Chapter 6: Repressed
Padme awoke to an empty bed. She sat up and covered her eyes as the light that came through the bedroom windows attacked her irises. She let out a breath before gathering herself up.
When she left the room, she spotted Vader looking out against the bustling city, and she wondered momentarily whatmust of gone through his mind when he woke up besides her.If there was any problems, he didn't show it. He stood still, his hands rested behind his back, and he displayed no pain whatsoever from his earlier injuries.
To avoid the uncomfortabless that would no doubt remain in the air between them, she turned to walk away to leave him alone when his voice stopped her.
"Don't go," he said softly. "Your presence is soothing," he added, his eyes remained fixated outside.
Padme was left speechless. A common occurence aroud him that bothered her greatly. She was confused by him. Every part of her, especially her head, knew that he was dangerous. That any word escaping his mouth should mean nothing to her, but looking the way he looked, and standing the way he stood, he was the picture of calm and that both comforted and unnerved her.
"Have… have you been awake long?" she finally managed to say some form of words.
"Yes," he said simply.
Padme took a couple steps forward but remained a good distance away. She was naturally still wary of him.
"You had a nightmare last night," she hesitantly revealed.
When he didn't answer, she tried a different approach.
"When was the last time you slept?" she asked not expecting an answer, but he surprised her again by doing so.
"I… don't sleep."
She narrowed her eyebrows at him before it was replaced with concern.
"You don't sleep at all?"
He finally turned to look at her, and even with his reddish eyes, she could see that there was someone deeply lost inside them.
"Mostly for a couple of hours at a time. Last night would be the longest I've ever slept without interruption," he revealed as she noted the reluctance in his voice to do so.
They looked at one another for a long time until a droid entered the room with a message for Vader.
He left to the other room without saying another word.
It was that moment that she knew things were about to get more complicated.
"How long must we continue with this game play, Master," inquired Count Dooku as he bowed respectfully to the Emperor. He stood up and continued to speak. "Lord Vader has taken too long with her. The sooner we act quickly, the sooner we could dispose of the former Senator before her very presence can do more damage."
"Patience, Dooku," the Emperor hissed, silencing the former Jedi. "It'll only be a matter of time before Vader takes what is his. I've thought him nothing else."
Flashback, 17 Years Ago
His master threw him into a cell without food every night. In a barren planet with no name, there was no moon; the sky was always cold and lifeless. It's been a long time since he's felt any semblance of warmth; he'd forgotten what it felt like.
Shivering, the boy reached the corner of his cell alone, holding his knees to his chest as he did every night.
The doors to his cells bursts open and fear engulfed immediately. He kept silent in spite of his fears, knowing the consequences too well if he uttered even a sound.
"Come forward, my young apprentice," his old master commanded.
Nervously, he crawled towards him before standing on two feet. He was awaiting his punishment, unaware of what it was, as it is usually the case, but when nothing came, he slowly lifted his head until he saw the ravenous face of an old man that would haunt him forever.
"Take this," he said, throwing something at his feet.
The boy hesitated at first before picking it off from the ground. He held it out before him and inquisitively. It was a handle of some sort with some kind of button near his thumb.
"What… is it?" he asked fearfully.
An evil smirk escaped his master's lips.
"The beginning of the end, my young apprentice."
End of Flashback
Anger rages inside the Count. Long before his master was ever called Emperor, the Count pledged his life and services to him and the dark side, and yet, Darth Vader remains his superior.
It surprised him the most to learn of Vader's existence after the Battle in Geonosis. His Master has kept him well hidden, even from the Jedi, and when it turned out that Dooku wasn't his Master's only apprentice...
The revelation angered him like no other.
But his powers were no match for his Master's, and it is because of that, he remained faithful to his cause.
Even if that cause was for power and supremacy against all beings.
"Where are you taking me now?" Padme asked Vader, who is dressed back in black with his mask and armor. Even with it on, she can no longer purge his true face from her memory.
Vader doesn't answer as they continued to walk to the hanger bay.
"Why do you wear it?" she inquired on.
After living and breathing politics and diplomacy for all these years, Padme would like to think that she had a great deal of patience, but the patience that Vader continuously shares with her is driving her nerves to the point of hostility.
