Synopsis: Vader takes Padme into custody for questioning in regards to the whereabouts of his child. Padme refuses to comply, and while Vader tries to force it out of her, he finds he cannot bring himself to hurt the woman who looks so much like Padme. Instead, he decides to keep her prisoner on Mustafar in private, hoping he can somehow get the answers he is looking for. Vader talks with Palpatine about the fate of his children, causing a rift between them.
Padme awoke in the forest to a sharp jab into her back. Groggily she jolted awake, looking up at confusion and then horror at the stormtroopers standing above her.
"Cuff her," one snapped.
"No!" Padme screamed, wacking the trooper across the helmet with her staff. He let out a grunt of pain. As she tried to flee, she felt electricity surge through her body. One of the storm troopers had stunned her with his blaster. Her limbs went limp, and though she tried to run, she could not. Eventually she lost consciousness and fell to the ground in a heap.
xxx
Vader spent the small hours of the night pacing back and forth agitatedly in the quarters of his ship. A thousand thoughts went through his mind incessantly: Where is my child? Where is the handmaiden? What happened to it? What am I going to do with her when she gets here? he wondered irritably. The night had been sleepless, but was rewarded in the morning with the impatiently awaited sound of his stormtroopers returning.
"No, let me go! Get your filthy hands off of me!" the handmaiden yelled at them as she struggled futilely between two of them leading her towards him. The handmaiden's eyes flitted fearfully towards the Sith Lord, his stern face hidden behind his black mask.
"Leave us," Vader ordered. The troopers nodded and left, leaving the door locked behind them. Padme flung herself at the door, beating on it frantically- and pointlessly.
"You lied to me," Vader snarled at her. Padme's heart beat rapidly.
"No, I didn't!-" she squeaked before being cut off. Vader had pinned her to the wall, leaving her body immobile no matter how much she struggled against his hold. He knows, she thought with horror. Vader stalked towards her, his mask mere inches from her terrified face.
"Where is the child?" he snarled.
"I told you, it died-"
"No, it didn't. There are no remains of it in her tomb. Now where is it," he growled viciously.
"The child was buried separately," she stuttered in a panic. Vader eyed her coldly.
"I sense that you're lying. You have one last chance to tell me of your own volition before I will take whatever answers from you by force. What happened to the child?"
"I'll never tell you," Padme spat in his face. Vader clenched his fists, his rage a cauldron simmering just below his self control.
"Very well," he growled. His hand opened in front of her face, and suddenly Padme's skull felt as though it would shatter. He's in my mind, she thought with horror.
"You will tell me if the child is alive," Vader ordered. Padme fought within her against the Sith Lord's mind tricks to no avail. The more she fought the urge to disclose the information, the more it hurt her.
"Y...yes," she gritted against her will. Vader let out a sigh, but crushed his force powers deeper into her guarded mind. Padme let out a whimper of discomfort. The visible pain on her face bothered Vader deeply- all he could see was the life of Padme fading. He wanted to withdraw himself from her, but he wanted answers more than anything.
"You will tell me where the child is," he growled lowly. Padme shook her head, trying frantically to break free from his grasp. I can't, I can't, she thought to herself anxiously. She fought his will harder this time, the feeling like every fiber in her brain was splitting being unbearable.
"N-no, I won't…" she choked out. Vader snarled under his mask.
"You will."
"You will have to kill me first…" Padme cried. Tears streamed down her face as the pain of it all became unbearable, and she felt the answers to his questions loading themselves on the back of her tongue. She let out a pained scream, and Vader suddenly withdrew his hand. Padme's face flashed before his eyes. Padme gasped and fell to the floor, rubbing her agonized temples furiously.
For several seconds Vader stared at the woman before him, part of him wanting to kill her and take his answers, but a larger part of him being unable to. She looks like Padme, he thought frustratedly. Vader tried to reason within himself that he should take the answers by force, that he should torture and kill her if necessary- but he knew even he did not have the stomach for such a thing, despite the fact his child was out in the galaxy. The woman's strength in resisting his mind tricks unnerved Vader as well. She was strong, and there was a very high likelihood he would in fact kill her before he received any answers. It was a risk and a burden on his soul he could not bear. Instead, he roared furiously and turned his back to her. Padme watched on fearfully, wondering why he had stopped and what horrible thing he would do next.
"If I cannot take this information from you by force, then I will torment you for the rest of your days until you give the answers willingly to me," he snarled.
"I will never give them up to the Empire," she retorted defiantly. This stopped Vader's breathing for a moment, and he turned to her in surprise.
