CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Anakin had trouble sleeping that night. He kept tossing and turning, waking up his wife numerous times.

"Ani, what's wrong?" A groggy Padmé Amidala asked.

Anakin sighed, lying on his back. "I don't know… I keep having weird dreams."

"What is it this time?"

Anakin stared up at the ceiling. He didn't want to alarm her, but he thought he was having dreams about…Vader.

"I don't know," he lied.

Padmé gave a sympathetic smile and stroked her husband's hair. She readjusted her covers and went back to sleep. Anakin closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind from everything…

The pain felt so real.

Anakin clutched at his stomach, kneeling over. How was it possible to feel so much pain? The pain spread to every inch of his body that he couldn't feel anything anymore.

He looked up once more to face the monster who did this to him.

"I'm going to kill you, Anakin Skywalker," the tall man in the shadows said, wielding his red lightsaber over Anakin.

Anakin squinted his eyes, looking up, trying to get a better glimpse of the man before he passed out. He was tall, pale, and had piercing yellow eyes that glowed in the dark of the night.

"I thought you were my friend," Anakin managed to gasp, clutching his stomach even tighter. He could no longer breathe and then collapsed on the floor.

Anakin shot up in his bed one last time that night. He looked to his right and saw Padmé still sleeping. It was useless to go back to bed now; dawn was approaching.

Anakin swung his legs over the bed and put his head in his hands. His nightmare felt so cold and so real. Was it an omen?

He got up from the bed and went to the refresher.

Anakin was still in the shower when Padmé woke up, so she just went downstairs in her night robe to make breakfast for the twins.

A few minutes later, Luke and Leia came down and sat at the table.

Padmé sat down too once all the food was on the table. She smiled at her children and then picked up her fork. She stared at her food, not really hungry.

"You look tired." Leia stated.

Padmé smiled up at her daughter, "Well, someone kept me awake all night."

Luke looked up at Padmé incredulously, "You heard it too?"

Padmé frowned, "Heard what?"

"Luke," Leia interjected, rolling her eyes, "for the last time, nobody was screaming last night. I would have heard it, I'm a light sleeper."

Luke rolled his eyes and continued eating.

Padmé looked in the direction of the stairwell, "No, it definitely wasn't screaming. I'm talking about your father."

"Ew, Mom," Leia said disgustedly, putting her fork down, "we don't need to know about that."

Padmé gave her daughter a strange and uncomfortable look while Luke just chuckled, "Way to jump to the wrong conclusion."

Padmé shook her head, "Really, Leia."

Leia reddened, embarrassed.

Before anyone could say anything more, Anakin walked down to the table. "Are you two ready?"

Leia nodded and got up to get her bag. Luke just stared up at Anakin, knowing that Anakin was holding back on something.

"You're right." Anakin said, overhearing his thoughts. "I need to ask you something."

"I really hate it when you do that."

"Sorry," Anakin said, glancing at his wrist chrono. "You still have some time before you need to get to school."

Luke nodded. Anakin gestured for him to go to the living room and sit down. Anakin sat down in front of him.

"This has been bothering me all night…" Anakin began.

Luke looked up at his father. He seemed very tired with bags under his eyes. Padmé was apparently affected by it too.

"Couldn't sleep?" Luke guessed.

Anakin shook his head, "No, I could sleep. I just couldn't stay asleep. I—" he sighed, "I know this sounds childish, but it was because of nightmares."

Luke tried not to smile. The fact that a Jedi Master was coming up to Luke to tell him he couldn't sleep because of nightmares was almost surreal.

"Not just any nightmares… I think they were prophetic ones." Anakin explained.

"About Vader." It wasn't a question.

Anakin gave a nod.

Luke nodded slowly, "What about him?"

Anakin shrugged, "I don't know, different things. And the thing is, I've never met the man before. So, I'm not sure if I'm even drawing up the correct images in my mind. It's just… It's weird."

"He's tall, wears a lot of black," Luke described. "Short, jet black hair. Well, I don't know. Maybe in your dreams you saw it longer. He used to grow his hair out a little fuller when he was president. It was kind of curly."

"Yeah, it was—" Anakin paused, "Wait, what?"

"What?" Luke asked.

Padmé—who had been sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of hot chocolate, eavesdropping on Luke and Anakin's conversation—stood up. She walked into the living room and sat next to Luke, across from her husband. She sat her mug down on the coffee table in front of them and smiled at Luke.

