Author's Note: Thank you all for following and staying with me and the story! I wrote this a few different times and each time I kept rethinking it, but I've come to like this draft. This Anakin/Vader is naturally going to be different than from the OT, I mean, he's not in that unbearable suit living with the torment of a lost battle that cost him his humanity and his wife, and kid(s).
This Anakin/Vader has his wife, killed both of his old Masters, and has his children and his whole life ahead of him that's his to forge. I will say that my version of Vader is both light and dark, he's had both sides in him long before he started to become manipulated by Palpatine (back when he was a slave) and his experiences have forged him into the man he is today.
A hardened warrior, General, husband and now father. He's finding his own path, deciding the kind of man, husband, father, that he wants to be. And now Emperor on top of that.
Hope you all enjoy the story so far and stick with me for the story yet to come. Thanks for following, favoriting and reviewing!
Dark Emperor: Chapter 5
Soft lips kissing mine wake me up out of my much needed sleep. I blink my eyes open to gaze into the amber eyes of my wife. Her eyes twinkle and she deepens our kiss, I tilt my head to the side to deepen it even more and take control of the kiss as she comes to straddle my hips on the reclining chair I'm sitting on next to her gurney in our room.
"Mmm," I groan against her lips as her tongue hungrily licks its way into my mouth. I've never been woken up this way before but I can definitely get used to it.
Her pretty lips curve into a smile at my groan and when she gets what she wanted, she pulls her lips and probing tongue back, brings her arms around the back of my neck and just stares deep into my eyes. Into what seems like my very soul itself. "Good morning, Ani." I can feel tears pricking their way to shedding free, but I shun my weakness and blink them back at the sound of her voice.
Her voice is just as I remember it. No more rasp, it's just as strong and lively as it always was. Just as I've always loved it. "Good morning, Angel." I lean my head forward so our foreheads connect. "I'm glad that your voice is back."
She kisses the tip of my nose, then leans her head forward to bring our foreheads back together. "I'm glad that I'm alive. I don't think I've thanked you for that yet." I shake my head and open my mouth to respond that she never has to thank me for saving her, but she presses her lips against mine in a quick kiss to shut me up. "Let me speak first." I nod for her to continue, getting the feeling that what she has to say is important. "When you got your visions, I lied to you and told you what I thought you needed to hear, that I'd be alright and that I wouldn't die. I knew that wasn't true and on the inside, I was terrified of leaving you alone in this galaxy to raise our baby...when we thought we were only having one. I put all of my affairs in order, and made sure you had the money and support you needed to raise our child without me. Dormé was going to stay with you and help you raise our child, she knew all about my pregnancy...and my fears."
She takes a deep shuddering breath and just continues to look into the very depths of my soul. "At the end...I-I was afraid. That's when I told you the truth about the condition I was diagnosed with. I wanted you to know that when I died that it wasn't...that it wasn't because of you. It wasn't because you...choked me. It was because of the condition I knew would kill me. Then our son was born...I heard him crying and saw him. I saw him being cleaned up and then being told we're not done yet, that we're having twins. I thought I was bigger than I should've been, but I brushed it off as me being so small. Then, when I held Luke and Leia...I didn't...I didn't want to die. I didn't want to die before either, but I was...accepting of my fate, knowing what the risks were when I found out I was pregnant, and when I decided to go through with the pregnancy, that the risks were worth it, because the growing life within me was one we made from our love."
Tears prick at her eyes and some fall down her cheeks, she shakes her head to try and gain some semblance of control over herself. I brush the tears away with the pads of my thumbs and give her the time she needs to continue, rubbing my hands up and down her back in a soothing motion. "Thank you, Ani. Thank you for saving me." She leans back in and kisses me. I kiss her back and growl deep in my throat. I raise one of my hands to cup the back of her head and deepen our kiss until she pulls back again to say the words I love hearing most come from her lips. "I love you, Ani."
Her voice is sincere as she says those words and I growl, possessively and pull her head back down so our lips meet again and I lead the kiss this time. I convey to her in my kiss just how much I love her too and that I'm glad that she's with me. If she died, all that I did would've been for nothing and I would've failed again. But I didn't and she's here...with me.
That's all that matters.
