Anakin felt Organa was too slow to just take him back to his apartment. It had taken every single trick of persuasion he knew, just to make the irritating senator trust him even when he had given the man his lightsaber, and even then Organa had driven him back to his apartment in the senatorial district and get rid of his staff. Anakin had never been a patient man, even with situations which demanded he try to be patient and keep his energy contained, but this pushed him to his limits.
"You said you're still fighting in the Clone Wars," Organa commented when they were completely alone, although Anakin had little doubt he had told his staff, namely his bodyguards to come back if Anakin proved to be a threat. "So, you don't know much of what's happened, do you?"
"Not really. I came across some historical accounts of what came afterwards just to see how much longer the war lasted," Anakin didn't bother telling Organa he had memorised certain battles and campaigns which had been shredded by historians, all of whom had the permission of the Empire, into saying how differently the battles could have gone if this or that had happened although he wasn't sure if the Father had anticipated him doing it, and planned to send him back to a point in time where he couldn't change history; time travel was only something Anakin had come across in data books, and the theories the writers had for the subject were mixed, some suggesting new timelines would and could be formed so any information transmitted from the future meant nothing, others saying the changes could just make things worse, "but what I found was not nice, especially about the Jedi."
The Empire had taken the heroic actions of Jedi Generals, from Yoda, all the way to Kit Fisto, and twisted them, painting the Jedi as traitors who had actually been in league with the Separatists the whole time, all to gain the trust of the Senate to take over the galaxy. The doctored recording of Master Windu and other Council Masters drawing their lightsabers on the Chancellor had given the Empire proof of that.
"Palpatine talked about a plot by the Jedi to overthrow the Senate. It was during the same meeting he declared the end of the war, and the establishment of the Empire," Organa nodded, his face dark, remembering that dark day.
"Why did the Senate allow it?" Anakin demanded.
Organa shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted with a quiet tone of a man who thought he had just seen a bantha fly, and couldn't begin to believe it himself. "I think, by that point, there was nothing left of what was once the Republic. It was already the Empire in all but name; it wasn't until Palpatine reorganised it and crowned himself Emperor Palpatine, and then sent out the new Imperial fleets to bring about his so-called order, that the Republic fragments just…began to die."
"How many people know Palpatine is a Sith?" Anakin asked. This was a question he had wanted to ask for a while now.
"Not many," Organa sighed, "Palpatine changed shortly after the war's end," he explained, "he threw aside the demeanour he had shown during his time as Chancellor. Now, whenever he appeared in public, he showed off his deformed face, using it to gain pity; he said that the attempt on his life by the Jedi was the cause, and he used it for his benefit. But being in his presence….it's like being suffocated; even in the warmth, his presence makes the place…," Organa stumbled as he tried to think of the right words to describe it.
"Cold?" Anakin supplied.
Organa nodded, staring at him in surprise, "Yes."
"It's his aura in the Dark Side. Sith Lords usually release it to unsettle slaves or underlings, and scare them," Anakin explained before he decided to get to the point, "Senator, you said I'd betrayed everything. What did you mean?"
Organa sighed again. Now he had gotten over the idea of Anakin being the version who had led the purges, he wondered how the knight would take the news, and what he would do. But he knew if he refused to tell him, then Anakin could do something stupid. "Anakin, Palpatine told the senate at large that only one Jedi showed loyalty to him, to the Republic. You. He claimed you had come to him with proof of the Jedi's treachery, and even saved him from the party led by Master Windu."
Anakin was not sure how to react to this. Yes, he had been loyal to Palpatine, but would he have taken it so far? That thought alone pushed him to ask his next question, "What did Palpatine do to make me do that? What did he promise?"
"What do you mean?" Organa asked guardedly, and there he saw it, the distrust but curiosity.
"What did he do to make me do that?" Anakin repeated, now wondering just what his future self had done to the Council Masters. There was no doubt in him that Palpatine's version of events was a pack of lies, but the Force told him there was something of a grain of truth there. "Yes, I was loyal to Palpatine; when I first became Obi-Wan's apprentice, I had nothing and nobody. I was a former slave, 9 years old, taken from my mother. I had no friends. The Jedi didn't care. They just pushed and pushed, saying I needed to be humble about my abilities, but refused to realise they were pissing me off. Palpatine was the only one who befriended me. Even Obi-Wan was distant; he only became my Master because his former Master, Qui-Gon Jinn, wanted it, and even then he was bitter. It took years before we became close. But my loyalty isn't so blinding. If Palpatine did something, or if I discovered something about him, then I wouldn't have trusted his word. I'm beginning to wish I hadn't," he added. "So what did he offer?"
Organa was visibly shaken by what Anakin had just said. "I don't know," the senator admitted now asking himself if there was more to what happened than what the Jedi had told him, "I truly don't know. All I know is you turned to the Dark Side, and you led the Jedi Purges. You took a legion of clones into the Temple, and slaughtered everyone, including the younglings."
Anakin stilled, mentally picturing the events while he wished the floor plating swallowed him up, and dragged him through the over-built-up cityscapes, down and down until he penetrated the centre of the planet. "H-How do you know that?" He asked faintly, trying to squeeze out of his mind the conjured screams of children of all ages, only to be cut short.
"Palpatine told us the Clone Troopers have a…a countermeasure which triggers if the Jedi ever betrayed the Republic. It was later discovered they were inhibitor chips placed in the heads of all of the Clones. Over the years, more about the Jedi Purges have come out, to those who…don't exactly believe the story, never mind follow the Empire," Organa said uncertainly, although Anakin couldn't blame him for his clear distrust, "and it turned out that hundreds of Jedi were scattered across the galaxy when it happened, and they didn't stand a chance. Obi-Wan and Yoda survived the carnage, but there were likely others since news of survivors who were caught still persists, and there are rumours of Jedi Survivors everywhere."
Anakin put his head in his hands. He had always known, especially after his murder of the Tusken raiders which was a massive breach in the Jedi Code, and his subsequent actions during the Clone Wars where he had to bend the rules to make things right, he had the potential for evil. Anakin hadn't liked doing half the things he had done in the war, but if he had to do it all over again…he knew he had no choice, and he also knew if he had to do it again, he would have wiped out the Tusken camp, only he would have left weeks before and told the Jedi what they could do with themselves and their precious code.
For the first time ever, he came to terms with the truth.
Anakin Skywalker was not a Jedi, he never had been if he was true to himself, but he would be damned if he was ever going to let Palpatine manipulate him, goading him with lies about the Dark Side, and letting himself believe it. But Anakin was still concerned about what could have turned him to the Sith in the first place.
And then it came to him. "Did my turning have anything to do with Padme?" He asked.
Organa hesitated, and Anakin knew his answer. He groaned and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I knew it," he muttered, cursing the little voice in his brain that sounded exactly like Obi-Wan, Master Windu, Yoda, and Mundi, rolled into one saying, "We told you so about attachments, but you refused to listen."
Anakin mentally told them to shut up so he could think. "Do you have any idea what happened?" Anakin asked quietly, too numb to speak louder.
But Organa was reluctant. Anakin was becoming increasingly tired of his hesitations. But at the same time, Anakin felt the man's deep-rooted panic and fear. An image kept appearing in his mind. The image of a little brunette girl. Who was she?