Forty-eight
Coruscant
Padmé was excited and surprised to hear from her sister the very next morning. Sola had accepted the invitation and was on her way to the capital. She must really be worried about me, Padmé reflected as she went to join her children at breakfast.
"I have some exciting news," Padmé told them as she sat down. "Your Aunt Sola is coming to visit."
"That's awesome!" Leia said with a smile. "Is she going to bring her daughters with her?"
"No, the girls are in school like you are," she told them. "But maybe when the holidays come we can go to Naboo to visit them."
"Do you think Dad would come too?" Luke asked.
Somehow I doubt it, Padmé thought. "I wouldn't count on it, Luke," she said. "Speaking of your Dad, just what were the two of you thinking last night going against my wishes so blatantly?"
Luke and Leia looked at one another, hoping that their mother had forgotten the entire incident. No such luck.
"I'm sorry, Mom," Leia spoke up. "It was my idea. I talked Luke into it."
Padmé looked at her daughter. "I'm surprised at you, Leia," she told her. "And more than a little disappointed."
Leia lowered her eyes, mortified. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.
"I think the two of you are grounded from using the holonet for the next few days," Padmé told them. Luke looked askance, and was about to protest when Padmé continued. "It may have been Leia's idea, but you followed right along," she told him. "Guilty by association."
Luke closed his mouth, knowing better to argue.
"Now go and get ready for school," she told them. "Han will be up any minute to collect you."
The twins did as they were told, each of them a little shamefaced for having defied their mother so blatantly.
Padmé watched them leave, her first trial as a disciplinarian over with. Was I too harsh with them? Too lenient? Do they think I'm unfair, or a pushover? She worried, wishing that their father was around to see what he thought. He'd been their parent nearly a month before she came into their lives, and seemed to have the whole discipline thing down pat. But if I ask him, then I'm admitting that I need him, she reminded herself as she picked up the breakfast dishes; and I can't do that.
"Captain Kassel," Padmé said as she walked into Vader's office.
Kassel looked up from the computer screen. "Yes Milady? Can I do something for you?"
"My sister is arriving this morning on a transport from Naboo," she told him. "I'd like to go and meet her."
"I'd be happy to take you, Milady," he replied, subtly insinuating himself into her plans. "What time is she due to arrive?"
Padmé checked her wrist chrono. "In about an hour," she told him.
"With rush hour traffic it will take us that long just to get there," he told her.
"In that case, let's get going," she said.
"After you, Milady."
Star Destroyer Exactor
"What do you mean, he left you with instructions?" Captain Ozzel demanded. "I'm the captain of this vessel, Piett, not you!"
Piett nodded, feeling quite awkward. "Yes sir, I am well aware of that sir," he replied. "I am only relaying what Lord Vader told me to tell you," he repeated for what seemed the fiftieth time. "He is not to be disturbed until we reach the drive yards."
Ozzel scowled petulantly. He had always suspected that Vader favored Piett, and now he knew it for certain. "Well perhaps I will just take this matter up with Lord Vader," he said, walking off the bridge. "After all, he is the only man on this ship I take orders from," he added snidely.
Piett thought about warning him, but decided it would be a waste of time, and simply returned to his station.
Vader had been in his quarters since returning from Kamino, not wishing his men to see him in his weakened state. Alone in his hyperbaric chamber he could get the rest he needed, unfettered by the mask he had come to loathe. Of course, sitting in the exact duplicate of the chamber he had in his home on Coruscant harkened to mind the extraordinary events that had transpired inside that very pod only a few short days ago. Try as he might, Vader could not stem the flood of memories and sensations that filled his mind…
"Are you all right?" he asked Padmé .
"I'm better than all right," she smiled, looking back at him. She looked around the pod. "Oxygen enriched atmosphere?" she asked.
"Yes," he told her as his hands moved up to caress her. "It won't hurt you," he assured her.
"I'm not worried," she assured him, leaning back to be closer to him. But the controls on his chest pressed into her back, and she moved away. "Sorry," she said.
