Chapter Text
As Ahsoka walked down the ramp of the shuttle, the cool air of the Venator surrounded her. It was a familiar feeling. It reminded her of the time before everything in her life had changed. The climate of Republic ships had always felt a little bit too cold to Ahsoka, especially back when she wore more traditional Togruta outfits. Shili was a warm planet. But she knew the ships were kept at that temperature for the benefit of the clones, who spent much of their time in full body armor. A warmer climate would be much more uncomfortable for them than the cold one was for her.
Now, despite the familiarity of her surroundings, a different sort of discomfort was growing in Ahsoka as she walked through the hangar. She had first noticed it on the flight up to the Venator, bringing the enclosure that held Maul to be transported to Coruscant. She hadn't thought much of the feeling then, hadn't mentioned it in her conversation with Rex, but it had only grown since. It was a sort of tension, almost conflict. As she walked, she tried to release it, to calm herself with techniques practiced in the temple, but to no avail. She couldn't find a cause of the feeling, couldn't identify the source. Her battle was over; she had no reason to be tense. Having spent over two years of her life fighting in a war, Ahsoka was well aware of the lingering after-effects of battle that could occupy her mind well after the combat was over. But this was different. It almost felt as if the tension wasn't coming from her own mind, but from somewhere else. At any rate, she couldn't alleviate it with any of the normal calming techniques.
Instead, she decided to ignore the feeling as best she could, and focus on more comforting thoughts to distract her. She could always ask Anakin about it if it was still going on once she got back to Coruscant. For now, she could take heart in her accomplishments. They had done it. Bo Katan had taken Mandalore, and Ahsoka had captured Maul. Apart from Maul's troubling words about the Republic falling and now Ahsoka's strange sense of unease, everything had mostly gone to plan and turned out about as well as she could have hoped for. Ahsoka allowed herself a small feeling of pride at having won in a fair fight with a Sith lord and becoming, to her knowledge, the first person to capture a Sith in battle. She gave a little smile as she imagined telling Anakin about the battle, and her fight with Maul. Finally getting a chance to catch up with him would be...
Anakin. She suddenly found it. The tension and conflict that had been with her since the shuttle ride, that had been growing the whole time she was walking and that had now reached a very uncomfortable level- it was coming from her bond with Anakin. She reached out through that bond, but the two of them were quite far apart, and she didn't know much about Anakin's current whereabouts to focus on. She wasn’t able to pick up anything specific about Anakin's feelings beyond the conflict and tension that spilled through into her. Still, for her to have felt that so strongly, at such a distance, without even focusing on it- those feelings must be practically tearing Anakin apart. After a moment's hesitation she turned to Rex, who was walking beside her.
“I need to go do something.”
“Is something wrong?” he asked, seeing her worried expression.
“I feel like something's happening with Anakin,” she replied. “I'm going to go see if I can contact him. Can you finish escorting Maul to the detention chamber while I go?”
“Of course.” Rex wanted to ask more about what she felt, but he could see how anxious she suddenly looked to go. “I'll wait for you on the bridge.”
“Thank you.”
*
What started as a brisk walk quickly turned into a full-on run through the hallways of the Venator, as Ahsoka's sense of urgency grew. She felt, with greater and greater certainty, that she needed to talk to Anakin immediately. After she reached one of the auxiliary communications centers of the cruiser and dismissed the clones standing guard in the room, she closed the door and turned to the hologram table. She paused for a moment. Last she had heard, Anakin had been sent to the Chancellor's office to inform him that General Grievous had been engaged by Obi-wan on Utapau. She didn't have the authorization codes to contact Palpatine's office directly. And there was no guarantee that Anakin was even still there. If he had only gone to deliver a quick message, he could be back at the temple by now… or somewhere else entirely. Ahsoka wished she was already back on Coruscant and could use short range communications to contact Anakin directly.
