more Republic! I'm just the Emperor's chain-link to the Naboo, and you are just a force-wielding knucklehead!"

I almost tripped over Yoda when I spun around to storm off. I hadn't even realized he was there. I hardly gave him a second glance.

I could here their conversation as I walked away.

"Suborn, she is, and hard to convince."

"I can't let her get herself killed. Loosing Anikin was enough, I can't loose her too."

"Be mindful of your fear, Obi Wan. Die she will, no difference in her fate will her choice make. But for your old Pad Wan..."

I could not hear him finish his sentence before I made it out of hearing range, but the last words I would ever hear from the old green Jedi master would helm me keep my faith.

But for your old Pad Wan...

I completed the sentence in my mind and re-affirmed my hope for the future. No matter what I did, I would die. But maybe something I did would play a hand in Anikin's destiny. For once Yoda understood. And hopefully Obi Wan could, too. I wasn't doing this for me.

It was because I could see a sparkle of new hope in the eyes of my babies. It was a hope that maybe despite what I knew that something I said would find its way through into his heart.

Making my way to the hanger, I could feel my self weaken and grow dizzy. I couldn't stop now, though.

"Mat I assist you, Milady?" I turned around to a voice I did not recognize. A man was walking with C-3PO and R2D2.

"You have my gratitude, but I'm alright. Where are you taking those droids."

"I have orders to have their memories erased."

"Please, Miss Padme," the golden droid pleaded, "don't let this happen. Save us!"

For some reason my heart sank. All knowledge of what had really happened would now be lost. But that might just be for the best. If the Emperor got his hands on the information those droids had it would be disaster. This knowledge did not stop me from feeling sad for 3PO, even if he was just a walking mess of chips and wires. He had been a good friend.

"I'm sorry, 3PO." He didn't need to remember these dreadful times, anyway.

I took Obi Wan's fighter. It was closest, and I knew the controls. As I strapped myself into the cockpit, I felt fear for the first time. I wasn't sure what I was afraid for, or even what I was afraid of, but I was afraid. I ignored it, telling myself that it would only get me in trouble, that it would only cause me pain, that I had no use for it anymore.

Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

I left my fear in the hanger as the fighter shrieked and blasted away, taking me on my inevitable path into the never-ending darkness.