Garden of Deceit: the scenes that are missing from Midnight in the Garden and Wife of Deceit
Scene One: "Promises to Keep"
*This second set of vignettes is what we originally started Garden to post. I just started posting Midnight because it seemed silly to send newcomers all over the net looking for it.
Introductions by the Collaborators: Once upon a time, there were two fanfic authors. One wrote Palpatine in everything but marriage and the other wrote Palpatine in nothing but marriage. Both had the conviction that he had to wind up with a redhead. This is the collection of mad plots they hatched when putting their universes in conversation with each other.
As I revised Midnight in the Garden twenty years later, things came up. Something hit me in the birth scene that I have no idea why I didn't think of twenty years ago, so that has been revised. I ran into DarthIshtar again and we discovered we were writing the very same Palpatine on the very same timeline, with only one difference: Whether Anakin Skywalker loved him or not.
So, what you will be reading in this series of posts are deleted scenes from the Midnight timeline. In the timeline of the films, within which the Wife of Deceit series takes place, Anakin does not love Palpatine, and the original and sequel trilogies and Wife of Deceit is what you get.
Then we have the AU laid out in Midnight in the Garden: Anakin DOES love Palpatine, and this is what happens instead.
Then we thought: Why ... in THAT case, what happens to Amne, the last First Lady of the Old Republic? So, in this thread, we present odds and ends of the Midnight timeline that didn’t quite fit in Midnight, along with some Amne vignettes by Ish that didn’t quite fit in Wife. The break in the timeline occurs when Palpatine tells Anakin he's the Sith lord. (Actually, there's evidence of it earlier than that, but that's the big departure from canon timeline.)
Authors' notes: LLL says, "This story corresponds to a chapter called 'The Sith Strikes Back' in 'Midnight in the Garden,' between the time when Sereine sees Amne in the office and Finis' handwritten message to her. Anakin has taken the oath of fealty to the Sith Order, but has now reneged on his word. Palpatine is trying to find a way to force him to keep his oath. But before that happens..."
This is largely penned by LLL, but DarthIshtar tweaked the dialogue, designed the wardrobe, etc. to make sure this Amne and Anakin scene was in character according to her character.
***
"Do you take this man with the intention of honoring him in love and truth? Do you swear to be faithful and devoted in all things and to cherish and guard him in sickness and in health, in prosperity and poverty, in trials and joyful occasions until death separates you?"
"I do."
--Wedding vow of Lady Palpatine
Anakin’s mind wandered as he drove his speeder through the congested lanes to the Senate Office Building. It always did when the piloting was as boring as this … when life was as boring as this. He was beginning to feel disused, itchy, uncomfortable. Forgotten. Frustrated. He knew that being home, getting up at night with the twins, making sure Padme got enough rest were critically important things to do, but not being able to do anything on a larger scale made him feel … diminished, somehow. Unworthy.
He had automatic clearance to land and the robotic sensors checked him through a kilometer away on approach. Parking was easy, as the Chancellor had a space reserved in the hangar decks specifically for him. For what now, I don’t even know, he thought.
A woman in a light yellow dress caught his eye as he shut the speeder down. As he lifted the canopy and got out, she started walking toward him. He blinked, then recognized Amne Selrieen Palpatine, First Lady of the Republic and Chancellor Palpatine’s wife … whom of course he knew, but she was the last person he would expect to see walking toward him here. She wore her hair caught up at the nape of her neck, with stray long curls falling over her shoulder.
He turned. “My lady. A surprise to see you. Is the Chancellor out? He summoned me to his office.”
“No, Anakin,” she said in that cultured voice that always sounded formal even when her words were not. “I’ve only just come from seeing him upstairs.”
Anakin remembered himself and offered her a deep bow. “I trust you are well, milady.”
No smile. Lady Palpatine even had a habit of kissing him on the cheek in greeting, but not today. Anakin felt a dart of anxiety.
“I am,” Lady Palpatine said, “and you? How are your wife and children?”
Anakin pictured Padme at the breakfast table this morning, struggling to keep her eyes open. “Very well. She’s tired, but all’s well, and I’m very grateful for that.” Then he said, “I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought the Chancellor must have been called away and you must be waiting for him. Or that something else was wrong.”
The First Lady surprised him with, “Actually, Master Skywalker, I was hoping to speak with you.”
Anakin felt doubly aware then of the traffic landing and taking off, people streaming past them on their way into and out of the building, casting glances at two of the most famous and recognizable faces in the Republic. “Me, milady?” he said. “How can I be of service?”
The look on her face worried him. He stretched toward her in the Force as she touched his arm and set off in the direction of the Chancellor’s private lift. What he felt stopped him with a jolt. He found himself trying to parse it out. She led, and he followed a step behind.
“Master Skywalker,” she said. “Some things have been much on my mind lately. I wondered if I might discuss them with you … as I walk you to my husband’s office.”
Anakin said, “Of course, my lady.” Her familiar sense in the Force was always there, of course, a sort of gentleness that caught him around her almost as much as it did around Padme. The First Lady was a sweet, sweet person, he had always known that. But something else hung in the air. Apprehension, Anakin guessed. Yes, that felt about right. And something else. What?
“How can I help you?” he said.
They stepped into the Chancellor’s lift and Anakin pressed the button for the private level. The lift started with that familiar dizzying rush–which repeated just as abruptly as Lady Palpatine reached out and pressed the stop button.
“I would speak with you for a moment … about the Loyalist committee. It would seem they are not so loyal these days.” She turned to face him, crossing arms in delicately embroidered sleeves in front of her. “At least, not to my husband. Master Skywalker, where do you think their true loyalties lie?”