She reached down and put in the codes to call the Jedi council chambers. At least they might know where Anakin was... if anyone was there of course. The council had met not long ago and then split up to get back to their separate battles, and even that meeting had been quite understaffed. Not many Jedi were currently in the temple, and many were busy in combat. With more than a little bit of frustration, Ahsoka realized that she didn't even have the authority to call a council meeting from where she was, only to contact the council chamber in the temple and ask the Jedi there to call it. That meant that if no one was in the chamber, she was out of luck.
*
It was a lost cause. And he had known it was a lost cause for some time. Alone with his thoughts, the fear of Padme's death slowly strangled out every excuse and argument that Anakin had to fight with. The Coruscant sunset shone through the windows of the council chamber as he looked across the city. He reached out towards one building he knew well, desperately trying to take refuge in Padme's presence, but it gave him no comfort now. Not when it was the focus of all his fear. With nowhere to turn for comfort, he was getting to the end of his fight. Despite knowing for some time that he would lose, Anakin still had fought with everything he had. Even just to delay the inevitable. He knew what was likely to happen when he gave up, and he had to at least be able to tell himself he had tried his best.
Anakin nearly jumped when the sound of an incoming connection pierced the silence of the otherwise empty council chambers. He reflexively reached for the control to answer the call, but then hesitated. He didn't know what he was going to say to whatever Jedi was calling. His mind was a conflicted mess and he wasn't sure he could put a coherent sentence together while also hiding his feelings and the situation he was in. He couldn't let the council know how close he was to... his thoughts trailed off, unwilling to fully consider the outcome of the path he was sliding down. The fear of Padme's death surged within him again, and he almost turned and ran right then. But the other part of his mind had just enough strength left to reach out one last time, for something, anything, that could help him. He answered the call.
*
The holographic form of Anakin materialized on the other side of the table from Ahsoka, and briefly started in surprise at the sight of her.
“Ahsoka! I...” Anakin faltered.
Ahsoka sighed in relief. “It's good to see you Anakin. I've been...” She also trailed off, not sure how to proceed. Driven by her sudden sense of urgency, she had focused so much on reaching Anakin quickly that she hadn't considered what to say once she had gotten in contact. It looked like Anakin was struggling to form a sentence as much as she was. She reached out through their bond again, this time able to focus on him clearly knowing where he was and seeing him in front of her. The conflict she found hit her so hard that she instinctively withdrew from it and shielded her mind, focusing on her own thoughts again.
“I've been feeling like you're in trouble,” she said, struggling to describe and make sense of the feeling that had compelled her to seek him out so urgently. “Is there something going on?”
Anakin looked at her and opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again. He clearly was in some kind of trouble; his internal conflict was so bad that he couldn't even get a response out. Ahsoka needed to get him to start talking. She decided to be more direct and specific.
“Why were you sitting here alone in the council chambers? Where is everyone?”
“They're... they're going to arrest Chancellor Palpatine.” Her tactic had worked, Anakin had broken through the wall blocking his speech.
“What? Why?” Ahsoka responded.
Anakin hesitated. “Because... Palpatine is a Sith lord.”
Now it was Ahsoka's turn to stand with her mouth open and fail to form a sentence.
“...what? That's...” Her mind reeled and she forced herself to focus. She recalled Obi-wan's words: “Darth Sidious is the Sith lord who orchestrated the clone wars and played both sides of it from the beginning.”
After a second of stunned silence, she gathered herself enough to speak. “You mean the Sith Lord the council has been searching for? Darth Sidious?”
“Yes.” Anakin responded.
Ahsoka still felt somewhat dazed, though, as incredible as the thought was, it did make a certain amount of sense. But...
“But how were the Jedi not aware of this sooner?” she asked, still trying to convince herself of the revelation. “How did he hide right next to us for so long?”
“He is very powerful. And he has a great knowledge of the dark side. Who knows what sort of secrets he's capable of.” Something about the way Anakin spoke of Palpatine's power was off-putting to Ahsoka.
