The darkness of Coruscant was almost ominous as it pressed against
the window of the break room the Naboo contingent had retreated to
when Chancellor Mothma had called for an hour of recess when the
Senate proved it wouldn’t calm down.
It was
pretty much a ‘you’re behaving like children having tantrums, go
calm down’ demand, worded as ‘we’re having a recess to sooth
frayed tempers. We will reconvene in an hour.’
Not
that Anakin Amidala-Skywalker was calming down much ten minutes into
said recess, pacing the length of the Nabooan break room, scowling at
nothing with his arms tucked behind his back as he paced.
“I
can’t believe Obi-Wan just left!” Anakin finally snapped
out, ignoring the handmaidens coming too with refreshments and
scuttling away the moment they could, recognizing a Skywalker tantrum
quite clearly
Padme
said nothing just yet, just continued watching Anakin pace the length
of the room as she sat quietly on the beige chaise longue in the
room, her hands settled in her lap even as she gave the fruit wine
carafe a longing glance on the blue colored glass caff table in front
of her.
“Without
even telling anyone and Commander Co-”
“Anakin,”
Padme’s voice gently broke through the incoming rant, the blond
pausing in his stride before turning around and blinking at his wife,
a lost expression appearing on his face. He didn’t deal well with
losing people and it was showing even now that he couldn’t access
Obi-Wan easily. “Anakin, last time Master Kenobi visited us, did
you listen to what he said?” She questioned gently,
“Last
time he…” Anakin blinked heavily at his wife, bewildered as he
slowly approached her, wrenching his brain for information. “That’s…
we had those Naboo sweet tarts, right? With the pears? Obi-Wan talked
a lot…” It had been kind of funny really, Anakin had managed to
get Obi-Wan to drink several glasses of strong wine and had a few
himself, the twins were with Padme’s mother for the night as Jobal
was quite happy to try and spoil her first grandkids.
Now
that Anakin was thinking about it, it hadn’t even seemed like
Obi-Wan was filtering it out, just letting himself get intoxicate-
“Anakin,
do you remember what he mentioned about the rising dislike of the
Jedi?” She queried as gently as she could, reaching up to hold his
hands, rubbing them lightly between hers as she peered up at her
husband.
She
was grateful Sola had remained behind with Luke and Leia along with
the droids, she had a feeling that Anakin’s behavior today would
trigger a temper or crying tantrum in both children if Anakin was
being emotional in the Force.
Which
he usually was honestly but she suspected Anakin was throwing
something akin to a tantrum in the Force right now, especially when
he crushed the comm.
Frown
growing, Anakin stared at her. “I mean, people have always disliked
the Jedi for the most part, just people have been more vocal about
it, right?” He shrugged dismissively.
A deep
seated sigh of disappointment escaped Padme, Anakin fighting against
a flinch as he instead scowled down at his wife. “Anakin, people
weren’t just vocal about disliking them. There was violence, not
immediately,” She noted quickly when Anakin opened his mouth, the
blond closing it reluctantly when she squeezed his flesh hand. “But
tension was rising, steadily since the end of the war and the Senate
was aware of it, the troopers were aware of it and the Jedi were
aware of it. The only one who seems to have been ignorant of it
Anakin, despite Obi-Wan mentioning it, seems to have been you.”
Padme spoke calmly.
“I…
what? Anakin finally got out.
“The
Senate was blaming everything on the Jedi, it was easy for the public
to use them as scapegoats for the war and the rationing, especially
after your rather… public denouncement and abandonment of the Jedi
order, as the Hero with No fear, your reputation was spread wide and
far and there were people who hung on your words.” Padme was
clearly picking her words carefully.
Tugging
his mech hand out of her hand, Anakin nervously pushed his hair out
of his face. “I don’t see how that would provoke an exodus of the
entire Jedi order or a what honestly looks like a kidnapping from the
troopers.” He very pointedly did not mention how you could not
kidnap the willing, Obi-Wan’s smiling, happy face in the holo
flashing in Anakin’s mind.
Padme
stared up at him for a long, tired moment before she sighed quietly.
“Anakin… one of the creche younglings excursions were attacked, a
five year old was rather badly injured. By Coruscant civilians, if it
wasn’t for the wookie artist and the troopers, it could have been a
lot worse,” She stated calmly, steadily, holding so tightly onto
his hand that it hurt. “That led to the Jedi isolating themselves
in the Jedi temple and I can only assume that’s when the GAR
troopers came up with the idea to get them off Coruscant after the
incident.” She explained steadily.
Something
black and toxic was sloshing around in Anakin’s chest as he stared
down at his loving, beautiful wife.
A part
of him was hissing about how dare Obi-Wan not tell him this
information and yet another part of him was quietly pointing out that
Obi-Wan had tried, in his own, subtle, word mapping way.
Anakin
was about as subtle as a hammer to a knee.
As he
proved when the window behind him blew out in a shattering of
transparisteel, his rage twisting and aimless beneath his skin as
Anakin desperately wished he could turn back time, dropping to his
knees in front of Padme to bury his face in his wife lap, trembling
violently as her hands gently stroked his hair in a comforting
motion.