Chapter Seventeen
The word echoed throughout the room, ringing in Rehis' ears loudly.
"Kenobi?" Rehis swallowed and nodded painfully.
"Yes, my Lord, that was the name given to us. We can recheck it…" His voice trailed off as Vader made a motion with his hand.
"No. I will be coming aboard my ship shortly." With that, Vader cut the transmission and whirled across the room, a terrifying black demon hell-bent on revenge.
Kenobi, he thought. Kenobi. Obi-Wan was clever to go by the name Ben, but it would not save him. Nothing could possibly keep him from Vader's wrath. Triumph descended over him as he realized that, at last, he would have revenge. He stopped abruptly in mid-stride as he came to a realization. Padmé. What was he going to do about Padmé?
He ran possibilities through his mind quickly. He could not leave her here, not in his fortress with its numerous traps that only he was completely able to evade… He would never trust anyone with her safe-keeping... Vader's mind lit dimly on the only possible solution. He tried to deny it, but it was the only one that made sense.
He would take her with him.
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Padmé floated in what seemed to be an empty void. She was not in time, simply drifting in the black… and a voice came to her, whispering nameless words to her. It took her a long time to identify it, and even longer to process what it meant.
Qui-Gon, she thought bewilderedly.
She was ripped abruptly out of the timeless, shapeless void by a noise. She blinked, knowing the sound before she could see again. Vader, she thought serenely. Anakin. The names still brought a rush of pain, but something else, something akin to… hope.
She sat up, and found immediately that Qui-Gon's voice was still there, and while it did not invade on her thoughts, it was still a presence in her mind. She ignored it as she stood up carefully to see Vader waiting patiently, his thumbs hooked in his belt in a cavalier gesture. There was still bitterness at him, still anger even as there was hope. She had not forgotten what he had done to her only hours before, and kept her distance from him.
She simply stood, crossing her arms and waiting for him to speak.
"I abandoned a mission when I came for you," he said at last. She blinked as the words registered, wondering why he was telling her this.
"My mission was to hunt down a Jedi on Tatooine," he continued. She felt immediate disgust at his words, because she had seen him kill dozens of Jedi before, and to hear him speak of it was even more revolting.
"I left before we identified him. Now, we have." Foreboding greeted his words. She slowly began to back away, feeling for the walls of her room as Qui-Gon's presence felt the same sense of trepidation. Vader advanced towards her.
"Obi-Wan," he said with a degree of triumph in his voice.
Padmé reeled, trying to absorb the hate that was coming from him, trying to deal with the fact that Obi-Wan was the one that had saved her after Mustafar. She knew that in him, there was the desire to kill. She could feel it rolling off him in waves, and she had to stop it. Killing his old master was a step that would bring him closer to the Dark Side… farther away from her.
He continued, seemingly oblivious to her pain.
"You will accompany me onto the starship and stay there when I hunt for him."
It was enough to sicken Padmé that he could simply come into her room and think that after having nearly tried to kill her that he could think that she would accompany him anywhere, nonetheless to the hunt for the man who had saved her from him. She knew that she had to try to stop him without provoking him, and without compromising herself…
"You can't," she said softly. She summoned up her courage and walked forwards, her nails digging into the soft flesh of her palm. Vader made no response.
"You can't go," she said again. This time, he said something.
"Padmé, you do not know what he did to me. I do not wear this suit by choice."
She flinched a little at hearing her own name from his lips, but otherwise remained strong.
"The events of Mustafar do not matter." She allowed her voice to cool, to become gentle like it had been when Anakin was not in a suit. "You killed children, Anakin. You slaughtered them. Whatever pain you he caused you, it was only because he knew you had betrayed him. Betrayed me."
Vader stepped away from her, and she could almost feel the conflict within him, the self-loathing he felt, the guilt, the anguish. The hate grew in him until all the other emotions were passed aside. He turned to her, and she was suddenly very, very afraid.
"There is no forgiveness for him." She could hear the words he said silently after that; or for me. "You do not know what you ask of me." His voice grew until there was no hesitation in it, only raw hate and power. "You will come with me; there is no choice." A single tear rolled down her face as he began to step away, out of her room.
"If you do this," she choked out, "I will never forgive you." She thought she saw him falter, but then he was out of the room, gone to her in more sense then one.
A/N- Sorry about not updating until now. Real life got in the way, and I had a bad case of Writer's block, which should be purged from the Earth and sent to some distant planet.