“But still...” she trailed off. The thought was still strange to her. She remembered the times she had stood right next to Palpatine and sensed nothing. He had somehow hidden under the noses of the entire Jedi order without raising suspicion. Well, almost... the council had been suspicious of Palpatine recently, she suddenly remembered. They had even had Anakin spy on him. Did that mean...
“Did you figure this out?” Ahsoka asked. “I know the council sent you to spy on him.”
Anakin looked startled.
“Obi-wan told me,” she clarified. “So were you the one who found out who he was?”
“Yes. When I went to tell him that Obi-wan had engaged General Grievous, he revealed himself to me.” After speaking, Anakin suddenly started and looked almost panicked, as if he had said too much.
“What? Why would he do that?”
Anakin didn't answer. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily, and Ahsoka could feel the conflict rising in him as he fought himself over something. Finally, he took a deep breath, let it out, and looked at her.
“Can you promise not to tell anyone about what I'm going to say?”
“Yes. I promise.” She knew Anakin needed someone to confide in right now. She knew that she could help him if he was able to open up to her. And the two of them were no strangers to keeping secrets from the council together.
At her promise she felt a wave of relief run through Anakin, and some of his tension release.
*
Anakin took a deep breath and decided to go for it. “Palpatine was trying to show me his power, that he had the ability to—“ He froze up. Again. He hated that. He hated that he couldn't just say it. He suddenly looked around at the fading light. They had been talking for several minutes and he was now very aware of that lost time. If he didn't leave now, then the last chance of saving Padme might slip away. But... Ahsoka was right there. He couldn't just leave in the middle of their conversation, as much as his rising fear wanted him to. The two sides of his mind struggled again.
*
After seeing Anakin lose the ability to speak in the middle of his sentence yet again, Ahsoka decided to brave the storm of his mind for another try at understanding his feelings. She reached out through Anakin's conflict, letting it pass over her as she looked deeper. Behind the conflict she found, to her surprise, fear. Fear such as she had never felt in her master before. Anakin was fearless. Whether charging into battle or arguing against the entire Jedi council, Ahsoka had never known him to be afraid like this. Not unless... not unless someone he loved was in danger. On the occasions where that happened, usually it had been Ahsoka herself that he feared for. Sometimes with valid cause, more often not. But this fear couldn't be about her. He hadn't seemed relieved to see that she was safe, and the fear was still present while talking to her. Apart from herself, Ahsoka could think of only two other people whose safety might inspire such fear in Anakin. Obi-wan was fighting General Grievous, but he had done that many times before and it had never affected Anakin this way. That left...
“Is Padme in danger?” Ahsoka could see Anakin's warring thoughts all immediately come screeching to a halt.
He stammered for a moment. “Wha- I- How did...”
“Anakin.” She focused her attention on him, which focused his attention on her as well. “I know you very well. I know your feelings very well. I want to help you with... whatever is tearing you apart right now.” She walked around the table to stand closer to him. “Tell me what's going on with Padme.”
Based on his release of tension, it seemed to Ahsoka that Anakin made a decision right then, and finally resolved tell her the whole story.
“Padme and I... we're together.” He said awkwardly.
“Anakin. I know that.” He looked at her in surprise and she almost rolled her eyes. Her master could be so dense sometimes. “I've known that for long time. I basically told you when I walked away from the temple... though I suppose I can forgive you if you had a lot going through your mind in that moment.”
A stab of pain shot through their bond at that mention. Ahsoka shook her head and continued.
“I was very close friends with Padme, and as I said earlier, I know your feelings very well. It's not that hard to figure out when two people love each other. I didn't say anything to you so I wouldn't worry you. And I obviously wasn't going to tell anyone else about it.”
Anakin gave Ahsoka a small burst of gratitude, then he got back on track.
“It's not actually just that we're together,” he said, “we're actually married.” That was a surprise to Ahsoka.
