EDITED
Vader rose to a menacing height, a furious predator stalking swiftly through the darkness to corner its prey. Padme flinched as his presence loomed before her, blocking the exit, suddenly wishing for the first time that he wasn't so much taller than her.
"Move out of my way," she snapped, glaring fiercely up at his shadowed head.
"No," Vader growled. "I told you that you are staying here- with me."
The cold fury glittering in the blazing gold of his eyes nearly sent a tinge of fear shuddering down her spine- but the trepidation was smothered as quickly as the sputtering out of a candle in a thunderstorm.
She would not cower; never to anyone, and especially not to this impostor- this horrible imposterthat had driven away her sweet, good husband.
She loathed him.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Padme snarled. She slammed her fists against his hard chest with all the hate she could muster in her bitterness, not doing much damage but eliciting a shocked grunt as he stumbled back. "I don't want to be anywhere near you, monster!"
Vader had recovered in an instant and was advancing upon her now, her strong stance unintentionally faltering under the menace of his stride. She tried to hold her position- but he was close, too close, the darkness overpowering, and before she knew it backward steps had her backed against the wall as he only neared further still.
This was bad . . . horribly bad . . .
He grabbed her by the shoulders, his grip painful. "Monster, is it?" he hissed. "What happened to husband?"
"Get away from me!" She tore herself from his grasp, trying to move away and push past his large frame; except he would not have it, closing in on her now as his arms formed barriers against the wall on either side of her body.
"You seem to ignore the fact that you married me!" He pressed closer to her, his hot breath on her face harsh and furious. "Therefore-"
"Therefore what?" she growled, her eyes shining with a dangerous light.
"Therefore you should act like my wife; not treat me like I'm the scum under your feet!"
Padme's eyes widened incredulously. "Me?" She scoffed, her laugh a hard, chilly sound that resonated around the large room with freezing scorn. "How dare you! You throw me around and betray me and choke me, destroy everything that I love- and you accuse me of what? Unkindness? Tell me, Lord Vader, when have you ever been kind?" Without waiting for an answer, she raised an icy brow, her expression cold and contemptuous. "I'm sorry, why do I ask? Sith aren't kind; Sith don't love. What do you understand- how could a loveless person ever understand love?"
His eyes flickered and then hardened, yellow hooded with shadowed rage. "Don't ever speak to me that way again."
"Oh, I won't- because I'm out of here," Padme growled, tilting her chin up. "So get the kriff out of my way so I don't have to be in your despicable presence a moment longer."
Vader's fist curled and something shattered noisily in the room; then he stepped closer, the red rimming his eyes bleeding out from the edges into the gold to swirl like fire in the furious depths. Yet she was not afraid, now; no, she would fight. He didn't know her if he thought she would bend- she was not weak, not a helpless victim to his actions, whether past or present or future. She was strong; she would fight, and she would continue to fight, for Anakin- for the Anakin that she loved.
She knew who she was.
Padme Amidala Skywalker.
Not Vader, but Skywalker.
Only Anakin Skywalker would have power over her.
"I'm sorry, I won't do anything you say," she hissed, grabbing the arms making her prisoner to shove them forcefully away, staring up coldly at the piercing, raging eyes so close to her own. "It doesn't matter what you say or do, Lord Vader; I will never bend, and I will never love someone like you."
Without warning, as she moved to escape his body he was suddenly close, looming over her desperately, his hot mouth crashing against hers as her body collided with the wall behind her. He was everywhere, crushing her, overwhelming her, his kiss making her dazed and unable to comprehend anything but the warm, leather clad hands cupping her face, the hair tickling her face and the hot breath so very sweet on her skin. Somewhere in the recess of her mind she knew something was wrong, so very wrong, yet somehow she could not find it in her will to fight this familiar, wonderful, delicious sensation of which she had been so long deprived. It was home, and in the darkness and the pretending Padme could not help but want to revel in it, want to hold him to her and kiss him back with all the yearning in her heart that she could muster. Her will was crumbling, losing, her hands snaking up inadvertently to latch onto the edges of his cloak and frozen lips melting unwittingly under the fierceness of his kisses.
