Sorry I left you with a little cliff hanger on the last chapter. Good news is that this is the second to last chapter (and a long-ish one at that). Bad news it this is the second to last chapter. I hope that you have enjoyed reading it (and waiting for the updates that usually take ridiculously long) as I have had writing it. BTW, Jedi Angel001 is absolutely right. In the last chapter Anakin/Vader (he's really in the role of both right now) sort of did his own thing despite what I wanted him to do. Maybe, as Padme believes, it's not to late to change him.

Chapter 6

I didn't have much time to kick myself for my mockery of his new position before the air around me become light and the floor beneath my feet fall away. Before I realized what was happening I was several feet up and Anakin was just looking at me through the red visor of the helmet that hid him from everyone, including himself. I wish I could have seen his eyes in that moment. I needed to read his expression to know exactly what to do next.

As if I could do anything but hang suspended by the force in the air. His block-gloved hand raised in my direction and I felt my through tighten. I couldn't breath.

"No, Ani," I managed to choke out, "Not again." I did not come here to beg for my life. I came here to beg for his. What was left of it.

I watched his hand as he drew it in towards his chest sending me flying forward. He clenched his fist and then let his arm relax. I fell to the ground at his feet.

Coughing and trying to ketch my breath, I said, "Look at your self Anakin! How can you be doing this? The Emperor lied to you so he could have you to himself, don't you see?"

"He..." Anakin hesitated. "He told me there would be peace!"

"He told you I was dead! And here I am, Ani," I fought with every muscle, every bone, every nerve in my body and managed to bring my self up to stand. In that moment I felt as if my strength was coming from something greater than myself, greater even than my own constitution. I stood before him and look straight up into his eyes. "Here, I am, standing right in front of you."

"No!" He was in denial, much like I had been in the beginning, when I had first learned of this travesty from Obi Wan.

No. Your wrong. He can't be Sith!

"He was mistaken!" he continued. "He just couldn't sense it! I couldn't even sense it!"

My eyes softened and I extended my hand towards his masked face and, to my surprise, he let me. "You're not all-powerful. Ani."

Some day I will be. I will even learn to stop people from dying!

"But if I'm alive, then you have accomplished your ultimate goal."

It was my quest to allow some part of him, of us, to be spared this evil that kept me alive. In a twisted sense, I suppose the dark side did save me. If only for a little while.

"You don't have to do this anymore, Ani," I continued. "You..." Oh, no. Not again. I felt my legs weakening and before I had a chance to steady myself I was falling. But something unexpected happened. He caught me. A strong arm wrapped around my waist and another held my head up. My vision was becoming blurry, and I felt myself being lowered to the floor.

By the time I was able to see again, he was kneeling on the floor with me wrapped up in his arms and my head on his chest.

"Take me away from this place, Ani," I whispered. "No overthrowing the Emperor, no more fighting, please Ani, no more fighting!"

"I can't." he said simply, as if it was so obvious. "Don't you see that I have everything I've ever dreamed of? I will be the most powerful Sith Lord ever!"

"Then have the power to walk away!" I pleaded, attempting to sit up on my own.

I saw something cross his eyes, something I did not recognize, but I could tell it was bad.

"That's Obi Wan's fighter," he said with a tone that I could not identify.

"I stole it."

"You and Obi Wan are trying to draw me away from the emperor so you can overthrow him! So the Jedi can take over!" He stood abruptly, leaving me slumped over on the floor. "I see through your lies, now! I almost believed you!"

"No, Ani!" I shouted, not in pleading, but sternly, like the mother I was. Where was he getting these delusions? Why was he doing this again? I used his own words. "I don't want to hear any more about Obi -"

"Obi Wan has been trying to take you away from me from the very beginning. Now he has betrayed

the Emperor, betrayed me and worse, he has made you betray your Emperor and your husband!"

"I have never betrayed anyone, Anakin. The only traitor in this room is you!"

"Oh, I beg to differ, Senator Amidala," I heard a voice from the other side of the hanger in the doorway that Anakin had come through. The figure wore a long, black cloak whose hood covered his eyes and the top of his nose. His voice was rough, yet it flowed like poisoned wine from the bottle. I knew of only one voice in the galaxy that could match this seductively evil tone.

Emperor Palpatine.

"You're right," I replied, "I suppose now I am the only one it this room who isn't a traitor."

"You chose your words unwisely, Senator. And to think you used to be so much more diplomatic. What a pity that you did not remain on my side."

"Remain?" I questioned. "I was never on your side!"

The Emperor chuckled darkly. "Once again you are mistaken. Who called for the vote of no confidence against Former Chancellor Velorumn which lead to my nomination? Who was the leader in the fight against the Military Creation Act? Who left Acting Senator Binks in your seat to propose for my 'emergency powers' while you were off gallivanting in the lake country?"

I felt sick at what I had done. Not only had I fed Anakin's greed and gave him a reason to seek out the dark side, I let myself be manipulated by the Dark Lord himself and became personally responsible for his rise to power. I had been Darth Sidius' pawn from the very beginning.

And so Anakin had been as well.

This, I realized, I could use. I was learning to play the Emperor's game, a fact that frightened me. "So you just used me then. The Trade Federation invasion, the assassination attempts, all of it was just a ploy to get me to raise you on to your pedestal." I then looked away from the Emperor and back to Anakin. "You, too Ani. Forcing our landing on Tatooine, the battle on Geonosis, Duku's murder, everything was part of his plan to build you into -"

"Silence!" the Emperor interrupted. "Enough of your lies!" He turned his head slightly towards Anakin. "This is why I did not attempt to see her fate and tell you the truth; To spare you her treachery! She is trying to take away everything that we have achieved. We have both made sacrifices, my apprentice, but we have built an empire together. Just as I have foreseen, she has the power to ruin it!" His eyes, his sunken-in red-circled eyes met mine. I felt as if his evil weekend me and I slumped back down on the floor. I knew then that I had reached my limit, that my body and soul were too week to go an any further. His next words did not phase me. "Kill her."

"Anakin," I had one last think to say before I died, by whatever means. "They will save you and you...you will save them." He didn't need to know who "them" was. "You will see who you are."

"I am Darth Vader," he replied, then turned to face the Emperor. "If we leave her hear, she will die."

The Emperor hummed in agreement. "Very well my apprentice."

And with that the Emperor simply walked away. Anakin followed seconds after.

"Anakin," I said with the last bit of strength I had left. "I truly, deeply love you. And before I die I want you to know."

I had said everything I had come to say. Now I could be at peace. As I began to slip away I felt the floor tremble beneath his footsteps. But they weren't leading away. They were leading back – back towards me.

In my very last moment, and I can not be certain if it was an echo in my mind or if it was really him, but I heard him call out my name.