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Request: “Well damn sith Padme is scary!Can we have some more of that au?Like when twins eventually start asking about the pretty frozen man?Or they see the imperial propaganda about Anakin Skywalker and his valiant effort to save the empress and his children from evil Jedi?The day when twins were born is also the day where the entire empire morns for their hero?The day when empress spends her entire day with her twins and their father talking about him to them?

Oh damn,in the sith Padme au what happens when someone releases Anakin from carbonite?His children are adults?The Jedi are dead?Padme kept him frozen for twenty years and he was awoken only because some rebel got lucky?Leia and Luke are complete strangers to him and so is Padme and they still keep insisting that is their father/husband?People mourn him outside,he is effectively dead and trapped inside the palace,Padme is very through indeed”

Thanks for the request and I’m glad you enjoyed Part One!

All requests are open!

XXX

The twins know their mother’s boundaries well because they are absolute and firm. Most of all, they are forbidden from asking about either their father or the frozen man kept so securely and secretly by the Empress

Anakin Skywalker, is a myth, however. All trace of him, each whisper from around the galaxy is eliminated, and Luke and Leia only know the name Anakin Skywalker from outbursts of the Rebellion and their terrible acts of defiance

But the Amidala twins are nothing if not intelligent; their birthday falls on Empire Day, an anniversary that their mother celebrates in public yet mourns in private

Padmé retreats to her children each year, commemorating their birthday with joy, but her sad smile that returns when she believes no one to be watching doesn’t go unnoticed

Leia, a true spitfire and filled to the brim with determination, spends years of her life researching who the mysterious man is. She’s a full adult when she discovers he’s Anakin Skywalker, a name almost entirely erased from history

But he still seems important; a Jedi, a hero. Yet the Empress seems to cherish him, nearly love him in a twisted way

Then a Togruta, a filthy rebel, sneaks into the Imperial Palace and frees the man. He is dazed and confused, and the rebel makes it out but Anakin does not

Padmé is furious, but the man is sick and helpless, so instead of freezing him again, he is treated for his hibernation sickness and slowly nursed back to health

When Anakin heals, he sees neither Padmé nor the children he doesn’t know to be alive. There’s no way of knowing that it’s twenty years later until Luke and Leia meet him behind their mother’s back

Leia is straightforward and tells him who she is, what has become of the galaxy. Luke is quieter and more reserved, observing his father but saying little

Anakin loves his children instantly, and he still loves his wife despite it all. He is too dominated by his heart, and he resolves to see her and turn her back to the light as soon as possible

But he is trapped, and Padmé, the most powerful being in the universe, does not want to see him, so no contact is made. His only visitors are droids bringing him medicine and food, and his children, still in secret

Previously:

She finds him in a garden at the Jedi Temple just before dusk, two days after she commanded the execution of Order 66. She can tell by the look on his face and the set of his shoulders that he’s already been inside. All of the bodies have been removed and properly cremated, but there hasn’t been time for a full clean-up. She knows the hallways of the Temple are still littered with smears of blood and the scorched rubble left behind by blaster fire.

The area is completely deserted; the only two lifeforms around are herself and the man collapsed on a set of steps like a puppet with its strings cut. He doesn’t look up as she approaches, but the subtle way his body twitches as she gets closer indicates his awareness of her presence. She halts a few feet in front of him, skirt swishing against the ground as she stops. They remain like that – she, calmly standing before him, gaze sweeping over his dirty robes and soot-stained auburn hair, and  he, slumped on the concrete steps, eyes locked dazedly on the ground – for a few aching moments.

“Obi-Wan,” she finally says when it becomes clear that he is not going to be the first one to speak.

“Padmé,” he spits out. He at last tears his eyes from the ground to look up at her, avoid her eyes, as he asks, voice harsher than she’s ever heard it before, “Or is it Empress Amidala now?”

“Obi-Wan,” she sighs out his name, the way a mother would address a child who was being particularly difficult. “Please don’t –”

“Stop saying that!” he shouts, cutting her off. “Stop saying my name like we’re friends!”

“We are friends,” she reminds him, gently.

“You’re a Sith, Padmé!” he scoffs and jolts to his feet, lurching toward her. Though she does not step back, knowing better than to show any weakness by giving ground, she cannot stop her hand from twitching toward her waist, where her lightsaber is concealed beneath her cloak.

