“I don’t believe what I’m hearing.” Padme Amidala looked back at the man she loved, Anakin Skywalker. “Obi-Wan was right; you’ve changed.”

“I don’t want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi have turned against me, now don’t you turn against me!” He was different. This wasn’t the Jedi she had married, and she was beginning to realize that now. He was a Sith. But still she believed, believed that there was still good in him.

How naïve.

She was starting to cry now. Melting down in those alien, yellow eyes. “I don’t know you any more! Anakin, you’re breaking my heart!” The baby kicked hard inside her belly, swollen with the months that she had been pregnant, bringing even more tears to her eyes. “You’re going down a path I can’t follow!”

He suddenly looked straight at her, his lips pressed tight together. “Because of Obi-Wan?”

“Because of what you’ve done! What you plan to do! Stop, stop now! Come back!” Suddenly he looked up at the Naboo skiff behind her, and she began to sob uncontrollably. “I – I love you!”

His expression darkened from heated anger to enraged within seconds. “LIAR!” he yelled.

Padme whipped around. There stood Obi-Wan, a grim look on his face. “No!” she chocked out through the tears. She didn’t even know what she was trying to deny: that Obi-Wan was there and inevitably going to try to kill the love of her life, or that Anakin was inevitably going to fight back for the same reason. Probably both.

“You’re with him! You brought him here to kill me!” His eyes, the horrible, evil eyes, were burning. His eyes had turned into fire. Merciless, malevolent fire.

“NO! Anakin, I swear… I –”

She was cut off by a Force-chokehold, one generated by none other than Anakin, her love, her husband, who began to squeeze. Her airways were getting tighter and tighter, and she struggled to breathe, at the same time trying to speak. All she could do was shake her head and hurt.

“Let her go, Anakin.” Obi-Wan walked down the skiff’s ramp, but his grip on her only tightened, if that were even possible. “Let. Her. Go.”

He let go, and air came rushing back into her lungs. Smoky, for it was tainted by the airborne volcanic ash on Mustafar, but sweet nonetheless. But it wasn’t enough to keep her conscious, and she blacked out, thinking only one thing.

Anakin.

A few minutes later, or a few hours later, for all she knew, Padme woke up again. A familiar face was leaning over her, and the body attached to it was sitting next to her.

“Obi-Wan… Is Anakin all right…?” she mumbled. A tiny part of her wondered why she was asking if the man who had done this to her was all right, before she blacked out again.

Pain. Padme woke up in a small operating theatre with harsh white lights, medical droids and a general air of urgency. She wanted to fall asleep again so badly, to go back to the gentle embrace of the darkness. There, she knew no pain.

Just as she felt herself slipping away, someone took her hand, jarring her back to reality. The haze that she had been in for the past few minutes cleared, and she recognized its owner, who said, “Don’t give up, Padme!” Obi-Wan.

And then more pain. She realized that she was in this room because she was giving birth to her child. A curved metal piece of machinery was placed over her belly; it made the loose white hospital gown she was wearing swish. A thought momentarily flitted though her mind. No! It’s too soon…the baby isn’t supposed to come for another month!

She cried out softly, not really giving away how much pain she was in, but it hurt. It really hurt. Tears began to run down her cheeks again. And then…it was over.

The medical droid holding the baby – her baby – handed its charge to Obi-Wan, who then brought it down to her eye-level. “It’s a boy,” he said. She struggled to bring a hand up to her child’s face, stroking it gently. So she had been right. She had always known that it would be a boy.

“Luke,” she murmured. Soon, too soon, Obi-Wan took the baby away from her. But she didn’t understand. She was still hurting. Was there a second baby still inside her? Then there was more pain. So yes, there was. She screamed, louder this time. But she had to do this. For her children. Then it was over for the last time.

“And a girl,” the medical droid finished.

“Leia,” she whispered, her voice rising in pitch ever so slightly. And then she understood. What had happened on Mustafar, it would eventually lead to her death. It had broken down her will, which had once been like durasteel, into nothingness. She didn’t want to live any more. And she had made that choice before she had known that they were going to try to save her babies. Now it was too late to come back. She was going to die.

“You have twins, Padme,” Obi-Wan said. “They need you…hang on!”

“I can’t…” She winced again. There was nothing more she could do. Death was just a natural part of life…

“Obi-Wan…there…is good in him.” She had to say this quickly. She could feel herself slipping away. “I know there is…still…”

She couldn’t manage it any more. She had to stop right before the crucial word, the one that he needed to hear. As she exhaled for the last time and her head tipped down, she was still thinking about it, clinging to it desperately.

Hope.