My wife is alive and in my arms and our twins...are down the hall in the nursery sleeping peacefully, alive and well. I brush my mind against theirs with the Force and send them our love. Then I come back to myself and pull my lips back, leaning my forehead forward to meet hers. "I love you too, Angel...so kriffing much." More than I can ever say in words, I hope she could see how much in the look I'm giving her, in the tone of my voice. "You don't have to thank me for saving you, Angel. I would die before I let anything or anyone take you from me and you know I won't ever let that happen. I-"
A knock on the glass sliding doors, that were fixed last night after I shattered them saving my wife, stop my words in their track and Rex steps in without his helmet on. "General- uh, I'm sorry, sir. I was just informing you that Senator Amidala's Chief of Security and Handmaidens have arrived." He rubs the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact with us but I could still see his face and see him starting to blush. "I'll...uh, show myself out."
He closes the door behind himself and I shake my head, smiling up at my Angel. Oh, how things have changed, I think wryly to myself. I've never seen Rex so unsure of himself or uncomfortable. Or blushing, for that matter. But I don't have time to consider or ponder that thought, because we have visitors.
"I think it's time you put your contacts-"
She shakes her head at me, gripping my face in her hands so that I can't look away from her. "Finish what you were going to say."
I sigh and comply with my wife's demands. "I was going to say that I'm glad I was strong enough to save you, because I can't and don't want to imagine a life in this galaxy without having you by my side. I love you, Padmé." More tears fall from her eyes and she kisses me passionately, both our heads tilting as we get lost in the kiss...until there's another knock on the door and steps come to a halt as the doors slide open.
"Oh! We'll...uh, just give you a minute." Padmé smiles against my lips and sighs quietly, contentedly, I reach up to wipe away those stray tears.
The doors close again and Padmé pushes against my broad shoulders as she stands back to her feet and pads over to the other side of her gurney to get her contacts. She puts them in and surprisingly, I miss her amber eyes. I've grown quite attached to them since last night. "I guess it's time to start our day." I nod in reluctant agreement with her and she opens the door to let her visitors in.
Dormé's the first one in and immediately throws her arms around Padmé, hauling her into a bone crushing hug. I can't hear what she's saying, I could if I wanted too, but I'll let them have a moment in private. I trust my Angel. And Padmé did say that Dormé knew all about her pregnancy and fears...I don't know if she was one of the two people who knew of her condition but by the looks of it, she was.
Captain Typho looks uncomfortable as he steps in but he looks relieved to see Padmé alive and well, with his own two eyes. I have half a mind to kill him where he stands, but I brush my mind against his and ease my way inside with a few tendrils of the Force and find that he didn't know of Obi-Wan sneaking onboard her skiff or about his plot against me, and I stay my hand.
If he did know then I wouldn't be so forgiving, I'd kill him where he stands and use him as an example for those who would betray my wife's loyalty and trust. If they'd betray her, then as a result, they betray me because I trust and love no one more than my wife, despite the things she's kept from me. I kept things from her too, so we're about even in that regard and we both had our reasons.
I'm about to excuse myself from the room to go talk to Rex about our plans for the day ahead and about making arrangements for Padmé's family when Typho turns to face me and steps forward to block my path. "I hear congratulations are in order, General." He extends a hand and nervously runs his other hand through his semi-long curly black hair.
I shake his hand. "Thank you, Captain." And I get an idea. "Can we talk outside about something?"
He nods, turns around and we step outside into the hallway. Rex is nearby along with other Troopers but they all keep their distance. "I know- I shouldn't have let her leave, but she said it was something she had to do on her own and I assumed she was going to meet up with you-"
I raise a hand to silence him. "I know my wife, Captain. And she was safe with me, things happened that I won't get into right now but as you can see..." we turn to face her through the glass sliding doors. "...she's fine. Anyway, last night we were talking, and I promised Padmé that we'll fly her family here and break the news to them. As you know...with me being a Jedi and all, marriages were strictly forbidden, as were any types of attachment. We obviously broke that rule and married anyway, in secret. Padmé never told her family and as far as I know, they don't even know she was pregnant. I want to know if you can get her whole family here for me? It'd mean the world to her and I know she wants to stop hiding who she is from them. And I want that too."
"Say no more, I'll get right on it." Captain Typho promises.
I nod my thanks to him. "Thank you Captain, and be sure that no one mentions anything to them about me, or our twins?"
"I'll see to it personally," I know Padmé trusts him and if she trusts him, then so will I.
"Thank you and keep me updated. We should be back home in our apartment by then, but I want to be sure that we have everything ready for when they arrive."
"Of course."