His eyes do not miss the motion and all the fight seems to drain out of him, abruptly. The brief bout of anger is gone as quickly as it came, leaving behind nothing but weariness and sorrow. He staggers back and falls once again onto the steps.

“How could you?” he whispers, “Padmé, how could you?”

There are a thousand different things she could offer in response, explanations and justifications, lies and appeasements. But the only thing she says is, “Because I had to.”

It’s not enough. “Why?” Obi-Wan cries. Tears are slipping down his checks now, making twin tracks through the dirt and grime. His despair is palpable in the Force; she can feel it radiating from him. She has her own emotions locked down tightly behind her mental shields. One of them has to remain calm.

Slowly, she moves forward and lowers herself to sit on the steps beside him. While he flinches slightly as she reaches out to cover his hand with her own, he doesn’t move away from her. He still won’t meet her eyes, but that doesn’t surprise her. When the truth had come out between her and Anakin, she had stopped concealing her eyes in front of him. He’d spent the first few days unable to look into them for more than a few moments at a time. She has to admit, even she’s still occasionally unsettled by their eerie yellow glow.

They sit quietly for some time, each lost in their own thoughts, both longing for the days when words and affection alike had flown easily between them. Finally, she knows they can prolong this moment of fleeting tranquility no longer.

“I am your friend,” she reasserts, squeezing his hand. She counts it as a small victory that he does not outwardly protest it this time, though inside he must still have his doubts.  

“I know that you don’t understand,” she tells Obi-Wan, voice a soothing hum. “I know that you’re scared and confused, and you feel betrayed. I could promise you that I’m not evil and I haven’t gone insane, that I am still the same woman you have called friend for years now, but I don’t know if you would believe me.”

He doesn’t deny it, and she smiles at him, sad but unsurprised. She had known before she’d come here that pacifying Obi-Wan would be no easy task. That was why she’d left Anakin at home, even though he was anxious to make sure his former Master was safe and unharmed.

She can feel that his anger and fear have abated. He is terribly sad, so very lost and unsure. Sensing his weakness, she allows hope to bubble up inside her, hope that she still has a chance to sway him to her side, that she will not lose yet another of her friends to their own stubborn refusal to yield.

Resolve strengthening, she rises gracefully to her feet and turns to look down at him. “Come home with me, Obi-Wan Kenobi,” she implores, holding out her hand. “Let my husband treat your injuries, meet my newborn children. And let me prove to you that our friendship has not been a lie.”

He slowly lifts his eyes to meet hers, gazing into the tangible truth of her nature for the first time. After a long moment, he looks down at her deceptively small and gentle hand. It trembles ever so slightly as, heart pounding fiercely in her chest and longing a sickening twist in her stomach, she waits to see if he will take it.

What happens next:

Padmé is unsurprised to find Anakin pacing furiously just inside the door to their apartment when she returns. As she unlocks the door and enters, Anakin looks up and meets her eyes desperately. “Padmé!” he shouts, “Are you okay? Is Obi-Wan okay? Where –” He cuts off as he notices the hunched form of his Jedi master shuffling into the apartment behind Padmé. “Obi-Wan!”

“He’s alright, Ani,” Padmé says gently. “He’s just in shock. Why don’t you get him a glass of water?”

As Anakin hurries off to the kitchen to do just that, Padmé leads Obi-Wan over to the couch. He’s disconcertingly quiet, has been the whole way back from the Jedi temple. As soon as he took Padmé’s hand, he stopped talking, stopped projecting in the Force. He’s quiet now, inside and out, and Padmé’s honestly a little worried she might have permanently broken him.

Anakin rushes back into the room with a glass of water. He passes it to Obi-Wan, who clutches it between his fingers like a life line. Anakin resumes his frantic pacing, back and forth in front of his former Master. Obi-Wan resumes his empty staring, slumped in the corner of the couch.

Padmé leans against the wall separating the living space from the entry way, watching her husband and her friend, trying to think of what to do next. Getting Obi-Wan to the apartment without bloodshed was a good first step, but keeping him here might be harder. Luckily, she has a plan.

First, she has to deal with her anxious husband. His slightly hysterical pacing is doing nothing to bring down the tension in the room. “Anakin,” she says, “Where are the babies?”

He turns to her. “Sleeping. In the bedroom. With C-3PO and R2.”

