22 The Epic: A GAMBLE AMONG MANY

Vader concentrated on the large round tabletop display. There was a hostile onslaught raging near, which he'd briefly broken from to strategize in the command bunker. In the low lighting, the glow from ceaseless movement within the display flickered across his mask. The screen's frame moved as his troops advanced. Out in the field, the garrisons were relying on their visual processors to guide them through dense, night fog. But the display, with source droids hovering above the troops, showed clear holograms of the enemy and Vader's own. When he touched his chess piece, and then the enemy, the blaster fire was directed right at them. One after another went down. There were heavier armaments he could have been directing at that moment, but this was personal and close to the objective.

Vader heard a musical tinkling, like faint wind charms and looked up. Eva was there, her face now too lit by the display. No words had been exchanged since the test in the Throne Room, and now the sight of her suddenly standing near felt as surreal as a dream. She was wearing an elaborate, striking headdress with slivers of metal that dangled out from the sides. They gently knocked despite her deliberate, slow movement. It was not Courtier's attire, nor was her highly detailed gown, which stiffened and constricted her movement. Palpatine had turned his able bodied operative into window dressing.

"My Lord," a radar operator reported. "The Emperor commands you to contact him."

"He's going to tell you to go to the Death Star. Construction is behind schedule." Nothing could have inadvertently belittled Vader as much has Eva knowing his business before he did.

"You shouldn't be here Eva. It isn't safe." And nothing could have belittled her more than Vader believing she couldn't look out for herself. But she had already turned away when she realized what he was doing with the display. And now she didn't answer him.

This was not what she imagined. When she walked through the moment in her head those many times, it was set in tranquil forest somewhere. Not an active battlefront where they risked their lives by standing outside and could barely hear one another.

"Anakin…"

He glared at her, ineffectual as it was. 'Darth Vader' didn't come with a first name. She didn't know what else to use. Luke would again use the name a week later, and Vader would no longer be able to contain his aggravation. "Where did you get that dress?"

"Palpatine gave it to me."

"Did he ask you to wear it today?"

Eva was confused and distressed at having her speech derailed. She was still wearing the formal from her last dinner with Zakk. "No. He doesn't know where I am. I came here… because I want to know what I mean to you."

Vader hesitated for a long, empty moment. "You still care for me, after what I nearly did to you in the Throne room? …I am…moved." Then silence reined.

This was everything.

"…But it would seem your feelings are misplaced. Eva, as with the test, anyone of meaning, will be used against me. They are my weakness…

"Look at me. I'm hardly a man. My ruinous affection condemned Padmė. I told you of her. I cannot go through that again." If you don't let anyone in, you can't be hurt from their loss. "I am undeserving of another and incapable of returning love."

Padmė had been courageous and pure white- clear in her convictions. Not like this grey mess standing before him, young enough to be his daughter. Padmė saw meaning and her purpose in the universe. Eva's drive was to support the will of those she favored. Alone, she was unfocused. In some ways, Eva made a better companion. Padmė; a more profound individual.

Eva had been a release and he'd allowed himself to share thoughts that hadn't escaped his lips in his days as a Sith, but his weakness ended there. There was another reason, too sentimental to voice: if it wasn't cheating on Padmė, then he would have to admit that no part of her still existed.

"But I don't want harm to come to you." He lowered his head. "I…didn't fully appreciate that, until I was put to the test. The request was sickening."

"I had to know, before I gave up." She looked away.

Vader did not miss the opening. He reached out to take her arm. "Do you think Palpatine will embrace a weakness? What does that tell you? Don't mistake mind reading for thoughtfulness. You know much… too much… but understand little." When will you learn? "He is not redeemable."

Vader's disconcerting perception caught her off guard.

He continued, "I knew he would not let me go through with your execution. I left the scar on the nape of your neck to remind you of your deception." Palpatine had everything to gain by witnessing Vader's willingness. But there was nothing to be gained from the fulfillment. And then also, the last time Vader had been in similar situation, the Emperor had wanted to embrace the victim as they took their last breath. He wouldn't have been able to resist Eva. Vader wondered if Palpatine relished having the dying in his clasp to more acutely feel their anguish. Or did he directly glean some benefit from their loss of life? Then, as much as he would try not to, he would dwell upon Padmė and himself - shackled to that table at the medical facility on Coruscant, after Palpatine had collected the scrap that he had become on Mustafar, Vader's life had nearly ebbed away and he was brought back from the brink. He was tormented by the mystery of Palpatine knowing immediately that Padmė had died, when so many pains had been taken to hide her. The question he could not bear to consider; had he himself somehow benefited from her death?

Vader pushed the thought away and looked back to Eva. "I am responsible for this. I should have sent you home a long time ago."

His lightsaber abruptly ignited. Eva hadn't even noticed his hand move. She stepped further back in an instant.

"Don't move," he directed and brought the warmth of the saber tip to her shoulder. He raised the hilt high enough that he could slowly make a horizontal cut to the fabric from the top of the sleeve. So careful and precise, that he did not brush her flesh. When he preceded to do the same at her other shoulder, the elegant garment dropped to the ground. Luckily she dressed in layers, but none the less she instinctively wrapped her arms tightly about her and gaped at Vader.

