Chapter 40: The Dealbreaker

Vader stood there. Frozen. Unmoving. It was her. Padmé. She was . . . She was here. He hadn't seen her since the spaceport four years ago. She was thin. There was something haggard about her. Shadows under her eyes. Her hair not as meticulously cared for.

But even then she was still beautiful. She was still an angel, his angel. There was a flood of emotion pouring out of his heart. A longing and yearning he thought he had buried years ago, but it was still there. Still strong. He missed her. He wanted her in his arms. He wanted to feel her silky hair. Taste her skin on his lips. Fall asleep to the sound of her breathing while she laid next to him.

But then the anger came surging forth as he recalled what had happened. How she had poisoned his son. How she had used the opportunity to not only abandon Luke but him as well. She stole not only Leia but the baby as well. Then she decided to abandon Leia. He grit his teeth, and his hands twisted into fists.

There was a small whine as fear tainted the Force. Vader followed the noise down to the small girl clinging to Padmé's skirt. He knew who she was immediately. She was his daughter. The baby. And she was a beautiful little girl. A perfect mix of him and Padmé with long curly brown hair and big blue eyes.

"Vader," Padmé said. Her voice unwavering, though he could sense the fear and unease behind it.

He stood there another moment, looking at the little girl, who had buried her face into her mother's skirts due to Vader's attention. Then he slowly brought his eyes back up to Padmé's.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed with no yearning to be found in his words.

She held her chin up higher and glared at him.

"I'm here to see my children," she said. Her eyes darted briefly to Luke and Leia.

Vader looked over his shoulder at them. They stood side by side. Leia was tightly gripping Luke's arm. Luke's face was red and stained with tears, and both of them were wide-eyed as they looked at their father. He looked back over at Padmé.

"You threw away the right to call them your children four years ago," he growled.

She stiffened at the insult, but otherwise was unmoved.

"You've seen them," he said. "Though I am not sure why you had to go through such theatritics. You could have saved yourself the trouble and just watched the holonet."

"I wanted to speak with them," she said. Her voice wasn't her normal voice. It was her Amidala voice. Her politician voice. Not her loving mother voice. "I want to give them a choice."

Cold spiked through his heart. "A choice?" he snarled.

"They're old enough to make their own choices," she said. "Whether they want to live with you or me."

No!

It was the first thought that raced through his mind. He wouldn't allow it! He could not have Luke and Leia taken from him!

"No," he said.

"I want to hear that from them," she said.

"No," he growled in a low voice. His Emperor voice. "You have already proven yourself as a poor mother. What life will you provide for them? You look starved and like you haven't slept in weeks. No, my children will not go with you. None of them will."

He looked down at the little girl still hiding in her mother's skirts. Padmé sucked in a sharp breath as she placed her hand on the little girl's head. Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. The message was clear. She was not letting the little girl go without a fight.

He let out a short cruel laugh. "You think you have a choice in this?" he asked. "A flick of a button will bring down not only the Royal Guard but also a whole legion of stormtroopers. You are not walking out of here unless I allow you to."

There was a slight twitch of one of her eyebrows. A flinch in the corner of her lips. She wanted to argue, but held her tongue.

"Our bargain is over," he said. "I wanted a willing and loving wife. I see now I will never have that. It's something you gave up and no longer want to be. You're not here to come back to me. You're here to steal my children. It won't happen! But I am merciful, Padmé. You did keep up your part of the deal . . . for a brief while. As such I'll let you leave."

She didn't react. She was still as she listened to his words.

"But you leave alone," he hissed. He pointed at the girl. "She stays with me. They all stay with me."

"So our bargain is over?" she said in a smooth voice. "I would hope so. Not like you have anything else to use as collateral."

He couldn't help but laugh. "I assure you I have plenty, and you know it."

Her face darkened. She did know it. Not doubt she remembered the bombing of Naboo. He only destroyed a small portion of it, but he could destroy the rest of the planet if he wished. Her family along with it. But he left the threat unsaid and hanging in the air.

He flicked his left hand. There was a loud short shriek from the girl as the Force wrapped around her. He flicked his hand again, and the Force dragged the girl across the floor. Vader gripped her arm and pulled her to him. She let out a small sob.

"Mommy!" she cried. Her free arm raising out to her mother.

"Varné!" Padmé said taking a step forward.

"No," he growled. He tightened the Force around the little girl. She let out another sob.

Padmé glared at him. Oh, she was angry. Good.

