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| - From the pain of the lightning Padmé saw faces, her fallen Master Kuan Yin, Shakya Devi falling, and finally Maxah, the Sith who haunted Padmé’s nightmares afterwards. They screamed at her, shouting different things, moving her body against her will. But it was actually Padmé herself who was screaming, Padmé herself who was shouting incomprehensibly and writhing under the force of the lightning. And above her, next to Sidious and standing with an expressionless fate was Anakin. He was silently watching, watching her die. For a moment the lightning subsided, the faces and voices disappeared and she saw Anakin. She noticed not the fact that he was doing nothing, only the fact that he was there and that he was the only one who could stop the constant throes of pain. “Anakin!” she screamed, her voice shrill with the agony. “Anakin…I love you!” She tensed her face and closed her eyes. “Anakin…help me!” Suddenly Anakin blinked and looked at Padmé as if he had awakened from a dream. He had seen this before, in his vision! Sidious was the Sith he had seen torturing Padmé, Sidious was the reason for her death. It’s not too late, Anakin thought frantically, summoning his lightsaber to his hands from his belt. He didn’t think that he had known Sidious as Chancellor Palpatine, a man he had admired to the utmost and defended to any who criticised him. He didn’t even think of how he once had seen that same Palpatine as like a father-figure to him, similar to Obi-Wan, but telling him things that the Jedi never would. All Anakin thought of was that the man before him was hurting Padmé, and could be responsible for her death. And that, in Anakin’s eyes, was reason enough to act. He ignited the blade and put it between the lightning that was being shot from Sidious’s fingers and where it was hitting Padmé. The blue blade absorbed the energy then deflected it back at the Sith, showering Sidious with electricity. With hate-filled eyes, Sidious stared at Anakin. “Don’t you Jedi ever LEARN?” At the last word he shoved Anakin roughly aside, with so much force that the young Jedi was thrown against the window, the back of his head smacked against the glass and shattered it. As he turned away from watching the broken glass cascade over Anakin, Padmé somehow managed to find her lightsaber. When Sidious was again facing her, she had the blade out and pointed at him. Padmé didn’t speak, she didn’t trust herself to say something and still do what needed to be done. Instead, she let her actions speak for her, lunging forward and impaling Sidious in the stomach with the green blade. The Sith Lord let out a low moan and fell over, clutching the gaping wound in his belly as Padmé drew her weapon out. With a triumphant smile she stabbed him again, this time in the chest with the last of her remaining strength. She had the energy to remain standing, yet not enough to keep her on her feet through the energy explosion following Sidious’s death. Padmé was thrown across the room, sparks from the smoking corpse shooting at her as she went. She could smell her flesh burning, feel the pain as the electricity sprinted through her veins and nerves. So focused on this she hardly felt herself land on the floor, didn’t even open her eyes to see Anakin crawling to his feet and staggering over to her. Yet when he touched her, when he gently brushed the burnt hair away from her cheek she was able to utter one word. “Anakin…” she moaned softly, her eyes slowly opening to see his face. From the moment his ship emerged from hyperspace, Obi-Wan knew something was wrong. And now he was planetside that feeling only grew stronger. “Anakin…” he murmured, feeling the young man’s pain as if it had been his own. “You okay, boss?” Cody asked, looking strangely at the Jedi. Obi-Wan shook his head. “It’s Anakin,” he said, more to himself than to the clone, “he needs me.” Anakin couldn’t believe it, somehow they had survived. They had managed to overcome Sidious and now everything could be all right. True, Padmé was hurt, but nothing a week or two in a bacta tank wouldn’t fix. She had burns, as well as a few scratches, but nothing life-threatening. He knelt beside her, putting his arms around her shoulders to help her sit up. “We need to get you help,” he said, taking Padmé in his arms and walking towards the door. She gave a low moan of pain. “No…Anakin…” He stopped. “Okay,” he murmured, unsure for a moment and then placed her gently on one of the low couches, one of the few that hadn't