a/n: ffnet hadn't recognized my separation marks before so sorry about that folks
Third installment
Little fish come quietly your fins are sore and frayed
The ocean breeze enchanted you and led you onto shore
- Come Quietly artist Lisa Gerrard
. . .
The medical facility of Polis Massa sat in its own ruins. Crumbling walls and dented, fallen durasteel doors were the sights that greeted outsiders. Torn droids and broken medical equipment sparked and hissed. Above, lights flickered from an unstable power source.
Down the second left corridor from the entrance of Polis Massa's hospital, a broken door was half closed. A man in a white coat cowered from the towering figure over him.
Darth Vader loomed over him, fists clenched and the only sound that broke the steady rhythm of his breathing mechanism was the doctor's whimpering. His broken leg was twisted at his side unnaturally and the bone of his ankle that shone white with thin rivulets of blood peeked freely through his skin.
"I'm, I'm s-so sorry, so sorry but, that was, that was protocol. It was, we weren't informed otherwise, I'm s-s-sorry my-my Lord," the man whispered, clutching at his leg convulsively.
Vader looked down at him. "Where is the body?" there was no feeling in the question. There was no rage for a still little body that he'd never met before. He simply felt rage that it would upset Padmé.
"The lab. The lab has it," he rasped.
"Why?" Vader's boots crunched over cracked tile and debris as he stepped closer.
"The baby was signed up for, for organ donation and research." The doctor attempted to crawl closer to his comlink. Vader stepped on his hand and the thin fingers bones cracked under the heavy pressure. The doctor wailed softly. His throat was raw from screaming and the electrical fire smoke he'd run through only to come upon Darth Vader.
Vader came up short at the word 'research'. "Why was the mother not?" if possible, Vader sounded quieter and more menacing. "Why was only the child registered for research?"
The doctor trembled. "We tested her, she-she suffered from h-h-hydrogen sulfide poisoning. The child was –"
"Silence. You've outlived your usefulness." With a raised black fist the doctor knew no more.
Vader swept away from the room and made his way to the underground lab of the medical facility. The broken door hummed behind him as it attempted to shut. It was the only sign of life left of the hospital.
. . .
Vader felt like a blind man, groping about in the Force for a single presence. Lord Sidious had said that if Vader couldn't find her then there would be no reviving his wife. It could take years Sidious warned, but since Padmé was recently…deceased it was likely she would be easier to find.
Vader reached out and with it, the constant pain from his ill fitted prosthetics was ignored and so was the excitement of having his wife back. He needed to bring her home first.
Searching through the Force was like attempting to find a single person in a galaxy, without means of having spies or power that reached far enough. Had his knees been made of flesh and bone, they would have buckled under the sheer intensity. Entering into the Force without a destination in mind and opening one's entire body to such a vast yet vague power had the ability to take away cognitive and physical capabilities.
Vader plowed through it. He had no destination but the feel of his wife. He remembered her when they'd first met; surprised and affectionate as one would be with a friend's younger brother and how she had seemed only to humor him. Their time at Varykino when something about him had made her relax and allowed her to let down that constant polite guard she had around so many.
He recalled Mustafar last; the hot, acrid planet scented with poisonous gases and Padmé begging him to come home. He hadn't heeded her then and he paid the price.
Now, it was his turn to guide her back. He wouldn't fail her, not again.
Never again, I swear.
Vader concentrated on the most recent memory of her alive, when she had been frightened and angry. Frightened for him and angry at him; she had loved him then despite all the disappointment that had gone through her system, and had he had a clearer head, perhaps she wouldn't have died. Perhaps.
Sifting through the recently dead in the Force was difficult. People died every second from different planets and different galaxies. Millions of beings died but there was only one Vader was looking for. The expanse of his vision within the Force widened and spread further, faster.
There was a time limit to bringing back the dead Lord Sidious had warned him. As it was, the time was shortened and there was a possibility that bringing her back would be a fool's task.
