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Padmé Amidala wakes up slowly, blinking in the sunlight passing through the windows of her Coruscant apartment. Casting her gaze to the other side of the bed, she sees Anakin fast asleep, his curly brown hair the only thing visible above the blankets he’s buried in. She’s glad that he’s sleeping well. She thinks back to the events of the previous night. After she had agreed to rule the galaxy with Anakin, both of them had taken her starship back to Coruscant to rest after the chaos of the day. She finds it comforting, having decided where she stands in the midst of all this chaos.
Just then, Anakin shifts under the covers. He awakes, sitting up in bed, his hair in disarray from sleep. It’s a cute look, she thinks as he rubs sleep out of his eyes, until she catches sight of the color of his eyes. They are no longer the peaceful blue color that always reminded her of home, but instead an unnatural shade of yellow, the mark of his use of the dark side. This fact disturbs her as she recalls all the evil acts of the Sith. She resolves to ask Anakin more about the dark side and try to talk him out of using it if possible. Based on what she knows about the Force, the dark side is not necessary for what she and Anakin want to achieve.
“Sleep well?” Padmé says.
“Yes,” Anakin replies, smiling, “No nightmares.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better, “ she says, “I told you that it would all be okay.”
“You’re right,” he replies, “Looks like the dark side being the only way to save you was just one more thing Palpatine lied about.”
“On that subject, if you don’t need the dark side to save me, can’t you stop using it?” she says, “From what I’ve seen, the abilities of the Jedi and the Sith are fairly similar, so is there any need to use the dark side?”
“I need to use the dark side to be able to defeat Palpatine,” he replies.
“I still don’t understand why you need the dark side to do that,” she says, “Jedi have defeated Sith Lords like him many times in the past.”
“Palpatine is different,” he replies. Anakin meets her gaze, yellow eyes serious and imploring before continuing “When the Jedi Council decided to assassinate Palpatine, they sent four masters on the Council, including Master Windu to the chancellor’s office.”
“When I followed them there shortly after they left, by the time I arrived Palpatine had already slain three of them,” he says, grimacing as he remembers, “Master Windu did not last much longer than the rest of the Masters.”
“I’m still concerned,” Padmé says, “I’ve heard that Count Dooku began with good intentions before becoming a Sith.”
“I haven’t done anything I didn’t intend to do since I began using the dark side,” Anakin replies, “If anything, I feel more able to follow my convictions, not less.”
“I’m still not sure,” Padmé says, fingers worrying her sleeve.
“Padmé,” he replies, “If I do something with the dark side that concerns you, just tell me and I will stop using it, I promise.”
Padmé considers. What has Anakin done since he began using the dark side? He has gone against the Jedi Order and the Republic, but at this point even she has to admit to herself that both institutions are crumbling. She recalls how incompetent the Jedi Order’s handling of Ahsoka’s trial was and how the Senate kept voting for war to the people’s detriment, despite all her efforts to advocate for those people.
She realizes now that in agreeing to seize power with Anakin, she has well and truly abandoned her faith in the Republic. Now that she has the space to process it, away from the chaos and fear of recent days, grief for that lost faith overflows. She has hope that she can ensure that what comes after the Republic will be better, more peaceful and just. She will ensure it is, for the sake of the child still growing inside her if nothing else. But having to let go of a faith that she has held for as long as she can remember still hurts.
Padmé only notices that she’s crying after the tears have begun to flow. Anakin, noticing her distress, puts his arm around her, an invitation to lean against his body. He rubs her back in slow, soothing strokes as she lets the tears flow. It takes minutes for the tears to dwindle to the point where she can speak.
“What’s wrong?” he asks, eyes soft and concerned.
The thought of just how odd that behavior is for someone with the eyes of a Sith passes through Padmé’s head before she replies, “The Republic is gone. It isn’t what I hoped it would be anymore. It hurts.”
“Things will get better once Palpatine is dead,” he says, “I swear it. Once he’s gone we’ll be able to make things how we want them to be.”
Anakin mentioning Palpatine reminds Padmé of how she felt sitting in her senate pod, watching so many senators hand Palpatine absolute power on a silver platter. It’s his fault, she thinks. It’s Palpatine’s fault that she has to go through this grief now, that she has to resort to other means to realize the values she holds so dear. And she facilitated his rise to power, when she called for that vote of no confidence as the Queen of Naboo.
