Padmé awoke suddenly the next morning to the sounds of shouting. She realized immediately that Vader was no longer with her and had left her alone with the door open for some light. She didn't waste a moment thinking about the strange events of the previous night, more concerned about finding the source of the commotion outside.
Padmé threw Vader's cloak on the ground and made her way out of the closet, following the direction of the sounds throughout the facility. The shouting had changed to grunting and a strange buzzing noise she couldn't recognize.
When she discovered the source, she jumped back in horror. "Vader!" she screamed as a huge white bear-like creature lunged toward him. His red lightsaber plunged through its chest, but not before it had scratched him down the right side of his body. Vader cried out in pain, pushing the saber further into the creature as if hoping to kill it a second time out of revenge. The buzzing ceased as he withdrew the saber and clipped it back on his belt, the lifeless snow animal collapsing to the ground in front of him.
"What the hell was that?" Padmé shouted, shaking.
"A wampa, I think," Vader replied, catching his breath. "Heard a few of my men talking about them when they returned from storming your base. A few were injured by one on the way back to the ships. One or two killed."
Vader bent over the table he had been working on, grabbing hold of the side where the wampa had sliced him.
"Looks like you're hurt too," said Padmé. "Let me help you fix it up."
"No, I'm fine," Vader insisted. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, much," Padmé replied. "Thank you."
Vader grunted, which Padmé took as "you're welcome" and "let's not speak of this again".
"What are you working on?" she asked, looking at the pieces scattered everywhere.
"I was trying to fix the communicator," Vader explained, "but looks like I have to start from scratch since that thing butchered my progress."
Padmé could almost feel the room grow colder with Vader's anger. "Anything I can do to help?"
"No," he answered, standing up straight as if already recovered from his injury and immediately getting back to work.
Padmé sat in the corner of the room to watch, afraid that if she left him, she could be attacked by another wampa. He ignored her.
A couple hours passed and Padmé began to grow hungry. She rose and returned to the closet, grabbing two dried food packets, assuming that Vader would be hungry too. She gazed for a moment at the bed he had made for her last night out of rebel suits…no, not for her- for them. But then again, he was gone in the morning and she had been pretty ill last night. Perhaps she had imagined the whole thing.
When she returned to the room where Vader had been working, she didn't see him right away. Moving around to the other side of his table, there he was- blacked out cold on the floor.
"Vader!" she shouted, dropping the food and rushing to his side. She nudged him a few times, but he wouldn't wake up. Then, she noticed a pool of blood getting larger by his right side.
The cut. It's worse than he told me.
She hurried to the closet and returned to him with the first aid kits from the pod. There wasn't much to work with, but it was better than nothing.
Padmé hesitated upon kneeling down, realizing that she would have to take his suit off to reach the skin.
He's going to kill me for this when he wakes up. But if I don't do it, then he won't wake up…
She carefully rolled him to the side a bit so she could reach the zipper.
I'm going to see Darth Vader.
Her hands shook as she slowly pulled the suit off the top half of his body. He was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt underneath with a rip down the side where he had felt the wampa's wrath. She didn't removed his gloves, but could feel that the arm on that side was mechanical. Out of curiosity, she touched the other one.
Human. Definitely human.
Padmé rolled his shirt up and gasped, but not at the blood. The right side of his chest and stomach were covered in severe burn scars. But the whole thing was flesh. And quite muscular…
What happened to you?
She immediately got to work, trying to stop the bleeding with bacta patches.
At least this scar will be on the same side as the others.
Fearing that he might wake up soon, Padmé carefully rolled his shirt back down and re-zipped the suit.
And now we wait.
Padmé waited for hours, alternating between pacing and sitting at Vader's side, staring at him. At one point, she began to notice the potent smell of dead wampa and attempted to move it, but it was too heavy.
She leaned closer when Vader finally started to come to, trying to hear what he was saying.
"Mom?" Vader mumbled.
Did Vader just say Mom? Does Vader have a mother?
"No," Padmé said. "It's me- it's Padmé. You're hurt."
"Mom, I don't feel good…" Vader mumbled before his head dropped to one side.
He must have a fever. The cut's infected…
"If only you'd let me help you hours ago, then we wouldn't be in this position," Padmé mumbled, knowing he couldn't hear her anyway.
She knew what she had to do now. This was the moment of truth. And he would certainly kill her for it once he got his strength back.
Padmé ripped off part of the bottom of her dress and poured some water from a canteen in the backpack on it. She carefully started removing his helmet.
Padmé was shocked again to discover that he had hair. It was only on one side of his head, but they were beautiful golden locks.
Vader's a blonde.
The final step was the mask. She held her breath and pulled it off gently. The same burn scars that covered half his chest covered half his face. But he was so young- way younger than she'd expected.
And quite handsome.
Padmé pressed one hand to his forehead, confirming her fever suspicions. She carefully placed her homemade wet cloth across it and dabbed a bit on his cheeks. She attempted to pour some of the water down his throat, but he wasn't swallowing.
A little while later, he began to speak again, but didn't open his eyes.
"Mom?"
"No," Padmé said again. "It's Padmé."
"Padmé?" he mumbled. "You found me. I thought no one was coming."
"Of course I found you," Padmé answered. "You were only a couple rooms away…"
"Obi-Wan," Vader continued, his breathing labored. "He said he'd come for me. He didn't come."
Padmé was thoroughly confused. Obi-Wan Kenobi? The Jedi Master that helps the Alliance? How does Vader know him?
Before she could ask, his head drooped to the side again. She left him for a moment to retrieve his cloak from the closet and made a pillow for him.
Padmé allowed him to sleep, watching over him. She tried to guess how old he was- couldn't be much more than twenty. Her own age at most.
How could such a young man live such a horrible life?
Padmé ran her fingers through his hair, surprisingly soft for having not been washed in days. She suddenly wondered if the showers still worked here and went to investigate. To her dismay, they did not.
No water. We're going to die if he doesn't wake up and get the communicator fixed soon.
While she was waiting, she ate some of the dried pod food and tried working on the communicator herself, but none of the pieces made sense to her. She turned her attention to a large orange covering which contained several wires that had been severed in half. I wonder what this does…
Padmé took each end of the wire and carefully twisted the wires inside together to their corresponding colors, cursing when one shocked her, hoping that it would do something.
As soon as she connected the final one, she jumped as the loud whirring of a generator started up and fluorescent lights flickered on above her.
Electricity. We have power.
Padmé was too preoccupied to notice a pair of blue eyes with a Sithly yellow tinge on the edges had snapped open on the floor beside her.
