A/N: I watched Revenge of the Sith again last night, and it struck me just how much of the movie's final events hinged on Padme's staying on Coruscant while Anakin went to Mustafar.
What follows is a character POV - Vader looking back on that time and wondering, "what if?" It is also an excuse to set up some Luke/Vader angst, which is the best angst there is.
This is set between ESB and ROTJ. Leave a review and let me know what you think.
He had told Padme to wait.
Holding her on the balcony, promising her so much, demanding that the universe stoop down and deliver them from the future – she had said yes. She had said she would wait. He would go end a war and be a hero and set everything back to rights, and they would disappear into Naboo's gardens to raise their child in peace. She had looked him right in the eye and said yes. Yes, she would wait.
He wonders if he might have been spared this existence if she'd only kept her word. If she hadn't gone to Mustafar, then Obi-wan wouldn't have followed. If Obi-wan had never found him, then the war would have ended like it should have, and everyone would have seen how right he'd been to take that action, to go down that path of half-truths, of necessary evils.
But she went to him. And she is dead. And he is powerless to change it.
The only solace now is in a name – Luke – a promise, one promise out of a thousand, the only promise left unbroken. His son survived. It is now the only reason he tolerates the cracked, raw skin and the scars, and the circuits and the hundreds of wires feeding into his flesh. His son will come to him. He can feel it.
The boy will have to learn to submit to the Dark Side, and Vader has promised himself that he will not let his son repeat his own mistakes. He will teach Luke what true power is, and how to never let it go, and to never, ever trust the ones you love – to never love them in the first place. And then Luke will attain what he himself could not. Luke will have a whole body and mind. Luke will have total control. His son will be invincible.
That night, he dreams.
His son sits beside him. They are in a dark room – Coruscant's lights shine through the window slats and glimmer across Luke's face in thin bands of gold.
"What did she look like?" he asks. His mother. He wants to know about his mother.
"Beautiful," Vader answers.
"How did she die?"
"I don't know. She betrayed me."
"How?"
"She tried to stop me."
A whisper. "I hate you."
He turns to look at his son. "I was trying to save you."
"How can I believe anything you say?"
"You must."
Red sunset. A landing platform. The wind blows Luke's hair into his eyes. He reaches for his lightsaber.
"Don't," Vader warns him.
"What did she look like?"
"Beautiful."
The saber ignites, and then vanishes. Night. Padme's balcony. Luke leans over the edge and stares at the traffic passing below.
"How did she die?"
"I don't know."
Luke straightens, and now stares at him. "Yes, you do."
"I tried to save her."
Dawn. Cool pink skies; the balcony is empty. He looks at the horizon and can see the first gleam of sunlight on the Temple spire.
"I told her to wait," he says, but Luke is not there to hear him.