Padmé raises her head, meeting Anakin’s eyes with a look full of sadness, anger and determination, before saying “When will we kill Palpatine?”
“I was planning to wait a little while, to ensure he doesn’t suspect anything before I kill him,” he replies.
“We should kill him as soon as possible,” she says, in a tone that brooks no argument, “Waiting will only give him time to secure his power. And I will help.”
“Sure,” he replies, “milady.”
At his mischievous aside, Padmé breaks out into laughter. Her sadness drains away like rain after a storm, and only a peaceful certainty remains. Palpatine cannot live any longer. After all he has done, and all the ways she failed to prevent it, she will ensure that he dies.
Anakin Skywalker walks towards the Chancellor’s office in the Senate building, mentally preparing to meet with Palpatine. His lightsaber feels heavier at his hip than usual, in light of his grim task. He considers how strange it is, to be swearing fealty to someone one day and be plotting to assassinate them the next. Yet his conviction in carrying out the assassination does not weaken. Just like his initial decision to side with Palpatine, his choice to assassinate Palpatine now is motivated by his love for Padmé and their unborn child.
When he first had the nightmares of Padmé’s death in childbirth, Anakin considers, he felt pulled in so many directions at once, torn between his love for Padmé, his duty to the Jedi, and his loyalty to Palpatine. But now the conflict is gone. He feels at peace, he notices, now that he has decided that Padmé is his top priority, in a way he never felt in all those years trying to devote himself fully to the teachings of the Jedi. The fact that the night after he decided to kill Palpatine, his nightmares of Padmé’s death stopped only gives him more confidence that this is the right path.
The gunmetal grey protocol droid manning the reception desk lets him into Palpatine’s working office without question.
Palpatine, sitting at the desk at the center of the office, greets Anakin, “It’s wonderful to see you, my apprentice. Did you kill the Separatist leaders on Mustafar like I asked?”
Palpatine’s tone is so kind, so reminiscent of all those times Anakin spent sitting in the ceremonial office pouring his heart out to the self-proclaimed emperor that it almost makes him forget what an untrustworthy liar Palpatine is. But the moment quickly passes as he recalls how sad Padmé was earlier in the day, all because of Palpatine’s actions.
Drawing on his real anger at the Separatists to keep his intentions concealed in the Force, Anakin replies, “Yes Master. The Separatist leaders are all dead at my hand.”
“Good,” Palpatine says, drawing out the word like he’s savoring a particularly delicious bite of shaak steak before abruptly changing to a more serious tone and saying, “Why were you so late to our meeting today?”
He really should have anticipated this, Anakin considers. Between actually getting a good night’s sleep for once and the several hours it took to hash out the assaination plan with Padmé, it was long past dawn by the time he left the Senate apartment complex. Thankfully, he thinks, for the aforementioned plan to work, he just has to keep Palpatine talking.
He responds, with some awkwardness in his voice, “I ran into Padmé after I returned from killing the Separatist leaders. I convinced her to cooperate with our plans, both of us returned to Coruscant together, and well…”
Palpatine speaks again, voice serious and simmering with anger, “Remember Anakin Skywalker, as my apprentice I expect you to heed my every command. Further… mistakes will not be tolerated.”
Just as abrupt as before, Palpatine’s voice returns to the kind, avuncular tone from before, saying “However, it’s good that Padmé Amidala has joined our cause. As soon as what I have to tell you about today is taken care of, I will help you research what means we might use to save her life.”
The way that Palpatine talked about Padmé, projecting kindness while lying through his teeth only reaffirms Anakin’s conviction that Palpatine should die. He decides to initiate the next phase of the plan, despite not knowing whether everything was in place yet. Figuring out the details as he went along was how he always approached battle planning, after all.
He replies to Palpatine, “Funny you say that. I stopped having visions of Padmé’s death last night,” while taking his lightsaber from his belt.
“That would explain your lateness today,” Palpatine says, voice angry and yet cool as ice, “You could have gone so far with my help. Sad that you have to die now, but what kind of Sith Lord would I be if I left any threats to my power alive?”
