Title: Despairing Love
Rating: K+ (maybe, see what you think. Some things happen later on which small children probably wouldn't want to read)
The ship landed with a small bump and Padmé closed her eyes. She didn't like the planet she was on. It was just molten lava pouring everywhere and she could see no-one from the screen on her ship. Except for one. One person stood silent and watching. His black form stood out against the red behind him.
She knew it must be him. She had been told he was here. She opened the door of the pod and stepped out. She saw the figure stir move slightly and pull down his hood. She saw his blonde hair and his face looked at her. He then ran towards her.
As he came closer, Padmé ran down the entrance of her ship and into his arms. She held him as close to her as possible, glad that she was in his presence again.
Anakin was surprised to see her here. He had told her to wait for him but obviously she hadn't listened. He should have known. Padmé could be very stubborn sometimes. But maybe that wasn't all. Maybe something had happened to her. She hadn't looked well when she'd rushed to him. She had been crying from something and her face was paler than it should be.
He stood back a bit to look at her properly. He still held her close though.
"What are you doing here?"
Padmé looked intensely into his eyes, searching for something. Finally she spoke, quickly as though she felt she had to do it or the words would fail her.
"I had to see you Anakin. I've heard terrible things."
Anakin caressed her cheek as she spoke.
"What things?"
His face hardened slightly but Padmé didn't notice.
"Obi-Wan told me that you were changed. That you had become a Sith Lord. I didn't believe him but then he told me that you had-"
She swallowed quickly and shook her head quickly, as though she were trying to remove some horrible thought from her mind. "He said that you had killed younglings, Ani. Younglings."
Anakin's expression turned grim and he looked ahead of him.
"Obi-Wan is trying to turn you against me." His voice had a new edge of hard steel in it.
"Turn me against you? Ani, he wouldn't do that. He wants to help us. He knows," Padmé spoke softly and brought herself close to him again.
"You told him?" Anakin was incredulous. Padmé was telling people about them when she had been the one who decided that no-one should know. Anger began to seep through him. She was making her loyalties very unclear.
"He asked whether you were the father of the baby and I didn't answer. I couldn't lie but I wasn't going to speak about it. I promised both of us that I wouldn't do that."
Anakin looked at Padmé's swollen belly when she talked about the baby. His baby. Their baby. Nothing was going to come between them now. He would make sure of that.
He has changed, Padmé found herself increasingly thinking. But she refused to believe he was evil. Obi-Wan must have made a mistake. A terrible mistake. Ani, her Ani wasn't bad.
"Anakin, let's get away from here." Her arm pointed around at the lava surrounding the platform they were standing on and she looked up at him desperately. "Ani, let's go away now while we can. We can go back to Naboo and have this baby in peace. We can raise our family."
Anakin shook his hand and took both of Padmé's hands in his. He was going to have to make Padmé understand.
"No, we can't leave this place. I have a job to do here."
"But all of the other Jedi, Ani. You should go with them, be with them. They need your help."
Anakin smiled at his wife's naivety. His darling Padmé clearly did not understand what was really happening.
"The Republic has fallen. As of now, the Jedi are our enemies. They tried to assasinate the Senator and are now trying to take the Republic as they're own. They have grown greedy with power, Padmé."
Padmé turned her face away from Anakin's intense gaze. She felt oddly uncomfortable. The Jedi hadn't turned bad. She knew they hadn't. And was she crazy or did his eyes have a tinge of red in them?
"Ani, why are you doing this? All of this?"
"Padmé. Don't you see?" Anakin leant forward so his face was level with hers. "All of this can be ours. I have more power than any of the Jedi. I can kill my master and together we can rule the Empire."
Padmé felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. This wasn't the Anakin she knew. This was a man intent on getting power and using any means necessary to get that power. She was scared of the man she no longer knew.
Obi-Wan was right, Padmé thought with increasing horror.
Anakin's face hardened and Padmé realised she had spoken the last words aloud. She backed away from Anakin, her fear growing every second.
"Obi-Wan was right," she repeated, realising with every second that the man she had loved was barely with her. "All of this talk of power and killing. Ani, this isn't you!"
Anakin stepped forward to her and she stiffened.
"Yes, it is me, Padmé. Only I'm stronger and better than I was before."
Padmé could no longer contain her tears.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'm doing it to protect you. If I don't do this then you are going to die in childbirth and I won't be able to do anything to stop it. And I won't lose you, Padmé," Anakin's voice softened and he caressed her cheek. Padmé closed her eyes, trying to believe his words. "I'm not going to loose you."
"I'm not going to die in childbirth, Ani. But I cannot go with you now. Don't you see? I love you but you are going down a path I can't follow. You're breaking my heart."
Padmé backed away from him again before turning and trying her best to run back to the ship. If she could get out of here then perhaps she could think more clearly about this. She couldn't stay here now. She had her baby to think of.
Anakin let out a cry of rage. She wasn't going to leave him. He wouldn't let her. She said she loved him but she lied. If she loved him then why was she leaving?
He concentrated on her retreating form and felt a surge of satisfaction when he had made her stop moving and turned her round to face him.
"Padmé you aren't going to leave me!"
Padmé was sobbing openly and wouldn't look at her husband.
"What else can I do?"
"Stay with me," he repeated more urgently.
Padmé shook her head helplessly.
"Oh, Ani. I love you but I can't-"
Suddenly, her words enraged him. She was lying to him. She was trying to escape from him. She had promised to stay with him her whole life but instead she was running away. She was scared! She had no reason to be scared! It was he who should be scared. If he hadn't done all he had then she would die. And leave him to face a world without her!
"Liar!" Anakin shouted suddenly and he suddenly began to feel the power move out of his hand. He felt a sudden urge to hurt Padmé like she was hurting him.
Padmé began to choke as she felt her throat close over.
"Anakin. No. Please. I love you."
Her voice grew raspy and more quiet as he tightened his hold on her. Her figure began to fall more limp as she was losing strength to fight back. They only thing she made sure she was still doing was looking into her husband's eyes. So he would see her pain and love. Then maybe he would remember their love. Maybe it would remind him of who he was hurting.
Anakin released her suddenly. He had suddenly seen it. The pain in her eyes hit him hard. Even when she had screamed at him in one of their fiercest arguments, he had never felt her pain so absolutely.
He was doing the one thing he had sworn to protect Padmé against! Her life was draining slowly from her and he was making it happen.
Padmé fell limply to the floor. Some semblance of sanity had told him to stop. He was hurting his wife, the only person he loved. He had turned on her. He rushed forward to her.
She was still breathing, just. He could sense it.
She isn't dead.
Relief overcame him at this news. He brought her close to him and lifted her into his arms. He was going to protect her from now on. Her and their baby. He would make her understand why he had chosen this life for them and soon they would live together peacefully. She was not going to die. He wouldn't ever let that happen.