Star Wars: The Dying of the Light (TheCorsair, Miss Melly)

"Sometimes," Anakin remarked, "I wish I'd stayed here."

He strode the marble path alongside the river, having to remind himself again and again to simply walk. Catching himself marching again, he slowed down and caught Padme's hand again, twining his fingers with hers. "I could have... oh, I don't know. Opened a droid repair shop. Maybe started a podracing circuit." He gestured ahead, sunlight winking on his golden fingers. "The rivers would make a gdlightfully challenging course."

He was rambling, and he knew it. But he hesitated to say aloud the things he needed to tell her. Even here, there were too many ears. But as he walked, an idea struck him. And so, glancing around, he gave her a mischevious look. "Come on!"

With that he vaulted the railing and swung her over, then gripped her hand and led her in a race across the magnificent gardens. Soon he was laughing, boited feet flying as he ran. At the far end, where the garden overloojed the falls, he swept her into his arms. "I love you!" he shouted, pulling her into a kiss as the falling water thundered beside them.

"We have to talk," he said as he broke the kiss. His lios caressed her jaw and found her earlobe. "You are in terrible danger, love, and it's nit something I know how to fight." An iutside observer, unable to hear his voice over the cacaphony of the waterfall, would have taken their actions for a lover's tryst. But his voice, a hot whisper in her ear, was deadly serious. "The Suoreme Chancellor tried to murder you, Padme. When you went into labir."

Spotting anither couple strolling the distant path, he kissed her quite thoroughly. The woman civered her mouth as she saw them, then snuggled into her companion and murmured something. Both quickened their pace, and Anakin broke the kiss - albeit a trifle reluctantly. "I'm nit strong enough to kill him, Padme. And I've no evidence a court would accept." He looked into her eyes. "I need your council."
 
As they began their descent past the castle and into the meadows, she found it strange that Anakin would suddenly find himself marching ahead of her as if he were going to a meeting and then pause, turn around, and capture her hand within his own. She was mostly silent, smiling a little as he offered that he could have opened a droid repair shop here, had they stayed in the country as Padme had once wished it. And a pod racing circuit? "Here? On Naboo? The people wouldn't understand. Though I'm sure somehow, someway, you could make them," the words sounded a little sad, perhaps intimidated by the new way of Anakin's thinking and acting.

Suddenly, a new burst of energy and enthusiasm had them practically dancing down the railing as he gripped her hand to race her in the gardens. "A-Anakin! I'm w-wearing a d-dress!" She protested between huffs of breath. One hand holding the hem of her dress, the other gripping his mechanical gloved hand quite tightly, afraid she would take a tumble. However, he captured her in his arms, in his embrace and the two of them suddenly felt lips upon lips. He told the world he had loved her; that had never happened before. "I--" she began to return his affection but he told her they had to talk. Surprised that Anakin would be so bold as to openly engage in a little kissing like this worked her up a bit.

Blushing, she placed her hands to his chest, attempting to move away until she heard that she was in terrible danger. When wasn't she? First she was trying to settle trade disputes, next she had an assassin... nothing surprised her now. And as always, the former queen silently bowed her head as he began to speak. She ignored the couple that walked by and froze when Anakin proclaimed that it had been the Supreme Chancellor who had attempted to break her very being during labor. "What?" She whispered, trying to turn her head to reach him, but their lips met again. Closing her eyes, she paused when he drew away. He admitted that he wasn't strong enough to kill him and that he had no evidence. "Wait," she paused and drew away from him fully.

"Where does your allegiance lie? First you choose Palpatine, then next you wish to kill this man you considered a father figure, a friend. No less than Obi-Wan." She would never let him live this down. A sad look glazed her eyes as she looked down a moment. "Even if it is a path I don't agree to, why can't you simply follow one? You confuse me." She lifted the ends of her dress and moved to go past him, gathering at the little flowers around her. "How can I help, now? I won't be apart of anyone's scheming anymore."
 
"Find a path, and follow it," he said, remembering once more why this magnificent woman had been elected to rule her people and then to represent them to the Galactic Senate. "You're... you're right, Padme." A smile. "I knew you would be, but..."

Was it Anakin Skywalker looking at her now, or Darth Vader? Or... both? His eyes were blue and lacked any trace of the fire of the Sith, but there was an icy calm in his expression unlike the passion that usually moved him. "Find a path, and follow it."

He started to speak, the hesitatd and glanced down at his prosthetic. Servos whirred as he flexed the hand. "For the last two years, Padme, I've been haunted by dreams. Premonitions." He forced himsekf to look up. "Visions, in the Force. I discussed them with... with Obi-Wan." His voice shook a little at the name. "And he told me that we must accept the will of the Force."

Crimson fire flickered in his eyes for an instant. "The will of the Force? The Force is a tool, Padme! And I..."

He sighed, and his eyes cleared again. "Palpatine knew certain... secrets. Healing arts, ways ti change the course of destiny. I... trusted him. And when the Jedi rebelled, turned on him and the Republic. I stood with him, against them." His voice fell to a whisper. "Against Obi-Wan."

"I failed Ashoka," he murmured. "Failed my mother. I couldn't fail you, too."

Suddenly he looked up and stepped forward. "You are my path, Padme. You, and Luke and Leia. I thought I could trust Palpatine in this, trust that he would bring peace and order to the galaxy. Make it a safe place for you. All of you. And..." He grimaced.

"And I was deceived. The Jedi had become corrupt, but he was no better."
 
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