"Honey, who are you talking about now?" Padmé said a little too sweetly.

Luke, who was now used to being totally creeped out by Padmé, just frowned.

Anakin looked up at his wife, "Um, we're still talking about Vader, dear."

Padmé gave a nervous chuckle, "No, I mean the president. Which president are you talking about? President of what?"

Luke looked in between Padmé and Anakin, confused. He spoke slowly, "Vader."

Anakin sat back in his seat. He took a very deep breath and then exhaled.

Padmé's eye twitched, "Yes, but obviously he wouldn't go by the name Vader, right Luke?"

Luke nodded slowly, "He didn't go by Darth Vader, of course not."

Padmé smiled and nodded her head, "Alright, good. For a moment there I thought you were talking about Malek Vader, the president of Corellia."

Luke frowned at Padmé.

Padmé just chuckled, "I guess Vader is a common name."

Luke continued to frown, "No, I am talking about Malek Vader. That's his first name."

Anakin rubbed his eyes, "How could the Dark Lord of the Sith hold a public office and the Jedi not know about it?"

"Uh, wouldn't be the first time."

The look on Padmé's face was of complete and utter shock, "How is this possible? He was my friend…"

Anakin raised his eyebrows.

Luke sighed, "Are you kidding me right now? How did you guys not know that he was the president? I mean, I thought that once I told you I lived on Corellia with a guy named Vader, you would make the connection!"

Anakin and Padmé glanced at each other. Padmé just groaned and stood up and started pacing.

"This is so…" Padmé said through clenched teeth. Luke never saw her so angry before.

"I can't believe this!" Padmé exclaimed, "First Palpatine, then Piett, now this?"

Luke frowned up at Padmé, "Wait, you were actually friends with Vader?"

"How could this…" Her voice cracked.

Luke stared at Padmé incredulously. "Well then he obviously must have tried recruiting you to join his cause if he was your friend."

Anakin frowned at Luke, "What do you mean? I thought you once said Vader used to be a Jedi."

Luke nodded.

"And then he quit, right?" Anakin continued.

Luke nodded.

"So obviously he hates the Jedi. I mean, he's a Sith…" Anakin speculated.

Luke nodded, "That's right." He looked up at Padmé who was still pacing around in the same spot in the living room, "He probably tried making friends with you until he found out you were married to a Jedi."

Padmé stopped and then nodded at Luke, "Oh, yes. That makes sense. He did seem rather distant after Palpatine died…"

Anakin stood up, "Obi-Wan is here."

Padmé frowned and looked over to the direction of the landing platform, "He is?"

Just a moment later, the three could see Obi-Wan's starfighter land on the landing pad. The Jedi within jumped out and ran to the door.

Leia, who was in the kitchen and near the door, got up and let the Jedi Master in. "Hello, Master Kenobi."

Obi-Wan glanced down at Leia distractedly, "Hello, Leia." He bolted into the living room, in a hurry to speak with Anakin and Padmé.

Leia frowned and followed him, increasingly curious on what was going on.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan began, gasping for breath, "I stayed up all night reading into this. Did you know that—"

"Darth Vader is actually Malek Vader, yes we just found out." Anakin finished for him.

Obi-Wan frowned, "How?"

Anakin and Padmé both looked at Luke.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow, "How come you didn't tell us?"

Luke's jaw dropped, "I thought you guys knew!"

Padmé bit her lip, not able to come to terms with her own ignorance yet still not wanting to believe it.

Obi-Wan sighed, "I found all sorts of articles about him on the HoloNet. He was a really famous president, the people really loved him."

Luke rolled his eyes and sat down on the couch again.

Obi-Wan continued, "He was basically responsible for changing the entire Corellian government into his own regime."

Leia walked up to Anakin, interrupting Obi-Wan's account. "Dad, if we don't leave right now we are going to miss the first bell!"

Anakin nodded, not really paying attention to Leia, "Ask if you can get a ride with Winter."

"She already left!" Leia cried.

Anakin sighed, "Ask Threepio to take you."

Leia stared at Anakin, dumbfounded. "You trust a droid to fly your only daughter through Coruscant rush hour traffic?"

Anakin groaned, "Fine, get in the speeder." He looked back at Obi-Wan, "I'll be right back."

Luke began to follow Anakin and Leia until Anakin turned around, "Luke, stay here for now."

Luke huffed and went back to the living room; so much for using school as an escape from the Jedi…