The dreaded moment of parting is upon my family once again, as Padmé and I have made our final check of the Imperial vessel that will take us back to the Intimidator. I now have several new leather body suits, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Alliance technical experts. Padmé has ordered an entire wardrobe to be sent to the Intimidator, courtesy, of course, of the private credit account of Darth Vader. We are all set, everything is in place. All that needs to be done now is to say goodbye to our children.

"How soon will you be able to make contact with us?" Leia asks her mother anxiously.

"It's hard to say," Padmé replies. "It will depend on how soon your father announces that he is the new emperor, and how much opposition this announcement creates."

Han snorts. "That should be interesting," he comments.

"No doubt," I concur. "But I have the legal documentation to validate my claim. I expect that will help."

"It should," Leia replies. "But I'm sure you know, Dad that in every rise to power there are many who oppose the new leader. Even if it is completely legal."

"I know that, Leia," I tell her. "And am prepared for that. I just hope that I am not forced into resorting to tactics unbecoming of a Jedi."

Luke nods. "Yes, me too," he replies, a frown forming on his forehead. "I still don't like this, Dad. You are putting yourself into a position of such potential danger."

"And that is why I will be counting on you and your sister to come to my aid if I need you," I return. "The Alliance has assured me that they are ready to intervene should things go wrong; but they won't Luke, I promise you. This plan will succeed." It has to. It's all we've got..

After many warm hugs and hot tears, we depart the hangar bay of the rebel command ship and head away from the fleet. I can feel the knots forming in my stomach as we do so; my own well being is not a consideration at this point, but that of my beloved Padmé.

"According to this readout, the Intimidator is in the Nubia Sector," Padmé reports after checking the navi-computer. "I'm laying in a course right now."

"It's been a long time since you and I had an adventure together," I say.

She sits down and turns to me. "Yes, it certainly has," she agrees with a smile. "We've had some rather interesting ones though, haven't we?"

I nod. "You could say so," I reply. "I will never forget the way you handled yourself in that arena on Geonosis," I tell her, a smile creeping across my face at the memory. "Obi-Wan and I were so busy arguing that we didn't even notice you making your way to the top of that pillar."

Padmé shrugs. "Well, the Jedi were not the only ones who knew something about self-defense," she replies with a smile. "Those in the political arena need to know something about …aggressive negotiations as well."

I laugh at her comment. "Ah yes, aggressive negotiations," I reply. "Quite the euphemism. Let's just hope we don't have too many of those in store for us this time."

She nods. "Yes, let's hope." She stops, thoughtful for a moment. "Ani, if you had known that I was alive all those years, would you have come to find me?"

"Of course I would have," I reply immediately, without a second's thought. "I'm surprised you even have to ask me that."

"I guess I don't…but I can't help but wonder if Darth Vader would have felt the same way about me as you do. If I had a place in his life, what would it have been?"

I think about this for a moment, trying to remember what it was like to think like him, to feel what he felt. All I remember feeling was despair, loneliness, anger, fear, hatred….would those emotions have existed in my heart had she been there with me? Would Darth Vader even have existed?

"It's hard to say," I reply at last. "Darth Vader was, in essence, the absence of love, the absence of anything positive. He existed because of negative emotions, created by them, nurtured by them; it was love that finally destroyed him. So if you had been with him, with me…I don't know that Vader would have continued to exist in the same manner. The very core of his being would have been compromised by loving you."

"So how are you going to proceed with this then?" she asks. "How are you going to convince everyone that you are still Darth Vader even though I am with you?"

I smile at her. "Padmé, this was your idea, remember?" I tease her.

"I know that," she replies, "I'm just asking..."

"It's okay, I know what you're getting at," I reply. "I don't anticipate fooling anyone will be a problem. So long as everyone believes that Vader's reasons for having you with him are driven solely by possessiveness and not love, that he thinks of you as a possession more than his wife, then this will work. No one really knows the truth about Darth Vader."

"And what truth is that?"

I smile at her. "That love of you was at the very core of him," I tell her. "That he dreamed of you every night after he lost you, and woke up in tears of despair more times than he would ever admit to anyone. That the moment he learned that his son, the son you bore him, was alive, was the beginning of his undoing."

Padmé is moved by my words. She stands up and moves over to me. I turn in my chair to face her, as she puts her hands around my neck. I pull her close, looking up at her.

"I didn't know that about him," she tells me softly.

I smile. "So does that answer your question from earlier? About whether I would have come looking for you if I'd known you was alive?"

She nods. "Yes, it does. If only I had known that…"

"Padmé, there is no point in what if's…I've learned this from experience," I tell her. "All we can do is put the past behind us and live for the present, for the future. Regrets are too bitter to dwell on. I know, I've had a lifetime of them."

Padmé smiles at me and lightly touches my face. "Yes, you're right, Ani," she tells me. "Time to focus on the future."

"I'm just grateful that you are even willing to consider a future with me after everything," I admit to her.

"I wasn't sure I ever could, to tell you the truth," she replies. "But I know that you've changed, Ani. I know in my heart that you are not the same man you were on that terrible day on Mustafar so long ago; otherwise I wouldn't even consider a future with you. Seeing you with our children, seeing how much you love them and they you, that convinced me in the end. But to tell you the truth, I never stopped loving you, even after everything that happened."

I take her face into my hands, loving the beautiful woman with all my soul. "How did I ever deserve the love of a woman like you?" I ask her, pulling her close and kissing her tenderly.

From the computer the sound indicating our approaching reversion is heard, interrupting us yet again.

Padmé pulls back and looks over her shoulder. "Looks like we've reached the fleet," she remarks. She then turns back to me. "I guess this will have to wait. Again."

I laugh. "Yeah, I'm getting used to that," I reply as she moves back to her seat. "Stand by for sublight."

Back in the mask now, I wait with Padmé for clearance to enter the hangar bay of the Intimidator. I can sense her apprehension, and reach over and take her hand. She turns to me, her eyes reflecting her uneasiness.

"We can do this," I tell her. "And no matter how I may act, remember that I love you more than anything in the galaxy."

She smiles and nods, and then takes a deep breath as we receive the signal from the destroyer.

"Here we go," she says as I direct the ship up into the waiting bay. We dock, knowing that there will be a group of troopers and at least one officer present to welcome me home. What will their reaction be when Padmé descends the ramp with me?

I walk ahead of my wife, assuming the air and arrogance of the Dark Lord of the Sith. Padmé walks behind, appearing conquered and resentful. I descend the ramp and see Kastellan standing ready to welcome me.

"Welcome back, Lord Vader," he says with a slight bow. "I trust your mission was successful."

"Marginally," I inform him. "Solo turned out to be a fraud, so I killed him."

Kastellan registers surprise at the coldness of my declaration, but thoughts of the demise of Solo are immediately superseded when he beholds the beautiful woman in my company.

"And who have we here?" he asks, an oily smile spreading across his face. "Another prisoner, Lord Vader? I must say this one is far more striking than…"

"She is no prisoner," I cut him off; irritated by the way he is looking at Padmé. "She is Lady Vader, my wife."