"Them?" he questioned. Padme's eyes widened as she realized the mistake of her words. Her silence answered that question for Vader. He paused for several moments, thinking about the reality of the situation. We had twins, he thought solemnly.
"You will remain under my watch as a prisoner of the Galactic Empire until you do. I will find them," he threatened.
"With no help from me," she spat.
"So be it," Vader snarled. Frustrated, he ordered the storm troopers back inside his quarters.
"Take her to the holding cells below. See to it she is not to have any food or drink until she speaks," Vader snapped. Padme spit at his feet as the stormtroopers roughly grabbed her, handcuffing her and leading her away. Once they were gone, Vader screamed in anguish, slashing apart the room in a fury with his saber. Why can't I bring myself to kill her? Why? he scolded himself internally. Maybe you are weak, a voice murmured to him. Vader eventually cooled himself down enough to think reasonably. He did not know what to do with the handmaiden, but he hoped he would find the strength to. In the meantime, he would keep her locked away. On another note, he had a lot of questions for his former master. Angrily, he set the coordinates of his ship for Mustafar.
xxx
"My apprentice… So good of you to return, and with the answers you were looking for," Sidious breathed. In reality, he sensed a deep rage in his young apprentice, one that he had not felt since telling him of Padme's supposed death. Something was very, very wrong in his plans.
"The mission to Naboo yielded more questions than answers," Vader snarled at him. Sidious's casual smile turned into a scowl.
"Is that so? In what way?" he muttered disdainfully.
"Padme Amidala may have died, but the children of Anakin Skywalker did not. They're alive. No skeletal remains of them exist, and through interrogating a handmaiden guarding the tomb, I confirmed this," he rasped. Sidious's frown grew wider. This is a major problem, he thought irritably. Sidious had orchestrated the death of Padme and the death of her child with powers and prayers of the dark side of the Force, but it seemed now that he had misjudged his own powers.
"Children?" Sidious asked.
"Twins. I know nothing else of them."
"This is interesting to note, my apprentice, but none of your concern or the concern of the Empire. If they were to survive, what of it? Anakin Skywalker is dead, and surely his children would only be diluted by their mother's blood in their sensitivity to the Force," Sidious chided. Vader's anger surged at this, something Sidious felt as well.
"They are mine."
"And what would you do with them if you were afforded their location?"
"I would raise them as I planned to," he growled. Sidious's lips curled into a snarl.
"Are you forgetting the Rule of Two, my apprentice? Are you challenging me already by the unlikely survival of unknown children of a dead Jedi?" Sidious challenged, lightning sparks prickling at his fingertips in a rage. Vader growled at him like a caged tiger.
"You knew they were alive," Vader accused him. Of many things Sidious could be accused of, this was not a crime he was guilty of. In reality Sidious knew nothing of the fate of Padme's children, and assumed they had died within her. He was deeply worried about how this was clearly affecting his young apprentice, and their plans for taking over the entire galaxy.
"I did not. Whether I knew or not, which I swear I did not, it is irrelevant to our cause. The children are likely at the other end of the galaxy by now, perhaps they survived initially, but I find it unlikely they would survive for very long after without their mother or father. Whether they are alive or not, your place is here, serving me, serving the Empire- is it not?. I demand you not meddle in such affairs of finding them," Sidious spat.
"They are all I have left of her-"
Suddenly, bolts of blue lightning shot from Sidious's hands. Vader let out a low screech before falling to the ground, his body contorting in pain.
"Master, stop!" Vader begged. After a few more seconds of the agony, Sidious complied, leaving Vader in a smoking heap on the floor before him.
"Perhaps I was wrong about you, Vader. Perhaps you're still weak like Anakin Skywalker. Perhaps you think you can still save these children like you thought you could save Padme- foolishly," he snapped. Vader staggered to his feet, exhausted from both the physical and emotional beatings from his master.
"Anakin," Sidious spat. Vader looked up at him spitefully.
"Never question or defy me again," Sidious finished. With that, Vader bowed angrily, staggering himself back to his quarters. Sidious kept his frown on for the rest of the day, questioning the loyalty of his new apprentice. Later on, he had called in ten of his finest inquisitors- fallen Jedi and force users who served to snuff out whomever Sidious desired.
"Find the children of Skywalker. Uproot every trace, every lead, destroy every planet you must if it means the end of them. Bring me their heads," he ordered viciously. The inquisitors nodded, and set out in a race against Vader for the location of the lost twins.