"You have a choice to make, my wife," he spat the last words. "You can leave. You won't be followed. I won't even bother to track you back to whatever miserable hole you've dug for yourself. But you do so alone. Or you can stay with your family."

With me, he left unsaid. She could come back to him. They could be together again. All of them could be together. They could be a family. Though he already knew it would never be a true family. Not like the one he desperately and truly wished for. There was a bleeding wound between him and Padmé. Between Padmé and the children, which he doubted would ever heal. It would forever be in the way of them truly uniting.

And he could live with that wound. He had for four years now, but he had the children to help ease the pain. He loved them, and they loved him. The little girl sobbing at his side would come to love him too. And they would be happy. They would be their own family. With or without Padmé. But it would be with him.

He couldn't . . . he couldn't lose the children . . . He already lost her . . . His angel. The children were all he had and he loved them so much. He had been in physical pain when he realized they had both jumped from the balcony back at the government building. He had panicked as he had jumped and raced after them. He could think of nothing else, but getting to them and making sure they were safe and returning them to his side.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Sorry? For what? Poisoning your child? Leaving your other child alone on some backwater planet? Stealing my baby?" he asked.

"I- !" she shouted, but whatever else she was going to say died away. Because he was right. They both knew it. No matter how she defended her actions, he was right.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She reopened them. All the poise of Padmé Amidala had returned.

However, when she spoke it wasn't her Amidala voice. It wasn't her mother voice. It was the voice she used for him. The voice she used when he snuck away from the Jedi Temple to her apartment. The voice she would whisper into his hair.

"I'm sorry, Anakin," she said.

For a second he didn't know what to say. His mind whirled. He wasn't Anakin. Did she think that would move him? Get him to relent? He wasn't. He clenched his jaw. If he had to, he would have her arrested, but she would not-

His eyes went wide. His mouth fell open in a silent gasp. He fought desperately, but his eyes rolled back into his head and his body gave way. He had lost consciousness before he hit the ground.

He awoke to the familiar light gray metal ceiling of a star destroyer. He glanced around. He was in a medical room. He groaned as his prosthetic hand ripped out of the tubes from his flesh hand. The machines nearby started to beep. With a wave of his hand and the Force, they silenced.

"Your majesty?" came a voice.

He sat up. His head hurt. It pounded against his skull and the back of his eyes. His mouth was dry. He hunched over and placed his head in his hands as the galaxy righted itself. He glared up to see a Royal Red Guard at the end of his bed. Through the Force he recognized it as the captain of the guard.

"Children," he said in a scratchy voice.

"Sir?"

"My children," he said. "Where are my children?"

"The prince and princess are in the royal quarters- Your majesty?"

Vader ripped the covers off of him. He had been dressed down to just his pants and shirt. His cape, belt, gloves, jacket and boots were gone. They were smart enough to leave his lightsaber by his bedside. He summoned it to his hand then marched out of the room.

A human male doctor ran into him. He must have been coming to the room to check on the Emperor.

"Your- your majesty?" he exclaimed. "You need to-to go lay back down!"

Vader pushed him aside. The other Red Guards lurking outside the room were smart enough to move aside and let him pass. He marched out of the med bay. His bare feet slapped against the cold metal floor. The crew he passed in the hall looked at him half in wide-eyed curiosity at his state and the other in rightful fear. None said anything beyond a jumbled greeting paired with clumsy bows or salutes. He didn't pause or give any one of them a second though. His thoughts were purely on his path and destination.

The guards guarding the royal quarters nodded as he passed them. The first room was the sitting room. He almost ran through it and into the hallway. His free hand slammed on the door panel. The door slid open with a soft hiss. He marched in and his breath got caught in his throat.

He was in Leia's room, but there two forms curled up on her bed entwined in each other. He walked swiftly to the bedside and paused. They were here. They were both here. He fell to his knees and dropped his lightsaber to the floor. He leaned over and with his flesh hand gently stroked Leia's cheek with his knuckles.

They were here. They were both here.

What had happened? He realized he had been shot by a stun bolt from behind. Surely it wasn't one of the twins. Another person? Someone had snuck up from behind? He hadn't even sensed them? Impossible . . . Or maybe not. What else could it have been? And what had happened to Padmé? And the little girl? He had so many questions. He would need to question the guards as to what they found, but for now he enjoyed his children. He reached over and brushed Luke's cheek.

They were here. All three of them. Together. He hadn't lost them.

He had fallen asleep like that. Hunched over the bed. His hand resting on Leia's chest as he watched it rise and fall. He woke up stiff and sore to Luke nudging him awake. He left them as he returned back to his room and showered. There was a report waiting for him from the guards.