“Really? When?”
“Before I met you. On Naboo, right after the start of the war.”
Ahsoka could feel how soothing it was for Anakin to engage in this casual conversation, and to share these things he had kept secret for so long. But something was still going on, and she needed to get Anakin back to the main issue at hand.
“The two of you will have to tell me the whole story sometime,” she said with a smile, “perhaps we can even go to Naboo and see where it happened. But for now, what's going on with Padme that's causing you so much distress?”
The rush of anxiety that welled up in Anakin as his thoughts came back to the present made Ahsoka wince and feel somewhat bad for ending the happy moment. But she needed to get onto the same page as Anakin about current events.
“Well... another thing you should know is that Padme is pregnant with our child.” he continued. Ahsoka was almost as surprised at that as she had been about Palpatine's true identity, though considerably happier.
“Well, congratulations!” She said, smiling again. “Is this what you're so worried about? Is your relationship in danger of being uncovered due to her pregnancy?” Having a child under these circumstances was... probably not the best choice her master could have made. But she knew he wasn't exactly good at being cautious and discrete. Frankly, she suspected it was mostly due to Padme's efforts that their relationship hadn't become public knowledge long ago.
And despite her words, Ahsoka felt there was probably more going on. The fear of being discovered, even the fear of how it would affect Padme, wasn't enough to account for the extent to which Anakin was afraid and conflicted.
“No, it's not just that. And, thank you!” He added quickly, remembering her congratulations. “It's... I've been having visions... that tell me Padme is going to die in childbirth.”
There it was. Anakin's fear now made sense to Ahsoka. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing was there. She wasn't sure how to react to this. As she considered how to respond, she realized that there was still something else that didn't fit. Anakin's fear now made sense... but not his internal conflict. He was fighting himself over something, struggling to make some decision, but nothing she’d heard so far gave her any idea of what it was. She thought harder.
*
There. He had done it. To finally confide in someone besides Padme about his fear lifted a weight off of Anakin's shoulders. And yet... there was still the other part. The part that he hadn't even told Padme properly. The real thing he desperately needed help with... and the hardest to admit. How would Ahsoka respond to knowing I’m this close to— he wrenched his thoughts back and tried to reassure himself. She promised she wouldn't tell anyone about what I say. She's always trusted me. She's always seen the best in me... but how much of that would change if she sees the worst? What if I lose her and Padme?
In the end, it was Anakin's rising frustration at his own inability to open up that gave him the strength to break through that barrier. If he lost Ahsoka after telling her this, then there would be no reason to stay here and he could leave and go save Padme. And if not, then... maybe Ahsoka could help him. He threw caution to the wind and finally let out the core of his conflict, forcing it out quickly as if to remove any chance of having second thoughts, or freezing up partway through yet again.
“Palpatine has the power to save Padme, that's what he revealed to me. But if the Jedi kill him then I'll lose that chance and she'll die.”
*
This piece of information was not what Ahsoka was expecting to hear, and she struggled for several seconds to consider its ramifications. Then several things clicked together in her head. The close friendship Anakin had had with Palpatine for years. Maul's words in the throne room on Mandalore. The way her master had always struggled with his anger, and with controlling his emotions. And the way he struggled against himself now, almost desperately. A chill ran through Ahsoka as she realized the true gravity of the situation.
“Maul was right,” she said to herself, almost under her breath.
“What? What do you mean?” Anakin sounded slightly nervous, but also much calmer than he had been prior to letting out the source of his conflict.
Ahsoka looked up at him and slipped her mind into his thoughts again. With his conflict and fear significantly reduced by his decision to confide in her, she had a much clearer view of his mental state and the rest of his emotions. It almost scalded her mind to touch them though. He was alarmingly close to losing control. And she could feel that the reprieve his confession had given him would likely be very temporary. He still had no solution to his main source of fear, and it would rise up and overwhelm him very soon. At the same time Ahsoka grew aware that she was quite likely the only person in the galaxy who had a good chance of being able to help him at this point. She felt within Anakin a large amount of anger directed at many things in his life, some of which slightly shocked her, but none was directed at her. He still trusted her. She took a deep breath.
