User:Katana Geldar/Trash compactor

This is where my deleted scenes, re-written scenes and deleted concepts are for study and comment. I don't throw anything out.

Padmé at the play with Danta Pela

 * This scene was meant to be incorporated when Anakin and Padmé went to the theatre, but then I realised this scene really served no purpose as it detracted from Anakin’s vision and the political aspects of the story needed to be added later.

At interval Padmé excused herself for a moment to answer her comlink. When the bell rang for them to go back in a moment later, Padmé waved Anakin on, following the directions she was given upstairs to one of the few boxes in the theatre.

She knocked at the door and Danta Pela answered it but it was no surprise, it had been his voice on his comlink.

“This is somewhat unexpected, Senator,” Padmé said, sitting in the seat that he indicated.

“Mesa surprised as yousa are to see yousa here,” Danta replied.

Padmé merely nodded, the theatre they were at was not really among the places one went to Coruscant for the purposes of being seen. The Galaxies Opera House was more the venue for that.

“Mesa feel bombad bout approaching you like thees,” Danta murmured, lowering his voice so they could not be heard. “But mesa knows yousa can be trusted.”

”As a Jedi there can be some limits to my discretion, Senator,” Padmé confessed. “But I hardly think I need to exercise those in your case.”

“Yousa seen thesa new security measures Palpatine passed?” Danta asked.

“The ones about the Jedi?” Padmé asked, and Danta nodded. “I have heard of them but haven’t had the chance to glance over them yet. I don’t like it.” Padmé started, surprised she had spoken so bluntly in front of him.

Yet Danta was not surprised at this. “Wesa fear what hesa do next,” Danta told her. “If thesa war ends, will hesa back down yousa think?”

Why was Danta asking her these questions? She hardly seemed the person, and this hardly seemed the place, to broach on such a subject. But something in what he said caught her attention.

“We?” Padmé asked. “Who are the ‘we’? you are talking about?” The Gungan started to answer but Padmé dismissed her question. “Don’t answer that, there are some things that are better left unsaid. But why have you approached me?”

Danta didn’t answer for a moment. “Wesa need to know where the Jedi stand,” he told her finally.

“In relation to where?”

Danta didn’t answer, but Padmé knew.

“I…I don’t know…” she stammered, getting to her feet quickly. “I can’t even ask, but I can get an idea.”

She left the box then, her thoughts whirling and none of them on the performance she was returning to.

Anakin talks to Dooku, unfinished

 * This unfinished scene was going to be after Padmé’s conversation with Obi-Wan but it didn’t really go anywhere so I took it out where I left it. Later when I went back to it I added what the scene was really for, the part about stopping Padmé’s death, to the conversation between Padmé and Anakin and the scene wasn’t needed.

Anakin had been turning the idea over in his mind ever since he had left Palpatine’s office yesterday evening. The secret knowledge that only the Sith knew of, knowledge that could stop his vision coming true. Knowledge to save Padmé’s life. Yet there was something disturbing, something that made Anakin hesitate as he walked down to the lower levels of the Temple where Dooku was being held prisoner, the unspoken question: how could a Sith save Padmé’s life if a Sith was meant to kill her?

He quickly dismissed it, somehow anything was worth the effort of saving Padmé even if it went against what the Jedi saw as right.

The Jedi Master monitoring the cells where the prisoners were kept eyed Anakin carefully when he heard the young man’s request. Yet he saw no reason as to deny Anakin access to speak to Dooku. After all, it was Anakin who had managed to best Dooku on board the Invisible Hand.

Dooku was sitting on the low bunk when Anakin entered the cell, the room dim but for the light overhead protected by a thick layer of transparasteel. When he heard the heavy door shut behind him Anakin stepped into the light so he could see Dooku properly.

As Obi-Wan and Nju had described in the Council session, Dooku’s was thinner and paler since his capture—a fact that continued to be unaccounted for as Dooku had not been held very long.

Yet there was no weakness in Dooku’s voice when he spoke to Anakin.

“Well, this is a bit of a surprise.” Dooku surveyed Anakin as an entomologist might study a bug he had pinned on a card to examine closer. “I hope you have explained to Mace and Yoda how you almost killed me in cold blood,” he continued. “Murder is quite unbecoming in a Jedi, Skywalker.”