I nod my thanks to him again and scratch that off my mental to-do list. Rex is just down the hall and I make my way to him. "Captain Rex."
"General!" He salutes.
Saluting back, I pat him on his armored back and lead him away from the other Troopers. "I'm going to make my announcement to the Senate today. Ready the men...just in case. We'll also take all of the representatives of the various commerce guilds that were in league with the Separatists into custody after the vote to elect me the Second Emperor is in. So ready the men for that as well."
"Yes sir!"
I turn back around and walk back towards the room, its empty except for the bags they brought from our apartment and left here. I go through the bags and find a change of clothes for me, a toothbrush and some toothpaste and lock myself in the refresher to change and brush my teeth. I know that if Padmé isn't here, she's down at the nursery showing off our beautiful twin children. I smile and get changed, brush my teeth and leave my dirty clothes on my chair and make my way there and sure enough, there they are standing outside looking through the large glass window at our precious twins.
"They're so cute!" Dormé and the other handmaidens squeal. I can't argue with that and don't as I come up behind Padmé and wrap my arms around her slender form from behind, bringing my lips bearing down on her cheek to press a kiss there.
"You brushed your teeth," she smiles, her eyes taking on a mischievous glint at the smell of my minty fresh breath. "I wasn't going to complain about your morning breath though, I still couldn't get enough of you."
I press another kiss against her cheek. "Same here, wife. I'll always kiss your lips and let my tongue play with yours. Morning breath or no, nothing will ever stop me." Nothing can ever keep me away from her lips, not when they're as delicious and inviting as they are.
And being able to kiss my wife here in front of other people without a care in the galaxy of who sees or whose around? Its freeing to say the least, since we never got the chance to really be husband and wife before now. Things always got in the way, we had to steal time just to be together and had to hide behind closed doors because it couldn't be known that we had feelings for one another, let alone that we were married.
But once her family arrives and becomes aware of our marriage and parenthood, I don't care who finds out. I'll assign a security team that I'll train myself to protect her and the twins and be with them whenever I can be. I realize I'll be busy with my new Empire, but I'll be Emperor, I can do whatever I please and even on occasion, work from home.
I'll make it work, because there's no way in the nine Corellian hells I'm going to let my work...my job come before Padmé and the twins. We both did enough of that as Jedi and Senator, and I won't let it happen again.
Not when I finally have everything I ever wanted.
My wife.
My kids.
My Empire.
What more can a Sith Lord...a man, want? Coming from nothing as I have, I must say that I've come a long way and with my wife and kids at my side, I'm sure that nothing can get in our way.
I won't let anything get in our way.
Luke chooses this moment to start to cry, Padmé and I enter the nursery to check up on him, and naturally, Leia starts to cry too. Padmé picks up and coddles Luke, while I do the same with Leia.
She has that new baby smell that I never even knew existed before I held her and her brother for the first time last night. I inhale the smell deeply and notice Padmé smiling, amused, I give her a shrug of my broad shoulders and bend my head down to press a kiss on Leia's soft forehead. I rock her gently in my arms and rub my mind against hers to soothe her, and surprisingly, it works. She quiets right down, Luke does too, and her brown inquisitive eyes stare up at me.
Her eyes are exactly like her mother's, at least when they were dark brown, they're beautiful. "It's okay Princess, Daddy's here." I assure her and she peacefully falls back to sleep in my arms.
My heart melts at the sight. She's so damn precious and carrying her in my arms? Yeah, I don't think I've ever felt this way...it only goes to tell me that everything I've done, all of the blood on my hands and all the lives I took, had been worth it for this.
I can live with what I did, because having my family here with me means everything to me- everything.
Luke calms down too and I see his blue eyes fluttering shut and like his sister, he also falls back asleep. We gently ease them both back into their bassinets and quietly leave the room.
The handmaidens give me this weird look, a soft look that only women can give. It makes me feel uncomfortable, so I wrap my arms back around my wife and whisper in her ear to go back to the room with me.
With her handmaidens and Chief of Security here, we have some time to ourselves and we have planning to do. She may not want to take an active role in my new Empire, just yet, but I'll need her help to secure my Empire-
Our Empire, and nobody could help me like she can. She led a whole planetary government before and represented an entire sector in the Galactic Senate of the Republic, if anyone could help me lead an entire galactic government? It'd be her.
