Chapter 20
Dark Taint

"Did you make contact Arfour?" Obi-Wan asked.

Arfour warbled an affirmative.

"Good," Obi-Wan nodded. He'd tried making direct contact with the Jedi Council, but there was too much interference and he was too far away. So the only thing he could do was have Vader relay it to them for him. "Begin message. Vader, please re-transmit this message to the Jedi Council, I am too far away to make a direct connection."

He paused before continuing with his report to the Council. "Masters, I have followed the bounty hunter, Jango Fett, to the planet of Geonosis. The plot against Senator Amidala's life, it seems, is only a small part of some larger conspiracy. The Separatist Movement appears to be gearing up for war. The Trade Federation, the Techno Union, and the Geonosians are building a droid army several times greater than the one deployed during the Blockade of Naboo. Count Dooku and the Separatists are… Wait." Obi-Wan broke off as he sensed something amiss.

He strained his senses and heard…something. There was a crunching of stone, like several large boulders rolling towards him. Three Destroyers suddenly spun into view and uncurled into their offensive mode. The instant their shield generators stabilized they locked their weapons on him and fired. Only his Jedi reflexes allowed him to get his lightsaber activated in time.

This is bad…

Vader felt the air rush out of his lungs as he watched the grainy, blue hologram play itself out. The incoming message had been from Obi-Wan and, as requested, Vader had directed Artoo to open an encrypted link to the Jedi Council on Coruscant and pass on the transmission. The report had seemed fairly routine, but its ending…

Obi-Wan had begun by outlining his findings. Apparently there was a really big conspiracy behind the assassination attempts. Now there was some sort of threat of war. This Separatist political movement was building an army of droids for some unknown purpose. And there had been mention of Count Dooku's name. Then…Obi-Wan had been interrupted by some kind of attack droids. And the message had just gone fuzzy.

Ice formed in his guts as reality dawned on him. Obi-Wan was dead or captured. Either way, the Jedi was far out of his reach and there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

Distantly, he was aware of Master Windu ordering him to remain on Naboo with the Senator and continue protecting her. Numbly he accepted the orders without really thinking about it. There was some empty reassurance that they would save his Master, but he didn't think much of it. He just agreed with everything they said until the connection went dead.

Vader slumped against the wall and hung his head. The thought of losing Obi-Wan, the man he'd spent nearly every hour of his day with for four years, was surprisingly devastating. He could barely stay standing. Nothing really felt real.

"How could you?" Padmé snapped, jolting him partway out of his daze.

"What?" He mumbled.

"You just sentenced Obi-Wan to death!" She spat. "There's no way that the Council can reach him in time all the way from Coruscant."

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it." Vader swallowed, feeling vaguely ill. "I have my orders, my hands are tied."

"So you'll just leave Obi-Wan to his fate then?" She demanded harshly, her tone drenched with disgust.

Something seemed to snap in him and he found himself practically pinning her against the wall in less than a second. "Are you implying that I am in any way happy with this situation?" He hissed in her ear. "That I am happy that Obi-Wan will probably die?"

"I never said anything about you being happy about it," she replied stiffly in a strained voice. "What I am implying is that you don't seem to care all that much about him."

Vader felt oddly detached as he wrapped his hands tightly around her upper arms and pressed her firmly against the wall. "So you think I don't care about my Master?" He snarled softly, icy fury roiling in his stomach. "What brings you to that conclusion?"

"You didn't put up a fight when the Council told you to stay out of it. You simply agreed with them." She explained, wincing at the pressure of his fingers. There was fear in her eyes, but they were cold and resolved.

Never before could Vader recall wanting to kill someone so very much and having such a good opportunity to do the deed at the same time. He tightened his grip, leaned into her, and glared furiously. Darkness poured into him and he welcomed it. "You assume that arguing with the Jedi Council is an option for me. That is a very foolish assumption."

Padmé flinched in pain and opened her mouth to fire back a response. Then she closed it again and stared. "Your…your eyes…"

Vader blinked, totally thrown off course at her odd statement. "What about my eyes?"

"I…thought they turned…yellow…for a second." She frowned. "But that's impossible."

The color slowly drained from his face as the implications of that hit him. He'd never drawn deeply enough of the Dark Side for his eyes to change. Never. All the icy fury drained out of him, as did most of the Darkness. He let her go and walked away. And he didn't stop walking until he made it out onto the dark stone balcony.

Then, as he leaned against the cold stone railing, it really hit him how close he came. He had almost seriously hurt Padmé. He'd wanted to kill her. If he hadn't stopped himself, he might have gone all the way. Sure she had wounded his honor, insulted him, accused him of not caring about Obi-Wan, but that was no excuse. It was his own fault that she thought so poorly of him that she would jump to those conclusions. She had no idea who he was or the circumstances of his Jedi status. And he still couldn't bring himself to risk telling her. It would probably only make things worse.

He shivered far more than he should've; the cool night air wasn't that cold. A cold sick feeling festered in his stomach and his legs stopped wanting to hold his weight up. Force, he wanted to die! Or maybe just curl up and cry until it stopped hurting. Or both.

Vader had no real idea how long he stood out there, trembling and staring blankly out over the lake. He could only guess that it was under a few hours because it was still night, the sun had yet to rise. But beyond that, he knew nothing.

And then he wasn't alone. He could feel her, even through the haze of Darkness that clouded his senses. The instant she stepped outside of the house he knew. She hesitated by the door for a long time. But then she walked right up to him, her stride confident, though her emotions were not quite so firm.

"Are you feeling better?" She asked stiffly.

"No," he muttered softly.

"Well," she began after a tense pause, "I just thought that I would inform you that I am going to Geonosis, seeing as you are charged with protecting me."

"Oh," Vader mumbled. Then it clicked. Geonosis was where Obi-Wan was. "What?" He turned to stare stupidly at her.

"You heard me, I am going to Geonosis." She shrugged.

"Why?" Vader asked, hoping not to get the answer he thought he was going to get.

"Naboo is much closer to Geonosis than Coruscant. I hope to either negotiate Obi-Wan's release or buy time for the Jedi Council to intervene." Padmé explained.

Vader frowned. "What makes you think that they'll negotiate with you?"

"I am a Senator of Naboo and a representative of the Republic. Despite the Separatists' differences with the state of affairs of the Republic, I don't believe that they are truly seeking war. They are reasonable people and so am I and they will at least hear me out and try for a more peaceful resolution to this crisis." She replied, her tone clear and full of confidence.

Vader had the oddest impulse to laugh hysterically at her. "How are you a politician? How is it physically possible?" He asked, completely dead serious.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She scowled.

"You are shockingly naïve." He shrugged vaguely.

Padmé pressed her lips tightly together, perhaps to keep from insulting him, and Vader wondered if she'd just turn and storm off. She didn't. "Well, if you would like to fulfill your duty, follow me."

"Fine, fine," he sighed, shoving off the railing to trail after her. "But, for the record, this is a very bad idea and it's not going to work."

"Your opinion is duly noted and ignored." She called over her shoulder.

Vader rolled his eyes at her back and swallowed a sigh. "C'mon Artoo, let's go." He muttered as they passed the blue and white Astromech.

Artoo let out a string of anxious whistles and kept his distance, though he thankfully didn't seem inclined to attack Vader for threatening his mistress earlier. Thank the Force for small favors, I guess. Not that I really deserve any, he sighed to himself. I'm such a jerk…