It would not be now. It was inconceivable.
He caught the tail end of what felt like royalty dignified haughtiness, dignity and an inborn desire to at once rule and serve, the whisper of despair and regret something like love turned sour, would it be sour now? As they were it was possible that is would be the only option left for them after his master breathed life into her, and a deep hidden hostility and anger, directed at… at…
Anakin Skywalker.
The figurative fist he'd entrenched in the Force grasped the fraying edges of a being slipping further and further away from him. He wanted to be gentle for a moment, but the very fabric of her being seemed to shy from him and continue onwards to a place that felt something like peace.
The very touch of the Light, tranquility and welcoming burned him as he maneuvered around it to grip her again. He felt her as a living creature he'd caught using a trap, writhing in his grasp in desperation to reach her final destination. She had no form and no size like this, she simply was and he recognized much and yet very little of her.
She was so honest in this form in her need to finish the final leg of her journey where she would undoubtedly rest in peace.
Despite all of this, there was a part of her that Vader searched desperately for.
A small, microscopic portion of her being, perhaps so far down that it couldn't even be considered her core, wanted to live. There was nothing more to live for, even Vader could concede that point for her husband was different and gone, and her child and way of life was destroyed.
Why she was yearning so badly for life when all was lost, Vader didn't know. All he knew at the moment that he felt it was that it was the opening he needed to bring her back to her body.
He latched on to it, hooking it to him like an inescapable anchor and pulled her through.
The Force clutched at her like a mother to its babe and attempted to free her. The Light burned and ached and healed even as it harmed him. Dragging and herding her back to the destination on the physical plain was difficult. She resisted but for that tiny part of her and the Light continued to carry her back.
Vader struggled more as they neared the place of her body.
Darth Sidious reached out, threads of his power clasping onto her like chains, shackles connected to her body where she would be placed in again. He whispered an ancient language, terrifying and forbidding even as it began to revive her body. She strained against the process, panicked and terrified. Vader was too focused on preventing her from being absorbed again to give her any comfort. His life support system was being stretched to its limits and time was running out. He felt his master struggle with the onslaught and Vader's heart palpitated in warning, there was no time, she would be lost again and forever and –
And then –
Ba-bump.
The Force screamed.
Sidious removed his palm from Padmé's breast with a small amount of disgust. He scowled down at her still form. Her heart beat was slow and irregular. She had yet to breathe and function completely but it was the end of his bargain.
Vader moved to Padmé's side, feeling beneath her jaw. The pulse that fluttered there was weak and erratic. He waited, unsure if the process would be able to save her. His master had moved away because he'd done all he could. He stayed in the shadows silently, watching.
Her chest moved without inhaling. Her body was going through old motions without any need for them. Vader waited and the sound of his breathing was the only sound in the room. He felt a vague ache come from his chest that grew stronger as more time passed.
Padmé's entire body convulsed and she gasped in air as her eyes flew open wide. Her hands clenched at her dress weakly. Her mouth worked without speaking as she tried to regulate her breathing. Vader pressed a heavy palm to her chest and forced her down. He let himself wrap around her and calm her. Her eyes were wild with confusion and fear and they rolled about in her head without settling on one thing.
She settled her gaze on him even as her body fought to regain its rhythm. She didn't know him, yet. "My…where…?" she wheezed and licked her lips. "My…my…babe…where…" she looked around, "Not…Polis…hos…" she was straining herself and so Vader pressed his fingertips to her mouth to silence her.
"Sleep." He waited at her side until her eyes slid closed again. It would be easier for her body to adjust while she was asleep. For now, he would carry her to his temporary quarters on Coruscant and watch over her to assure there were no complications.
When she was stronger, he would tell her what had happened. How she had died, that the Republic was gone and that Anakin Skywalker was dead.
When she would be able to withstand the stress of it, he would tell her that her child had died and he had no way of resurrecting him.
