Padmé glared at the closed bedroom door. Vader must be crazy if he thought that she believed him. He had made it clear when he Force choked her that he was determined to find the rebels. Now that he had found them and his victory was complete, he was putting on the pity act for her. He was acting nice in an attempt to play with her emotions, but she would not let him.
Tomorrow, he would be Darth Vader and ruthlessly destroy her friends, comrades, and hopes for freedom. He was only using the facade of Anakin Skywalker to lure her into a false sense of hope. Vader must have sensed her feelings towards Anakin, and was trying to use it to his advantage.
She knew that Vader wanted to enhance her misery and pain, so that he could bask in it during his victory. However, she would not let him do that to her. She would grieve for the rebels, it was in her nature, but she would not let Vader manipulate her into having false hopes. He might claim that he knew his master was evil, and that he had seen the error of his ways, but Padmé did not believe that the Sith Lord would repent that easily. He must be lying.
Padmé gingerly stood up from the bed she was sitting on. It was Vader's bed, and she would not spend her time in the bed of a monster. She felt that it was an insult to the rebellion that if on the eve of their destruction she took kindness from their murderer.
She felt shaky and unsteady with the aftereffects of Vader's chokehold, and remained still for a few minutes trying to find her balance. Then she carefully walked out of the bedroom and into the sitting room. Once in the sitting room, she walked to the far end of the room and sat on the floor. She would spend the evening on the floor, and not partake in any of the comforts in Vader's quarters.
Still weak from the chokehold and drained from her brief walk, Padmé yawned as she stretched her arms out. She did not want to fall asleep, so she could use that as another sign of defiance against Vader. She tried her best to keep herself awake, but on top of the Force choke, her nightmares from the previous night had left her with very little sleep. To force herself to stay awake, Padmé gingerly stood up, and slowly started to pace the sitting room.
Vader's crew had been slightly puzzled by their leader's orders. When they arrived at Sullust, they were not supposed to destroy the rebel base. Instead, Vader would take his private shuttle down to the base. This seemed to be an odd move, but since intelligence indicated that the majority of the rebels and their leaders were at Sullust, they surmised that Vader had something special planned for the traitors.
Anakin spent the day briefing the entire crew on tomorrow's events. He wanted to make sure that everyone knew the plan, or at least the part he was willing to divulge, so that there would be no errors the following day. His crew would not question Lord Vader's motives. However, if they knew that Anakin Skywalker had taken over the helm, these loyal Imperialists would have had second thoughts.
Anakin had just finished meeting with the last of his crew and was heading down a corridor to double check his shuttle to make sure it was ready for tomorrow's events. However, his trip was interrupted when his comlink rang.
"Yes?" Anakin answered.
"Beep Beep Boop Booooop."
Anakin's eyes widened in shock, "What! Is she ok!" He asked anxiously.
"Boop boop beep."
"What in the blazes is she doing there? She should be resting." Anakin said in exasperation. "Hang on, I'll be there in a moment."
Anakin ended the transmission and turned away from his shuttle and went back to his quarters. According to R2 she had fainted in his sitting room, and at this moment her well-being was more important than his ship. Besides, he had already checked the ship once, checking it again was only a precaution.
Anakin briskly walked down the hallway back to his quarters. He would have run, but that would have alerted his crew that there was a problem, and he was trying to be subtle. He did not want to draw to much attention to himself, and his sudden change in heart and behavior.
A minute after R2's transmission, Anakin arrived at his quarters. He could see R2's domed top over one of the far sofas in the sitting room, and he walked towards him. As he rounded the last sofa, he could see Padmé's body lying sprawled across the floor.
Anakin quickly knelt beside her and placed his hand on her forehead, using the Force to sense what was wrong with her. She seemed to be fine, since her vitals were strong. It appeared that she had collapsed from exhaustion, which did not seem surprising after all she had been through.
Anakin turned to R2; "She should be fine after some rest. She's exhausted. How did she end up out her?"
"Beep beep."
Anakin picked up Padmé and gathered her in his arms, "Yes I know she walked." Anakin said as he rolled his eyes. "But why did she? In her condition, she should have been resting, in bed."