Vader felt badly, and kissed her shoulder. "No, I'm sorry," he said, kissing down her back. Padmé closed her eyes with a smile. "I always loved it when you kissed me there," she told him.
"You loved it no matter where I kissed you," he told her, kissing along her spine.
Padmé laughed. "Yes, you're right," she sighed.
"Lord Vader…Lord Vader I must speak with you."
Vader's musings were rudely interrupted by the rather irritating voice of Captain Ozzel. He lowered his helmet, prepared to make the thoughtless officer pay for the interruption.
"What is it, Ozzel?" Vader demanded as he came mask to face with the captain.
"Sir, Lieutenant Piett had the audacity to tell me that you had given him …"
"And you had the audacity to interrupt me when I specifically left word not to do so," he told Ozzel angrily.
"But my lord, Piett is an underling, surely…"
Ozzel wasn't able to finish the sentence, for he found himself hurled against the far wall. The bulkhead crumpled under the impact, and Ozzel's broken body slumped to the floor.
Vader turned in his chair to the comscreen and hailed the bridge. Piett's face appeared at once.
"Piett, send a clean up crew down here," Vader told him.
Piett didn't need to ask why. "I did try to warn Captain Ozzel, my lord," he said.
"I'm sure you did," Vader replied. "Ozzel was an idiot. You're in command now, Captain."
Piett's eyebrows shot upward. "Thank you, Lord Vader!" he replied eagerly, quite surprised at being promoted.
"What is our ETA to Kuat?" Vader asked.
"Approximately six hours sir," Piett replied.
"Very well," Vader responded. "You have the bridge until then," he told his new captain.
"Yes sir," Piett replied. "I'll alert you when we arrive."
Vader turned off the transmission as a clean up crew entered his quarters. He watched them briefly as they hauled out the broken body of Ozzel and then closed the pod once more.
Coruscant
"Welcome to Coruscant," Padmé said as she embraced her sister. "I'm so happy you decided to come!"
"So am I," Sola replied. "You sounded like you needed someone to talk to, Padmé," she added, pulling back at looking at her sister.
Padmé nodded. "You're right," she said. "I do. Sola this is Jon Kassel," she said, indicating the ever faithful captain. "He's my bodyguard, chauffeur, protector, assistant…did I leave out anything, Captain?" she asked with a smile.
Kassel smiled. "Personal shopper?" he joked.
Padmé laughed. "Well, on occasion, perhaps," she replied. "This is my sister, Sola Naberrie," she told him, turning back to Sola.
"Nice to meet you, Captain," Sola said.
"Pleasure," Kassel replied. "Shall we get going?" he asked.
"Yes," Padmé said. "Let's go home."
Sola was rather quiet on the trip to Padmé's new home, for her sister was not what she expected. When Padmé had told her that Vader had found her and that she was now living with him, she expected to find Padmé depressed and angry. But she wasn't. Of course, Padmé had always been very good at hiding her true feelings. As a politician it had been a vital skill, and it was one she'd mastered.
"This is quite the place," Sola commented as they reached the complex. "I can't quite imagine someone living here alone," she added.
"I don't think anyone ever has," Padmé said. "There's an entire staff that inhabits the lower level."
"I see," Sola said as they stepped on the lift, having left Kassel to work on something in the hangar. "So where is Vader?" she asked.
"On a mission," Padmé replied. "I'm not entirely sure where, actually."
Sola nodded, watching her sister closely. "Please tell me he's not mistreating you," she said. "After Mustafar, I…"
"No, he's not," Padmé replied at once. "I'm sure he feels terrible about what happened there," she added, hoping she was right.
"Has he said so?" she asked. "Has he apologized?"
Padmé was silent for a moment, giving Sola her answer. "No, he hasn't," she said finally.
Sola shook her head. "Padmé, what are you doing here?" she asked. "You told me he wasn't holding you against your will. So why stay?"
