I know. I can't believe it either-- I'm back!

Well, after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, dozens of moves, no computers, no internet connections, three American states, grumpy relatives, F.E.M.A., migranes, and finally settling down...and a new hatred and respect for Mother Nature... I'm back. :-) I am so very sorry for the delay.

I missed you guys.

Happy New Year!"No flood sticks in 2006!"

A Warm Breeze in the Snow Storm

By Rose-Arwen-Padmé

Echoed Reunion

"Well, I assume you're not here to rent the lodge out for the weekend."

He had loved her once for her cleverness and wit. Her tone had the perfect blend of sarcasm and sincerity. Despite himself, the corners of his lips tugged upwards just a little. "Well, the thought had crossed my mind once or twice."

A million thoughts were running rapidly through her head, but her voice sounded calm and tranquil as she continued, "It's the perfect season for it. Naboo is gorgeous this time of year."

"Naboo is always lush and beautiful... as are its native occupants."

She stiffened slightly, understanding his double meaning. "She's aged. Naboo isn't what it once was."

"If anything, I'm sure she has only grown more beautiful over the years." Vader's voice was slower and lower than usual. "Naboo has that wonder."

Now she was a still as a statue. "She has seen war, destruction, pain, and time. She is not as she once was."

Vader knew they weren't completely talking about Naboo anymore. "Chit chat can only go on for so long, Amidala. Sooner or later you are going to have to turn around and look at me."

"I'm quite a capable human being. I've fought in wars, I've fought politicians, I've fought monsters-- I've even fought monstrous politicians." He could clearly hear the bitterness in her tone. "With all of that in mind, I'm sure I can handle carrying on a conversation with my back to someone only a few yards away."

"But I can't handle it."

"Don't pretend to have a weak side. I've heard about your excursions across the galaxy. Oh, yes, even I watch the HoloNet. I'm still hoping for the day when I finally hear good news in the media."

"And tell me, Amidala--" Padmé flinched slightly. He was doing what Anakin used to do-- call her by her much more formal name instead of his favored and loved name. He used to do it when he wanted to distance himself from her even verbally, because his emotions were too fiery and abnormal to call her by the name he loved so much and was so vulnerable too. It happened during the worst of arguments, or when he was being extremely serious during an important conversation. Apparently, old habits die hard... or maybe just old lives die hard? He continued, "What would be your definition of good news?"

"The fall of this evil Empire." She said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

It had been so long since anyone had blatantly denounced the regime so directly to him. The bluntness of her statement and its unbreakable tone almost shook him.

"Ah, yes, well, you always did harbor passionate views with the governments you were under. Either something was wrong with it here, or something was wrong with it there--"

"This entire masquerade, this farce of a government-- the whole thing is wrong! It's tyranny!"

"The government is a well-operated machine--" Like me. "--and we are feared and respected."

"Fear is not respect. You are loathed, and it's only a matter of time."

Now he was curious. "Only a matter of time?"

Padmé stood straighter and her eyes narrowed, although he couldn't seem them. "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. The mob is the most powerful thing in politics; they are the true," she smirked, "force."

"I didn't travel all the way over here to bicker with you about politics."

"Really? And you didn't know that the subject of this atrocious empire of yours would eventually come up?" She panted, "Well, you've certainly--"

"Naboo is especially breath-taking this time of year, isn't it?"

"As if that machine called your body could manage to skip an inhalation, much less appreciate a thing like beauty."

That stopped him, and he observed as her stone face immediately froze, melted, and showed a mixture of surprise and shame. Her hand flew to her mouth, as if to stop the words that had already passed from her lips. He, on the other hand, was used to hearing insults flung at him; however, they were usually followed by the sound of breaking necks, blasterfire, burning buildings, or the ignition of a red lightsaber. Even so, he only stood there, watching her from the mask of his black observation tower. Somehow, hearing Padmé insult him touched him somewhere that stopped any thoughts or reactions of violence... it seemed to have the opposite effect. It almost... hurt.

Padmé was still slightly flustered with herself. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mock you. I-I don't know what came over me, insulting you like that."

Vader stood taller, recognizing the terrain of this topic. "I do."

She thought she heard the unmistakable hint of pride in his voice. "Yes... and that's what scares me," she whispered.

"Fear can be a powerful thing, Amidala."

She forced a fake laugh. "Apparently so can disillusion."

