The only other thing that relieved Anakin's gloom that week was Padme's surprise news that they were expecting twins. She had been so happy that tears streamed down her face, and Anakin nearly cried with her. And the information from Bant that twins were usually smaller than a single baby, and thus childbirth should be somewhat easier, helped his mood a little as well.
On Padme's first night home, the four of them gathered to view the holo of Palpatine's meeting with the Jedi Council, which Anakin had finally wheedled from Obi-Wan. They all sat in Padme's living room among dozens and dozens of bouquets and stuffed toys from well-wishers, not all of them Naboo - people they didn't even know. Anakin's heart hurt at all the goodwill there was in the Universe - goodwill Palpatine would no doubt have given some cynical explanation for. Messages in support of Anakin in his situation with the Jedi Council were arriving both here and at the Temple by the thousands; Threepio did almost nothing but sort mail these days. The Temple had had to assign three padawans to mail duty.
Sereine rose the instant the galaxy's master cynic entered the holoframe, and stared at him with all the narrow-eyed intensity of Cin Drallig putting a padawan through the Trials.
Palpatine stepped into the center of the Council chamber, fingertips touching, and gave Master Yoda and Master Windu a courtly bow. "My, my," said Sereine. "No puffed sleeves today."
"Good morning, my friends," he began, his throaty voice as pleasant and warm as Anakin had ever heard it. "I asked to speak with you today because..." he faltered and stopped, swallowed, and began again. Anakin didn't think the look of pain that crossed his face was entirely genuine, and from Sereine's dissatisfied "Hmmph!" he guessed she didn't, either.
"...because I feel that relations between us have deteriorated terribly over the past year. And I fear that - " He bowed his head again and stopped to clear his throat. "That the fault is mostly mine. I want all of you to know that it concerns me, for there is nothing more important to me than your trust."
"Yes, I wonder why?" mewed Valorum.
There was a short silence. Sereine snapped out, "What color robe is that?"
Anakin shot her a look. "I don't know, I wasn't there," he said.
On the holorecording, Master Yoda spoke up.
"Felt this as well, we have. Close allies at the beginning of the war, we were. Most distressing has this been for us, for value our trusting relationship, we did."
"As do I," said Palpatine, and turned to face another part of the room. He lowered his hands to his sides. His sleeves were so long that his hands practically disappeared, and Sereine, seeing this, pointed indignantly.
"I know what robe that is!" she burst out. "That kriffing - !"
"What are you talking about?" said Padme.
"I picked that out for him years ago for the Tyread trade negotiations - which he was talking to me about on and on that week. He basically got me to prep him for this meeting without telling me anything about it!" She shook her head, fuming. "Any and all trips down memory lane are definitely suspect after this!"
And then she sat down, put her hand over her mouth, shook her head, and laughed. "Palpatine, Palpatine!"
"Shh!" snapped Valorum.
On the hologram, Palpatine now faced Master Ki Adi Mundi, who spoke in a gentle tone. "All these extensions to your term limit, Sir. Such extensive emergency powers. You must understand...we didn't know what to believe."
"Yes, we did," said Master Windu. "We didn't want to believe it...but you left us little choice."
Palpatine turned around again. "I should hope my intentions are much more clear to you now," he said, with a graceful gentleness which stopped just short of pleading.
Sereine shook her head. "Boy..." she growled.
"There's this small matter," said Windu, "of your oversight of this Council. We believe we should be returned to the jurisdiction of the Senate, where we belong."
Palpatine turned to face a different section of the room for a moment. "Mmm - coward!" said Sereine, just before he turned back to face Windu, met his eyes quickly, and then executed another one of those poignant head bows.
"Much better," said Sereine.
"I - " said Palpatine, and faded into an audible sigh. "I do think that perhaps I found myself...more disturbed than I should have been by my stay on the Invisible Hand," he said. "The last days of the war were indeed a time of great fear and apprehension on my part...and I do allow that, in certain instances, my judgment...was not what it should have been."
