But God— Even Stars Die

  Anakin Skywalker was dead. Along with the Jedi order. Senator Palpatine was the new Emperor of the Galactic Empire and Lord Vader stood by his side. Once a Jedi Knight. Now a Sith Lord. Everything had happened so fast. He hadn’t had time to process anything that was happening. The person he looked up to. The man he saw as mentor. Someone who had watched over him since he was a boy turned to to be the Sith they were looking for. It hadn’t gone like he’d planned. All he wanted was to protect his wife and their unborn child or rather now as he’d learned from Rex, who been reluctant to even speak with him. Babies. Twins. He’d RUINED the entire galaxy just so he could be with her and their children and in doing so he’d lost her. Along with himself. Vader felt the pull back to her. The pull back to the light but he was clouded. Palpatine had a hold over him. He always had. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t hate the man. He didn’t trust him that was for sure. He also knew that he wasn’t strong enough to over throw him. When he put a single toe out of line he was punished. Plotting against him would close him everything.

Vader didn’t like meetings. He didn’t like being there and he loathed Tarkin but, it was when he could see her. It was rare that she ever acknowledged him. He normally spaced out. Not paying much mind. The comment however, directed at Senator Amidala regarding her ability to work consider she was a newly single mother, caught the Sith Lord’s ears. A gloved hand raised slightly and the Senator speaking was cut off and began to choke on what appeared to be nothing. No one said a word. No one looked Vader’s way. Tarkin  and Padmé were the only ones to reacted. The Grand Moff let out a sigh and rolled his eyes and Vader watched as Padmé shot him a glare. If looks could kill Vader would be dead where he stood. Still he didn’t let go right away. Her eyes on him. That acknowledgment. He craved it. Needed it. And then he released the Senator. Who gasped for air and sat back. Vader stood up straight and relaxed. As if nothing had happened.  He waited as the meeting was dismissed. Watched the Senators file out. Giving the one a glare as he hurried passed. Tarkin stopped to scold him. Which was nothing new. 

   He then looked to Padmé and watched her. He thought about precious moments like this. In the past when they were alone. How he’d hold her. Tell her how much he’d missed her. Now he couldn’t even be within five feet of her without Rex pulling a blaster on him. “I upset you?” Vader asked after a while, his voice flowing through the vobabulator in the muzzle like mask he wore. Palpatine’s idea. To make him instill fear. Vader knew there were other reasons for it. His gloved hand raised and he removed it. He didn’t dare remove it around the Emperor, nor did he feel the need to remove it around people he didn’t care about. Padmé however. He wouldn’t wear a mask. Not when they were alone.

    “He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

Padmé lingered by the holo station slowly closing each material and watching patiently as the sections minimised and flickered away. The sound of a quiet scolding behind her as she kept her eyes glued in-front of her. “Senator Je’vina has every right to say whatever is on his mind.” A lie, none of them had the right of free speech anymore. “I’ve dealt with disrespectful comments my entire career. For every little thing you’ve done, the least you can do is respect the farce that is my work and my ability to handle those around me. Some of us choose to be the bigger person not the deadlier creature.” She snapped powering down her tablet forcefully as if to accentuate her point. “It’s interesting I have a husband who struggled with that idea as well. Though I never had to worry about corporal punishment for correcting him.” Padmé was aware that it was a low-blow, that since the day he turned to the dark-side he’d never once laid a hand on her again. But if he was going to remain this person then she was going to arm herself with everything she could.

She discreetly eyed the time, there was still two hours before she’d be free to return to their apartment— now solely hers, where she’d be reunited once more with her children. At this point two years ago Padmé had thought that she’d finally be retired, living with her husband in the Villa finally raising a family of her own. Instead she was still a Senator keeping up an endless charade of work, trying to mine actual important information, anything to pass onto those rebelling as they slowly worked towards building the rebellion from a whisper into a reality. The framework had been there before Palpatine overthrew the Republic when they’d threatened him with their petition the countermeasures were in place, it was just a matter of time now. The one wrench in the plan was that no one had even accounted for the fall of Anakin Skywalker, once a linchpin to their success Vader was now the biggest risk to them all. She hated that they were right, that it really had been for the best that she’d never revealed the plans to him, even for the stress it had put on their marriage. They were already trying to reconfigure things without him, and with Vader’s foiling of them. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how hopeless things might have appeared if he’d known every move they’d laid out. If they’d had to have started from scratch. She hated herself in that moment for thinking how much easier this all would have been if he had died instead.

A huff escaped her as Padmé turned back to the tablet her finger tips resting lightly overtop the black screen. “...Has he asked about them?” She spoke quietly, near silently knowing only he would hear her. This one singular subject where she could trust with some certainty that a sliver of her husband was still present enough. That no matter who stood before her now, no matter where they stood with each other, that the safety of her children was paramount. She didn’t know when exactly force sensitive children began to show signs. Every one of her handmaidens was on high alert ever since they’d finally passed the age of one. There weren’t anymore jedi to help her, contacting Obi-wan was strictly for if she needed to get the twins hidden away to keep the line as safe as possible.

She remembered what it was like, being a Senator in your first term. The pressure to be heard in a room of thousands, to not only be heard but to also be taken seriously. She’d been lucky already having had made an impression even before Queen Jamillia asked her to become the new representative for Naboo. Some worked to gain notice with grace, others tried for a stronger grab, neither in truth was the wrong path, what was wrong was the means you used. When the Republic fell Senators who signed the ‘Petition of 2,000′ began to be combed through, many dragged from their offices and replaced or intimidated into silence. Others protested loudly and were quieted harshly often through Palpatine’s silent shadow. With this came new Senators some drew back no longer wishing to be noticed after joining, while others grew hungry for attention in this new farce of a Government. They saw this as the place to gain favour from the ‘Emperor’, a man who attended their meetings as if it were dinner theatre rather than a gathering of people with a say. Some days the Senate was cleared out with only a few planet representatives present attempting some of the minor work they could actually still do. While Palpatine didn’t attend these meetings that didn’t mean that he didn’t like to send in a dark reminder to lurk over their shoulders on occasion. Darth Vader. He was there just sporadically enough that no meeting could be planned with the intention of plotting against their ‘Ruler’ under the guise of work. 

Padmé had become a master at ignoring his presence even if at times his eyes tended to linger on her, she wished she could say that she’d mastered this skill due to Vader and not due to the days long before when she was still secretly married to a Jedi Knight. However it was much harder to ignore his presence when she began hearing the sound of choking coming from her fellow Senator who’d just attempted to undermine her with a cheap shot in the middle of negotiations. A ladder climber new to the Senate who clearly was vying for the favour of the Emperor and apparently unaware of the open secret that floated through the Galactic government. That at one point Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, now known as Lord Vader had been her lover and was the rumoured Father of her children. Her eyes turned to steel as the Senator threw the almighty Sith Lord a heated glare wrapped around a look of disgust. “I suggest a recess to reconvene tomorrow afternoon. I’m sure we can book off a small area where every Senator can continue transit negotiations.” Padmé snapped in his direction doing little to disguise the expectation for Senator Je’vina to remain alive. 

𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘹𝘺. 𝘚𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦, 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌𝘋 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘌𝘙𝘈𝘚𝘌 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘙𝘌𝘉𝘌𝘓𝘓𝘐𝘖𝘕 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘴, 𝘢 𝘕𝘌𝘞 𝘏𝘖𝘗𝘌 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦.