City of Xifos
Siskeen
Far Outer Rim Territories
Vader stared at her for a long moment. Why was he here?
Oh yes.
"I ... was ordered by the Emperor to seek out the identity of the true leader of Dalam Enterprises."
Padme chuckled, "Well, you found me."
He took a breath out of sync with his respirator, "You mean ... you ... you ..."
"Yes, of course," she said with a grin. "'Dalam Enterprises' comes from Padme Amidala. I wasn't going to use Skywalker or Amidala or Naberrie directly because I didn't want to make things awkward from you, but I thought it would be fun to use a name which was almost my name, but not close enough that most people would pick up on it."
"I think it's a stretch, personally," Luke said, finishing his work on his mother's right foot and lowering it gently back on the floor. He then picked up Padme's left foot and began expertly pummeling the arch, provoking a smile of relief from his mother.
"Well, I think it's obvious," his mother responded after a moment, "Dalam. Padme Amidala..."
"Yeah, I get it..."
"Why are you the head of a trading and supply company, Padme?" Vader asked in true bewilderment.
She sighed and looked out the window, "I fell into it, really. Varykino and the Naberrie fortunes have deteriorated substantially in the last 20 years. A distant cousin started a supply company and was struggling with the administrative side of it. Once I'd recovered from ... the birth and our last meeting, I had time on my hands and offered to help. I started Dalam as a subsidiary and then found I had a knack for it. It grew to the point that it swallowed up my cousin's venture. Now I'm supporting many of members of the House Naberrie. I moved out here to Siskeen because I wanted to stretch into the Far Outer Rim regions to avoid impinging on Imperial routes and suppliers."
She frowned now, "We don't do anything illegal or unethical, Anakin, nor do we involve ourselves in clearly Imperial sectors. I'm careful about that. So why does Sheev Palpatine care about the company, anyway?"
She rose at these words and wandered over to a small food and drink unit, "Luke, do you want something?"
"Blue milk, please, Mom. Thanks."
"Anything for you, Ani?"
The Dark Lord froze with a mixture of embarrassment and horror, "I ... cannot eat normally."
His son and his wife and stared at him.
"Why not?" Luke demanded.
"I was badly injured in a fight the very day I last saw you, Padme. My lungs were compromised, as was my digestive system. Everything, really."
There was a dismayed pause as Padme and Luke looked at one another. Padme stood up now and walked over to her husband. Boldly, she placed her hands on his arms and looked straight into his mask.
"Oh, Ani, Kenobi did this to you? I had no idea, truly. I thought ... I thought the armor and mask were mostly to make you look more intimidating, less accessible, to hide your true face ..."
She trailed away and glanced at Luke, who looked heartsick.
She looked back at Vader now, "How bad is it, Anakin?"
The compassion in her eyes was too much. Too much.
"It does not ... it is not worth discussing, Padme."
He paused, then, "Kenobi! Do you know where he is?"
How long had he dreamed of destroying the man who had taken everything from him?
An old familiar light flashed in his wife's eyes, and she stepped back slightly, "I don't know where he is, Anakin, but I wouldn't tell you if I did. I'm sorry you were so badly injured, but I'm peripherally aware of what you've been doing the last 2 decades. While I refuse to dwell on it and I no longer have any influence on you, I have no intention of conniving in your vengeance on that old man."
Anger warred with shame. A bad combination.
"He was on Tatooine for my early years," Luke said firmly, stepping protectively close to Padme, "But I'm sure he moved on when I did. No one in his right mind would hang out on that dustball without a good reason."
"Tatooine!"
"Yes," Padme said with a sigh, even as she walked over to collect something (tea, perhaps?) and blue milk.
She handed the cup to Luke and took a sip of her steaming liquid, "I ... had a difficult delivery and our last meeting was extremely traumatic obviously. I spent the first 9 years of Luke's life on Naboo, away from prying eyes. My parents, who still don't know the identity of Luke's father, hid me away for fear that I would be in danger from Palpatine and minions. Once I recovered, I found out where Luke was staying. He was living with your stepbrother Owen Lars, and his wife, Beru. Lovely people, but he wasn't very happy there."