Valorum growled, got up, and walked away, as if he could watch no more.
Padme looked up in confusion. "He sounds as if he's capitulating. Isn't that good?"
"That phrasing, with the pauses? Lovely though that sounds, that's not sincere," said Sereine. "I should know, I taught him to do it. 'Hold the mood, engage the question, pause for the words.' I invented it to help keep him from flying off the handle when handed a hostile question he wasn't prepared for." She shook her head. "You can tell anyway. He still has his little bad habits. Although the long sleeves and the circular chamber are helping him out quite a bit here."
"The Jedi Council shall of course be overseen by whatever office should please Your Graces," said Palpatine. "I only request, if I may, that I retain my Chancellor's Special Representative for the time being. We do have one more year to weather together, my friends, and I want to do all that I can to ease communication between us."
"Bet they loved that," Anakin muttered.
There was more in the same vein but Anakin found it more interesting to watch Sereine than the holo. She stared intently at Palpatine, sometimes moving to view his three-dimensional image from a different perspective, and once or twice she asked Anakin to replay a phrase.
"All right," said Anakin finally. "Enough of this. You've got to tell me what you're looking at!"
"I wish I could," said Sereine. "I think it would really help you in your dealings with him - but if he can read your thoughts at all, you'll cue him to alter his behavior, and we won't have any clue at all. These are all things I've discussed with him before. He's just not paying attention to them right now."
When the holo ended, Padme got up, one hand pressed to the small of her back, and strode to look out over her balcony, visibly upset.
"Padme?" said Anakin. "Are you all right?"
Padme whipped around - as fast as a woman could whip around who was six months pregnant with twins - and her hands shook as hard as her voice.
"Do you know what makes me so angry about this?" she said. "Who's really paying for all this? Who's really suffering for it? The common people!" she almost shouted.
"It's always the common people who do everything, pay for everything, and get nothing but used by the people in power! The Jedi. The Senate. And now, the Sith!" She strode to her sofa, pulled over a pillow, and began punching it.
Anakin had never seen her this angry. "Padme," he said soothingly, and put his hand on her arm. She shrugged him off.
"I-am-so-fed-up!" she shouted, punctuating each word with another punch to her pillow, "with hearing certain people in the Senate complain about what they call 'the rabble." As in, 'The rabble' are so lazy, all they want is handouts," she said. "Or, 'It's their own fault if they can't rise above their circumstances. We did!'
"I look around, and who is it doing all the work that makes the galaxy run? Who is it working hard all day, raising the young, feeding everyone, building everything, picking up the waste? It's the common people! And who's causing all the trouble, fighting among themselves, starting wars, hoarding resources - all in the name of the common people, of course, but we all know who benefits! It's the corporate CEOs! The Senate! And the Sith!" She rounded on Anakin. "And the Jedi!"
What was this, Anakin thought, some kind of pregnancy hormone run amok? Anakin held up both hands and retreated a step. "Hey, don't look at me!" he said. Chancellor and Lady Valorum looked on, his expression sympathetic, hers concerned.
"If this were all up to me to decide, do you know what I'd do?" Padme glanced from face to expectant face, her curls bouncing behind her.
"I'd take control of the Army, in the name of the people," she said, "and I'd march Chancellor Palpatine - " she spat the name - "right back into the center of that circle, and I'd train a million blaster rifles on all of them. And I'd say, 'The People are sick of being pawns in your war! You two, the Jedi and the Sith - you work out a peaceful solution to this between you right now! Because we will shoot you all rather than lose one more 'worthless rabble life' to this thousand-year war between the Powerful Jedi and the Powerful Sith!'"
And she threw herself back onto the couch with a force that frightened Anakin.
After a moment Valorum spoke, very kindly. "I wish that were possible, Senator," he said. "I wish it with all my heart."
Padme's anger softened into a thoughtful look. "But why isn't it?" she said. "Seriously."
"There is no way to spread this kind of news to a million star systems without causing utter chaos." Valorum stepped forward. "Someone would attack the Chancellor - a number of 'someones' - and, much as I hate to say it, we'd be right back where we were the night the war ended."