Anakin is first to ignite his lightsaber, letting the dark side flow through him. Palpatine stands there, appearing unarmed as Anakin’s lightsaber strike speeds towards him until the last second, when in a movement of impossible swiftness he draws his lightsaber and ignites it such as to block Anakin’s strike exactly.
After that, Anakin and Palpatine begin to trade blows. Anakin thought he had a clear sense of what Palpatine was capable of in battle from witnessing his defeat of the Jedi Masters sent to kill him, but actually fighting the Sith Lord himself reveals that the man was somehow much more skilled than Anakin had expected.
Even when using the dark side, he still finds that he can barely keep Palpatine at bay. He feels grateful that he had Padmé’s help in formulating an assassination plan. When originally proposing the idea to her, he had thought his strength and skill, coupled with the dark side, would be enough to kill Palpatine, but this duel revealed that assumption to be folly.
As their duel continues, both participants completely absorbed by their efforts to kill each other, Anakin tries to strike with his lightsaber such that he and Palpatine gradually move closer to the desk.
Soon, having backed into the desk, Anakin and Palpatine are still, blue and red sabers locked in stalemate. He sees Palpatine smile wickedly, and hears a wall panel on the side of the office directly behind him begin to wiggle itself loose. Taking advantage of Palpatine’s split focus, Anakin moves out of the stalemate and around the desk until his hand can reach a button on the desk’s surface. Not wasting a second, he slaps the button and the desk begins to move upward into the Grand Convocation Chamber of the Senate.
Reaching out with the Force, Anakin shoves Palpatine against the rising podium, so the Sith Lord has no choice but to get onto the desk with Anakin, lest he be crushed between the edge of the desk and the floor of the chamber above.
As the mechanism raising the desk into the center of the Grand Convocation Chamber grinds to a stop, both combatants swiftly rise to standing position and resume their duel. Anakin fights with all his might, letting off anger and fear into the Force and using it to fuel his strikes. He just has to keep up with Palpatine for a little longer, but he must ensure that Palpatine’s focus does not stray from the duel.
Just then, Anakin hears the Senate pods behind him shifting. He cannot contain the burst of worry this provokes. If Palpatine weaponizes too many of those pods, everything will be lost, including Padmé, their children, and his chances of ever killing the Sith Lord.
Suddenly, from the Senate repulsorpod of the Naboo delegation, bright blue blaster fire streaks through the air, like a blessing from a benevolent angel. It hits Palpatine in the head dead-on. The beginnings of surprise can be seen on the Sith Lord’s face before his body drops to the floor of the Chancellor’s Podium.
Anakin is filled with relief. As the repulsorpod of the Naboo delegation floats towards the Chancellor’s Podium, he drives his lightsaber through Palpatine’s chest, to ensure that the Sith Lord does not rise again. He has just turned off his lightsaber and clipped it to his belt when he hears the clunk of the side of the repulsorpod meeting the side of the podium.
Anakin’s face breaks into a joyful smile when he sees Padmé rising from the floor of the pod, holding the blaster she used to take Palpatine’s life. The grim work of the assassination complete, he takes in her presence in the Force, akin to the soothing yet powerful waters of her home planet of Naboo and so gloriously alive.
“Is he dead?” she asks, face serious.
“I think so,” Anakin replies, gesturing towards the lightsaber hole in Palpatine’s chest.
Anakin slides down the curved side of the podium and hops into the repulsorpod, which shifts beneath him as he lands upon it. He turns to face Padmé, and as their eyes meet, mirror images of giddy relief, their bodies are drawn closer together.
Their lips are about to touch when Padmé says, “We should get out of here.”
As she turns away to operate the controls of the repulsorpod, Anakin is still in shock. Palpatine is dead, the war is over, and his family is safe. Every time something this good has happened to him, there was always something to mar the joy.
When he was nine he was freed from slavery and allowed to join the Jedi, but he had to leave his mother behind in slavery.
When he was nineteen he found that Padmé reciprocated his love for her and they were married, but this was overshadowed by the death of his mother and the strictures of the Jedi Code.
Palpatine is dead, the war is over, his family is safe, and nothing bad has happened.
It doesn’t quite feel real yet.