He brought it with him into the kitchen. He read over it while he made himself a cup of caf and drank it.

The guards had been altered to Vader's location due to the positioning signature being activated on his comlink. He hadn't activated it. He had been stunned before he could do that. When the guards arrived to the rundown house, they found Vader, Luke, and Leia. The twins informed the guards that Vader had been stunned by a mysterious figure dressed in all black who had already left the premises. The guards had tried to questioned the twins more, but they had said nothing else on what had happened.

There was no mention of Padmé. No mention of a little girl with long brown curly hair and big blue eyes the color of the sky.

He ran his flesh hand down his face. There was only one way to get answers. He waited until after the twins had eaten breakfast, which was a tense and silent affair. They kept glancing at him. Their eyes wide and guilty. Vader said nothing. Just quietly sipped his caf as he waited for them to finish. Once done he called them into the sitting room. They followed. Their feet dragged against the carpet all the way to the couch Vader had motioned for them to sit on.

He pulled up an ottoman and sat down in front of them. They were both tense and were avoiding contact with him. He took a deep breath.

"Luke. Leia," he said in a stern voice. They both jumped, but they both looked at him. Two pairs of large eyes were on him. "I need to know what happened."

They exchanged looks with each other. They might be silently communicating in the Force. They had such an intricately woven and intimate bond, that not even Vader could worm his way into. The eyes focused back on him.

"I know I was stunned," he said slowly. "Was there someone else there?"

"Yes," Leia said.

"Who?"

"Some man," Leia said. "I don't know who he was. He was dressed in all black including a black helmet."

"I saw him earlier," Luke said in a soft voice. "I saw him . . . when I first saw . . . When I first saw Mother. I thought he was chasing her. It looked like she was in trouble."

"And that is why you jumped from the balcony?" Vader asked.

"Yes," Luke said, lowering his gaze to his lap.

"I didn't sense anyone," Vader growled. "How did someone sneak up on me?"

"We couldn't feel the Force when he was near!" Leia said. "It was just . . . suddenly gone. But it came back when the man left!"

"It left but then it came back?" Vader asked. "And there was nothing odd about this man?"

"He had a lizard with him," Luke said. "One that sat on his shoulders." Luke motioned with hands how the lizard was draped across the man's shoulders.

"A lizard? Describe it to me."

"Orange," Luke said as he glanced at his sister. "Four eyes. Had these funny ears."

"So a man showed up with a lizard on his shoulders. He stunned me, and then what happened?"

Leia looked at Luke. Her eyes wide. "Mother asked . . ." Leia said, but trailed off.

"Mother asked if we wanted to go with her," Luke finished for her.

Vader's breath got caught in his throat. "And?" he managed to squeeze out.

"We didn't," Leia said as she crossed her arms across her chest. "We said we wanted to stay with you."

Vader looked at Luke, who was staring intently down at his lap and avoiding eye contact with his father.

"You both said that?" Vader pushed. Leia shot Luke a glance. There was something there in that look. Vader looked at his son. "Luke? You said you would stay?"

Luke looked up sheepishly. "Yes," he said in a very soft voice.

Vader leaned back and regarded his children. Padmé had asked if they wanted to go with her, and they hadn't. Leia he could understand, but Luke? There was a good possibility Luke would go if his mother asked him. Unlike Leia, he harbored no ill will against his mother. He hadn't embraced the Dark Side like Leia had. He still stubbornly clung to the light. Vader knew he made his son uncomfortable when he tried to push Luke towards the darkness. But he had never pushed Luke too far. It had made Vader uncomfortable to see his son like that for too long. He loved Luke. He didn't want to push his son away from him.

"And then what?" Vader said.

"They left," Luke said still not looking up. "The man, mother, and . . . and . . . the baby."

Except it wasn't a baby. Not anymore.

"Then I called the guards," Leia said. "With your comlink."

He allowed the children to leave, which they gratefully did. Vader found himself standing at the large viewport of the sitting room. His hands clasped behind his back as he looked out at the stars and the blue and green planet below.

Padmé had asked the twins if they wanted to live with her. And they choose Vader. Their father. They chose him. They wanted to be here with him. He couldn't stop the smile that grew on his lips. It wasn't a full smile. It was a bit sad. But it was a smile, because he was happy. Luke and Leia had chosen him. For the first time, his loved ones hadn't betrayed him. They had decided to stay loyal to him.

And yet despite this, tears welled in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks with a smile still on his face.