She was asking him about the Loyalist committee? Anakin’s first thought was that the Chancellor had asked her to, for some reason–but no, Palpatine would simply have asked him this himself. They were long past playing games, he and Lord Sidious. “I’m hardly privy to that information, my lady,” he said. Something around her resonated in the Force, something sad. Something … Anakin could not quite put his finger on it.
Amne Palpatine leaned back against the wall and looked up at him. “But Senator Amidala is instrumental in the affairs and the direction of that committee. She has long been an ally and even a friend to my husband, yet she is among those who seem to oppose the Chancellor at every turn, even now.”
Anakin had it now. Sadness. But not about the Loyalists. Sheev himself was uppermost in her thoughts, and the sadness was about him. Could she know? he thought. Surely not. Besides, the feeling held some faint tinge of guilt, somehow. As if she were trying to make something up to him.
Anakin stopped himself, realizing he was on the verge of trespassing too far into the First Lady’s thoughts. He hadn’t thought it was possible to sense this much from her.
But then again … he had never tried to before.
Concern creased the fair skin around her hazel eyes. “He is doing all he can to return to a peacetime government as sensibly as possible. Anakin, do you think the committee realizes that? Do you think Senator Amidala realizes that?”
Not only does the Senator realize that, she also realizes why. Anakin tried to think of the most diplomatic thing to say, given the circumstances. He went with, “I’m not sure what my wife realizes, my lady. She respects my work in the Chancellor’s office, and I respect hers.”
If he could put Lady Palpatine off, so much the better. Should I warn Palpatine his wife is getting overly concerned about this? And if he did, what would Palpatine do?
Amne said, “I’m sure Sheev appreciates your Jedi discretion, but do you mean to say that you and your wife never speak of the situation?”
Anakin said, “I can’t say we never do … but I do appreciate peace in the house, as my wife does, and with the babies now our family is uppermost in our minds. Especially now that I have no business in the Jedi Temple, I really can’t impact things anymore as I might have, and we … we don’t discuss it.” And there was that useless feeling. That disused feeling that pricked him all the time these days. If only the Council hadn’t dismissed me, how much more useful I could be in all of this. It was a helpless feeling to only be able to look on. Helpless and infantilizing, as if he were of no more consequence than Luke or Leia.
He mattered to Palpatine. But for how much longer? And what would come the longer this went on? The First Lady could never understand how much Padme was not the problem here.
She asked, “May I ask what you do know of her mind on the matter?”
Dishonesty would scream out to her even without the Force, although Anakin could tell now just how much ability there she really had. “I know that she distrusts the Chancellor now.” Oh, how true that was. “And it saddens me very much.” And that was, too.
The melancholy that clung about her in the Force made its way into her eyes. “It saddens me as well, and it worries me.” She broke eye contact to glance briefly at the floor. “I know it distresses my husband, and I’m not sure there’s much more he can do for the time being.”
Two earnest amber eyes glowed up at him again. “I wish so dearly for a more reasonable attitude on the part of the Loyalists.” A gift, he realized. Something about this felt like a gift, from her to Palpatine. And he could name the emotion around her now. Contrition.
If she only knew how much Palpatine, and not his wife, should be feeling that right now.
Anakin said the only thing he could say. “I can’t say it wouldn’t help, my lady.”
“I wonder, can you not speak with her about this?” Amne said. “This stalemate must be broken somehow, even if … even if we must ask the Jedi Council to intervene.”
That snapped Anakin to attention. He only hoped the alarm didn’t show in his eyes.
He tried to misdirect her. “The Chancellor wishes to involve the High Council? This is the first I’ve heard of that.”
Steel glinted in her eyes. “Not the Chancellor. Myself.”
That was exactly what he was afraid she’d meant. Sereine … emergency meeting at Padme’s.
He said, “You, my lady? You would speak with the Council, on this?”
She said, “It would never be my place to address the full quorum. But perhaps, I could consult with Master Yoda. Or Master Kenobi.”
Anakin stopped himself from closing his eyes in pure horror. To have the First Lady drag Obi-Wan, or worse–much worse! Master Yoda–into this would be a disaster of shattering proportions.
He tried to keep his tone gentle, respectful, and even. “My lady, I would ask that you not. Do please let me relay your concern to my wife.”
And then he had a sudden, awful, thought. “Had you given any thought to when you might do this? Have you contacted the Council, at all?” he asked, straining to keep the same gentle tone.
Sending him into paroxysms of relief he willed his face not to show, she said, “I hadn’t as of yet. I thought I would speak with you before I did so.”
“I’m–glad to hear that.” His breath caught in his throat. “Please give me your word you won’t, until I speak with Padme. I know she’ll want to speak with you.” He punctuated this with a nod.
“Will she?” A spark of hope lit her eyes. “I would appreciate that.”
Anakin’s mind raced. First, whisper in Sereine’s ear, them comm Padme as soon as he could. Whatever meetings Padme had planned for this evening, she’d have to break them. “I’ll tell her. May I contact you at the First Lady’s office?”
“That would be satisfactory.” Amne smiled.
Anakin’s thoughts swirled like a hurricane. What if they would actually have to tell her about her husband? And what would Palpatine do then? What would Amne do? “Please wait for my message, my lady.” He tried to put the right amount of emphasis into the words: not begging, but close.
“I will,” she said, and finally smiled. “Thank you, Master Skywalker.”
Anakin reached out for the stop button, and tried not to panic as the lift started upwards.