Padmé frowned. "I can't believe you're asking me that," she replied. "Luke and Leia, they are my reasons. I've missed the first ten years of their lives, Sola," she continued. "And they've lived without their real parents for their entire lives. There is no where I'd rather be than right here, even if it means living with Darth Vader."
Sola nodded, watching her sister closely as they sat down in the living room. She looked different to her somehow; as though being with her children had rejuvenated her. Or was there more to it?
"Well you look wonderful," Sola said finally. "Motherhood definitely seems to be agreeing with you," she observed.
Padmé smiled. "I can't wait for you to meet them," she said. "They are so different, the two of them. I can't imagine how I lived without them so long," she told her sister. "We're truly a family now," she added.
"And where does Vader fit into this family?" Sola asked. "Exactly what is your relationship with him anyway?"
Padmé looked away for a moment, unsure how to answer the question. "It's…complicated," she said at last.
Sola frowned. "What do you mean, complicated?"
Padmé sighed. "We're not always on the best of terms," she told her sister. "In fact, we fight pretty frequently."
"That's not surprising," Sola commented. "Given the history between you two. You once told me, not that long ago, that you would hate him for the rest of your life, Padmé. You don't hate him, do you?"
"No, I don't," Padmé replied. "When I found out that Luke and Leia were alive, that he hadn't killed them when he…"
"Tried to kill you," Sola interjected. "Did you forget that? It's wonderful that the twins are alive, but that doesn't change the fact that he tried to kill you, Padmé. And he would have if Obi-Wan hadn't shown up when he had."
"I don't know if he would have," Padmé replied.
"The fact that he attacked you in the first place is bad enough, Padmé," Sola said.
Padmé stood up, growing annoyed by her sister's badgering. "What do you want me to say, Sola?" she asked. "What would you have me do? Sue him for custody? Just walk out and leave my children without their mother? Do you have a suggestion?"
Sola sighed, and then stood up. "I'm sorry," she said, coming over to her sister. "You're right, it's a complicated situation. And you're making the best of it as only you can."
"I'm trying," Padmé replied quietly. "Sometimes things are wonderful, they really are," she said, looking up at Sola. "And then other times…" her eyes filled with tears as she thought of the ugly fight that had sent Vader out of the house. "Oh Sola, I think I've made a really big mistake," she said.
Sola frowned. "What do you mean?" she asked, and then an idea came to her. "Oh Padmé, you didn't…you and Vader haven't…." she stopped, too embarrassed to say any more.
Padmé looked away, unable to face her sister. "Yes," she replied, knowing what her sister was asking. "We've been sexually involved."
"Oh, Padmé," Sola said, "how could you? I mean, really…how?? I didn't think it was even possible…"
"Don't be absurd," Padmé retorted, her face turning pink. "He's still human you know."
"Thank the Maker for that at least," Sola muttered. "But how could you want to be with him? He's not the man you love, Padmé. He's not Anakin."
"I know," Padmé replied sitting down again. "He is and he isn't," she continued. "Sometimes he's so caring, so …romantic even," she told her, a hint of a smile on her face. "And then other times he's cruel and angry and…I don't know who he is anymore."
"And you thought having sex with him would help you figure that out?" Sola asked.
"No, it just sort of …happened," Padmé told her sister. "Kind of a heat of the moment thing. At least the first time," she continued.
"You did it more than once??" Sola asked incredulously.
"Only twice," Padmé said. "But I'm beginning to think now it was all a big mistake."
"It wasn't the same, was it?" Sola asked. "You were disappointed, right?"
Padmé shook her head. "Oh no," she assured her sister. "Not at all. He's…" she stopped, realizing her sister wouldn't want to hear any details. "It's not that," she said. "We had a fight, a really bad one," she told her sister. "And we both said some very nasty, very hurtful things," she continued. "And I wonder now if I've only complicated things by getting sexually involved with him again."
Sola was silent for a moment as she pondered this. The fact that her sister had been sexually involved with Darth Vader still shocked her, the fact that she'd wanted to be even more so. Unless…
"Did he force himself on you, Padmé?" she asked her sister finally. "Did he rape you?"
