This is amazing, now I actually feel like I am doing a story because I have a few consistent reader/reviewers. Here is a quick little reminder to review! Remember romance is not my specialty action is, just saying since this chapter has a particularly—never mind! Also this chapter is named after a part of the Sith Code, you'll see why it applies. Well the "passion" part anyway, "peace is a lie" sort of applies to the entire story.

Chapter 12: Peace Is a Lie, There Is Only Passion

The Executor

Ravan sat across from Mara eating a steak, the name of which he could not remember, Mara was eating some sort of lobster from Mon Calamari and both were simply drinking water, plain water. Those last couple of days on Rhen-Var had been sort of like a vacation for them, they had spent time together (even if it was military business) and neither of them knew it at the moment but both would sort of miss it when it was taken away, one was slowly starting to realize it….

Mara took a rather large gulp of water, Ravan quirked his eyebrows and she laughed.

"I'm an assassin, not a proper lady." She said.

"We can all agree on that." Ravan replied.

"Shut up," Mara said putting her glass down. Her smile faded. "You know, when we get back Vader will just send me on another meaningless mission to assassinate some bounty hunter that owes him money or something, yeah that was my last mission, but we do have operational control of this ship, I hear Naboo is nice this time of year."

Ravan actually began considering—

"No, absolutely not! My father would murder us if we did that."

"We could kill him first…"

"He's my father."

"Kallisto is my mother…"

Ravan stood up and started towards his sleeping area.

"I need to think about this."

Mara stood up and intercepted him.

"Stop analyzing everything you do."

And for the first time in his entire life (since Uncle Owen hadn't particularly given him much time outside the homestead) he was kissed, Mara had made the first move. He returned the favor, both pulled away.

"You're right, we should stop analyzing everything we do."

"No, you should."

And instead of just Ravan both of them went into the sleeping area.

XxX

Coruscant

Padmé walked under a mass of heavy dark robes so her identity would be hidden from the casual onlooker as Vader escorted her into the palace, her walked straight to the turbo lift, the guards questioned him as to the identity of the person he was with but one look at Vader's mask silenced their curiosity. Both Vader and Padmé stepped into the turbo lift which shot up toward the throne room.

Padmé was silent on the ride there and remained that way right until Vader led her into his quarters and closed the door behind him, Padmé shed her many robes, under which she was simply wearing a light, white long-sleeved shirt and matching pants. Vader's quarters were quite bare, he had no use for furniture, all he ever came in there to do was enter his mediation pod whose entry was the door to the right of his living room, he had it specially installed there long ago, back when this place was just a simple suite Palpatine had set aside for him, in the living area there was only a sofa and a HoloNet screen. But there was one more door, it led to somewhat of a guest room, it was a place originally made for Vader but since he was so grievously injured and was made to bear that suit the room had gone unused, for the first time in almost eighteen years he opened it. Padmé went in first.

Inside was a bed with black velvet coverings and a door which led to a closet and a fresher. The door closed behind Vader as he entered, Padmé sat down on the bed, Vader could feel the slight anger swirling around her.

"Padmé…"

"Anakin?"

"I am called Darth Vader now."

"I know what you're called. I also know what is going through your mind now."

"You do?"

"You want to know how exactly I am alive."

"Yes…"

"After I gave birth Luke and Leia were taken from me, I nearly died and Obi-wan thought it best I go into hiding that is my simple story."

"Why didn't you find me?"

"Because if you knew I was alive you would know our children were alive and Obi-wan convinced me that was bad. I know what you did Anakin."

"You corrupted our son to your ways, you corrupted my son and you killed our only daughter my daughter!"

"Leia was a threat…"

"Don't try and explain it Anakin… don't."

"Padmé if there was any way I could bring Leia back I would. I am truly sorry for all the things I've done, but it's all been about you, I wanted to protect you and when you died I was lost. Why did you come back Padmé?"

"Because after what you did to our daughter I felt I had to, and then I learned you corrupted our son, I came back because I wanted to stop you."

"What can I do Padmé?"

"You need to destroy the Empire." Padmé said simply. "That means you must destroy these Loyalists and restore the Republic once they are gone."

"What ever happened to diplomacy?"

"It died with Leia." Padmé replied icily. "And Anakin you must stop, you're a good person, turn away from the dark side!"

Vader sighed, he stood there for a long moment thinking.

"You're right Padmé, I have to redeem myself for my past… the first step will be to take off this armor I need to break all my ties with the dark side and this armor…"

"How can you do that? I know what happened on Mustafar."