"Boop boop beep beeep booooop boop beeep beeeeeeeep."
As Anakin stood up with Padmé in his arms, he softly repeated R2's last words before trailing off, "She said she did not want to be in the bed of a mo…." Anakin sadly gazed at Padmé. His actions had driven her to her current state. She had no reason to trust him, and she was suffering for it.
Anakin walked towards the bedroom door. Before he entered, he glanced at Padmé again and then turned to address R2 one more time. "She has every right not to trust me. She is right I was a monster. However, I have changed and I can now see my errors. She may never trust me, but I will not let her kill herself because of it."
With this statement, Anakin left R2 in the sitting room and carried Padmé into the bedroom and placed her back on the bed. He pulled a blanket over the top of her and running his fingers through her hair he said, "This is your bed, not mine. Rest well, I will not betray you."
Anakin wanted to kiss her, but he knew that she would not approve. So he ran his fingers through her hair once again and left her side to make himself some dinner and then meditate to prepare for the next day before going to sleep himself.
That evening, Anakin slept on the couch, so that he did not disturb Padmé. For several hours, his sleep was peaceful. However, he soon faced a nightmare from his past.
"No mom." He softly murmured, as he dreamed of the night his mother was killed. "Mom," He could see the Tusken Raiders dragging his mother away from him. "No mom," He continued to murmur as he witnessed a group of Tuskens beat his mother. Then Anakin watched himself destroy all the Tuskens and move towards his mother's body. He reached a hand out to turn his mother's battered body over to face him. "Nooooo, Padmé!" Anakin shouted, as the body in his dream was not that of his mother, but that of Padmé's.
Anakin tossed and turned in his sleep and continued to shout, "No, stop! Noooooo! Padmé!" The Tusken Raiders in his nightmare came back to life and approached him, however they all had the face of Sidious, and they were all cackling maniacally at him.
"You have failed!" The faces said as they continued to cackle. Then all the Tusken's raised their hands in the air and threw Force lightning at Padmé's collapsed form.
"Paaaaadddddmmmmméééééééé!" Anakin shouted one last time before he woke up from his nightmare. He was breathing heavily, and quickly turned towards the bed to make sure that Padmé was actually safe. He was relieved when a pair of shocked brown eyes met his own.
In the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, Darth Sidious sat in stunned silence. He had sensed that his apprentice was having his reoccurring nightmare about the day his mother had died. Sidious always enjoyed reliving his apprentice's fear, hatred, and sorrow from that event, and using the Force often eavesdropped on these nightmares as they occurred over the years.
However, unlike Vader's past nightmares, this dream had been warped. Vader had been openly grieving for Amidala from pain Sidious was causing her. Worst of all, Sidious had sensed great relief from his apprentice once the nightmare was over. There also seemed to be a lack of Vader's usual darkness surrounding his Force presence.
This explained Vader's peculiar line of questions from their earlier conversation, and Sidious was angry with himself for not sensing the change earlier. He had underestimated his apprentice. More importantly, he had underestimated the influence that Amidala would have on his apprentice.
His eyes narrowed and fury built up within him. She had turned his apprentice from darkness. Sidious called upon the Force to show him the future and could see that the attack on Sullust would not play out as he had originally foreseen. Sidious grew angrier as the Force showed him images of his apprentice betraying him.
Sidious could not let this happen. He would have to act quickly to stop these events. Sidious called upon the Force again, willing it to show him what to do. An evil smile crept upon his face as a plan formulated in his twisted mind. He would show his apprentice the price of betrayal, and the true nature of the dark side. Then he would deal with the meddlesome rebels he dared to join forces with. Sidious's smile grew wider and he cackled maniacally, "No one escapes the dark side. This is your final lesson, my young apprentice!" Sidious yelled to himself.
Then Sidious pressed a button to call his royal guards to him. Two Imperial guards dressed in red robes entered Sidious's chambers and bowed before their Emperor. "How may we serve you, my lord?" The two guards asked simultaneously.
"Ready a shuttle. I have a mission for you." Sidious replied with an evil cackle.