"It wouldn't hurt to have a conversation with your wife," she emphasized the term 'wife' as sarcastically as possible, knowing she wouldn't get much of an argument from him anyway, but she knew she did it also for other purposes she wasn't ready to deal with.
"You will remain in your quarters for the duration of this trip," he finally said something to her.
"That's nothing new," she replied with a pointed look. Where else would she be able to go without it being occupied by him or storm troopers?
The airlock?
She didn't think so.
Vader suddenly takes a device and hands it to her.
"What is this?"
"If you require anything, this device will automatically link your call to me," he explained monotonously.
"Oh."
"Get ready," he said. "We'll be taking off soon."
"Lord Vader," a storm trooper called out to the masked lord. "We have incoming to the starboard bow. What are your orders, my lord?"
"Fire when ready, do not let those traitors escape," he ordered.
Lord Vader strongly sensed that their one ship was outnumbered against the dozens that are attacking them. On the way out on a routine mission to one of the border planets, they were attacked by underground rebel forces. He didn't need to save anybody but one.
He rushed into his wife's quarters.
"Someone's attacking the ship," he said.
Padme rose. "I wonder why," she remarked, the thought of it didn't bother her as much as it should. Living with Vader would probably have added to her indifference.
Vader turned to her, not amused. "We'll have to evacuate, it's too dangerous here." She nodded when shefelt the blasts of the bombs hitting the ships force frields. She wasn't as indifferent to it as she thought. She quickened her steps to join Vaderin one of the escape transports.
Once they were released, Flaring power from the bombs created heavy turbulence that buffeted the transport that Vader and Padme occupied; the space craft dipped and bucked, shimmied sideways. She couldn't see anything in front of them with all the firepower and debris but Vader seemed completely in control.
"We're going to have to go through hyper-space to escape them."
Padme swallowed nervously. Memories of her time in protective custody as a Queen and Senator quickly came back.
And in a single moment, time stopped.
Once they broke out of hyperspace, they found themselves flying dangerous near a planet.
"Where are we?" she breathed unsteadily.
"I don't know," he said, looking over his controls that were slowly falling apart. The debris from their hasty exit affected many sections of his operating console. "We're still in the outer rim."
Their small spacecraft started to lose momentum, falling to the planet's atmosphere. Thick clouds engulfed them. Vader turned to Padme. "Don't be afraid."
Padme shook her head, regarding him with complete confidence when every part of her insides was fearing the worst. "I'm not."
If Vader was afraid, she wouldn't know, not with that dreadful mask on. She turned back to the now nearly useless controls, watching him pull and twist at the stick, punching light panels with his gloved fingers. The roiling clouds continued to rush past them.
She had to point out the obvious, and it was about the only contribution she could make.
"We're dropping too fast."
A break in the clouds opened to their right. Padme craned her neck around and glimpsed the empty desert. The clouds enveloped them again and they continued to hurtle farther from any town or city that they could find.
Suddenly, they were beneath the clouds, and the land below them appeared. Sand stretched endlessly in all directions, broken by sharply shaped plains and valleys. All of it coming up at them much too swiftly.
Vader struggled with the controls; there was so much that his force powers could do, hissing out words that Padme couldn't understand. The craft passed over a peak of sandy rock and continued to drop.
This wasn't going to be an easy landing.
Vader twisted around and checked to see if she was securely fastened, a gesture that she appreciated even though she shouldn't care. Thoughts of her imprisonment in a marriage she never wanted, serving a man who just didn't care, none of those thoughts mattered now that her life was literally flashing before her eyes.
Sand and rock rose up to meet them, mercifully flat and even. Mere seconds before impact, the ground opened up and became a narrow and jagged ravine. Their escape craft bounced violently twice before falling into it.
The impact through them both forward against their tightly strapped harnesses as their craft tore along the bottom of the ravine. Padme cried out, debris falling against her but she remained relatively unharmed.
The pilot's chair broke free and tumbled past her, Vader didn't scream but she knew he was hurt.
Everything slammed to a stand still, silver went dark, and she blacked out.
To be continued…
Author's Notes: Thanks for the feedback. I'm sure some of you wanted to see Vader's reaction to waking up besides Padme, but I avoided that for a reason.