Chapter 7

Padme woke to find her bed empty. In the four days since she woke to find that Vader had rescued her from Palpatine, he had never left her side. He stayed with her while she slept and if he had to leave the room, he did it while she was awake. She was still so very weak and so she did not get up very often and hardly ever without help, but now she felt the need to go and explore to find out why Vader was not around.

She tested her legs to see if they were strong enough to hold her without anyone beside her. She stood and she felt a little wobbly, but she reached for her silk robe that Vader had given to her. She was surprised at how quickly something like that had showed up at the castle but then she remembered that Vader could get anything he wanted as quickly as he wanted. Sometimes that sort of thing can come in handy she thought. She slowly made her way to the door and left the only room she had seen in this place that Vader taken her.

She looked to the left and discovered that the hallway ended in just twenty feet. So she went to the right and slowly, ever so slowly, she made her way down to the next door. She opened that door and found another bedroom. This one was smaller than the one she was staying though only by about two feet. This one was decorated in rich purples and blues. She admired this room but since the object of her search was not in there she soon left it. She turned to the next room and this one was a hunter green color scheme, but again she hardly stay long enough to really admire it. The stairs were next veering off to her right but the hall kept going so she went down the hall instead of going down the stairs. The hall was shorter and at the end was a door. She opened this door and she stepped into an exercise room. Weights and weight machines were on one side of the room while a treadmill, bike, skier and other varieties of equipment filled the other. She saw a door to a sauna on her right and she went to see if Vader was in there. She called for him but there was no answer so she left the room.

She returned to the hall and this time she took the stairs down to the first level. Half way down she started to feel dizzy, so she closed her eyes as both hands clutched the rail for support. She did not want to fall down the stairs. Jennifer, the girl Vader hired to be Padme's personal assistant, came from one of the rooms and dropped her pile of papers when she saw Padme on the stairs. She raced up the stairs and placed a supporting arm around Padme.

"Oh my Lady, you should not be up. You are not well enough to be up and about."

Padme looked at Jennifer and did not recognize her at first. "Who are you?" she asked in a confused tone.

"Jennifer, my lady, I am your personal assistant. I brought lunch to you and Master Vader yesterday, remember?"

"Oh yes, Jennifer, Now could you help me down the stairs?"

"No my lady, Lord Vader would kill me if he found that you were out of your room. You need your rest."

"I am tired of rest right now and I am searching for Vader right now. So you help me down these stairs and then you may leave. If you do this I won't tell Vader a thing about our meeting."

"Yes my lady."

Jennifer helped Padme down the stairs and made sure she did not need her before she left. She did not agree with leaving Padme alone, but she also did not want to die for arguing with her mistress. So she walked away and left Padme on her own.

Padme walked through the whole house and did not find Vader she was getting tired of looking. She needed to rest for a moment before going back up the stairs and so she leaned up against a wall in the foyer trying to gather her strength. She closed her eyes and thought. Where could he be? This thought caused her to laughed at herself. Boy Padme you have come a long way from being the dependant queen, who needed no one, to this raving lunatic who can't be gone from Vader for more than 10 minutes without running all over the house searching for him.

She put her hand against the wall so she could push herself off the wall and back to bed. She really was too tired for more searching. Just as she pushed off the wall she triggered some sort of switch and a door open in the wall revealing a hidden room. She could not pass this up so she stepped in and immediately the door closed ever so silently though. It was pretty dark inside at first but she could see a light further back in the room so she followed it. She was quiet because she heard a man speaking. It was not Vader or Palpatine, but someone Padme did not recognize. She knew the man was giving some kind of report and she came around the partition to see Vader standing on a holopad listening.

"Captain, I am not pleased." was what she heard from Vader and the before the man could respond he was pulling at his collar trying to gasp for air. She saw Vader's hand close and the man fell to the floor dead. Padme gasped and before she knew it there was darkness surrounding her. Vader heard her gasp and turned just in time to catch her and keep her from banging her head on the Floor. He went to her and he picked her up and laid her on a couch located on the left wall and went back to the holopad. Captain Anil was gone from the view port and Second Officer Allen was standing in his stead. Vader promoted him to captain and said, "I will be back in another week and I expect everything will be back in order when I get there."

"Understood, sir. Allen out."

"Vader out"

With that the view screen went black; Vader turned his attention to Padme lying on the sofa. His voice turned soft as he brushed a stray hair from her face. "What are you doing here, Angel?" She did not respond, of course, so Vader picked her up took her from the room. As he was carrying her up the stairs she stirred and turned her big brown eyes towards him. She focused on him and started to cry.

"How could you! How could you do something so awful to someone." she cried as she tried to hit him. But he saw the blow coming and used the force to block her hand from actually making contact with his face. He took her to their room before talking to her.

"What were doing somewhere where you should not have been? That room is forbidden."

"I did not know and I missed you. I came to look for you, but I should not come looking. What I saw scares me more than you know. I had always hoped that one day you would come and save me from Palpatine. Now you have and I wish you never did. You are no different that he." She spat at him. He dumped her roughly on the bed.

"Padme you have no idea what my life is like. You have no right to judge it."

"Really ! I think I have every right. I suffered through the worst of his torture for three years. I felt those hands close around my neck many times and right before I would die he would stop. I would be half dead and he would revive me. I only wanted to die and he would not let me. I told myself that you could not be so cruel. When I woke up to find you here I thought I was safe. I am wrong though."

"Padme I rescued you because I wanted protect you. Not because I wanted to hurt you. I am different. These past three years have changed me. I know Palpatine; he would have taunted you with the fact that I am not the same person you remember." Frustration mounted in his voice, "Why am I even defending myself to you? I have become who I wanted to be all along."

"Have you? Have you really, Vader? I see a powerful man but not the most powerful man. You have always been powerful. I also know something about Palpatine. He promised you power beyond you imagination but you are still his apprentice. He has shown you power but you are no more powerful than you were already. You just use your power in different ways. Anakin was not happy being someone's Apprentice but for some reason Vader has settled for it." She backed away after saying this steeling herself for a blow she thought she would be getting. But instead of a blow, Vader started to laugh. Why is he laughing? I just said some very mean things to him. This is definitely a different reaction than I was expecting.

Vader stopped laughing, and turned to Padme and kissed the top of her head. "You still do speak your mind don't you angel."

She softened at the kiss because when he kissed her it always made her heart melt. She lay down on the bed because all this fighting was wearing her out, and he lay next to her. "Padme you must understand I have not settled to be an apprentice, but I also have not learned all I can from Palpatine. I will know when I am ready to do what I will need to do."

"What do you need to do?"

"I am going to get rid of him. You think I don't know he has kept things from me. He has lied to me, too, many times and then what he did to you was just enough to make me hate him just for still breathing. My hate always makes me strong but I have not yet learned something I need that will be very important. Masking my presence when I am around him. He is ever wary of me and some sort of treachery that I may one day deal him. I need it planned at the right time and in the right way and also I need to be faster than him. You know he beat Yoda back 3 years ago and I know I am not ready to face him yet." He paused before finishing his thoughts. "What you saw me do today was just a way to keep order among my men. I must have complete obedience and I expect nothing but the best from my men. The man you saw has failed me too many times. He was just too much of risk to me. He could cause my death by his mistakes and I will not allow that to happen. Do you understand?"

"I am not so sure I understand but I will say I can't change it. You are not the man I married and I am not the woman you married. Our changes are irrevocable and I will accept you as you are. I can't do anything else. I still love you." With that said, She snuggled into his embrace and closed her eyes so she could get some much needed rest.