He let that pass, grudgingly. He decided to change the subject to something that held more interest to him than her protests to his unique lifestyle. "You said you watch the HoloNet from time to time. That surprises me. You used to absolute hate watching it." He noted how her posture seemed to shift at his unexpected words.

"Well, you... you've forgotten why I hated watching it, then."

There isn't a thing I have forgotten about her over all these years. What could she be talking about?

"I was terrified of one day seeing the headline of my husband's death flash before my eyes. It was the only way of knowing if, if you were dead, or if you were still alive." She shook her head. "Wretched thing..." she whispered.

The wind blew around them, carrying fallen leaves behind, beside, and between them. She watched, not really watching, the waters ripple and collide with the sand and rocks on the beach below. He watched her.

"Turn around, Padmé."

Vader wasn't sure if she had heard him or not, but then she sighed deeply and began a slow turn. Brown pools of struggling innocence met with unforgiving black-red lens.

Her eyes went wide. "Ani?" she whispered in disbelief, so softly that he didn't hear it. "You've, well," she searched for words to fill the silent seconds. "You've changed. You've grown... taller." After she said that, she realized how it was only his black suit that made him more vertical than before. He was... built... to be taller. He was constructed to intimidate. She had seen his image before on the Holonet, however rarely, but he looked much more gigantic in person. She understood the implied description of him as being frightening and daunting... but she only saw him as more pitiful. Oh, Ani...

Vader certainly saw and recognized her reaction to him, but it was temporarily pushed to the back of his mind when he finally saw her face again after so many lonely years. She looked older, yet the time had only enhanced her beauty. The hard times had morphed her face into a mirror of wisdom and maturity. The tough times themselves were evident in her eyes, her face, and her stance, but it was a testament to her strength that she had survived them. He thought, in reluctance and amazement, Anakin would have fallen in love with her all over again right here... "So have you, but... you've grown more beautiful."

The wind blew once again, making music with a masked composition of harps and soft violins. It was laced with leaves, memories, and air. A particular memory that actually was not native to this planet, but rather to another far away city planet, seemed to rush the loudest through the space. It sang of a reunion of people that echoed the current moments. It rang of a blossoming relationship, of fated beings once again meeting after a decade apart.

He had changed so much after ten years then. He's changed just as much now... but yet, he hasn't. Something appeared in Padmé's eyes that hadn't been there in many years. "Oh, you'll always be that man I married here on Naboo."

And with her breathy words, the moment passed. The text of her tongue was the key that unleashed the shame, embarrassment, and anger, all of which had been kept under the surface until this moment. "Grotesque and beauty are words that don't fit together in the same sentence," he growled, and then he paused briefly. "You and I do not belong on the same landscape together."

She studied him. "Yet here we are," the wife replied softly.

He took a small step towards her, watching the wind blow her chestnut locks across her face. "Yet here we are," he repeated. After a long, emotional moment, he continued, "I wish you would have worn the scarf."

Padmé gazed at him sadly, feeling pressure behind her eyes and on her weary, beating heart. She managed to stop her voice from breaking as she replied with a heavy sigh, "So do I."

"I shouldn't have come."

"I know..."

"I had to see you."

"I know..."

"Padmé..."

"Anakin--"

"NO!" His loud, raging voice and jerky movements caused her to flinch and move backwards in surprise. His dark emotions swirled inside of him as he felt fury over his loss of control and her effect on him. "Sentimentality is for the weak."

She raised an eyebrow, not buying his tough attitude, even as she loathed it. "What an interesting holiday card greeting, Master Vader. It's funny how I remember you being the hopeless romantic one."

"Amidala--"

"You were much better at the verbal expressions than I was. I did better with the physical things. You wrote the love poems--"

"Amidala--"

"--but burned the pudding and completely caught the cake on fire. I brought you the gifts that touched your heart and made us both cry--"

"Amidala! I--"

"--but I composed the worst attempts at poetry ever known. Thank you for putting up with them."

"AMIDALA-"

"Yet," and her face softened with thought and emotion, "...you... you did give me one gift that I treasured above all things ever given to me." He froze, stilled by her sudden change in demeanor. Her new energy morphed him into silence. Although she seemed to glow in an angelic radiance, she shown of a quiet, painful sadness, and he gazed at her with wide eyes of vulnerability.

"A necklace... a snippet of japor." Her eyes glazed over a little. "I don't know where it is anymore." She seemed to shrink inside herself, and it scared him. "I've lost my treasure."

"I lost mine ten years ago. I'm not sure if I've found it again." They both stood there, in a thoughtful space of time only filled by the sound of the trees' movements. Each occasionally stole looks at the other, though never at the same time.

