The dining room is empty when I arrive. Where is everyone? I wonder as I help myself to breakfast from the side board. Sabé enters the room as I turn around.

"So, you found breakfast," she says. Her tone is rather icy.

I nod. "Yes, thank you."

She shrugs. "Don't thank me," she replies. "I don't do the cooking."

"No, of course not," I return, puzzled by the animosity I sense in her. "Where is everyone?"

"Her ladyship is in the garden with her son, and her daughter is at the hangar waiting for her fiancé," she tells me.

Her daughter? Her son? "Luke and Leia are my children too, Sabé," I remind her, my voice carefully controlled.

She raises and eyebrow in response. "Yes, I know," she replies and turns to leave.

"Is there something you want to say to me?" I challenge her. "I sense a great deal of hostility in you, directed at me."

Her back stiffens for an instant and then she turns to face me.

"Nothing you'd want to hear, I'm sure," she replies coldly.

"Try me," I say, folding my arms over my chest.

She regards me for a moment as she formulates her response. "I just find it rather fascinating that you've suddenly shown up here after all these years. Why now? Why the sudden change in your attitude? After all, you abandoned her 2 decades alone."

I narrow my eyes, trying to control the angry indignation I feel welling up within me. "Abandoned her?" I retort. "Is that what you think?"

"What else would you call it?" she retorts. "You left 22 years ago, leaving her alone, pregnant with your children, forcing her to hide here in solitude and fear. You weren't around to console her as she grieved for her children, I was! I spent countless nights listening to her cry herself to sleep, and endless hours worrying that her grief would be the end of her. And now you miraculously reappear and expect to pick up the pieces like nothing happened!"

"I expect nothing of the kind," I snap back. "I believed my wife was dead all these years! If I had known that she was alive, I ..."

"What would you have done?" she interjects. "What? Come here and dragged her off to be your prisoner on one of your star destroyers? She would rather die! Darth Vader was a vicious monster, who would have destroyed what was left of her fragile spirit, just as he destroyed thousands of innocent beings all over the galaxy."

"You clearly have no idea what you are talking about," I inform her, using the Force to remain calm. "I never stopped loving Padmé, even when I was Darth Vader. I would never have harmed her!"

"Darth Vader was a heartless fiend," she retorts. "Incapable of loving anyone or anything but power. You chose that power over a life with her. You're to blame for her family being ripped apart! She doesn't need you here now causing more grief! Just leave her alone! Leave her and her children in peace!"

"That's enough!" a sharp voice snaps. We both turn around to see Padmé and Luke standing in the doorway.

"Milady!" begins Sabé, flustered by the sudden appearance of her lady. "I was only trying to protect you."

"Is that what you were doing?" demands Luke. "Sounded more like a verbal attack upon my father to me."

Sabé's face reddens, but she does not back down, nor does she apologize for her accusations.

"It's just…well…I felt he needed to hear it," she declares, glancing at me. "I'm worried about you, Milady," she adds, turning to Padmé. "I know what this man put you through! I watched as you almost slipped away, eaten away by the heartbreak he caused. I don't want to see you go through that again! I won't stand by idly and let it happen!"

Padmé sighs, looking briefly at me before turning her attention back to Sabé.

"Sabé, I know you love me," she begins gently. "And your concern for me is truly touching. But attacking Anakin in this manner is highly inappropriate; I'm shocked that I even have to tell you that! He is a guest in my home, as well as the father of my children. He deserves your respect for those reasons alone."

Sabé lowers her eyes, the colour rising to her hairline.

Padmé walks over to her, taking her hands. "Don't worry about me, Sabé," Padmé tells her softly. "You have been loyal to me all these years, and I am eternally grateful to you for that. I understand that you have my best interests at heart. But this is my life, Sabé, my choices. I hope you know me well enough after all these years to know that I'd make the right ones."

Sabé raises her tear-filled eyes to her lady's. "Yes, milady," she whispers.

She hastily wipes away a stray tear as she leaves us, casting a last glance in my direction.

"I'm sorry about that, Anakin," Padmé says once Sabé has left the room. "She's just rather protective of me after all these years, that's all."

I nod in understanding. "Of course she is," I reply. "She watched over you all these years. It's only natural that she'd see me as a threat after everything I've done."

"Yes, I'm afraid that's it exactly," Padmé replies. "I suppose she doesn't completely understand how you can be both Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker, how they are opposite sides of a coin."

"Well she had no right talking to Father that way if she is ignorant of the situation," puts in Luke at this point. "I am grateful to her for all she's done for you, Mother, but she was really out of line talking to him that way."

