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Chapter 20

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Vader's Flag Ship Exactor - Month Twenty Three, Day Thirty One PEF

Vader's time with the rogues took far less than even he'd suspected. Asajj was dispatched to deal with them personally, a task she was more than relishing as part of the intelligence they had on the rogues they sought implicated Jedi assistance. Leaving Asajj to her new toy, Vader returned to his quarters, stopping only to speak briefly with the guards posted outside the doors before ducking inside.

Padmé was nowhere to be found - once again - and the door to the 'fresher was still closed. The sound of the shower could no longer be heard, but whatever she was doing, Vader knew without a doubt part of this ruse was another way of her showing her displeasure. A way of her taking back some form of control in a situation where she had none.

Little did Vader know that behind the 'fresher door, Padmé stood with her back braced against it, staring at her reflection. The wan, drawn and pale creature looking back at her was a stranger, only the fire in her own brown orbs even remotely familiar. Vader had caught her off guard the night before with his high handed tactics. To be fair, she'd caught him off guard too - with her knee. A smug smile lit her features, but even as it crossed her lips, the twinge of guilt that had been nagging her all morning about that particular act reared its ugly head.

Deserving or not, crippling Vader wasn't on her agenda; she simply wanted him dead. A quick, painless execution for his crimes. She knew far too many people who would have preferred to see him maimed and suffering, but the previous night had unwittingly reminded her that Vader had already been maimed - many times - and she had no wish to cause another. His death, however... she had to kill him, if she didn't, she'd be his prisoner forever.

Of course, that round about logic reminded her once more of just how she'd become his prisoner and the sick feeling of betrayal had returned. Asajj had been working for Vader; for a man they both claimed to despise - only Asajj apparently didn't as much as she'd claimed. They'd been working together for a year... a whole blasted year; didn't Asajj have any kind of loyalty? They'd been through so much, risked their very lives for one another and this... this captivity by the very man Asajj had vowed to help Padmé kill was so ludicrous it was almost laughable.

Or would have been if Padmé hadn't been so very aware of her circumstances. Vader was Asajj's Master; she'd made that clear upon their arrival - but had Asajj been his apprentice all along or was it a recent development? If so, how recent - or had Asajj been playing her for a fool from the start? The idea that she could have been so blind to Asajj's duplicity from the beginning drove her from the 'fresher with a need to know the answers.

Asajj wouldn't be available for her to speak with - and the Force Adept wouldn't likely want to speak with her since she was now Vader's prisoner - but her captor had the answers she needed. Unlocking the door, she palmed it open and searched the suite, confident Vader would be nearby. He seemed disinclined to leave her a moment to herself and the reprieve she'd obtained by commandeering his 'fresher wouldn't last.

Despite the fact he had the answers she needed, the idea was distasteful. She wanted nothing to do with him and only necessity drove her to seek him out. As it was, she was in a foul mood from lack of sleep - she hadn't been able to sleep well for long - and Vader's little performance before she'd retired to the 'fresher had only made her more irritable.

Locating his broad shoulders - now cloaked in black from neck to toe - were more in line with her thoughts of Vader. Vader did not walk around in nothing but a pair of sleep shorts! The thought only blackened her mood further as she strode across the room towards the kitchenette where he was occupied doing something she couldn't see.

Stopping well out of his reach, she crossed her arms over her chest and spat the words at his back. "How long has Asajj been your apprentice?"

Vader continued to do whatever so occupied him at the small island in the kitchenette and Padmé taped her toe impatiently, glaring at the back of his head. "I know you heard me, Lord Vader."

Straightening to his full height, Vader slowly turned to face her, amusement written all over his features as he took in her still disheveled appearance. His words were patronizing. "I see a shower's done little to improve your disposition, perhaps if you'd actually used it..."

"Just answer my question." She sneered, ignoring the jibe. "How long has Asajj been your apprentice?!"

"About four or five months."