“When I confronted Maul on Mandalore, he told me he had foreseen a lot of things. He said that the Republic and the Jedi would fall, and that Sidious would reveal himself. But he also had an interest in you. I asked him why, and he said... that you 'had long been groomed for your role as his master's new apprentice.'“
Anakin stared at the floor and blinked his eyes, thinking.
“I didn't believe him at the time,” Ahsoka continued, “but I didn't tell the council what he said. I wanted to wait until I could talk to you about it first.”
She felt another burst of gratitude, which she mentally acknowledged in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.
“But... it's true, isn't it? Palpatine has known about your power all along, and this whole time you've been friends with him he's been...” She trailed off.
“I'm sorry Anakin.” She reached out and touched Anakin's holographic hand. He couldn't feel it, but he would recognize the gesture. She also reached out with her mind and tried to project some comfort into Anakin's thoughts. As she expected, she found hurt and confusion in him. He was reevaluating his memories of his friendship with Palpatine. She knew it wasn't easy finding out something like this about someone he trusted. Barriss’ betrayal had hurt Ahsoka just as much, if not more, than the council’s decision to abandon her.
She reached into Anakin's mind a bit more, trying to help sooth him with her presence. It felt... unstable. Dark and tumultuous. And there was an undercurrent of pain and fear that hurt to touch. But he accepted her mental contact immediately, and they formed a tenuous connection. Ahsoka thought of all the times while she had been his padawan that they had helped calm and comfort each other this way. It was normally effective, but with everything happening in Anakin's head right now they weren't able to connect very deeply, and she wasn't sure if they could keep it up for long, especially at a distance like this. Sure enough, a surge of urgent fear from Anakin shot through both of them and the connection broke. They staggered slightly and then recovered.
“Ahsoka...” Anakin looked at her with pleading eyes. “What do I do?”
Ahsoka reached for his hand again, and wished they were talking in person. Not only would she be able to actually touch him, she would be able to form a stronger mental connection through the force as well. But this was the best that she could do, she would have to rely mainly on words. The fact that he was asking for her help was good. Very good. He wanted to do the right thing. But based on the desperate way he asked, it seemed that he no longer could see any way to do it himself. He couldn't find any way around his fear.
“Can you be sure that these visions are accurate?” Ahsoka offered. “You know that force visions can be confusing and hard to interpret.”
“These are pretty explicit.” Ahsoka noticed that Anakin was calmer when she could give him something specific to talk about or answer. “And more than that,” he continued, “I know these visions are accurate. Because...” He tensed up and a new current of pain and anger began to stir within him. “Because they're the same as the ones I had about my mother before she died.”
“You never told me what happened to your mother. You never told me very much about your past at all.”
“I know. I don't like talking about my past. It's... painful.”
“I can see that. But... do you think you can tell me now?” Ahsoka said gently. She could feel how these memories brought out dark feelings in Anakin, but it was important for her to understand as much as she could about what he was feeling, and about his visions.
Anakin nodded, took a breath, and began.
“I think you already know that my mother and I were slaves on Tatooine when Qui-gon found us.” Ahsoka nodded. “Well Qui-gon was only able to get my freedom; my mother stayed there as a slave when we left.”
“I'm sorry. It must have been hard to leave her.” Ahsoka remembered almost nothing about her own mother, but it had been hard enough leaving her adoptive family behind when she walked away from the order, and she had been much older than Anakin was when he had left Tatooine. She could only imagine what that had been like.
“It was. I was also excited to start training to become a Jedi though. But I did miss her. A lot. And I never stopped missing her throughout my time as a padawan.” He stopped talking and his eyes looked far away.