"It's alright, Luke," I tell him, putting my hand up. "She was saying the truth, after all. I am responsible for all the misfortune that has befallen this family."

Luke frowns. "You are responsible for saving the lives of both your children, too," he states. "Does she even know that? All she knows is the dark deeds you committed; she knows nothing of your redemption, nothing of the goodness that you have demonstrated time and time again. Don't let what she has said discourage you, Father. She doesn't know you like we do."

I smile at my son, proud and honoured to be his father. I sense that his words, though driven by his love for me, were also meant for the benefit of his mother. Will she see what he does? Can she? My children love me despite all the ugliness of my past, and have opened their arms to me whole-heartedly; will their mother dare to do the same?

"I know, son," I reply, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder. "And I thank you for reminding me of that. I suppose sometimes the past does threaten to swallow me; I have so much to atone for that it seems I am drowning in it."

"You have already atoned for so much, Father," Luke tells me. "Your willingness to help the Alliance defeat the remnants of the Empire proves yet again how much you've changed. In time everyone will see that, I'm sure of it."

I look at Padmé to see how or even if our son's words have affected her. She is watching Luke, a look of wonder on her face. I sense that she is impressed by Luke's fierce loyalty to me, further proof of the love he bears me. Can his testimonial help her to trust me? To allow her to see that the Darkness has no longer has power over me?

"Speaking of that," I say, "when are we to return to Coruscant?"

"Well I assumed we would leave when Han gets here," replies Luke. "I'm surprised he hasn't arrived yet; Leia was expecting him quite early this morning."

"He hasn't arrived yet, then?" asks Padmé.

"No, he hasn't," Luke replies. "I hate to say it, but I have a bad feeling about this."

I frown, turning my mind inward to see what it is he is feeling. The look on my face must register my shock at what I see, for Padmé's face assumes an expression of concern.

"What is it?" she asks me. "What do you see, Ani?"

I look at Luke, wondering if he sees it too. "Coruscant," I tell her. "I see Coruscant.."

"What about it?" she asks.

"An imperial blockade has surrounded it," I tell her. "They are being invaded."

"What?" Padmé gasps.

"I sense it too," Luke says. "But I can't tell if it's the future or the present…can you, Father?"

I concentrate, a crease deepening in my brow as I do so. "No. I can't tell either," I tell him. "But one thing is certain; Coruscant is in grave danger." Suddenly a thought strikes me, and I look at Luke, wondering if he has had the same one. Han… I tell him silently. Luke's eyes widen as he too sees the vision that my mind has formulized.

"Leia…" Luke says softly, the concern for his twin pouring off of him.

Padmé looks from me to Luke in exasperation. "Will one of you tell me what is going on?"

"We're worried about Han," Luke explains. "If he didn't leave Coruscant before what we fear has happened…" he doesn't finish the sentence, as his mother's face tells him that she can finish his thought for herself.

"Oh no," she murmurs.

"I'm going to see if he has arrived," Luke announces as he rushes out of the room.

Padmé looks up at me, her dark eyes troubled. "Oh this can't be happening," she says softly. "He has to be alright, he just has to be!"

I nod, hoping that he is, but feeling a feeling of dread deep inside me. "I hope so, Padmé," I tell her. "But something tells me that something has befallen him. I can't shake the feeling that he is in terrible danger."

Fear fills Padmé at my words, and I have to fight the urge to comfort her in my arms.

"Oh Ani," she says softly. "Poor Leia….my poor Leia…"

I nod, my frown deepening. Feelings of anger, of retribution surge through me as I think of the Imperial scum that would dare to harm Han. Ironic, as not that long ago I was the imperial scum putting him into carbonite…

Both of us look up as we hear footsteps approaching the room. Luke appears at the door, his face wracked with worry.

"Han isn't here," he tells us. "And Leia can't reach him."

Padmé and I look at one another. . "They won't get away with it, Padmé," I tell her, taking her by the shoulders gently. "I won't let them get away with this, I promise you."

Anger and an overwhelming feeling of protectiveness washes through me, spurring me on to action. Now I understand the meaning of the nightmare I had the previous night; the vision of Palpatine was a metaphor for the last remnants of the Empire as they try to destroy the Alliance. His attack on me was representative of the attack on Coruscant. I have a purpose now, something I have lacked for all the months since my redemption. I know now why Destiny has seen fit to give me a second chance; to see to it that the Empire I spent a life time helping to build and nurture is destroyed utterly and irrevocably. It represents evil, the twisted vision of that monster I served for so long, and I must crush it like a Jundland scorpion under the heel of my boot. The Chosen One within me has awakened at last…