Her jaw went slack, her eyes widening in surprise as the room seemed to spin once and then stop, her throat closing as her chest contracted. Her breath left her in a silent whoosh as the words struck her like a physical blow. Four or five months. The knowledge was inconceivable, like being spoken to in a language one didn't understand - and yet the meaning was clear. Struggling with the information, she struggled to breathe. Her friend, her ally had been working for her worst enemy.

Vader's tone lost some of its patronizing edge. He was back in control of the situation and himself, attributing his lapse first thing that morning to lack of sleep. "Yes, unlike the year or so she's been working with you, Asajj has been working for me a much shorter time. A double agent. I don't know if that was smart on her part or suicide."

His words sank in, his tone almost lost to her as she struggled with the revelation. Asajj had been the person she'd trusted the most - aside from Max - in her organization. Asajj had planned, schemed and toiled with her, beside her, for months to kill Vader. Except lately, the Adept had been as reclusive as when Padmé and she had first joined forces. Asajj distancing herself from Padmé because she'd known the cost of her continued apprenticeship was Padmé's surrender?

And, in that moment, Padmé was blindsided by the truth - a truth she should have seen from the beginning but had discounted because she'd trusted Asajj. The Force Adept's strange behavior the last several months, the sudden arrival and departures for missions and her sudden and intimate knowledge of Imperial targets. Feeling sick to her stomach, Padmé turned away, unable to watch Vader gloat over a naiveté she'd thought to have long ago out grown.

"That explains it." The words slipped out, softly echoing the renewed pain of a betrayal she should have seen coming from a mile away - all the warning signs had been there.

Vader leaned his hip against the island and watched the realization dawn on Padmé's features as he idly tapped one finger against the solid counter top. Her brow furrowed as she sought to make sense of it, to rationalize it, and though she'd turned away, he could still watch her profile. The silence that fell with her whispered words - whatever she'd said it wasn't important - was damming in of itself. Padmé's horror at having been so thoroughly duped was obvious.

"It must be difficult knowing someone you trusted turned on you."

Turning with a glare, Padmé pinned him with a hateful look, her confusion disappearing under the force of her anger. The demand that left her lips impressed him almost as much as the spirit with which she said it. "How'd you do it? How'd you get Asajj to work for you? She hates you; she wants you dead!"

A wicked gleam appeared in his eyes - a gleam she didn't entirely understand. "I'm well aware of that. She's made it clear to me on more than one occasion." The slight shrug of his shoulders was almost disgustingly nonchalant. "It was easy. I told her to work for me - help me find you - and the Jedi Hunter, or she'd be begging for death by the time I was through with her. Her life obviously means something to her."

Padmé's head jerked as if she'd been slapped and when she spoke, she was certain Vader could hear her teeth grinding together "And mine doesn't! She's been waiting all this time for the right moment to turn me over to you."

"I wouldn't quite say that."

"That's exactly what you just said," Padmé's glare turned icy.

"On the contrary. It wasn't until this past month that she told me she was working with you and why. I think she had every intention of keeping that bit of information from me and keeping my search for you ongoing until I'd had enough and killed her." Vader left his perch and stepped towards her, the honesty of his gaze pinning her in place. "I think she would have kept this little "secret" of hers if she hadn't found out you're the Jedi Hunter. She never would have 'turned you over to me' as you put it. You were your own undoing, Padmé."

"I was doing fine." Spinning away, she stepped away from him and his sickening display of honesty.

Vader had no reason to lie to her and her own senses collaborated with his words to scream that it was nothing but the truth. Her own common sense told her he was right, it was why Asajj had never been allowed to know about the rescue operations she planned for the Jedi. Asajj wouldn't - couldn't - have condoned their continued existence even if it was a way to get under Vader's skin.

Still... until Asajj had learned of it, she'd tried to protect her from Vader. The Force Adept had led him away, kept her safe and directed her out of his path, knowingly in a way to keep Padmé oblivious to his nearness - and the danger he'd presented. Asajj could very easily have blown her cover on that last mission - but she hadn't. Why? It was within the timeframe where she would have known Padmé was the Jedi Hunter.