He was leaning down, to take hold of a corner of the fabric, hesitating and then lost in it once his hand made contact. He pulled the garment to him, forcing her to step out of middle to relinquish it.

"This dress once belonged to Padmė."

Vader made the motions to unhook his cape from the chain at his neck. "One other thing. The probe droid sent to Hoth to protect your cover, landed before you took Captain Leahmour's life. Do you understand what that means?"

Her eyebrows knitted as she thought through it. "The assault had already began."

"And?"

"I've been taking blame for all the Rebels who escaped… for you."

"The attack wasn't rushed. The failure was mine."

This was the moment when he could have told her what she'd already learned from Palpatine, the consequences Vader had suffered for her - That he altered the Hoth assault to spare her life, though strategically it was ruinous. In his overconfidence, he thought he could damn the Alliance and save her too. But Vader remained stoic and silent.

He did care for her. Just not enough.

"Anakin… there's something else…"

Packed cases still littered Palpatine's private quarters. Aloo, who was taking place of the valet droid, silently tied the side knots on the Emperor's grey underrobe.

"I have an errand for you," Palpatine told her " - a chest I want collected from an Alchemist in the Beshqek System. Pestage will arrange for your craft and its landing coordinates. You'll use a Lambda shuttle so you'll still arrive at the Death Star just preceding us.

"Do not let the parcel out of your sight, or even as much as set it down. Take it to the Throne Room and remain there until I arrive. ….You had something to tell me?"

"Two days ago."

Aloo gave her look.

"All the disruptions will be resolved soon," Palpatine acknowledged. "I'm weary of the tedium. Governing takes me away from what I truly need to do." Mortality haunted him. What should have been victorious clarity was muddy and the future felt tainted.

As Palpatine seemed distracted, she would keep it brief. Maybe even actually get away with it. "Things went as planned with Zakk. But then I was confronted. And I'm not certain if my effort was compromised." And in her distress, she had forgotten to act bewildered that Luke had found her. She knew exactly what Bothan was to blame for the leak of her presence.

The Emperor was paying more consideration to the black hooded outer robe Aloo was holding open for him.

She sighed. He'll surely know anyhow -"It was Luke Skywalker."

She had Palpatine's attention now. At least Luke was safely gone.

"He approached you?" Palpatine ruminated for a moment then carried on with his dressing. "…Cavorting with the enemy. That's treason, Eva."

She'd rather be teased than tortured. But he next spat, "You let Skywalker get away." An unkind quip to put her in her place, though he had little expectation of her. If Vader himself couldn't haul Skywalker in…

Then he sharply turned, "There's no need for you to relay this to Lord Vader."

Eva nodded. Palpatine took a step in her direction and she defiantly straightened her posture. While the strain suspended the moment, he was only motioning for his possessions directly behind her: his cane propped against a cargo container and just above, his lightsaber.

Eva turned around to them awkwardly. She had never touched the lightsaber he typically wore hidden up his sleeve. Gingerly she removed the hilt from the open case and obediently held it out to him. Upright - as though concerned it just might light.

"You haven't already told him, have you?"

Eva remained silent. He'd try to take from her mind what he wanted to know, and she rushed to concentrate on something else…anything else.

Palpatine's expression lightened. "Vader turned you away, did he?" The poignant distractions did work best. Palpatine stepped in her direction again. He reached out to clutch the back of her arm and drew her close, his long black sleeve draping onto her own robe. He pulled her face near to his, so close she could feel the acridity of his breath. His saber was still in her clutches and being squeezed between them. Her finger lightly caressed the rounded raised shape of the saber's switch. Yes, this is how it would have to be done. Assassination in an instant. No forethought. How many have longed to be given this chance?

He locked stares, and she looked back at his unnatural golden eyes without hesitation. There was only so long she could get wound up about the peril she was constantly subjected. Then she couldn't process it anymore. It wasn't fear - she bathed Palpatine's ego with fascination.

"And who is it that keeps you by their side?" His subtle mocking tone required no answer. He slightly smiled while studying the features of her face. "Which one of your masters is the more cunning?" He released his grip and his then his hand slid down along her wrist to take his saber. 'Hot headed assassin' or not.

He went on, "Vader believes you lack good judgment…perspective, even as you've served him well. To his thinking, you led us to the Alliance's main base on Hoth to save one sorry soul, Mag Doum, and to keep yourself alive...

"…when he had someone, who'd attempt to destroy a rebellion to please him…with no coercion needed. No ulterior motive, no personal gain…simply out of passion. Vader is a fool to throw you away.

"One day, he may yet remember… for all those beings crippled by empathy, that love is a greater motivator than preserving one's own life."

Palpatine motioned to Aloo that he was no longer needed. When they were alone he continued, "Vader is a disappointment to me as well. I'll give him oversite of this…second… Death Star, but if he…if they all fail me once more, I'll be done. Some restructuring will be in order."

Her eyes widened a bit, then narrowed.

Palpatine couldn't help twisting the knife. "Your esteemed summation of Lord Vader to young Skywalker has served us well. Enticement…to lure him out." He watched his words turned over in her mind, her slightly parting lips. "…Oh, but you hadn't thought of that?"