"No!" Padmé cried. "I can't believe you'd even think such a thing! If you must know, it was me who initiated it, on both occasions."
Sola was embarrassed, and said nothing for a moment. "Can I ask why?" she asked finally.
"Why do you think?" Padmé replied tersely. "He's a man, I'm a woman, and we were once very much in love, and shared an amazing physical relationship. And ten years is a long time, Sola. Do I need to say any more?"
"No," Sola replied, staring down at the floor. "I don't know what to say, Padmé," she said after a few moments of awkward silence. "Clearly the two of you have some very strong feelings for one another. But it's also clear that your differences are too big to ignore. Does that sound about right?"
"I suppose so," Padmé replied. "I don't know what to do," she said quietly.
Sola said nothing in response, not knowing what to say, and simply put her arm around her sister's shoulders.
Kuat Drive Yard
"Welcome to the Yard, Lord Vader," a rather large alien said in greeting. "We've been expecting you."
Vader walked through the hangar bay beside the man, a small phalanx of storm troopers close behind them. "Where are you holding them?"
"In the detention block," the alien replied. "We don't have a lot of space, and believe me, they've been complaining about that."
"Pity," Vader replied tersely. "I'll ensure they have more comfortable accommodations shortly," he remarked.
The alien grinned. "Right this way," he said.
Vader and his troops followed the alien through the enormous facility to a set of blast doors beyond which was the small detention block. A short way down the corridor the man stopped. "They're in here," he said, indicating a door where two clone troopers stood guard. "You need any help?"
Vader smirked under his mask. "No," he replied, moving to the door. The troopers moved aside at once, allowing Vader to enter the cell. The alien followed him in. There were about a dozen men inside, some of them alien.
"This is about half of them," the alien in charge explained. "The rest are scattered in the cells around the block," he told Vader.
Vader nodded in understanding. "I will require a room for interrogation," he told the man. "Have you one prepared?"
"Yes sir," the alien replied. "This way."
Vader pointed to the first man who looked up at him with terror in his eyes. "Bring this one," he told the clones at his side. "We'll start with him."
Coruscant
"It's so wonderful to meet you both!" Sola declared after giving Luke and Leia each many hugs and kisses. "I've heard so much about you from your mother already I feel like I already know you!"
Luke and Leia were excited to meet their one and only aunt, who, they decided, was not nearly as beautiful as their mother.
"So you two have had some big changes in your lives recently," Sola commented as they all sat down together. "I imagine things must seem pretty confusing at times."
Luke and Leia looked at one another.
"Not really," Luke said. "At first it was, but now that we're all together, it seems like that's how it should have been all along."
"Luke's right," Leia spoke up. "We know how much our parents love us," she said, looking at Padmé with a smile. "And we love them just as much. We're very happy being with both of them."
Sola nodded, not sure if her niece and nephew were telling her what they thought she wanted to hear or what they truly felt. "You lived with your father alone for a few weeks," she said. "What was that like?"
"It was cool," Leia said. "He fixed up our rooms just how we like them, got us into a wonderful school," she began.
"Showed me how to build stuff," Luke piped up. "He's good at that, just like me. You know what he did when one of my favorite toys got broken?"
"Bought you a new one?" Sola suggested, knowing Vader was very wealthy.
Luke shook his head. "No, he stayed up half the night to fix it," he told his aunt. "He knew how special it was to me, and knew replacing it wouldn't be the same. So he fixed it. It must have taken him hours, but he did it. That's how much he loves me."
Padmé had not heard this story before, and she found herself smiling as Luke told it. "He did that for you, Luke?" she asked.
Luke looked at his mother and nodded. "I was asleep, but Leia saw him take it from my room, right Leia?"
Leia nodded. "Yes, I saw him with it when he came into my room and showed me the holovid of your wedding," she told her mother. "I was feeling sad and missing Alderaan, and he showed me that to cheer me up, even though I know it made him really sad to see it."
"Why would it make him sad?" Sola asked.