She- she wanted it . . .
But . . . this wasn't Anakin . . .
"No," she gasped, tearing herself from him and doing her best to force away the trickling regret as she was hit by air icy cold and unfamiliar. "You're not-"
"But I am your husband," he whispered, his lips ghosting over her temple, the side off her jaw, everywhere, until the unbidden shiver rose from thr trail of hot yearning that was less brining in his wake. "I am, and you know it too, Padme, you know my touch, just as well as you always did . . . "
The haze seemed to vanish as her heart dropped like a stone into the pit of her stomach, the assumtohve assurance of his words and intent behind his actions slamming against her to ring foul with a dreaded poison. "So this is it- you're trying to prove something." Her voice flattened dull, her body ceasing all movement to tremble to a tremulous stop. Where he had touched her she suddenly felt as if her skin was raw and burning. "You know what you proved?" she asked quietly. "Only that you are a monster, that you would resort to such a low move to prove your own arrogance."
Vader's lips stilled at her words, his mouth leaving her. She could hear nothing but her own harsh breathing, see nothing but the strangely blank yellow eyes above her. There was quiet, darkness- and she closed her eyes, afraid of what was next to come.
All of a sudden his heavy weight was gone from her, his cloak rustling lightly before an utter silence. Padme's eyes snapped open in shock but only saw suffocating darkness before her, the dark pitch and black and cold. Shakily, she relaxed back against, her gaze darting about the room to find the shadow.
There were no eyes, no yellow, just a tall figure, slightly hunched and turned away from her, somehow darker than the blackness itself. She took steadying breaths, unsure of what to do. Slowly, a turn, a brief moment of the yellow piercing her with an intensity of something she did not know-
And then he fled, and the door slammed shut behind him, leaving her once again in the darkness.
Darth Sidious might be old, but he was not a fool.
The swirling in the Force was obvious to such a mighty user- not a shifting from Dark to Light, certainly, yet a swirling nonetheless.
He was not a fool enough to believe that it had something to do with someone apart from Vader.
Vader was powerful; indeed, more powerful than he was truly willy to admit to himself. Sidious knew his time would have been long over if not for that kriffing, meddlesome, interfering - though very useful in the end, much to his own delight - Senator Amidala.
He had known from the beginning, ever since he looked at little whitewashed Queen Amidala with her proud features, that she would be a key problem to his plans. She was much too intelligent, much too unselfish, much too courageous. She was willing to fight when others were too cowardly. She was willing to stand up when others were more interested in their own desires. She was willing to do what others would not.
She could not be corrupted. She could not be turned.
She was merely good.
He snarled under his breath, remembering all the trouble he had had to go to to twist him to suit his own purposes. Thank the Sith she had somehow fallen for that stupid boy, even with so many others after her; without the two fools and their love, anything he did might still not have turned the galaxy in his favor.
Padme Amidala would go down to her grave for the good of others, still fighting. And Vader . . . well, Vader would go to his for her.
Oh, everything had worked out just perfectly in the end. After much hard work, Amidala was finally gone, down in the ground, at least spiritually- and had even taken any trace of the man down with her. Ever since Mustafar, Sidious hadn't had to worry once about rebellion from the younger Sith, so dead he was: like a machine. And very propitiously so.
Only in his deepest, darkness moments would he admit how truly powerful Darth Vader was. If only the man would resurface, rise to challenge him, it would very likely be over for him.
For the last three years, he had delighted in the conviction that that day would never come.
Yet now, Sidious could feel something. Something he didn't know. It wasn't light, but it was an awakening. Vader was thinking - not just strategically, not just as the brilliant second-in-command of the Emperor, suited for his own purposes - but for himself.
That was dangerous. Very dangerous.
Something had to be done. A relearn of the Dark Side of the Force, perhaps? A reminder of just how cruel and unfeeling and stupid humans "were"?
He must contact Lord Vader immediately.