Vader simply watched her pace as she moved towards the viewport and around the room without seeing it. Her turmoil was obvious as she questioned the very foundation of a relationship as strange as it was twisted. Asajj would have eventually betrayed her, he knew - but she didn't seem to think it would have been possible. Shattering her idealistic views of his apprentice was turning out to be more enjoyable than he'd anticipated.

Padmé continued to reel with the information, unconscious pacing about the room as she struggled with the information that Vader had presented her with. Asajj working for Vader - it seemed... impossible. If he'd never found her, if he'd never recruited her as a double agent, Asajj wouldn't have found out about her clandestine activities. She would have been able to keep the Force Adept in the dark until she'd brought her around to accepting the continued existence of the Jedi was worth the grievance it would cause Vader.

If Asajj hadn't discovered her role as the Jedi Hunter, would she have turned Padmé over to Vader or would she, as Vader suggested, have continued delighting in knowing she was thwarting him at every turn by keeping him away from her? Padmé didn't know - and likely never would - as Asajj's choice had been made. Yet, something still nagged at her. Turning back towards Vader, she moved closer to ask for yet another piece in the puzzle that was Asajj's treachery.

"Where did you find her? How?"

Vader's smile turned nasty, his eyes gleaming with the memory. "JZ7. My Master had Imperial spies track her there. She was trying to destroy the mining operation. But then I'm sure you know that."

JZ7. Padmé remembered it well - not because of Asajj's failure to destroy the mining operation, but because of the injury she'd returned with and her evasive answers as to how she'd obtained it. It had marked the resurgence of Asajj's "old friend" - who was undoubtedly Vader - and the beginning of Asajj's strange behavior. Days, followed by weeks and then months of evasive, suspicious behavior; all because it had been Vader.

Behavior that, in retrospect, could be seen as a form of protection... in its own warped sort of way. In some ways, Asajj's reluctance to reveal the identity of her "old friend" made perfect sense. If Padmé hadn't known Asajj was in contact with Vader, and Vader hadn't known she was working with Padmé, it placed Asajj as a balance point. Knowing both sides, knowing the intelligence of each operation had allowed Asajj to counsel her better than she'd ever known possible. It had given Asajj power, and more importantly, it revealed that Asajj hadn't betrayed her at all in the beginning. Asajj had controlled her fate from the moment she'd begun working for Vader... and Padmé herself had blown it, handing the Force Adept the excuse she'd needed to tip that balance.

Shaky legs carried her to the nearby sofa, collapsing as she sat heavily upon it. Bracing her elbows on her knees, she cradled her head in her hands, struggling to come to terms with everything she'd learned in the last twenty four hours. Everything Asajj had revealed and everything Vader had willingly supplied. It made her head spin, unaware of the slightly dejected pose she cast as she sought some kind of absolution and finding none.

Asajj's betrayal had been inevitable from the moment she'd discovered Padmé was the Jedi Hunter.

Sitting there, knowing Vader stood nearby and watched her struggle, gave her no room to think. It was like being under a microscope - like the room was pressing down on her, threatening to suffocate her with its oppressive nature. Despite that, she stared ahead without really seeing the floor under her feet and instead seeing and hearing everything Asajj had said or done since JZ7 - with the knowledge she had now, it made a terrifying kind of sense.

Booted feet entered her view followed by a pair of muscular thighs as long legs bent to kneel, one knee on the ground, in front of her. But it was his voice, smoothly deliberate but faintly mocking, which brought her head up. "I thought you of all people would have known better than to team up with Asajj."

There was an amused sparkle in his blue eyes and she glared daggers at him. Damn him for finding this so amusing. "She has the same goals I do. Why not team up if it meant your destruction?"

