The Loyalty of the Dark

Chapter 11

The vision was dark and fuzzy at first. Anakin couldn't make out anything, but he could hear the crying of a baby. A moment later, Padmé's face came into focus, frozen in a scream. Anakin's heart clenched.

"Anakin, help me! Please!" she cried. He struggled to move, to do something to help her, but he was powerless to do anything but watch.

He could only watch as she screamed for him, as her strength began to fail her, as the baby cried in the background, till at last she could only whimper:

"Anakin, I'm sorry. I love you. I love you...."

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NO!!!

Anakin lurched upright in bed gasping for air as he blindly stared into darkness, his heart hammering inside of his chest.

All he could see was her screaming, all he could hear were the baby's—or babies' if he bothered to think about what Eclipse claimed—cries as his or her mother died. As Padmé, alone, without him, cried for him, saying she loved him and that she was sorry.

His left hand found unfamiliar sweat dampened sheets twisted around him. A moment later, Anakin finally remembered where he actually was.

He partly turned, finding Padmé lying peacefully beside him, half a smile on her lips. He watched as her chest slowly rose and fell with the cycle of her breathing.

Anakin turned away, buried his face in his hands, and sobbed tears of gratitude.

She was alive, and she was with him.

A moment later, Anakin untangled himself and got up, grabbing a robe that he then threw on and walking to the veranda that overlooked Padmé's private landing deck. He leaned on the night-chilled rail, staring out into the landscape of Coruscant.

It was still burning from the battle earlier that day, even though it felt like a year ago for Anakin. Normally the planet never slept, with windows in billions of buildings lit, navigational signs, advertisements everywhere, and endless streams of speeders.

There were still speeders in the sky, but power outages had left parts of the planet in darkness, lit only by some red-dwarf glares of Force knew how many fires. They were lucky to be in part of the city that hadn't had a power outage—or worse had been subjected to the falling debris.

Anakin didn't know how long he stood there, nor did he care. The planet looked as he felt right then. Damaged and broken in battle.

And he would much rather look and think about the city than the reason he was standing there and looking in the first place.

She moved silently, but Anakin felt her approach.

Padmé stood beside him at the railing and laid a hand over his as she too looked out into the city.

"What's wrong?" she asked softly. Anakin looked at her, his eyes finding the japor snippet around her neck.

"I remember when I gave this to you," he said, taking it in his hand as he spoke, hoping she would let them drop the topic, even though he knew that her doing so was about as likely as rain on Tatooine.

"Anakin," she said, that one word and tone letting him know that she wasn't going to let him get away with it that easily. Anakin looked back into the city as Padmé hugged him, patiently waiting for him to tell her what was wrong. knowing that he would.

Anakin could feel her patience and trust, and he was so grateful for both that tears welled once more. He had to blink them away. Anakin took one of her hands in both of his and gently held it until he could speak.