Padmé surrendered to joy. She was in her husband's arms. She could feel his gloved fingers playing with her curls. Grateful for the fate, which once again allowed them to touch, Padmé still yearned for more. As always, she needed him. Afraid of the answer, she nevertheless asked, "Ani, can you take your mask off?"

"In my hyperbaric chamber"

"Can we go there? I want…"

They were already in Vader's quarters, it was only a few steps to the chamber, which taunted him with freedom he no longer had. He waited while the claw descended and removed his mask. He waited again to turn around. "I'm no longer…"

She knew that. She knew he was no longer the handsome boy who ardently pleaded for her love. How could she soothe his fears when she couldn't possibly imagine what horrors were concealed behind his armor. And yet, how could she choose not to know, not to be with him. "Anakin, we're both alive. If you're delaying because you're no longer…"

He interrupted her. "This is who I am now." She hoped desperately that he referred only to his physical self and not to his embracing the dark side.

He turned around and Padmé struggled not to gasp. All thoughts of dark side or light side seemed irrelevant when he was here before her, waiting. "You must have been in so much pain."

"The greatest pain was not being able to be with you like this."

As always his awkward yet heartfelt flattery caused her to melt. She rushed towards him. In an instant, her arms were about him and her lips were pressed to his. The skin beneath her palms was riddled with scars. He was not the Anakin she knew, not physically. And yet, this poor wounded man whose lips pressed hungrily, greedily against hers, who had uttered such passionate phrases, was the same man who had once pleaded for her love in a firelit room in Varykino.

And suddenly she was crying. He pulled back reluctantly and questioned "Padmé?"

"Oh Ani, your hair. Your beautiful hair."

She hadn't meant to say anything about his appearance. The moment he turned to take off his mask, she had vowed not to add to his distress. Anxiously, Padmé looked up through her damp lashes, to see her husband's startled face.

He bent towards her again. His lips met hers hungrily; once again he was the confident lover instead of a tentative monster. She yielded yet again to the flames of desire his presence always sparked. Every part of her newly resurrected body was singing a thank you that she could feel this way once more.

They broke apart. Her heart nearly broke again witnessing his labored breathing. Her own breathing was unsteady but that was due to passion.

"Do you need to put on the mask?"

"Perhaps. Let me try this first." Vader moved to open the hyperbaric chamber and then paused. "Veers is outside."

"Just like the old days," she commented wryly.

He replaced his mask, stepped in front of her, using his height to block her from view. Slowly, the hyperbaric chamber opened.

….

It had been habit. Simply habit. Anger at Ozzel's incompetence, the possibility of that idiot not merely alerting the rebels to his attack but also allowing his son to escape, prompted him to force choke the officer. He hadn't considered Padmé. He hadn't thought.

She lay on a bunk in the medbay. Dark bruises ringed her neck. Her breathing was labored.

He hadn't touched her. He would never, could never touch her in anger again. Why then had his attack on Ozzel sent Padmé to the floor? When he realized what he had done – and he knew, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was his fault – anger had been swept away by fear, by grief, by despair. She had to be alright.

….

On Hoth, a worried Obi-Wan Kenobi tried desperately to grab a moment with Luke.

"You must go to Dagobah, Luke. Yoda is there. He taught me. He will teach you."

"Why can't you continue to train me, Ben?"

It was too dangerous, Obi-wan thought. The empire had placed a bounty on Luke's head. While some of that was the result of Luke's heroic deed blowing up the Death Star, Obi-Wan had a bad feeling that the stipulation, Luke be taken alive, meant Vader had discovered the existence of his offspring. Luke must not fall into his father's hands.

"Vader searches for you relentlessly," Obi-Wan remarked with the mixture of half-truths he had grown accustomed to when speaking with Luke. "Dagobah is safer. Besides, you will be training with the greatest Jedi master. Promise me you will go."

As Luke nodded his head, Obi-Wan felt a wave of relief. He should never have trained Anakin. He had loved the boy too much to see the darkness in him. And though Luke seemed so unlike his father temperamentally, Obi-Wan felt relieved that this time Yoda would bear the responsibility.

…

He was arrogant and brash and not at all the type of man she should be interested in, but he had kissed her and if they hadn't been interrupted… She was not a starry-eyed child but a capable leader who needed to remember her priorities. They did not include a hot shot pilot who constantly reminded her he was leaving. Even if he hadn't left yet.

She didn't want to fall in love only to find herself alone. Day after day she tried to keep herself together for the sake of the Alliance, for the memory of her world. It would be easy to lose herself with Han. But she knew, she knew that the force pulling them together would leave her aching when he eventually left.

A memory surfaced of Darth Vader pleading. Resolutely she blocked that out. It couldn't have been real. And anyway, she had nothing in common with that monster.

….

Yoda remained in a corner of his Dagobah home, watching Anakin's son impatiently await his meeting with a great Jedi master. Too old the boy was. Too reckless. Too willing to rush when he should stop and sense.

The boy was too old. Yoda remembered the padawans of the temple. Bright, loving, curious, they were once the future of the Jedi. He was too old to train another.

Able to let go a Jedi must. He too, must rid himself of his disappointments, his failures. The Dark Side still clouded the future, more than ever. Still, he must train this boy.

Refraining from correcting the boy's mistaken impression, Yoda continued to test Luke.

….

"He told you that? That Luke must be destroyed."

Vader nodded, remembering the interview with his master. When the Emperor had spoken of a disturbance in the force, Vader had desperately tried to shield his thoughts, his feelings, wondering if the sith knew about Padmé. For a moment, he had hoped that the Emperor did know. He might have forgiven years of mistrust, forgiven even the lie that he had killed his beloved, swept all those considerations aside, if only his master could have explained this to him, could have helped him.

"I suggested it would be more effective if Luke is turned to the dark side. I said he will join us or die."

She gasped. One hand went to her throat, still sporting the purplish bruises. He looked away for a moment. "He will join us, Padmé. Us, not the Emperor. I only said that to divert the emperor. He thinks that…"

"He thinks he has taken every human impulse from you."

"Yes."

She looked at him, "he knows about Luke."

"We will find Luke, Padmé. I will bring him to us and then we can protect him."

……

Captain Needa had lost them. Needa was lucky to be alive, even if he had been removed from his post. Although Vader desperately wanted to choke the incompetent officer, he worried that with this unwanted link between his aggressive use of the force and Padmé's health that…

The med droids did not recognize Padmé as a living being. Vader could see her, touch her, kiss her within the confines of his hyperbaric chamber, but according to the medical reports she did not exist.

He was the only one who could see his wife and while that made it relatively easy to disguise her presence from Palpatine's spies, always assuming his master truly did not know, it did make Vader question if any of this was real. And then, he would remember the princess, edging past him, as he pleaded. In a way, the knowledge that she too had seen Padmé comforted him more than even his wife's hand resting in his. He had dreamed of Padmé before only to awake to loss and pain. But the princess had seen. If he weren't worried about how it would impact Padmé, he might use the force to seek answers. Well, the bounty hunters would find The Millenium Falcon soon enough. He would be able to question the Princess Leia personally. He would use the rebels to lure his son to him. And together, Luke and he would surely wield enough power to compel the force to do their bidding.

(A.N. Thank you so much everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate your comments.)