Vader was the first to break the silence. "I went looking for you."

"What?"

"When you first disappeared. I was intent on tearing this galaxy apart--and I almost did-- until I found you."

She looked at the ground, and then up at him. "I figured as much."

"My search led me back to Naboo countless times, until I finally cornered every even semi-important Nubian politician, from all the town governors to the queen herself, in the palace for the ultimate questioning."

"Every Nubian politician? What a sight," she mused, her eyes lighting somewhat as she looked into some far off place. "My old comrades..."

"They were stubbornly and stupidly united behind you," he growled.

Padmé ventured to sit on a nearby bench which was underneath one of the trees. "My old friends... oh, what a sight they must have been. The last stand of the true Nubian political force, gathered together in the royal palace itself. I'm actually sorry I missed it."

"They told me you were dead. Malnutrition and broken heart."

Her eyes darted to him. Below, she was trying not to imagine the kind of immeasurable pain she would have suffered if someone had told her that the love of her life had died liked that. My life would have ended the moment the teller had spoken. On the surface, she offered a half-hearted and mild shrug, but with compassionate eyes filled with a new understanding for Darth Vader. "It obviously worked. I wasn't on Naboo at the time. I was far, far away from my home." My home was with you.

"I couldn't feel you on Naboo," Vader's voice seemed slightly more desperate and strong as he relived those excruciatingly painful memories. "I couldn't feel you anywhere. Anywhere!"

"I had learned a few tricks."

Vader turned and faced the south wall, his fists clenched. "I curse those tricks, and whoever taught them to you!"

"Oh, I think you have a pretty good idea who taught me, my lord."

He was pacing now, stomping back and forth across the structure with long strides and brisk turns. "I couldn't sense you, I was out of my mind! Going mad!" Padmé watched him intently from her bench beneath the tree. "That's why I didn't hesitate long when they told me you had died-- when Yomané--"

"Oh." He stopped and looked at her. "Yomané, oh, my dear friend. She was so young, but so brave." Padmé dropped her eyes. "I haven't spoken to her in so long, like so many others. I hope she's alright and happy." She smiled slightly, remembering the companion who she had laughed with, joked with, debated with, and watched grow. "I always thought that she would make a wonderful future queen one day. We were good friends, despite the differences in our ages. She's Dorme's little sister. She was such a good friend to me..."

"I broke her neck."

Padmé's eyes turned to ice as her face paled quickly. She didn't believe what she had just heard. She croaked, "What?"

"The sound of the snap was so loud that it echoed throughout the entire throne room. I slaughtered all of them."

Padmé thought she was going to be sick. "You... you...ah, oh gods..." Padmé wiped the perspiration from her forehead and from her checks. She stood up, overwhelmed by her rapid emotions. She looked every where but at him, trying not to comprehend what he was telling her. Tha-that's why there were suddenly so many Imperials operating Naboo... oh, no... no...I thought they had only been forced to resign from office! Ani, my Ani... Suddenly, her eyes, flashing red hot like lava, turned on him. "Did you slaughter them, then, Vader? Did you slaughter them like animals? Did you slaughtered them like the Tuskens that killed your mother!"

"No," Vader replied, monotone. He was mesmerized by her fresh tears. Padmé was watching him with wild eyes. "Worse."

"How could y--"

"I made them suffer. I wasn't in this limiting suit yet. I was rich in the dark side. My body was whole. My rage was infinite."

"Oh, gods, Anakin!" She ignored his shouts of protest of that name. She raged on, tormented by the brutal images her imagination was flashing before her eyes. "I-I should have taken that poison upstairs!"

Behind his mask, Vader frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"Is this the life that you wanted? Is this the life that you wanted for us?" She was staggering around the grounds, practically blinded by her tears and her despair. He followed her relentlessly, disturbed by seeing her so incredibly shaken. "You hunting me down, you in that black case, me wasting away in solitude!" He resisted any urges to reach out to her, though she wouldn't have allowed him to even if he tried. Suddenly, she turned on him again and began to march in his direction. Her voice was low and threatening as she questioned hotly, "You answer me honestly, if only for the one time in your Sith psychopathic history: did you ever touch my family in any way from the moment I disappeared ten years ago till today? DID YOU!"

He knew he was treading on very dangerous ground, but he couldn't stop himself when he coyly asked, "Define 'ever touch' them."