"Demand Vader to make contact with me," he snapped at the nearest Red Guard, his hand outstretched threateningly. The man bowed, quickly exiting to carry out the Emperor's order.
A few minutes passed.
Then a few minutes more.
Sidious's fury rose by the second. How dare the boy make him wait! What in the Sith was he doing?
Just as he was about to murder the nearest human being, Vader's image flickered before him, bowed and submissive. "What is thy bidding, my Master?"
"You kept me waiting, Vader," Sidious snarled. Two fingers extended, and then a barrage of Sith lightning, flashing mercilessly through the younger man. His cloak sizzled with the sparks, but Vader did not let out a sound, only heightening Sidious's already pronounced rage. "Where were you?"
"I-I was busy, Master," he breathed shakily, his jaw firmly clenched.
The boy was hiding something. Sidious tried to pry into the recesses of his mind, but it was closed to him, the contents locked firmly away. He growled, doubling his efforts, but it was of no use.
Yet he knew. Behind that shut door lurked something.
Well. He would find out eventually.
Sidious released the younger Sith, Vader's body sagging at the lack of lightning. "Your weakness from that dead Senator is still evident. Be sure to remember how dead she is," he sneered, smirking at the fury that ripped up from the other.
Vader made no response, straightening from his pained crouch and bowing his head once again.
Despite his dutiful stance, his anger was unmistakable.
And it was not cold, steady rage of merely hate, that was easily controlled- it was rage so pulsing with emotion that Sidious was disturbed, every midiclorian screaming with hate at the presence of an unknown.
When was the last time Vader had been like this?
This would be crushed immediately. Where was the machine?
Something had to be done at once.
"Remember your friend, dear Master Kenobi?"
Vader stiffened. "Yes, Master," he growled.
Ah. There he had him. "I'm sure by now, if he even cared in the first place, our dear Master Kenobi, has moved past the little injuries he caused you, and the little betrayal that happened. You have let him live, ceased your search for him?"
A strangled pause, then a snarl under the breath. "I've been busy, Master. Managing both the Death Star construction and the newfound Rebel Alliance is no easy task."
The darkness awoke, rearing its head, swirling fiercely around Vader- but still, there was a flicker of something dangerous in the midst.
Vader was . . . unfocused?
What exactly had his apprentice so distracted that he had forgotten his fierce grudge for Kenobi?
It would have to be discovered immediately, and rooted out. His spies on the Executor had not yet alerted him of anything - the boy did not yet seem to know about Amidala - but they would have to do more than just watch. They would have to investigate.
Kenobi's demise, and subsequently Amidala's, was not an option; it was nonnegotiable, a key factor in his plan. The irritating Jedi Master had to be found, by Vader, and with Amidala. Both, unintentionally or not, were involved in the initial fall, and would ensure the ultimate fall into the clutches of the Dark Side. It was crucial that both Kenobi and Amidala had to be dead.
He would have to remind Vader of just how much his old master deserved such a fate.
And once Vader found him, together with his wife- surely Amidala was camping out with him . . . oh, such an ultimate betrayal would lead to an explosion of rage that would surely result in both deaths and a broken Vader.
Sidious chuckled, mockingly worried. "Are you sure you do not still have a weakness for your old Master? Even after all he did? Taking the side of the Jedi counsel over yours? Stealing your wife from you?"
Another pause. "Do not doubt me, Master," Vader snapped. "I will rip him to pieces with my bare hands when I get my grasp on him."
This time the monster was bursting out of the younger man, spitting fire, Sidious able to feel the temperature drop even from the place where he sat- galaxies away.
"Very well, Lord Vader," he replied, settling back in his chair, pleased. "You have my permission to resume your search for him immediately."
"Yes, Master," Vader said darkly.
The image of his apprentice slowly faded, Sidious throwing back his head in a cackle as soon as it was gone.
Vader might be a threat, but he was just too easy to manipulate.
Soon the Dark Side would take him down again, and this time it would be for good.
With the fall of Obi-Wan Kenobi as well as that of Padme Amidala, there would be nothing else that could hold Vader back from the void of despair . . .
And Sidious's total control.
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