AN:

Ivy – Yess! I so agree. It's quite tragic.

Cheire – Yeah he hasn't had it easy

Disgal – Thanks, I try to update often. They deserve a break that's true haha. Soon, soon :D


I See Red


Early sunlight had brightened over the bed. Anakin rubbed his eyes and rolled his face into the pillow, warding off the morning's call. He stretched an arm out for Padme (his own idea of a nymph; plus a better wakeup call than the spirit of the morning), but her side of the bed appeared empty. It was terrible to suffer an empty bed and have nothing to grasp in his hands and make him feel powerful. Nothing but cold, empty linens and pillow cases. A little setback in the day. On the bright side, the bed to himself was quite enjoyable. He could lie here all morning; there was no work to rush to – not that he had to work much at the sand park.

He called for Padme but there was no answer. He strained to hear any sign of movement or noise from the living room. He imagined he would have heard the door shut if she had gone out.


Padme was carrying two grocery bags down the high street while on the phone with Dorme. The chatter seemed rushed and she out of breath, following a snaking path through the many people on the pavement and trying not to bump her groceries into anyone.

"I just handed over the car to your friend. She loves it!" Padme turned a corner, walking through a narrow, cobbled street. "Listen, I'll call you later, I'm carrying two big bags of shopping. I'll be home in about ten minutes."

She saw a tall figure coming towards her from the other end of the alleyway. The closer he got, the more recognizable he became. The featureless face was revealed when she looked over her sunglasses at the long, angled face, the green eyes, and goggles that pushed back the coffee-coloured hue that is his brown hair.

"Hello Padme." Sebulba said with an undertone of coldness.

"Sebulba." Her greeting was equally as icy as she planned on walking by without stopping. He stepped up to her, though, blocking her path. She tried to leave again but her shoes went silent on the cobble stones when he intervened.

"What do you want?" Her words had a curt edge to them now.

"I thought you should know I'm suing your husband." He answered, casually. "I'd tell him to get a lawyer but it looks like he already has one."

"You're suing Anakin?" She lifted her sunglasses over her head. "He doesn't have any money!"

Sebulba leaned in and spoke with a voice as silky as his sweater. "But his in-laws do."

Padme felt a million pointy senses creep through her body in a universal language... a shock, a siren. She did her best to exhale through it, refusing to let him witness any emotional reaction. If he wants a court case, he'll get a court case. "You know what, you go right ahead, sue us. And I will dig up every skeleton in your closet, from how you underpay your employees to how you cover up your illegal practices with the help of criminals."

Sebulba gave a Mad Hatter laugh, entertained. "There's always one. You come to this town, vowing to make a difference. You think you're going to fix the justice system, change the laws? Save the poor people?" He leaned in again. The tone of his voice morphing into something much more intimidating. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!"

The dark voice didn't rattle her; it only made her more determined. "I'm the woman who's going to make sure you end up in jail."

He was ready to wipe that certainty off her face. The next thing she knew, she was hit backhanded across the face. That gaudy ring he wore scraped the skin on her high, youthful cheekbone. She flinched at the painful, sharpness of the ring stinging through her flesh.

"I'd love to see you try." A gruff voice came out as he glared at her. She tried swallowing her fear as she cupped the side of her face. Her heart had jumped in her throat; she couldn't speak. "You know... I've been trying to wrap my head around what got Anakin so foolish lately... " He changed his tune to one more deceptive. It began with a mock lightheartedness only to lower, viciously redesigning each syllable. "But maybe I wouldn't get so bent out of shape over a car dent if I too were fucking you every night."

A violent hand forced its way between her thighs. His fingers grabbed something so private; they are nothing but rough and cruel. The opposite of Anakin's sensitive ones. Her heart shrunk in this vulnerable state. She pushed his hand off, quivering in a panic, and he walked off so callously, with a malevolent sneer.

She stood there, wrestling with reality. Her fingers curled over her cardigan, pulling the two sides together to cover herself up in some way. Then her hand laid idly by her chest. The flowers on her cardigan that crawl on the arms and down the front seemed coy and drooping. Or perhaps it was her eyes that were actually coy and drooping. Clamped down by terror.