If possible, Padmé looked even more infuriated. She stomped right up to Vader's horrendous mask unflinchingly and demanded, "Anything! Anything over the Holovid! Anything face to face? If you so much as trailed their pets I want to know about it! Any contact whatsoever!"

Vader managed to get the question quickly, "Are you admitting that you have had connections with your family during your hiding?"

Padmé lashed back, "Yes, of course, because I couldn't possibly stay away from them. Now answer the question!"

"But you could stay away from me!"

He was amazed that a woman so filled presently with fiery emotions could still look so pale. The only color on her face were the flames in her eyes. "You were no longer the man I married! Answer the question, Vader!"

"I almost died when I thought I'd lost you, and YES! I did corner your family! I met with them this very morning after you left their house in such a hurry to escape your favorite empire. I saw your mother, your father, your sister, your brother-in-law, and your grown-up nieces. And they saw me!"

Padmé's entire face changed into something more akin to fear, and she even forgot to breathe for several seconds until her screaming lungs reminded her of her need for air. Her voice was lower, quieter, but even more deadly as she threatened, "Define 'met with them'."

Vader studied her, and gave her the truth about his emotional reunion with her-- his-- family that morning. "You are," he breathed heavily, "your mother's daughter, Padmé. They may be a little shaken up, but only by shock, not by physical harm. You have a very stubborn family, Padmé... they are people who are not, um, easily persuaded... but they were not harmed."

Padmé's shoulder's sagged with relief. Her head fell to her chest and her breathing slowed, interrupted occasionally by soft sobs. He only watched her, transfixed. There was something so sad and pitiful yet so strong and graceful about Padmé's crying.

"Thank you."

It was meek, it was unexpected, and it was barely said, but Vader heard it. Thank You. Gratitude. Padmé was thanking him for saving her family from his usual wrath. He didn't have any idea what to say...except for...

"You're welcome."

He didn't even notice he was reaching out a hand to touch her until it was only millimeters away from her curly hair. He immediately jerked it back in revulsion of himself. Thankfully, Padmé witnessed none of it, because her focus was still to the ground as she finally brushed tears from her porcelain face. It was a while before she resumed walking and led herself back to the railing of the balcony, but when she did, Vader was thankful for the distance.

His wife stood there watching the glistening water below her. They had swam in that lake hundreds of times before he had constructed his knew empire. Wait... why did he feel this essence of regret...?

He shook himself mentally and cursed what this environment was doing to him, but he was much more aghast when Padmé finally spoke.

"You know... I could fling myself over this balcony right now and end my life."

He took a step closer to her immediately. "I'd stop you before you were a foot off the ground."

She kept her eyes out over the water. "Yes, well, let's suppose that you didn't get to me in time, and I landed in the water far below." Her voice was eerily wistful as she pictured her words taking place. "I allow myself to begin to drown."

"I would go in after you, of course."

"Really? Quite the hero are we today, hmmm? And I suppose you would then pull me to shore from the depths and begin to perform mouth-to-mouth respiration?"

Without thinking, he quickly replied, "I'm a good swimmer!" She stopped and turned very slowly to look back at him, a wry smile on her lips as she pointedly looked him up and down. She didn't need to say anything to convey all the smart statements that she wanted to.

"You would probably sink faster than I would," she turned back to the watery landscape before her, "and there we would be in eternal rest. I like that. Anakin was killed by fire, and Vader was killed by water." She sighed. "Hmmm, perhaps I'm not too bad at the poetry thing after all."

Vader didn't know what to say to that. He did know that he didn't dream of an angel for ten years who had saved him from his desert home planet, court her, win her over, marry her, love her deeply and intimately, lose her to fate and lies, and then miraculously get her back again only to watch herself hop off their balcony to death a few feet away from him. However, even as he pondered the strangeness of Padmé's behavior, he realized in a panic that Padmé was leaning herself farther and farther over the balcony rail. Her heels, previously hidden by the layers of her dress and train, were now obviously inches off the ground as she leaned closer and closer towards doom.

"NO!" He crossed the space between them in two long strides and firmly wrapped his arms around her waist, stopping her before she was a foot off the ground. His bewildered mind clung to her in angst while his imagination tormented him with 'what could have been if' images. But, before he even had a chance to pull her back to a straighter position, she shocked him by immediately pulling her upper body backwards softly against him. She even rested her head, eyes closed, upon his right shoulder. She looked altogether peaceful as she laid across his chest plate as if it were a lovely cushion.