"I've been considering it ever since I suspected you were alive." Vader said, he pulled something from his pouch, the pendant Padmé had abandoned to a droid which had put it on his floor. "This is yours."

Padmé put it on once more. "This I've kept to remind me that there is still good in you."

"When I found out you were alive I thought about how I would heal myself."

"Don't do it for me, do it because you want to break all ties with the dark side."

"Alright, but I've been considering it, it would be possible for Coruscanti surgeons to replace my body parts, but I need new organs… I am going to call in my doctor."

XxX

Doctor Sergio (yes, this is actually his name) was a bit surprised at the call from Vader, yes he had of course been called to treat his master hundreds of times but never once in his private quarters, he had never even been in Vader's throne room and he didn't know anyone who had. He reached the door to Vader's quarters and hesitated, and then he knocked three times. The door almost immediately opened and the doctor stepped in. He found himself facing Lord Vader, he bowed hastily.

"Rise Sergio, follow me." Vader commanded.

"Yes milord. " Sergio said, he was surprised when Vader led him in the guest bedroom, there he saw a woman sitting on the black bed, she smiled in greeting and he nearly fainted when he realized just who the woman he was looking at was.

"You're Padmé Amidala! You're dead!"

"Clearly not doctor." Vader said. "Padmé's existence must be kept confidential, even from my son, do you understand?"

"Yes milord I understand."

"You are probably wondering why I called you here."

"Yes I am sir."

"I have a theory on how I can be healed, I will need cloned organs such as lungs a better digestive system and a new voice box and vocal cords. I believe Coruscanti surgeons would be up to the task of healing me given the proper organs."

"Well yes sir, I suppose this is a theoretical possibility and a strong one, but cloning was forbidden after the Clone Wars, where would we get new organs."

"I can answer that." Padmé said. "The Kaminoans, they are expert cloners."

"The Kaminoans will never do business with us." Sergio said. "Never, they don't support our Empire."

"I'll pay them well, get them on a line, make sure it is secure, there have been a number of hacks on our computer mainframe."

"Yes milord, right away."

XxX

Vader bowed as respectfully as he could to a static filled image of a Kaminoan that sprang up on the holo projector in his quarters. Sergio and Padmé were just out of view of the camera.

"Greetings Emperor Vader," The Kaminoan said dully and somewhat coldly. "My name is Lama Su, I am the prime minister of Kamino."

Vader raised what was left of his eyebrows in a bit of surprise, Lama Su had been prime minister for a long time now.

"Greetings Lama Su. I will get right down to business."

"I would… appreciate that."

"I need several cloned organs."

"May I inquire as to why?"

"No."

"I don't make it a habit of doing business with your… government Lord Vader." Lama Su said.

"I will pay you nine hundred thousand credits." Vader said.

"That is a generous offer for mere cloned organs. I will take it, for whom will we be cloning these organs?"

"You will keep this confidential Prime Minister Lama Su or my offer will die and so will your illegal business. You are cloning the organs to me, my file is being sent to you on a secure line now."

"Very well Lord Vader, we will begin cloning immediately, we will use our hyper growth acceleration technique which we can slow down to a normal acceleration once the organs reach the proper age, we will contact you when we are finished and arrange delivery, please wire our credits to the account number we are sending you."

"Of course Prime Minister, it was a pleasure doing business with you."

"Good day Lord Vader." Lama Su said, Vader noted he failed to return the "it was a pleasure doing business with you" comment.

"Is there anything else you need today milord?" Sergio asked.

"No, you are dismissed doctor."

Sergio left rather hastily, Vader turned to Padmé.

"For now we must keep you existence a complete secret, even from our son Padmé, we need to wait until I am healed, I can keep you safe then."

"You could keep me safe now Anakin, even though I don't need you for that. What's the real reason you don't want Luke to know?"

"I'm not ready to tell him Padmé… I'm not sure he will be as willing to leave the ways of the Sith as I am."

"Why not?"

"He loves an assassin."

"Mara Jade."

"Yes, how do you know?"

"You have a computer in your guest room Anakin, and your password to your user account was not that hard to guess, you'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine."

"I wish that were so Padmé, I can never redeem myself for what I've done."

"Yes you can, I'm here to help you and I can if you let me."

"We're in this together again I guess…"

"Yes, we're in this together… Anakin."

Anakin… that might be a name Padmé was willing to christen him with, but he knew deep in the center of his heart, encircled by a slowly melting glacier of black ice that he could never allow himself that name, not even after he rectified what he had done and restored the Republic because even that would never be enough to set him free… to redeem him.

I hope this chapter wasn't boring.