Anakin followed Padme and Luke to the conference room they had on this ship. He looked around and realized his hw much smaller it truly was compared to the Star Destroyers he was used too.
He looked ahead not believing his eyes for a minute for he saw two droids up ahead clearly arguing. He had to stop and stare not remembering the last time he saw either of them. He noticed both Luke and Padme turn around not understanding what he was stopping for.
Before anyone said anything, he heard a loud beeping noise as R2 made it way over to him, almost running him over. He laughed patting the droid on the head. "R2! I can't believe it."
"You know R2?"Luke asked.
"Know him? He used to be my droid. He saved my life more times than I can count." Anakin said.
"Actually he was my droid, first if I do recall." Padme said.
"Until you gave him to me as a wedding present, remember?" Anakin smirked up at her and he noticed she blushed.
"I suppose you are right." She said looking away trying to hide her redden face.
"Master Luke, Princess Leia was getting worried about where you were at."C3po said to him and Anakin couldn't understand why he wasn't acknowledging him. He was always a very vocal droid.
"Bail had his mind wiped, so he wouldn't tell Leia about us." Padme whispered to him, sensing his confusion.
"I-I suppose that was for the best." He said sadly. "He never was very good at keeping secrets."
"I'm surprised he kept our marriage a secret." Padme said and Anakin smiled. It was starting to feel like old times and made him realize how much he truly missed her.
"You know 3po as well." Luke said.
"Know him. I built him. I built him to help my mother, but then I left and she finished him up for me. When she died, they said I could keep since he was technically mind." Anakin thinking about his mother. He wondered what she would think of him now. She clearly wouldn't be happy with who he was. He hoped she would forgive him and see that he was changing.
"You built him when you were just a child." Luke said shocked.
"Building things was always the one thing I was good at. It calmed me." He said thinking back. That was another thing he didn't get to do as Vader. There was no time for leisurely fun like that. He also didn't think his master would enjoy it very much.
"Maybe you can help Han with fixing the Falcon." Luke joked.
"I'm not even sure you father can fix that bucket of bolts." Padme rolled her eyes, as they entered the room.
As Anakin predicted, there weren't too many happy faces greeting him.
"We knew wondering what happened to you. Non the less you are here, lets get started." Mon says as a hologram of the outside of the Imperial Palace appeared in front of her. "As you can see, there isn't much we know about it, which is why we need you."
Anakin crossed his arms and stepped forward. "His throne room should be right around here." He pointed to the middle, thinking back to the cold dark room. It was nothing like the Jedi Temple, which was full of life and warmth. Palpatine made sure to strip everything away when he took over. "You should know he is gonna have guards surrounding every inch of this. He is probably gonna make them not supper noticeable, so you think it will be easy to get him. Trust me thought, he is ready for an attack and knows he outnumbers you by quite a bit.
"How do you supposed we get it?" Han asked surprising him.
"I'm sure every Imperial Troopers and guard in that place is gonna know all of our faces, so I'm not sure." Anakin said scratching his chin.
"I'm sure. The Emperor has already put a price on all three of your heads. Far larger than anything I've seen." Leia said.
"Is the price on Anakin's head or Vader?" Padme asked confusing them all.
"Why does it matter?" Han asked.
"It matters a lot. Not many people knew who was behind the Vader mask. I'm sure Palpatine doesn't think you are healed. He probably has every Bounty Hunter looking for Vader, not Anakin, which can help us get into Coruscant." Padme said, surprising him.
He was truly impressed with big how smart and logical she was. Who was he kidding, she always found a way to impress her. He never knew how good of a general she could be though. He knew she could take charge, but there was more to it than that.
"Impressive." He told her watching her blush putting a stray piece of hair behind her ear.
"Well that helps us get into Coruscant, but not into the Palace."Leia said.
"Well, since there is a large price on my head, what if we got a bounty hunter to bring me in." Padme said.
"You are just going to turn yourself over to a Bounty Hunter?" Anakin shockingly said, knowing there was no way in hell he was going to allow her to do that.
"Well actually I was thinking we could what we did at Jabba Palace." She said looking over at Luke, Leia, and Han.
"You mean have one us disguise as a Bounty Hunter to gain access inside." Leia said.
"Exactly and once we are inside we will have the upper hand. I don't think Palpatine would expect us to just turn ourselves over." Padme said.
"This does sound like it might work and Anakin could be the Bounty Hunter, since he knows his way around inside." Mon said thinking over the plan.
"I will only be able to get one ship landing access for Coruscant though. There is no way, we will be able to have multiple ships coming in. He is gonna grow suspicious." Anakin said.
"As much as I hate to say this, you are right. This will have to be a small mission. We are gonna need the strongest of us. But if something does go wrong, I want fighters close by. If we fail killing the Emperor, then it will no longer matter, how many ships we can bring into the system. He will know of the attack." Mon said.
"So we will have Luke, Vader, and Padme arriving at the Palace." Ackbar said bitterly, clearly still untrusting of him.
He glared at the man for using Vader, before quickly sighing knowing he did this to himself. He knew it would take some time before people could trust him again. He looked over at Padme and for the first time in a while he saw determination on her face and that gleam in her eyes. She looked full of life. The way he used to remember her. He hated what he was about to tell her. That this was far to dangerous and he didn't want her to come along. He knew with him and Luke in perfect health, they would be able to destroy the Emperor by themselves, without risking her life.
It was late at night and Padme was finding it hard to sleep, which tended to happen the night before they leave for a mission. She kept going over the plan over and over again in her head. She knew everything had to perfect for they weren't going to get another chance at this again.