Padme looked at him. "But we don't need a million star systems," she said. "All we need is the representatives who have the authority to control the Army. The Senate Arms Committee has always retained the power to direct the Army, even though for the most part they haven't interfered with Palpatine's executive authority. With these rumors about Palpatine's health, there's always been a hierarchy of command. Giddean Danu diverted a battalion to Bospity just six weeks ago on the sole authority of the Committee. And now with Palpatine returning power over the Jedi to the Senate, it should be even easier!" She glanced excitedly among their three faces, gathering steam.
"We don't need that," said Sereine. "All we need is a conspiracy of nonviolence. If we achieve that, Palpatine can do nothing. He has to ride out his term...and then fall from power. That's what Anakin and I have been doing - arranging the same conditions as a conspiracy of nonviolence without actually being able to tell anyone who could formally create one."
Anakin shook his head. "Won't work," he said. "Remember what I told you happened when I tried to get the Council talking about this a couple of weeks ago? The idea never even occurred to any of them. I couldn't suggest it. And I've got to tell you, the anger! None of them would ever have admitted it, but I felt the dark side in that room during those discussions just as surely as I felt it from Palpatine the night the war ended. In the High Council Chamber, of all places! This subversion of politics by the Sith - the deaths, it's too monstrous. They can't - they can't forgive that, they can't overlook that. They - they want to punish the Sith master for it, too much, I think, to consider this. Too much even to listen."
"Doesn't matter!" said Padme. "They believe they're supposed to serve the Senate? If all twelve Senators on the Arms Committee march into that Chamber, and we say, 'This is what we know, and it's the People's will that you do this,' I promise you, we'll have twelve High Masters who will do what we want!"
For the first time in a long time, the air crackled with hope.
"Do you think you can really achieve this?" asked Valorum.
Padme sank into a look of deep concentration. "I'll have to work very carefully," she said. "And I can think of areas where I can use your help. There are a few I can count on not to fly into a rage and start the second Clone War five seconds after they hear this. But the others, well..."
Sereine stepped forward. "Wait a minute!" she boomed. "I want all of you to know that I will not be railroaded into anything I'm afraid will not work."
Padme glowered at her.
"Don't look at me like that, my lady," Sereine challenged. "The whole reason we're not at war right now is that I know exactly what Palpatine can handle without snapping completely and what he can't. Ask your husband why that little stunt we pulled a month ago came off at all."
She looked at Anakin. He met her eyes, and sighed and pulled back one corner of his mouth. She was right, but you couldn't talk to Padme like that and expect to engage her cooperation.
Sereine faced the Senator down with rocklike sternness. "I need your assurance, right now, that nothing will be done that I don't agree with."
Padme stood up, her own face hard, one hand over her pregnant belly. "Well, nothing's going to be done here that I don't agree with, either," she snapped. "There's a fine line here between 'shepherding' Palpatine and protecting him, and you're not going to cross it with me."
Valorum stepped behind Padme and put his hand supportively on her shoulder. "Nor with me," he said evenly, and met his wife's eyes.
Sereine lifted her chin. "Fair enough," she said, defiance in her brown eyes. "But I caution you, my lady, with Count Dooku gone, I may be the galaxy's greatest living expert on our esteemed Chancellor." Her eyes were on Valorum, not Padme, and the former Chancellor's face hardened in response.
She looked at Padme. "If I tell you that something should not be done, I have a good reason that's far from personal. And I warn you that if you choose to proceed with something over my strongest objections, you had better watch me very carefully. This whole endeavor depends on the four of us staying on the same page, and on what I judge that Palpatine can tolerate. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but if you break ranks with me, I may break ranks with you."
Anakin caught her eye and gave his head a small shake in the negative, hoping Padme and Valorum didn't choose that moment to glance at him. Don't antagonize Padme, he pleaded silently. You'll never get her back.