"Lovely people, lousy planet," Luke grumbled. "Tatooine is loathsome. Sand, heat, more sand, more heat, moisture evaporators, little skittering lizards, large skittering lizards ... maybe a nice place to visit but ..."
He trailed off at his mother's reproachful glance, and then added more calmly, "But yes, Kenobi was around and he watched over us. He protected us from sand people and even helped around the farm a bit, even though Uncle Owen didn't like him very much."
"A wise man, my stepbrother," Vader muttered, then subsided at his wife's piercing glance.
"You should just be happy that Luke was raised with love and devotion and is healthy, Anakin."
"I am," he said hastily and guiltily. "And you too as well, Padme. I thought ... I knew ... that you were gone and that you died at my hand. To discover that you are both alive is more than I could possibly imagine."
Padme's face drooped just slightly and Luke reached out to touch his mother on the shoulder.
"She's Ok, Mom. I just know it."
His wife's eyes were brimming with tears now, and Vader twitched anxiously.
"Whom are you referring to?"
His son turned to him now, his blue eyes grave, "My twin sister, sir. I have a sister who was born a few minutes after I was, but she was taken away and we don't know where she is."
For the eighth time in the last hour, Vader's head swam incredulously.
"I have a daughter?"
"Yes, Anakin," Padme replied, smiling through her tears, "A beautiful little girl. You were right about that, but then so was I."
"Right about what?" Luke asked curiously.
"I never told you this? Your father and I argued about the gender of our child. I was certain I was carrying a boy, and he was certain the child was a girl. We were both correct."
"We must find her!" Vader said, striding back and forth in the room, "I have resources, Padme! More than you can imagine. We can start by seeing which baby girls were adopted ..."
He stopped now in confusion as his wife also rose to her feet, shaking her head.
"No, Anakin."
"Why not, Padme? Why not? She is our daughter! She might be in danger, or poor, or abused..."
She shook her head again, "She is not, Ani. She is happy, and cared for well. Luke dreams of her."
Vader turned to stare at his son, who gazed back at his father compassionately.
"I have dreamt of her as long as I can remember, Father," he said softly, sending a thrill through Vader at this long desired title, "of a girl my own age, always my age, but with dark hair and eyes like mother. I see her in her bedroom, a beautiful one. I can tell that she is well provided for, and that she is happy with her family. I see them sometimes in my dreams. They love her, and she loves them. Of course, she's nearly grown up now and they don't tuck her in bed anymore, but they sometimes stop by. There is no doubt they are a happy and loving family."
Vader tensed in outrage, "But she was stolen, Padme. Stolen! By Kenobi and the other Jedi. She belongs to us ..."
"She is a person, Anakin," Padme interrupted sternly, "not a possession."
She hesitated now, and glanced at their son, "Can you give us a few minutes, Luke?"
The youth looked thoughtful, then nodded, "I'll go work on that busted caf maker, Mom. Yell if you need me, Ok?"
"All right."
She waited until Luke had left, then sank down in a chair next to the largest chair in the room.
"Sit down, please, Anakin."
He did, prey to such a violent maelstrom of emotions that it took all his hard won patience to sit, to listen to his wife (his wife whom he had been sure was dead, at his hand, 19 years ago.)
"Do you happen to remember the day we met, Ani?" Padme asked, looking at his masked face.
Again, his feelings threatened to overwhelm him. Did he remember? He had suppressed this memory for 19 years because of the agony it provoked, but it was engraved deeply in his psyche. He still dreamed at times of that day in Watto's shop, when he had first laid eyes on Padme Naberrie of Naboo.
"Of course I do. I thought you were an angel."
He was thankful the vocoder mostly hid the raw emotion in his voice. He felt off kilter and out of control, dangerous and frightening feelings for a Dark Lord.
Padme's smile was sad, "Yes, you said that, I remember."
She looked toward the window now, "I ... I was very naïve, Anakin. I could not believe that you and your mother and many others like you were enslaved in the Republic, that you were chipped like nerfs ..."