Padmé wasn't prepared for the small, amused half-smile that crossed his lips - the one she carried close to her heart. It was that smile she often saw in her dreams - a smile Anakin had always saved just for her. To see it on Vader's lips, with those familiar blue eyes watching her so intently, was like being in the throes of his Force grip once again. The image wasn't spoiled by his semi-teasing reply - Anakin had loved to tease her while using that smile - but by the words he chose to use.

"It's your own fault she betrayed you. And I would have thought that, after everything that happened with her," he tapped the scar by his eye, "you would have stayed away from her."

"How dare you."

"You're my wife." His mild reprimand held an undercurrent she didn't understand. "Whom you spend your time with reflects on me."

Padmé surged to her feet, nearly knocking Vader over as she did and forcing him to move hastily back or end up sprawled on the carpet. Pushing past him, she took two deliberate steps away before rounding on him once more. Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her whole frame shaking from the force of her anger. "You presume to dictate what company I should keep when your choice companions are thieves and murderers?"

Rising to his feet, Vader regarded her with a feigned tolerance, his eyes glittering with repressed amusement. "I'm sure your organization is full of grandmothers and saints. Which category does Asajj fall under, hmm? I can hardly see her as the motherly type considering her actions during the war."

Stung, she lashed back. "What happened during the war doesn't matter anymore to you than it does to me. You were a different person then; a Jedi, remember? It was your duty to protect the Republic and Asajj was on the other side. Now you're just the Emperor's enforcer and while Asajj still sees you as an enemy, so do I. Why not team up with someone who knows firsthand what it's like to fight you and try and kill you? Then you had to go and ruin everything by forcing her to become your apprentice!"

Vader laughed lightly and shook his head at her irate logic. "You ruined it for yourself, Padmé. I had nothing to do with it."

"Don't stand there and tell me-"

The door hissed open, cutting off whatever she'd been about to say and drawing her attention from her captor. A droid she didn't recognize shuffled inside pushing a covered hover cart and the smell of whatever was under the dish made Padmé's mouth water. A quick look beyond the droid to the open doorway revealed what she feared; Vader had set a watch and Stormtroopers wearing Anakin's old colors flanked the door. A disgruntled look crossed her features as she mentally revised her plans for a quick escape. Vader, damn him, knew she would try and was making it a task more difficult than anticipated.

Vader's smile was easy as he headed towards the droid and followed it into the kitchenette. "Ah, good, breakfast. I was wondering how long before our food arrived." He looked back at Padmé and cocked his head at her, noting that she was taking in the details of the guards just as she was examining him and the droid. His wife missed little. "Come eat; I'm sure you're hungry."

"I'll eat later. There's no way in hell I'm sitting down and sharing a meal with you."

Amusement and anger warred within him as he stared at the determined set of her jaw; it was a look he remembered well and one he'd seen many a time on the HoloNet broadcasts during the war. Stalking towards her menacingly, he hoped to intimidate her into cooperating, but she stood her ground, glaring at him with such animosity his own expression darkened. Towering above her in a show of male dominance he spoke softly and succinctly so not to be misunderstood. "You will sit down and eat with me. You are my wife. Your place is here, by my side."

Padmé's glare turned as haughty and regal as he'd ever seen her as she drew herself up and dared to challenge him. "Make me."

Their gazes locked, blue warring with brown for a charged moment before Vader lost his patience. Grabbing her upper arm in a vice like grip, he spun her around and dragged her towards the kitchenette. Padmé attempted to dodge the high-handed action, but Vader was too quick. Struggling against his hold, she pried at his fingers with her free hand, her nails leaving small red marks on the back of his hand. His fingers dug into her bicep and pain lanced into her shoulder, radiating outwards as her arm was jerked none to gently forward.

"Stop it!" She leveled him with an accusatory look. "You're hurting me!"

Unexpectedly, Vader released her immediately, causing her to stumble. Regaining her balance she was pushed immediately off of it once more by the implacable man behind her as he shoved her the last two steps into the kitchenette. "Go."