Sereine acknowledged his look with her eyes and moderated her tone. "I don't mean to sound arrogant," she said, with a shade of humor that poked fun at her previous threat, "but if we make a mistake we can't undo, the consequences..." She shook her head.
Padme's look softened a little, and Anakin took his cue. "Padme, trust me," he said, and reached out to stroke her arm. "I've known Palpatine for thirteen years, and I could never have done what she has since the war ended." He flicked his eyes to Sereine. "She really does play the Chancellor like a fine instrument." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Valorum wince and had to stop himself from biting his lip.
Unbidden, the image of them together rose into his mind. The way Palpatine's hand glided to cup Sereine's body; the quiet hunger in the way he pressed himself to her. She had accepted those caresses without rebuking him - and it was that moment that made Anakin wonder if he was correct in defending her to Padme.
"Please," Sereine was saying. "I want you to agree to three conditions before you pursue this."
Padme waited.
"One. You don't reveal the identity of the master without my agreement. Two. I want to be present when you tell them. Three. I want all twelve committee members committed to a conspiracy of nonviolence before you even hint that you know who the Sith master is. No doubts in your mind. No wafflers. No maybes. You've given them a 'hypothetical' situation, and everyone agrees that a nonviolent solution is the only answer. Do we have a deal?"
"This doesn't mean that Palpatine escapes the due process of law," stipulated Padme. "Is that a deal?"
"Yes," said Sereine.
"Then I accept," said Padme. "Leave the details of how to approach the Committee to me. I know just who I'm going to start with, and just what I'll say."
"Do we get regular reports, or do you prefer to work by yourself on this?" asked Valorum.
"Well, I certainly want to know what's happening on your end," said Padme. "I think it's best if we all know what each other is doing."
"Sereine?" said Valorum.
"Fair enough," was her answer.
"And, Lady Valorum," said Padme.
"Just Sereine. Please," said Sereine.
"Padme, then," said Padme. "No one understands better than I do how hard it is to be separated from your husband. If you want to spend the night here, at any time, as often as you want - my door is open."
"That - that's very thoughtful of you, and don't think I don't appreciate it," said Sereine. "But - and you're not going to like this - Palpatine has this apartment watched twenty-four hours a day. If I spent more than one or two nights a month here, he'd know why, and there would be trouble."
A look of pity came over Padme's face. "That's awful," she said, and glanced toward the veranda and shook her head. "May the Fates damn Palpatine to hell for all eternity!"
But Anakin was watching Valorum's face, and he didn't like what he saw there.
He decided to act. "Sereine. Come with me for a minute. I just had a little idea."
"What?"
"I want to see how clearly Palpatine really can read my thoughts or not. We're going to test him."
"We are?"
"Yeah. Padme, I need a thumbtack. There's some in the kitchen, right?"
"There is, but Ani, what are you doing?"
"You'll see. Be back in a minute."
A mystified Sereine followed Anakin into the kitchen, and Anakin busied himself opening drawers.
"Do you think you'll be able to keep your promise?" he asked.
"What?"
"The promise you just made to Padme."
"About Palpatine? Anakin, I know there are going to be consequences for him. I'm not here to help him escape to the far regions of Wild Space."
Anakin turned to face her and crossed his arms. "Are you sure about that? Sereine, the other day. I saw him put his hands on you."
"You saw that?"
Anakin waited.
"Anakin, I don't know why he did that. It certainly didn't mean anything."
"What if it did to him?"
"The only possible thing it could mean to him is splitting Finis and me up. And he has to know that's a long shot. If that's the best he can do, we've got him, and he knows it. Finis and I are far too mature to let a marital rift interfere with what we have to do here."
"Is there one?"
"One what?"
"A serious marital rift?"
Sereine switched on a look of supreme patience and folded her own arms. "Anakin, you have far too much on you as it is. I can't burden you with things that belong between me and Finis. And besides, how would Finis feel to know I was in here confiding personal information to you?"
Anakin averted his eyes and sighed.
"Now, tell me about this idea you had."