There was a sudden and violent twitch from her husband and she turned apologetic eyes back to him, "I'm sorry, Anakin. I shouldn't talk about that. Anyway, when Qui-Gon Jinn successfully freed you, I was so happy for you. I already cared for you, already wanted your best, and ... I just felt like it was a happy ending to our unscheduled trip to Tatooine."
She rose now and walked slowly over to the window, staring out over the buildings of this great city, "But the reality was that while freedom was good, being wrenched from your wonderful mother and the only home you'd ever known was not good. I think ... I trusted the Jedi too much. I had always respected them, and I believe they had good intentions, but ripping children from their families was a terrible thing. And given that you were much older than a typical Jedi youngling, it was even more devastating. You lost so much being 'freed', Anakin. I know your mother wanted you to go, she wanted more for you than slavery on that dustball, and I understand that. But ... they should have kept you in contact with her, they should have saved her too!"
She turned back now, her eyes brimming with unshed tears, "Don't you see, Ani? Leia has lived her whole life with parents who love her. Yes, they are not her biological parents but Luke knows, he knows, that she is loved, and she loves them. I couldn't do that to her, I couldn't just waltz in as the long lost mother. Not now, at least, not yet ..."
"Leia?" he repeated in a puzzled way.
Now the smile was self-deprecatory, "I named her that at her birth, Ani. Almost certainly her adopted parents changed it, but in my mind she will always be Leia."
Vader cycled through four respirations before he was composed enough to speak, "I chose that name."
"I know you did, my dear," Padme agreed, and smiled tremulously, "And I wanted to honor you by giving our daughter that name.
For a brief moment, he was overcome. He had attacked his wife, choked her, left her unconscious, and yet still she had respected him enough to name their daughter Leia.
"Why did you seek out Luke, then?" he asked softly.
She shook her head a little, "I didn't. When I was emotionally and physically stable, when Luke ... and Leia ... were 9, I finally reached out to the Lars because I ... I just wanted to know how they were doing. I wanted to connect with your family, or all the family you had. I knew things had changed in the galaxy and wanted to be sure they weren't poor and suffering. And Luke was with them. He loved them but he wasn't happy."
"It would be hard to be happy on Tatooine," Vader retorted.
"He's a lot like you, Anakin, in many ways," she said, "and yes, he loathes Tatooine."
There was a sudden beep, even as a series of words scrolled in the left upper section of his helmet. Vader bit down a subdued snarl. Not now, not now ...
"Sounds like someone wants you, Anakin," his wife said with a smile. "I'll just go see how Luke is doing with that caf maker."
He watched her go, duty warring with the desire to hover within a meter of her at all times. Duty won, as usual.
"Yes," he hissed into his com. He listened for a long moment, irritation giving way to disbelief and then anger.
"Very well, I will return to the Devastator as quickly as possible," he snapped, "Keep the tractor beam on the ship but do not infiltrate until I arrive. Is that understood?"
He signaled to his shuttle on the roof just as Padme and Luke stepped back into the room, both carrying steaming cups.
"Luke fixed it!" Padme said with a bright smile. "He gets his mechanical giftedness from you!"
The youth looked pleased and embarrassed even as his mother stepped forward, "So Anakin, I assume you need to go soon?"
"Yes."
She smiled a little, "I'm glad we ran into each other, Ani. You know that the children and I are both well now. If you ever want to visit again, please feel free ..."
"You both are coming with me," he stated.
Her face morphed to disbelief, then outrage, "No, we are not!"
There was the tramping of feet outside and he spoke before his troopers could arrive. "This is not a request, Padme. I will not harm either of you but ..."
She interrupted passionately, "How dare you, Anakin?! You left us 19 years ago and we've been letting you live the life you wanted ..."
The door slid open and four stormtroopers entered. Luke stepped protectively in front his mother, even as Vader used the Force to take a blaster from the nearest trooper. He carefully thumbed it to stun and shot his wife and son with two blasts.
Using the Force, he gently lowered his unconscious family members onto the floor.
He gestured to the nearest troopers, who were carrying portable stretchers.
"Take them to my shuttle, carefully," he ordered.
He took one last glance at Padme's face; even in unconsciousness, she looked outraged.
He shivered slightly. When she woke up, she would be furious. He didn't look forward to that conversation.