"Because this was before we knew Mom was alive," Leia explained. "And Dad couldn't even talk about her back then, he missed her so much." She looked at Padmé. "He loves our mother very much," she concluded.
Sola looked at her sister, who seemed quite uncomfortable with her daughter's declaration. And yet, weren't Luke and Leia as Force sensitive as their father? Surely they could sense the emotions of others as well as he did. Was Leia correct in her assertion?
"I think I'd like to see these rooms of yours," Sola said finally, standing up. "They sound very impressive."
"Oh they are," Luke assured her. "Come on, mine first."
"Luke you always get to show yours first!" Leia complained as they ran out of the room, dragging their aunt behind them.
Kuat Drive Yard
It wasn't long before Vader had separated those who were merely on duty when the sabotage had occurred from those who seemed likely candidates to have had a hand in it. It had taken hours of sifting through the minds of the more than two dozen prisoners. After the grueling procedure he'd endured while on Kamino, he had still not recovered his full strength. Spending the better part of the day interrogating the prisoners had sapped what was left of it, and so he decided to return to the Exactor at the end of the day.
"Lord Vader, what about the men in there?" the alien plant manager asked him.
Vader stopped as he passed the room where those he had deemed innocent had been detained. His first impulse was to have them killed, for they had been on duty when the sabotage had taken place. Making an example of them would go far in tightening security and making sure that everyone remained on their toes. So why was he hesitating to order their deaths? Why did Padmé's words jump to his mind? I don't believe in taking a life to make a point, she had said. What would she say to taking fourteen lives?
"Release them," Vader said finally, and then walked away, more tired than he'd felt in a long time.
"Welcome onboard, Lord Vader," Piett said in greeting as he met Vader in the hangar bay. "I trust things went …smoothly," he said tentatively.
"I have narrowed it down to several likely candidates," Vader said. "I will continue the investigation in the morning."
Piett nodded. "An excellent idea," he said, knowing that Vader was still not himself. "I wish you a goodnight, sir."
Vader made no reply and simply left the hangar bay and headed to the lift. The bulkhead in his quarters still showed evidence of Ozzel's demise from earlier. He ignored it and headed to his hyperbaric chamber. Deciding he needed to talk to see his children after such a long and unpleasant day, he activated his comscreen and coded in the twins' that was located in the common room they shared. Before long he saw the face of his son, who smiled broadly when he saw his father.
"Hi Dad!" Luke exclaimed. "Look Leia, it's Dad!"
Sola and Padmé stood back as Leia ran to sit beside Luke.
"Looks like they love their father," Sola commented to her sister.
Padmé nodded, watching Vader on the screen, knowing he couldn't see her from where she was standing.
"It is good to see you, young ones," Vader said, simply drinking in the sight of his children's smiling faces. "Are you behaving yourselves?"
"Don't we always?" Leia asked.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Vader replied.
The twins giggled. Leia looked over her shoulder to her mother and then back again. "We got caught with the comlink," she told her father.
"I did try to warn you," he replied.
"Yeah, I know," Leia replied.
"Where are you, Dad?" Luke asked.
"Let me show you," he replied, changing their view to the outside of the ship where an enormous super star destroyer was under construction.
"Whoa," Luke said in amazement. "That thing's huge!"
"That is a super star destroyer," Vader told them when his image returned to the screen. "The first of its kind. I had a hand in its design."
"You did?" Leia said. "Really?"
Vader nodded. "Yes, really," he replied, amused by his children's excitement.
Padmé watched in silence as her children spoke with their father, the gentle manner he exhibited with them going straight to her heart. Sola watched too, hardly able to believe that it was Darth Vader she was watching.
"Time for me to sign off," Vader told them. "It's been a very long day."
"Goodnight Dad," Luke said. "We love you."
"We miss you too," Leia put in.
Vader nodded. "I miss you both, and love you very much," he replied. "I'll see you soon."
With that Vader closed the transmission. I miss you, Padmé, he told her, having sensed her close by while he was talking to the twins. Goodnight, my beloved.