“So then, what happened?” Ahsoka prompted. She still had a nagging feeling that time was of the essence, though she couldn't quite put a reason to it.
Anakin blinked and came back to the present. “Well, we weren't supposed to focus on attachments and family, so I never got a chance to go see her during my time training. But then, shortly before the start of the war, I began having dreams about her. Where I saw her in great pain and dying.”
Ahsoka could feel Anakin’s own pain growing as he went on.
“I told Obi-wan about them, but he only said that I needed to control my emotions better, that the dreams would pass in time.”
The frustration and anger that had receded as he had started the story was now rising to the forefront of Anakin’s mind again.
“Then I was sent with Padme to Naboo to protect her, since there had been two attempts on her life shortly after she showed up on Coruscant for a senatorial session. We were supposed to lay low on Naboo while Obi-wan investigated the assassination attempts.”
Ahsoka interjected, “At this point were you and Padme already together?” She wanted to place the start of their relationship, and she also thought it would be a good idea to break up the anger that had been growing in Anakin as he was speaking.
“Uh, no. But that is where we fell in love.” As she had hoped, Anakin's happy memories displaced some of his darker emotions. “We were all alone in a beautiful part of the planet, hiding from the world.”
“Well, that sounds romantic.” Ahsoka said with a smile.
“It was. But it didn't last. The dreams about my mother got even worse. Eventually I couldn't stand it anymore; I had to go try to help her. Padme came with me and we went to Tatooine to look for her. After some searching, we found out that she had been sold to a moisture farmer who had freed her, and they had gotten married. But when we managed to find him, we learned that she had been captured by sand people a month prior.”
Anakin shifted uncomfortably; the pain evident on his face now.
“I took a speeder and went to find her. And I did. But...” He took a shaky breath. “It was too late. She was too far gone, being their prisoner for that long. She... she died in my arms.”
Ahsoka touched his mind again, trying to sooth the storm of grief, pain, and anger. And... there was something else. A different feeling brought up by Anakin's memories of his mother's death. It seemed like... guilt? Shame? She wasn't quite sure how to fit that into the narrative. Before she could think about it much, Anakin started talking again.
“I was too late to save her.” His emotions were getting out of control. “I wasn't powerful enough to save her. If Obi-wan hadn't kept holding back my progress, and if he hadn't stopped me from going for her sooner, I could have saved her!”
The amount of anger directed at someone who Anakin normally loved, who was part of his and Ahsoka's family, shocked her. She almost felt a little bit frightened by Anakin, but she quickly pushed that away. She wanted to speak up in defense of Obi-wan, but that was not what Anakin needed right now. He needed comfort, and someone on his side. He needed to not feel alone. And besides... what he had said about Obi-wan might not have been too far from the truth. Ahsoka knew that the Jedi weren't always very good at dealing with emotional situations like the one with Anakin's mother.
She put a hand on Anakin's holographic shoulder, despite feeling a little odd holding it out in the middle of the air not touching anything. She really wished she could hug him.
“Anakin... I'm really sorry.” She also tried to envelop and comfort his mind with her own, despite the pain that flowed across their bond into her when she opened it. She closed her eyes and tried to sooth Anakin's mind by sending her own love through the bond into him. For a minute they stood there, and Anakin slowly grew calmer.
Ahsoka withdrew her arm, and partially withdrew from his mind after he had stabilized somewhat.
“I understand.” She said softly. “I understand how you feel about Padme and your visions now.”
“I have to help her.” Anakin spoke quietly, but there was a note of desperation in his voice. “I can't let her die like my mother did.”
“You know this is what Palpatine wants to happen, don't you? He's been trying to get you to this point for a long time.”
Anakin trembled slightly. “I... but... I can't lose Padme.” His emotions were building again, and there was a hopeless and almost apologetic look in his eyes, behind the uncompromising fear and determination. He truly believed that Padme would die and was unwilling to let that happen. Ahsoka suspected he was losing hope that either of them would be able to stop him from leaving the room to go… she didn’t really want to consider what he might do.