Padme put her sunglasses back over her eyes and did her best to put one foot in front of the other to get home. But this nameless fear was badgering... some type of anguish she had never experienced before closed her chest and made it hard to breath slow.


I see a red door and I want it painted black

No colours anymore, I want them to turn black

I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes

I have to turn my head until my darkness goes


As soon as Padme walked through the door, Anakin sprung up from his seat, barefoot, cozy in comfy sweats. His greeting was warm, nice against the pale, paralytic coldness that layered her, weighing her down.

"Hey, give me that." He took the grocery bags off her hands. "You shouldn't be carrying heavy stuff. I would've gone to the store for you."

"I was dropping off the car anyway."

Anakin noticed that she seemed subdued; her voice low and her eyes wouldn't lift from the ground. He put the bags on the dining table and returned to her.

"Everything okay?" He closer he got, the more her silence conveyed more answers than she'd like. His forehead crinkled and he reached to remove her sunglasses. They unveil the deep, scraped cut on her cheekbone and her scared eyes.

"Sebulba is suing you." Was all she could come up with. She didn't know how to respond any other way.

He cupped her face and she tried to squirm away, but he held her frailness between two hands. His warm palms against her cheeks forced her to settle down and take a moment to accept the horror that just happened to her.

"Sebulba?" A faint voice clawed through gritted teeth, slow and stunned as he searched her face. "Did he do this to you?" Disbelief warred with anger over which would show up first in the creases of his face.

He wouldn't let go of her, she had to face him and be brought to that place, where one look would give it all away.

"I was taking that shortcut home we always take, in that little alley, and he was there." She tried to hide the fragility in her voice. "He threatened to go to court and then I threatened him and he–"

She broke off eye contact. Anakin knew she was struggling to get the words out. He bent forward, probingly but gentle enough to make her feel safe.

"He groped me..." She couldn't even say it properly, she just vaguely pointed down.

Add that to the table of trauma. One scar served at a time. They form one deep wound and burn an everlasting hole in your centre. They want to emerge like that dragon Joseph Campbell refers to as the ego. The dragon rests inside Anakin tauntingly, provoking something to burn so it can unleash its fury with a mouthful of pain. A shaky, furious breath lashed out, a culmination of the struggle he was built on — whether or not to set the dragon free.

Padme could see Anakin flaring up. Throat closing, eyes expressing a twinge of anger and worry and sadness all at once. And she knew he was about to go off the wall. She placed a hand on his chest as if it would press the pressure back in, the pressure that was bursting out while he grabbed his keys and slipped on his flip flops.

"Ani, please don't. Don't go over there like this. Don't get into a fight." The longing in her voice made him pause. He turned back to look at that face. A face that should always be admired, touched, loved. It was what helped him find his mind in the foggy fumes of hatred. He knew he couldn't walk out the door without checking on her first. She was the one who suffered the assault.

"Are you okay?" His thumb stroked her cheek. His fingers elegant when he touched her face that didn't deserve to be roughly handled. There was nothing rough about Padme.

She nodded, demurely. With that confirmation, he headed out, leaving Padme uneasy and defeated, but too fragile to feel disappointed about what might seem childish and shortsighted. Her thoughts were out of focus; there was no frame to keep it all together. Instead, everything floated outside of her and she couldn't find the energy to pull it all back in.


No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue

I could not foresee this thing happening to you

If I look hard enough into the setting sun

My love will laugh with me before the morning comes


A knock on the door of a secluded Victorian-style house had Sebulba staring at the doorknob, which ceased to be a doorknob in his mind; it became a symbol of curiosity. Each knock on wood became a question in his head. He wasn't expecting anyone this early in the day. He approached his front door casually, letting his curious thoughts go on to be as quiet as the hills surrounding his home.

He opened his front door and before he could register Anakin standing behind it, Anakin's right hand had rounded into a greedy fist ready to snatch what was taken from his wife. A red-tingled rage, large in his chest. A sound moved through the solid brick walls, breaking any shroud of joy in the room when Anakin's fist met Sebulba right between the eyes.


The Rolling Stones - Paint It Black