He made no apology, nor did he try to explain his actions as she checked her forward momentum. Padmé rubbed her upper arm as she straightened, glancing back to find that Vader now stood in the doorway. His gaze was on her face as he braced his feet apart and crossed his arms over his chest. His mechanical hand - once again gloved in the black sheath he wore continuously - tapped a beat with the index finger against his opposite elbow.

Glaring at him, she squared her shoulders and tilted her chin stubbornly.

"Sit down."

The order in his mild tone was unmistakable and Padmé was disinclined to listen to it. Instead, she turned, finding the droid was still busy at the island where Vader had been standing when they'd begun this discussion, serving up the food it had brought. The table settings were widely placed - too far and too un-even for a droid to have put them down. That's what Vader had been doing - setting the table. Refusing to feel touched by the gesture when he was being so high handed, she turned her attention instead to the food.

The delicious aromas wafting from the plates made her stomach rumble and growl, reminding her it had been a long time since breakfast the previous morning. A lifetime. As she watched, the droid finished dishing up two plates and then placed the remnants on the table, the bowls sitting between the plates. Shuffling away, the droid took itself, the cart and the empty food dishes away.

Padmé still didn't sit, and she didn't look at him, her gaze riveted to the feast that was supposed to be their breakfast - if she deigned to eat with him.

Vader, as if sensing her thoughts, informed her flatly. "Sit down. You are going to eat with me and that's final."

Acquiescing to his order, she moved towards the island and the taller of the two stools, irritably noting Vader would still be between her and the door. Sliding it back, she was finally forced to turn and face him and issued a quantifier for her cooperation. "Fine. But don't talk to me. There's nothing more I have to say to you."

The triumphant gleam in Vader's eyes went unnoticed and he smiled and inclined his head, waiting for her to sit. "If that's what you want."

"What I want is to be off of this ship and as far away from you as possible." 'And,' she added silently, 'with Max.'

Her words dimmed his smile, but instead of reacting to her as she'd expected, Vader stepped further into the room and placed his hands on the island counter top, flattening them with deliberate moves as he leaned towards her. If she'd harbored any illusions as to being allowed her freedom, his firm, carefully annunciated answer would have quashed it. "That's not happening." Like lightning, his tone turned teasing and just a bit cocky. "And I thought you said there was nothing more you had to say to me?"

Unwilling to rise to the bait, Padmé shot him a murderous look before turning her attention to the food on her plate. Not waiting for Vader to join her and ignoring the arrogantly amused expression on his face, she lifted her fork and dug in.

The tense silence between them remained unbroken by all but the sounds of cutlery on dishware and Padmé tapping the finger nails of her left hand on the surface of the island. Using those as distractions, her gaze remained covertly glued to the entry way as she searched for a way to dash out and away from Vader - for a way to find her freedom - at the earliest possible moment.

"You know if you try and leave I'll be able to stop you." His mild assessment of the situation drew her gaze back to him. "Just enjoy your breakfast."

He was enjoying this, damn him. Vader was enjoying having her at his mercy and lording over her. He was nothing like her husband and for that she was grateful. Vader had no compunction about using the Force on her - as he'd demonstrated - and would be able to stop her before she'd gotten out of her seat. Seething in silence, she ignored the dark presence across the table from her and turned her attention back to her plate, her mind going over everything she'd learned about Asajj once more.

Asajj was Vader's apprentice.

The thought was mind boggling and disheartening. Any thought she might have entertained at enlisting the Force Adept's help to escape finally died, washed away by reality. Asajj had betrayed her, but only after discovering Padmé's betrayal - her lies by omission. Vader was right; she'd brought this on herself for not trusting Asajj with the truth. On her own, behind enemy lines and captured by the very man whose death she actively sought, Padmé acknowledged that the outlook for escape seemed grim.

But she couldn't and wouldn't give up. Not yet. While Vader's prisoner she was unable to search for her children and that was all the reason she needed.