“And you would know,” Anakin said, his blue eyes boring into Dooku’s face. “Obi-Wan told me about Sifo-Dyas, how he was your friend and you killed him.”

Dooku shrugged as if the matter was of no consequence. “A necessary sacrifice,” he said, smiling slightly, “Sifo-Dyas knew death would come for him some time or another, he just did not know it would come by my hand.” Dooku examined Anakin for a moment longer. “So what is it? I assume you didn’t wander in her because you got lost. Is there something you wanted to say that wasn’t said before?”

Anakin was silent for a moment, how could he approach this?

Padmé and Anakin's argument, old version

 * This is not a ‘deleted scene’, rather a re-written one as I saw that it needed to be reworked to have the intention that I meant. This scene originally was after Obi-Wan talked to Cody.

Padmé had been looking for Anakin, yet he found her first. Yet ‘found’ was a rather passive word for the way he approached her. It was more like a confrontation.

“What did you speak to Obi-Wan about?” he demanded.

Padmé gave him an arch look which brought his anger down several degrees. “You don’t have to talk to me like that, Anakin,” she reminded him. “And if you must know he’s worried about you.”

“He is?” Suddenly Anakin felt very stupid for approaching her in this way.

“Yes, he says you’ve been moody lately,” Padmé said.

They walked together out into the gardens, forlornly empty like it always had been since the war began.

“And?”

Padmé sighed, even though Anakin had the tendency to go off the deep end with an issue he could be surprisingly astute at times.

“Anakin, he’s your best friend and he’s concerned,” Padmé explained. “He’s worried that you might be…making wrong choices.”

“Are not those choices mine to make anyway?” Anakin glowered at her, surveyed the garden but seeing it not. “He doesn’t trust me, neither does the Council.”

“Obi-Wan trusts you with his life,” Padmé reminded him. “He loves you like a son, you can’t say such things.”

“But why didn’t they make me a Master?” Anakin asked her.

“Didn’t I once tell you that things normally happen when you don’t ask for them?” Padmé reminded him. “That they normally just happen anyway, like when you passed the trials?”

Anakin had to admit she had a point. It had been about four years ago when he had been angry at the Council and Obi-Wan for holding him back, then he got a call to go before the Council and he was made a Jedi Knight then and there. No prior notice, not even a hint from Obi-Wan or Master Yoda.

Yet something about that reminded him what Palpatine had told him. Of that Sith legend that may be the only way for Padmé to survive.

“I have found a way to save you,” he told her.

“Save me?” Padmé stared at him.

“From my nightmares,” he said, trying to keep as calm as possible.

“Is that what’s bothering you?” she asked him.

“I think of nothing else.” He turned away for a moment, remembering what Palpatine had said over and over again. “I won’t lose you Padmé, I won’t let it happen.”

“You don’t have to worry about that, Anakin,” she told him, stepping around so he could see her. “I’ve encountered a Sith and survived two…no three times and the third was thanks to you.” She touched his hand. “There’s nothing to be afraid of, I promise you.”

“No.” He turned away from her touch. “That’s not good enough for me.”

Padmé's confrontation with Sidious, first version unfinished

 * This is not really a scene, more like half a scene as I could see it really wasn’t working. This scene occurred after the Jedi circle on Dooku and Nju and the conflict within Anakin was apparent rather earlier than I would liked. What Padmé needed to do was stall for time to try and get Anakin on her side before she realises there’s nothing she could do.

“Padmé can’t you see he wants to help us?” Anakin said. “The Jedi told us how to view the Sith, can’t you see him who he is?”

Padmé stared at Anakin as if he were a complete stranger. “You’re the one that’s blind Anakin.” She turned to see Palpatine…or Sidious as she thought she should think of him, waiting expectantly for…what?

Anakin would make the right choice and ignore Sidious was saying, wouldn’t he? Wouldn’t he?

The problem was that Padmé knew she could get through to Anakin, she knew his vulnerabilities as well as Sidious did. For she knew above else, Anakin was loyal to her, even to a certain extent above his loyalty to Obi-Wan. Yet she wasn't as willing to utilise these, as Sidious was. The only way Padmé could try and convince him was simple persuasion, and Anakin was not to be persuaded easily if at all.