I close the sliding doors behind us and clasp my hands behind my back, my gloved hand over my flesh hand. "I'm going to speak to the senate today, and if things go well, I'll be elected Emperor to succeed the late Emperor," I begin. "I just need your help in wording my speech just right and I also need your help in getting in touch with Mas Amedda to get me in front of the Senate...can you help me?"
Padmé gives me an amused look. It makes me squirm, I've never felt so vulnerable and I'm sure it's because I'm asking for her help. I've never asked anyone for help before...not like this. But I can't mess it up, I'm not going to let everything I did go to waste because of a poorly worded speech or because of a poorly executed plan. I can't afford to mess this up, the entire future of our lives and that of the galaxy is hanging in the balance.
I can literally feel the weight of the galaxy on my shoulders. I just hope I'm strong enough to carry it.
"Of course I'll help you, I am your wife, aren't I?" She gives me a coy smile, and I feel my anxiety melt away. As long as I have her at my side, there's nothing that we can't do together.
Nothing.
Padmé went above and beyond getting me ready for this.
I take a deep breath and let it out, then take another deep breath and one more for good measure before nodding to Mas Amedda and feel the podium rise under our feet and in less than a minute we're rising up into the massive grand convocation chamber of the Senate building.
The massive room falls silent and all eyes land on me. Mas Amedda sent out a message to all senators and their representatives that they were ordered to attend this emergency afternoon session, it also said that I would be the one speaking before them in regards to the Emperor and the Empire.
Word has been spread that the Emperor was killed, I had Padmé's help in making sure the word got around but nobody knows for sure if that's the case or just rumors. And everyone knows that rumors aren't worth much here, all politicians do is gossip.
It's in their nature.
Mas Amedda doesn't even need to call for order, the silence is deafening. I remember the speech Padmé and I worked on together, as well as her advice, and begin.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. You all know who I am, so I will skip introductions and get right to why I'm here and why I called for an emergency session of congress." Padmé told me I was a straight-shooter. I jumped right to the point, never beat around the bush. She told me not to change that. To be who I am, and that's exactly what my speech here today reflects. "I'm here to announce that Emperor Palpatine was killed while on the planet Mustafar." The silence continues, but then questions are thrown my way and shouts of outrage sound over them. I nod to Mas Amedda who calls for order and I resume when the silence returns. "I know you all have questions, and if you let me speak, I promise that all of your questions will be answered."
This seems to satisfy them and I continue. "Following the betrayal of the Jedi Order, led by Jedi Master Mace Windu who attempted to murder the then Supreme Chancellor with three other Jedi Masters, I raced to the Chancellor's rescue. I arrived in time and killed the Masters." They don't know he was a Sith Lord, that he managed to kill three of them before I arrived and they don't need to know, I'm just going to tell them what they need to know. Nothing more. "After that moment, the Chancellor declared the Jedi traitors and enacted Order 66, an order that would eliminate all Jedi around the galaxy, by the Clones. And he ordered me to raid the Jedi Temple with my 501st Legion and to kill all Jedi within.
"I carried out my orders and the Jedi rebellion was put down." Some cheering starts, clapping too but I stop them with a raise of my gloved mechno-hand. "However, not all Jedi were killed and this wasn't unexpected. Two Jedi Masters in particular managed to survive and they were Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. After my mission at the Temple, I was ordered to go to Mustafar, intelligence placed the Separatist Leadership there and I was sent to put them down and end this war- once and for all. That mission went as planned and I managed to kill them all, and had them deactivate the Droid Army.
"As of now, the Droid Army has been disabled and their leadership has been destroyed." The massive chambers engulfs into thunderous applause and I smile at the cheering taking place. I've got them eating out of the palm of my hand, I've just gotta stick with what Padmé and I discussed and I can get exactly what I want. I raise my hand again and the applause comes to a halt. "After I completed my mission, Palpatine, at this point, Emperor Palpatine arrived on Mustafar to congratulate me on my success for not only putting down the Jedi threat, but also that of the Separatists...and that is when Obi-Wan struck. I didn't even sense his presence until it was too late. He knew that I was no longer a Jedi when he struck, that I turned to what the Jedi call...the Dark Side of the Force. The side that is against the Jedi and the Jedi Order. After the long drawn out war and the fact that the Jedi wouldn't do what it had too to end the war, I was losing my faith in the Order that I was a member of. And their decision to assassinate the Supreme Chancellor...that was the final straw.