“Anakin, I understand that it feels like the visions are true, but you don't know that they are. Padme could be in no danger at all.”
“But they're just the same, they feel just the same as the ones about my mother! And those ones did come true!” Ahsoka thought she could see a glimmer of tears in Anakin's eyes.
“I can't just ignore these visions Ahsoka, I just can't!” He was almost crying.
Ahsoka looked down, wracking her brain for some solution. She couldn't give up on Anakin, no matter how hopeless it seemed. She knew he had been manipulated for years, and that if Palpatine had intentionally chosen this moment to reveal himself then he must have been confident that Anakin would turn. And it certainly looked like he was right. He had trapped Anakin in such a perfect position that he didn't seem able to get out of it, even with Ahsoka's help. And he had timed it such that there was no one Anakin trusted to help him in person. The fact that she had been able to contact him was just luck. Wait... Palpatine had timed it? How could he have timed it though? He couldn't have timed Anakin's visions. Or... Ahsoka's eyes widened. She shook her head to focus, then looked up at Anakin and spoke in a calm voice.
“Anakin, does Palpatine know about what happened with your mother?”
“Yes. I told him.” Having something simple to answer helped Anakin calm down a bit.
“Including the part about the visions?”
“...yes.” She could feel he was waiting, hoping she would give him something to try to hold on to.
“Have you considered the possibility that Palpatine could be sending these visions to you, knowing about your history, as an intentional attempt to force you to the dark side?”
Anakin suddenly stopped moving, even breathing. Ahsoka could feel his thoughts turn over. He was reevaluating everything.
“...no. I hadn't.” He said after a long pause.
“Palpatine knows you very well,” Ahsoka said, “he's known you for more than three times as long as I have. He knows about your history, about your mother, about your visions. He knows how much you love Padme, and how you couldn't stand to lose her. He knows how much you fear losing the people you care about. He knows that you felt like you weren't powerful enough to save your mother. And now he's promising you the power to save Padme, just as you start having visions about her dying that are exactly the same as the ones he knew you had about your mother. That's an awfully big coincidence.”
Anakin was still standing motionless, turning things over in his head.
Ahsoka decided to help things along further. “Are there any signs that Padme is in danger apart from the visions, anything at all unusual with her pregnancy?”
Anakin thought for a second. “No. Everything seems fine.”
“Women don't die in childbirth on Coruscant. Not on the upper levels. It just doesn't happen. Which is more likely: that somehow Padme, a perfectly healthy and strong person, is the exception? Or that Palpatine, a Sith who has been trying to lure you to the dark side for years, has set this up intentionally?”
Anakin stood still for a little and then looked at Ahsoka. “You're right. That makes the most sense.”
He paused and his face darkened with worry slightly. “But... how can we be sure?”
Ahsoka closed her eyes and searched her feelings for a moment, then looked back at Anakin. “I'm sure. I'm sure that Padme will be okay as long as she has you. And I think that she would lose you if things went the way Palpatine wants. That's what my feelings are telling me. Can you trust me on this?”
Anakin also closed his eyes for a moment, then looked back at Ahsoka. “Yes. I can.”
With that, almost all of Anakin's remaining tension broke and Ahsoka could feel an enormous rush of relief sweep through him as he released it. His mind felt so much clearer now than she had felt it in... possibly ever. He stepped back and sat down in his chair with a sigh, half closing his eyes and letting his head fall backwards.
Ahsoka slumped forward against the hologram table, also with a sigh of relief. Now that she had released her focus, she found herself unexpectedly exhausted. Their conversation had been quite mentally and emotionally draining.
They looked at each other, both visibly tired, and started to chuckle.
Ahsoka shook herself and raised her head again. “That was...” She didn't really know where she was going.
“Yeah.” Anakin agreed.
Still smiling, they enjoyed the feeling of each other's relief.