"Everyone stop." Great. Now Padmé was getting herself into even more trouble. Anakin groaned internally. He admired her courage and boldness, of course, but not when she had their child inside her to worry about. Still, his hatred for the Separatists meant his eyes stayed glued on them while his wife stepped into the room. She appeared to be unarmed, but Anakin knew she was hiding a blaster in her cloak.
"As a representative of the Republic," she continued. "I must implore everyone to drop their weapons and discuss this reasonably."
After Gunray got over the initial shock of seeing Padmé there, he shook his head. "You're a traitor of the Republic. You do not represent them."
Poggle said something, but Anakin had no idea what it was. The malice in his words, however, wasn't hard to pick up on.
"We will not be coerced by disgraced former senators and Jedi," Gunray spat.
"Please," Padmé's voice was surprisingly calm. "I only desire peace."
What was she doing? She knew there was no way to find peace with the Separatists. But she was conveniently blocking Anakin's path to them. She wasn't going to give up and let him kill them without a fight.
"If you were to negotiate with the new Chancellor once he or she is elected, I'm sure we could reach a...beneficial agreement."
"There can be no compromise. Lord Sidious is dead, but we will not surrender."
Anakin felt a new wave of hatred wash over him at the reminder that Palpatine had been behind everything from the beginning, pulling each and every string. His grip on his lightsaber tightened. Padmé had better move out of the way soon so he could do what he came to do.
Before Anakin could do anything, however, the door in the wall opened again, and droids came flooding in. Obi-Wan whipped around to fight them, and Anakin rushed forward to help as they continued to pour in.
This was not going how she wanted it to, yet Padmé wasn't surprised. Her diplomatic solution was bound to fail when she couldn't be taken seriously anymore. Time for aggressive negotiations.
The Separatists were trying to escape through the door she and Anakin had just been hiding by, but Padmé darted ahead of them and blocked the exit, shedding her cloak and training her blaster on them.
"Senator Amidala," Gunray held up his hands again in surrender. "You promised us peace."
"And you refused to come to an agreement," she snapped. "Deactivate all the droids. Now."
The Separatists looked at one another, then back at Padmé. When he realized she wasn't going to back down, Gunray pushed some buttons on something on his wrist, and all the droids immediately shut down.
Padmé grinned with satisfaction, but her grin faded when Anakin turned on the Separatists with his lightsaber. "Anakin," she said. "You can't. We have to turn them in."
"And get arrested in the process?" he asked, not taking his eyes off Nute Gunray. "I have to end this." His eyes flickered yellow for a split second, which sent a chill down Padmé's spine.
"You don't have to do this," she said. Why wasn't Obi-Wan helping her? He was just standing in the back of the room, arms crossed.
"I do," his voice almost broke. "Padmé, after everything they've done..."
"They will pay. Just not because of you."
Anakin's gaze finally flitted to her, and their eyes locked on each other for one tantalizing moment while Anakin clearly tried to work out what to do.
YOU ARE READING
THE SKYWALKERS: book one
FanfictionAnakin Skywalker was on the brink of falling into darkness. In fact, he even called himself Darth Vader. But what would happen if he turned away from that life and redeemed himself? It's going to take a lot more than a single decision to turn things...