"I didn't realize how far the Jedi have fallen, just how far even the Jedi High Council has fallen. But when Obi-Wan struck and first went for the Emperor and...cut into him with his lightsaber...I realized that the Jedi have fallen a lot farther than I ever gave them credit for and I took it upon myself to fix something that only I could solve. I killed him, one of the last Jedi alive, and tried to save the Emperor, but it was too late." I let my words wash over the Senate and make myself look like a man who's truly distraught, saddened at the loss of an...old friend. An old friend who was using me his whole life...an old friend that wanted me to serve him like the old slaver masters and even like Obi-Wan. "I couldn't save him, but what I could save...is his vision. I know it's no secret to any of you here how close we were, he chose me to be his personal representative to the Jedi Council and they only allowed it so they could use me to spy on him, something he knew would happen and he used me to help build a case against them...a case he was planning to bring forward to the Supreme Court. The Jedi knew of this which was why they struck when they realized the war was coming to an end and they'd have to explain their actions before the Court and before all of you and the galaxy.
"Now I'm asking you to let the man we all admired and looked up to live on with us...with the Empire." I take a deep breath and tap into the Force, letting it flow throughout the room to get a feel for how my request will play out. "Don't let the Jedi or Separatists win. Vote me to succeed the late Emperor Palpatine, let me carry out his vision...his hope, his dreams. Let me be his voice." The Force flows through me and I can feel the Dark Side in every crevice of this large room, I left out quite a few things...like the fight that Yoda and Palpatine had that Mas Amedda told me about, I can see the carnage even from here. And I totally left out the parts about Padmé and the fact that I killed Obi-Wan before the Emperor even arrived. But they don't need to know that. They know nothing about the Sith, or the Rule of Two. It was my duty to kill my Master, I just killed him long before he ever thought I would. And that isn't something any of these people could possibly comprehend.
After a moment, I take a step back and Mas Amedda steps forward to open the voting. It doesn't take long to come back and I couldn't be any happier.
"It has been decided that with ninety-four percent of the vote, General Anakin Skywalker is the new Emperor! All hail Emperor Skywalker!"
"All hail Emperor Skywalker! All hail Emperor Skywalker! All hail Emperor Skywalker!" Thunderous chants and applause sweeps throughout the large chambers and I can hear it pounding around in the base of my skull. And there's nothing about this that I would change. Now I've gotten everything I've wanted and everything is right with the galaxy.
I finally raise a hand and the applause dies down. "I, thank you, Senators. I'm humbled by your vote of support and I vow that from this moment on, that not only will we recover from this devastating war...but we will rise up and become better than ever! We will rise up and do what the Republic never could, and with this august body, we'll restore peace, order and justice in the galaxy!" More thunderous applause. "And as my first order as Emperor of the Galactic Empire, I hereby order the arrest of all the representatives and senators and leaders of the following commerce guilds: The Trade Federation. Techno Union. Commerce Guild. And the Corporate Alliance." I would also say the InterGalactic Banking Clan but they've already lost their power and have been usurped by the Republic...now the Empire. The Geonosians are also a part of it, but they don't have any representation in this Senate, the organizations I've named, do and they're also not a commerce guild. "I also hereby order, with the power vested in me, the nationalization of said organizations to the Galactic Empire."
"This is outrageous!" One of the representatives of one of the guilds shout, but he's quickly silenced as members of my 501st storm the various docked podiums and take them all into custody. The chambers fall silent as the action unfolds but when the 501st exits the room and all of the members of the various guilds have been taken into custody, the room shakes again with the thunderous applause that Padmé told me all about.
Satisfied at these turn of events, I thank the Senators again and nod to Mas Amedda to lower us back down and out of the chambers.
When I entered, I was General Anakin Skywalker and now...now, I'm Emperor Darth Vader- the galaxy just doesn't know it yet.
But soon enough, the whole galaxy will know who I really am and by then, there'll be nothing that they can do except bow before me, my wife- my Empress, and our twins. Or, be destroyed.
Because I'm the Emperor now and this is my Empire- my galaxy.
A/N: Like I said, this isn't exactly the same Anakin/Vader we know. Having his wife, his twins in his life is going to change him profoundly...but as you'll see, he's plenty dark and will have his moments where he may just be darker than we've ever seen him.
But that's down the road.
Next chapter we'll jump two days ahead and see the Naberrie family, as they fly to Coruscant and are introduced to their new family members and to Anakin.
Should be a good chapter!
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