Giving up on trying to sleep she shot out of bed and decided to look over the plans again and make sure everything was perfect. She walked down the hallway until she got to the conference room. She walked into and punched in her code waiting for the hologram of the Imperial Palace to pop up. She walked around with her arms cross looking over everything. She was so into looking at every detail, she didn't even hear someone walk in.
"I figured you wouldn't be able to sleep. You used to have restless nights, before proposing a bill to the Senate as well." Anakin said causing Padme to jump.
She looked over and saw Anakin leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. She noticed he was shirtless and couldn't stop herself from looking. She was amazed how he looked the same as he did many years ago. He hair was still long, maybe alittle too long, but she liked it. She used to always enjoy being able to run her fingers through his hair. She looked at his chest and noticed a large scar, probably from his battle wound on Mustafar. She saw he started to smirk and realized she hasn't said anything to him yet and was making it pretty obvious she was checking him out. She felt her face getting red and wished at this moment she decided to put on a jacket or a robe, for she only had on a tank top and pants. She noticed he was looking at her as well.
"I suppose I'm just over thinking things." She said crossing her arms trying to cover herself a bit. "Couldn't sleep in Luke's room?" She asked.
"Sleeping was never something I was good at." He sighed. "Haven't done a whole lot of it in the past twenty years, with the suit it was hard."
Of course, Padme. You just had to lead the conversation back to that. She looked away and they both stood in silence, which was odd. Even when they first met again after being apart for ten years, it was easy to have a converstion. She realized this was the first time she as been alone with him in who knows how long.
"You know Luke definitely doesn't get his sleeping patterns from me. As soon as he laid on the bed, he was out." He laughed trying to lighten up the mood.
"Well at least one of us is sleeping before we leave tomorrow." She smiled looking back the hologram.
He noticed Anakin hesitate before stepping closer to her. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that." Anakin said.
"What do you mean?" She turned facing him.
"I think me and Luke should be the only ones to go. This is going to be a dangerous mission and I, well, I don't know what I would do with myself if you got hurt." Anakin told her.
"Well that is no longer your decision to make. I have put my life in danger countless times even before all this. You would be surprise how much I've changed in the last twenty years. I'm not a tiny little Senator anymore that needs Jedi protection." She sternly said before turning back around.
Anakin stood there for a couple minutes, before saying anything. "I'm sorry. It's just I've gone twenty years thinking you were dead and to have you back, I,I can't loose you again."
She knew how he felt. She went that same period of time thinking he was dead. It destroyed her. To have him back, she still can't process it.
She didn't say anything to him. He stood in there silence for a couple minutes, before walking closer to him. She felt his hand run down her arm, sending chills of her spine. She missed his touch so much. She shut her eyes as he wrapped his warm arms around her resting his head between her neck.
"You have no idea how much I've missed the feeling of your skin." He whispered in her ear. "For twenty years, I tried thinking back to the last time we made love. I still don't remember." He sighed before kissing her neck causing a soft moan to escape her lips. "The thought of you, was all I've had. I would picture your smile, when I closed my eyes. Hear your laugh when I was trying to sleep. All I did was picture every part of you. Afraid to forget even the smallest of things."
She felt him slowly spin her around so they were facing face to face. She looked up into his blue eyes and remembered all the times she looked up into them with his arms wrapped around her. She alway felt so safe knowing he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to her.
"Ani." She whispered as the tears started to fall down her face. She was confused she knows she shouldn't do this, but she wants it. No She needs it. She needs him.
"My love." He said moving his hands to her cheeks wiping away her tears. "I love you so much, Padme." He said leaning down, placing his lips on hers.
Oh how she missed his lips. It has been so long. The last time she felt his lips was on Mustafar.
"Stop. Come back. I love you."
"Liar!"
She stepped back, thinking of nothing but the rage in his beautiful blue eyes.
"Padme, what is it? What's wrong?" He said stepping closer to her, but she stepped back.
"You, you need to leave. I shouldn't have done that." She told him unable to look at him.
"Padme." Anakin sadly said to her breaking her heart even more.
"Anakin please." She said turning away from him not able to look at his hurt expression. She felt him soon leave, as her tears started to flow down her face harder.
She stayed there for a little bit longer, but she heard someone else walk in. She quickly wiped away her tears and spun around. "I told you to lea-" She said to say before seeing it was Leia. "Oh, it's you. I thought it was somebody else."
"I didn't think anyone would be here. I couldn't sleep. I just kept thinking about the mission." Leia said.
Padme couldn't help, but laugh. "I was doing the very same thing." She was surprised to see Leia slightly smile. Oh how she missed her daughter.
"Did they inform me you, me and Han will be going with you?" Leia asked looking as awkward as Padme felt, but at least she was talking to her.
"No. I wasn't informed." Padme said.
"I supposed Admiral Ackbar, didn't like the idea of you three going alone." Leia said and Padme noticed there was no hate or rage in her voice.
"I suppose that's understandable." She sadly smiled. "You know, I didn't lie to you about working with him."
"I know. I've been talking to Luke." Leia said.
"Please know. I've never wanted to hurt you." Padme said walking closer to her daughter, feeling the tears coming back.
"Luke told me about that as well. I'm still not fully trusting of you, but I do understand and I forgive you for that. I don't think I would be able to do what you did."
"Oh Leia." She said as the tears ran down her face.
"Please don't be upset if I don't call you mother, just yet. I'm still trying to process all of this." Leia said.
"I understand." Padme said knowing she needs time and she was going to give her that time. Her daughter was finally talking to her and she no longer had to lie.