Internally, she snorts. He left their newborn children with a high-strung protocol droid and a belligerent astromech. Of course, he did. This man she loves, honestly.

“Why don’t you go get them?” she suggests. “Obi-Wan should meet his niece and nephew, don’t you think?”

Anakin brightens immediately, stormy emotions buried under a wave of love: for her, for their babies, for the Jedi on the couch who is like a brother to him. The smothering tension in the room finally abates a smidge as Anakin bounds off toward the bedroom to gather the children.

Padmé makes her way over to the couch and settles down beside Obi-Wan, gently nudging the hand holding the glass of water. “Drink, Obi-Wan,” she encourages. After he’s drained the glass, Padmé takes it from him and sets it down on the coffee table. Then she grasps his hand in hers, running her thumb soothingly over the back of his hand.

She starts gently gathering up the psychic impression of love that Anakin has left in the room and nudging it toward Obi-Wan in the Force, trying to draw him out of his shell. It works, more or less, and by the time Anakin comes back in, holding an infant in each arm, Obi-Wan is the most present he’s been since she first confronted him at the Jedi temple.

“Master,” Anakin says. Obi-Wan winces, and so does Padmé. Maybe not the best word choice there Ani, she thinks. She’s really going to have to give Anakin some lessons in tact before they commence her take over of the galaxy.

“Obi-Wan,” Anakin amends. “I’d like you to meet my children. This is Luke. And this is Leia,” he says, placing the children in Obi-Wan’s arms. Obi-Wan stares down at the slowly waking babies in his arms. His grief and pain are still bright and present in the Force, but underneath it, just as she expected, she can feel his resistance breaking down. She can feel a shining spark of love slowly growing, and for the first time all night, she allows herself to feel something she thought she’d given up on years ago. She feels hope.

Or maybe...?:

The lavas of Mustafar leave the whole planet glowing ominously from orbit, a red and black ball drifting through space. “We’re sure this is where he is?” Anakin asks the clone trooper beside him.

“Yes, sir,” the trooper says, “He triggered an alarm when he landed here two days ago. No idea why he came here of all places, or why he stayed, but he’s definitely here.”

“It doesn’t really matter,” Anakin says grimly. “He won’t be leaving. Prepare a landing shuttle.”

“Sir, yes, sir!”

Anakin stalks through the corridors, troopers and Imperial soldiers alike hastening out of his path, as he makes his way toward his quarters. Once he’s closed the door behind him, he pulls out his personal comm and contacts his wife. A little blue holograph of Padmé pops up in front of him.

“Ani,” she greets him.

“Padmé. We found him. He’s definitely on Mustafar.”

Padmé’s expression is grave. “Right, that’s good that you found him…Anakin.” She hesitates for a moment. “Ani, you know what has to be done?” she asks, very gently.

Anakin’s body is tense, his face tight with grim determination. “I know. You don’t have to worry. I know exactly what I have to do. I won’t let him leave this planet alive. Not after …” he trails off.

On the hologram, Padmé’s hand drifts down to press against her abdomen, where he knows an angry red slash covers her side from her hip all the way up to her rib cage. Bacta could easily have erased the vivid scar, but Padmé has chosen to keep it, as a reminder, she said.

He thinks she probably meant a reminder for herself, but it serves just as well as a reminder for him. A reminder that the world is different now, that the people who were once his friends, his family, aren’t any longer. He has a new family now, a wife and children, and they’re all that matters. Anything and anyone that threatens that family has to be eliminated. It’s why he’s here on Mustafar.

“Ani,” Padmé draws him out of his pondering, “Please be careful. Do what has to be done and then come back to me. I love you.”

“I love you too, angel,” he says. “I won’t let you down.”

“I know you won’t. You never have. Signing off.” Padmé disconnects the call and Anakin spends a few moments staring at the space where her image was, thinking about the future. The past. About the scar on Padmé’s side and how she got it. About Padmé extending her hand in friendship, and the man who met her offer of a place in their family with furious words and a saber to the gut.

He snaps out of it when a trooper knocks on his door. “Sir, the landing shuttle is prepped and the men are ready when you are,” the trooper announces before marching away.

Anakin nods once, decisively, and squares his shoulders. He clips his lightsaber to his belt, and holsters a blaster for good measure. He can’t take any chances. He has a mission to accomplish.

For his angel.

For his wife.

For his Empress.

Long live the Empire.