“Anakin…” She tried to find something familiar in his face, some part of the young man she had known on Naboo…on Tatooine… Yet what looked back at her what a shadow of the Anakin had known, a darker and colder version of what he had been. Yet his face was not the same closed mask of Renust Nju, and neither was it the cool elegance of Dooku. There was hope here, however small, but what could she do?

Padmé had never felt so helpless.

Sidious seemed to sense this.

Padmé confronts Sidious, first version

 * This scene was meant to be a replacement for the one above, but it wasn't as strong as I liked. I felt I needed to have Sidious leading the conversation rather than Padmé.

As much as she wanted to be honest with Anakin, Padmé knew she couldn’t do this in front of the Chancellor.

No, she corrected herself harshly, he’s not the Chancellor, he’s a Sith Lord. She couldn’t get anywhere unless she saw Sidious as he was and not who he had claimed to be for more than seventeen years.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her, Palpatine might be Sidious but the character of the politician was not there. Padmé had never particularly liked him, not since he had orchestrated the election then won Chancellorship.

There was a certain cool arrogance, a certain pompousness and…satisfaction around him while he quietly pulled strings and moved circumstances to his own advantage. Asking him for details would firstly, stall for time until someone else arrived and would perhaps get Anakin on her side when he saw the dissembler he truly was.

“So you planned this all along, did you?” Padmé asked. “First with Maxah and the Trade Federation, and then with Dooku and the Separatists?”

“Of course not!” Sidious said as if insulted. “Maxah was intended to be the beginning of the end for the Jedi,” he glared at her for a moment, “an end that you ruined.”

“How?” Padmé gave an acid smile, this could get interesting.

“By getting Nalanda offworld, that’s how,” Sidious snapped. “I did everything I could, I even gave her specific orders to eliminate you but she failed. Failed miserably.”

“Perhaps you overestimate yourself,” Padmé suggested dryly.

Sidious gave her such a black look that Padmé was taken aback. “Let me tell you one thing, little Jedi,” he said in a low voice that chilled Padmé to the core. “The only obstacle in my plans so far has been you, more than once I tried to rectify this but it came to nothing.”

Padmé smiled quietly, this ranting speech had more or less confirmed her previous remark. His overconfidence in believing that his plans could not fail had blinded him to the many pitfalls in his path, and the Force usually had a way of interfering.

“And the war, that was your intention all along wasn't it?” Padmé flashed. “You meant for Imbroglio to fail, you meant for Nalanda and all the others to be killed.”

“Nalanda was becoming a….a liability,” Sidious informed her. “Unfortunate, but necessary.”

“What about Dooku?” Padmé asked him. “Was he meant to be a distraction for your spy Nju?”

“Neither of them were never meant to be anything more than temporary,” Sidious replied. “In fact, I would very much doubt if they lived much longer even though Dooku was meant to be killed on the Invisible Hand.” At this he glared at Anakin. “I would have seen to it that he would be dead, yet it matters little now.”

“And Nju?” Padmé had to know this. “How did you manage to get him on your side?”

Sidious smiled quietly. “That you will have to ask him,” the Sith Lord said. “I am sure what he tells you will be quite…illuminating.”

Padmé closed her eyes, she couldn’t stand this any longer. The Sith was sitting there and smirking at her! Yet it was not this that enraged Padmé, not his calm confidence at the success of his plans, but his callousness, his complete disregard for the millions upon millions of deaths.

She glared at Anakin, why was he just standing there? Why didn’t he say something? Could she even trust him?

Her anger continued to build, what was stopping her from killing him then and there. She was armed, he was not. Sidious just continued to sit there.

“Good,” he murmured, closing his eyes and smiling indulgently. “I can feel your anger, it gives you focus.” He opened his eyes and stared at her. “Yet it was never you that I wanted.”

“I’m still standing in your way,” Padmé said through clenched teeth.

“An anomaly easily rectified,” Sidious remarked.

“You underestimate me,” Padmé declared, “you still think that I can’t be trusted to do what is right.”

“I know you can,” the Sith replied. “The question is, will it happen.”

“Count on it,” Padmé said, igniting her lightsaber and bringing it down over Palpatine.

She closed her eyes, not wanting to see the green blade sear through him as she knew it would. Yet her weapon struck something, blocked by…She opened her eyes.

“Anakin!”