"I just wanted this," she murmured. "I just wanted to feel the arms of a man who once called me "love" around me again, even if I had to trick him to do it." He eyes remained closed. "I just want to pretend, if even for a moment or two-- preferably two."

Vader stood there, shocked. His arms were wrapped around the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, a smile gradually dancing upon her swollen lips, as she rested contently in the embrace of a Dark Lord of the Sith. He had absolutely no idea what to do. In years past, Padmé was the only one able to off-balance and truly take Anakin by surprise, both verbally and in his reactions. Apparently, she had not lost this gift when her husband had morphed into something else.

"Yes..." she breathed. "I am your wife, and you are my husband. We are indestructible together." She cradled her head more comfortably on his chest, and turned a little more so as to hug him slightly. "I am your Padmé..."

"...My Padmé..." the soft, deep voice behind her agreed, as if in a trance.

Her smile grew wider. "Yes, my love... and you are my, Ani."

As abruptly as it had been there, her support was gone. Empty space occupied the area behind Padmé's back. Her quick reactions saved her from falling backwards, and as soon as she was composed she spun around to face her shadow of a husband.

"What's wrong?" she asked timidly, without anger or fear.

Vader was about ten feet away from her, pacing once again. "My empire is of control, organization, power. I know it! I am familiar with it!"

Padmé began to soothe, "Oh, darling, is that it? Anakin, you were once familiar with these explorations of love and intimacy before, and--"

"I am not Anakin Skywalker!" The volume of his yell shook the surrounding birds from the trees, and they flew away in a flurry of dark colors, startled. The amplitude of their departure added to the noise of the argument. "And--" Vader's fists were clenched once again, "And you, you are not Padmé Amidala Naberrie Skywalker!'

A deep frown creased her face. "Now you are just being ridiculous."

"No! You are Anaka Skyler. You have forsaken your previous identity like I have forsaken mine. You, likewise, hold no association with it, like I hold no association to you!"

Padmé would not raise her voice. "It is true... I am married to a ghost. Ghosts do not speak, do not walk, and do not hold others." Her doe brown eyes blazed with subdued emotions. "But, sometimes, you can simply feel their presence, and you know that they are there. Listen, this has been a very trying day, and it hasn't even passed yet. The drama of this conversation has had so many ups and downs that I feel like I'm watching a HoloSoapOpera, and I could use a media commercial." She straightened, applied her 'political face', and asked like a posed lady, "Lord "Drama-Inducing" Vader, Dark Lord of the Insane Sith, would you care for any refreshments?"

Vader stared her down. "No hostess in the political courts on Coruscant could ever show half as much disrespect to the highest leader of their empire than you, Senator Amidala."

Padmé shot back, instantly furious, "I am no senator! I don't know of any democracy to serve! If I am a diplomatic leader in any government, it is in the memories of the past Republic. I will have no part in your war games, Darth Vader."

"I am the leading official of this galaxy--"

"That is the second time you have said that, and I'm trying to figure out why. I thought you served your emperor of your grand empire!"

"My master freed me. He's taught me the ways of the dark side like no one else can. I'll admit that I owe him some allegiance."

"Your master freed you? That doesn't make any sense. You traded in one master for another. The differences between them are that one was just, the other evil; that one was your friend, and the other is your puppeteer."

"A friend? Kenobi hid you from me, taught you to block out your own husband who was going mad with misery!"

"Yes, don't you see? You just said it yourself, you were 'going mad'!

"End the chit chat, Padmé!"

Now she was truly taken aback. What was he talking about? "What? The meaningless, reintroduction conversation ended a long time ago. We've been arguing and reminiscing for over half an hour! This is not what I would call chit chat!"

"You've been trying to keep me off the subject ever since I got here!"

"What are you talking about, Anakin!"

"Where is the child, Padmé! The child that your comrades in the palace claimed to have died along with you! OUR CHILD!"

Fear blanketed her body and heart, and Padmé froze. Never, ever in her life had she been in a situation like this before, and her basin of vulnerability began to spill. How, how could she tell her estranged-dead-but-living husband about his doomed, beautiful, breathing offspring? It was a secret never meant to be told, especially to him. But how could she stand there, and block his questions forever? Out. OUT. She needed to get away, to escape. Abruptly, the idea came upon her to try a tactic she had never used before. The strong, brave, confronting Padmé Amidala used to look down upon her female counterparts whenever they did this. But this time, for her, it worked. Ironically, it was more real than a tool.

She fainted.

TBC………