been completely fried by the energy explosion. “We’ll just wait then, someone will come along soon and then you can go back to the Temple.” But Padmé only smiled. A gentle, weak smile, as if she knew something that he did not. “You know you can’t stop it, Anakin,” she said to him faintly. “No more than you couldn’t stop your mother from…” “NO!” Anakin wouldn’t allow himself to even think about that. He couldn’t lose Padmé, not after everything that had happened, not after what they had been through together and what she had done for him. “Padmé you have to hold on,” he said, kneeling on the floor beside her. “You have to be strong for us, there’s nothing to stop us being together now.” Suddenly he saw a thin silver chain around Padmé’s neck where her tunic had burnt away. He pulled on it and with a smile he saw the japor snippet he had given her so long ago secured to the end. “You kept this?” he asked her in a surprised voice. “Of course,” she replied, “after…” Her voice faltered for a moment. “After I knew…and knew it couldn’t happen.” “Knew what?” Padmé looked at him for a long moment. She owed him the truth, what she had denied him for so long and for his sake. “I have always loved you Anakin,” she said. “There was a long time when …I didn’t know, but then when I realised it I had to…” She took a deep breath and then continued. “I had to pretend I didn’t, as I knew it could…and would…hurt you.” “Hurt me?” Anakin stared at her as he held her flesh hand in his. “It hurt me worse not knowing, but not that it matters now…” He drew his face close to hers and kissed her, felt her eyelashes brush his face. And most of all, felt her emotion rise with his in the Force, the two joining together as a whole. Yet when he felt this he knew. He could feel her fading, and there was nothing he could do. Padmé smiled softly as Anakin’s tears fell onto her face. “I…love you, Anakin,” she whispered. “You’ll…have to…let go.” “Padmé…I can’t lose you.” His voice faltered as he felt her flicker in the Force. “I just can’t…go on if you’re not there.” “You…can’t…fight it,” she said, her voice barely audible and fading fast. “You’re…the Chosen One. You…knew this was…meant to happen.” “No, no, don’t say that!” He burst out angry with her, angry with her for leaving him, angry with her for the pain that he knew was going to come from losing her, pain that couldn’t and wouldn’t go away. He had done everything he could to stop his vision from coming true, and yet, here it was, his worst fears realised. Anakin had not contemplated the consequences of losing Padmé, had not even considered the possibility as all his attention had been focused on preventing it from happening. This was apparent on his face as Padmé lay there, watching the emotions crossing it one after another. She smiled, could he have been expected to do anything else? There were things Padmé still wanted to say to him, things that needed to be said but she did not have the time to say them. She knew what would happen, knew that even after Anakin still would not be able to let go, would perhaps even blame himself for not being able to prevent what was going to happen. But that would pass, just as in the beginning when he refused to acknowledge the boundaries between them but had reluctantly done so as there was no choice. Was there any way to tell him this now? To let him know that what had to happen had to happen and there was nothing you could do change it? It wasn’t likely, Anakin never acknowledged Jedi discipline unless he fell over it. Her hand touched Anakin’s face, yet it was barely more than a caress. So fragile. He clutched it, holding her hand within two of his own. Trying to help her hold on, to keep her here. She only smiled, and when she spoke her voice was surprisingly clear if faint. “There's nothing you can do,” she told him. “You’re going to survive, don’t…” Her voice broke and her last words were barely a whisper. “Don’t let…me stop you…” Her eyes closed as if she were going to sleep, her lips setting in a soft smile. Her hand grew limp inside his, the tiny pulse of life that had been hers faded in the Force. It was only then, when Anakin could no longer feel her beside him, that he knew. She was gone, and he was still there. As the sky started to lighten and the cold morning air swirled in from the shattered windows Anakin still sat there. Holding Padmé’s hand as he had when she was still alive. Motionless, still not fully grasping what had happened. She couldn’t be gone.
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