A/N: Aaaaand we're back! I know it's been forever, but we've been really caught up with school and all. Anyway, now we're out for the summer, and we're planning to have the final vignette in this series up before the end of the week! Happy reading!

Padme

Padme's room in the palace of Alderaan, somewhere after the end of Episode III

"The road to darkness is a journey, not a light switch."

Obi-Wan once said those words to me, not too long ago. I didn't understand them then; didn't want to understand. I buried them in the back of my mind, along with everything else that had been troubling me lately about Anakin, and managed to forget it all. Maybe if I hadn't, things would have turned out differently.

Padme Naberrie- for she was only Padme Skywalker to herself now- turned off the holo-recorder and took a deep breath. The next part would be the hardest for her children to hear one day, and she wasn't even sure if she could put it into words. But she gathered her strength, worn and faded as it was, and continued.

I know you're wondering how I could have ever married someone like that; what could have possessed me. But I loved him. I still love him. Despite everything he's done, all the evil and destruction and death, I am still in love with the man who used to be Anakin Skywalker. At first I tried to fight it, tried to use my pain to make myself stronger. But I only discovered that my love for your father is such an integral part of me that I could never destroy it. And in those months before he turned, I know he loved you too. In the mornings, before he thought I was awake, he used to lie in bed and talk to you for hours. He would feel for your kicks, and I'm sure he tried to bond with you through the Force. Anakin was fascinated by the idea of fatherhood, and I know he wanted to be a good daddy.

I'm not making excuses for him, or asking you to feel sorry for him. The choice to fall to the Dark Side was his own, and what he's doing now is wrong. I know that. I just want you to know that he wasn't always Darth Vader. Once he was a wonderful husband, a compassionate man, and a good friend to those who knew him.

I met Anakin when he was nine, a slave boy on Tatooine. The first time he saw me, he asked me if I was an angel. There were no fireworks between us then, but I grew fond of the funny little boy, so wise beyond his years. The Jedi I was traveling with, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, recognized his power in the Force and freed him. For the next ten years, after he went to the Jedi Temple to begin his training, I didn't see or hear of him. Then, when I least expected it, he came back into my life with an assignment to protect me from assassination attempts. Even then, I could see the flashes of darkness in him, but I loved him so much that I believed everything would be all right for us, that it would turn out like a fairy story with a happily ever after.

I was so very wrong.

Master Kenobi believes that people never change. He thinks that Anakin has always had a tendency toward the Dark Side, and as his Master, he failed to guide him. I think he blames himself for Anakin's fall. He's told me that now, Anakin is more machine than man. Maybe he's right, I don't know. But despite everything that's happened, I still believe that somewhere, there's good in him. I believe that he will never totally fall, and I hope and pray that one day, he will return to the Light. If I had the strength, I would try to turn him myself. But I can feel myself fading slowly, and I know that my life is drawing to an end. So I guess I'll have to leave that job up to you two. I want you to know that I love you both, Luke and Leia, and I know that deep down, your father does too. Make us both proud.

Padme flipped the recorder off and sighed. She hadn't known that reliving it all could take such a toll on her. She was exhausted. But it was done now, for her children. Her eyes clouded over as she thought of them. For Luke, whose blue eyes and blond hair haunted her from each of the few holos Owen and Beru sent. And for Leia, whose independence and intelligence at the age of two already reminded Padme of the indomitable, dynamic woman she had once been.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As Padme Naberrie slept that night, a noiseless, hooded figure crept into her room. With practice stealth he searched her desk until he found what he was looking for, a recording that, according to his sources, Padme had made that evening. No one had been able to tell him what was in it, but he was sure it would hold some interest for his master. The man waited until he was safely aboard his ship and off planet to send a message to Lord Vader.