Anakin glanced ahead while his wife led his son up the rocky hillside under the summer sun. The sweat ran beneath his black suit, the itch unbearable.
Padmé never sweated. She glistened. She only looked more beautiful.
Luke tried his best to keep up, occasionally stumbling on the rocks. At last, he fell from exhaustion. "How much further do we have to go?" the boy whined.
Padme frowned and pointed at him. "No. No whining. Modulate your tone, young man."
"But—"
"Obey your mother, Luke."
The boy took a deep breath and tried it over, this time with a pleasant attitude. "How much further, Mommy?"
"Much better. Another kilometer. Think you can make it?" She handed him her canteen of water.
Luke shook his head.
Anakin picked him up from behind and settled the boy on his shoulders. "Let's go, Padmé. We'll still need to perform preflights before it gets dark. And how do you propose we get past the Imperial blockade?"
Padmé turned back to him with her smile. "We'll use the Force." She continued the ascent up the hillside.
The Sith Lord rumbled, "The Force doesn't work that—" Maybe it does. Force, I love that woman. How have I lived without you, Padmé?
When they crested the top of the hill, a concrete dome appeared inset into the apex. As Anakin lowered Luke to the ground, Padmé led them to a plascrete stairwell and pressed a control panel.
The entire hill shook as the dome opened and a small door in the stairwell slid back, revealing a silver H-1 Nubian Yacht. The highly-polished chrome fuselage extended for almost fifty meters. It was triangular, with three tail-fins housing the ion engines. Padmé led them to the craft as the ramp lowered.
"So, you still have her." Anakin gazed in admiration at the craft he had flown so many times before during the Clone War.
"Of course. Not going to let this beauty go. Ani, can you do exterior while I start the pilot preflight? She hasn't flown in years."
"Is she fueled?"
Padmé smiled at him. "Should be. Kept her ready for an emergency evac."
Ani paced to the engine compartment. "Luke, come with me. If you're going to be a pilot one day, you need to know how to check out your ship. You don't want to find out something's wrong with her in space."
The young oby ran down the ramp to his father, watching as he pointed out the cabling on the engines, the flaps, the landing gear, and even the hull seams.
"Where are the guns?"
"Naboo is a peaceful planet. Their ships don't have weaponry of any kind."
"Well, what happens if someone chases us?"
"We run. Fortunately, this is one of the fastest ships ever manufactured." Anakin mussed Luke's hair. "Let's go see what your mother is up to in the cockpit."
Anakin and Luke stood side-by-side in the turbo lift. As it took them to the cockpit at the top of the ship, they felt the engines fire up, the vibrations shaking the small lift.
When the door opened on the bridge, Padmé stood behind the pilot's seat, flipping switches above her head. She turned back to the control panel before her. She quickly turned to the co-pilot's section and pressed a few more.
She smiled at Anakin. "Good, I could use a co-pilot." Padmé pointed to the seat. "She's warming up."
Anakin crossed the intervening space, heading toward the pilot's seat.
Padmé nudged him with her hips as he sat down. "Hey, this is my ship."
"Yes, but we'll never get past the blockade if I'm not flying her." A small chuckle emanated from the vocalizer. "Now, I can use a co-pilot . . ."
Padmé laid her hand on his right arm, softly caressing it.
Luke could feel the love between his parents, could feel the strength his mother was passing to his father in that touch. He could feel his father's fear . . . fear that he would lose them both again.
Padmé sat down in the right-hand seat. "Luke, come sit with me, and I'll show you how this ship flies."
Anakin sputtered through his vocalizer. "I was going to teach the boy to fly."
The boy grinned at them. "Well, it's too late. I already know how to fly."
"A Skyhopper is vastly different from a TIE fighter, Luke."
Padmé chimed in. "Or even a Nubian yacht. Watch your father carefully as he launches." She reached over to her right, punching the coordinates for their destination into the hyperdrive.
Anakin pointed out the different controls. "These levers are for the vertical thrusters, and . . ."
Luke waved his hands over each lever. "Primary engines, secondaries, pitch, altitude. Yeah, I know. I told you, I know how to fly. If you'd just let me try, I could show you."
"No. Not today. Padmé, is the hyperdrive ready?"
Her eyes twinkled at her husband. "Aye, aye, Captain."
Vader pulled the microphone closer to his vocalizer. Before initiating communications, he warned Luke, "Not a word. We don't want them to be any more suspicious than they already are."
He nodded.
"Imperial Traffic Control, this is Nubian Yacht H-1 Silver Streak requesting permission for launch."
A static-filled Imperial voice with Coruscanti accent said, "What is your cargo and destination?"
"Classified."
"Launch permission denied. Power down your engines, Silver Streak."
Vader tapped a few buttons into the communication console. "Code clearance vev-aurek-three-eight-dorn-esk-resh-six-two-one."
The officer's voice wavered. "My apologies, Lord Vader. Clearance granted."
Anakin pulled back on the controls, releasing the sleek craft into the atmosphere.
Once they had cleared the planet's gravity and had moved to the closest jump point, Padmé asked, "Luke, do you want to activate the hyperdrive?"
"Do I?" The boy's eyes widened, and a smile stretched across his small face.
"Press this square right here."
Luke put forth his hand, looked back and forth at both of his parents, and activated the hyperdrive. The stars all around them turned to streaks of blue before settling into the geometric blue planes of hyperspace.
Anakin asked, "How long until we reach Polis Massa?"
"Two days," Padmé stated as she checked the system for life-support settings and rations. "I'm afraid we've only got ration bars on board, though. Oxygen tanks are all at maximum. We're good for at least three months." She led them down to the crew quarters level in the midsection of the ship.
After Luke and she ate a bar and drank some water, she tucked the boy into a bunk in the cramped crew quarters. "Refresher is just down that passageway." Padmé pointed to her left.
"But where will you and Daddy be?" Fear slipped into the boy's voice.
His mother took his hand and caressed it with her thumb. "Shh, we'll be here, just belowdecks. If you need us, just call through that intercom right there." She leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.
Anakin smiled as he watched mother and son together, regretting that he could never kiss those he loved.
Padmé took Anakin's hand and led him to the turbo lift.
"You're trembling," he said with wonder.
Padmé smiled. "You have that effect on me Anakin."
"From fear?"
"No, anticipation," Padmé said with a sultry low voice. She raised her eyebrows at him and gave him a sensual smile. She ran her hand up his right bicep. So far, that was the only flesh she had been able to feel under the armor. Her touch had the intended effect. "You're trembling, too." She laughed wickedly at her husband.
The door opened onto the vast queen's cabin, which extended the entire length of the ship. Padmé took Anakin by his hand and led him to the bed.
He sat on the end of the bed, an expanse of black against the backdrop of the white furnishings.
She pressed a few buttons on the cabin's control panel. A sharp click resounded as the cabin sealed and pressurized, followed by the hiss of increased ventilation output.
She stood in front of her husband, slowly removing her veil and headdress.
"Padmé," Anakin said, his voice cracking. "I can't do this. The suit."
"I know, my love, but I just want to be next to you. I want to feel you, know that you are real." She opened her mouth, popping her ears as the pressurization increased.
Anakin's breathing changed slightly, as he did the same. "You don't want this, Padmé."
She moved closer to her husband, kneeling on the bed beside him, reaching up to his mask. "Yes, Anakin, I do."
"I will revolt you. Please don't. I'd rather that you remember the way I used to look."
"Ani, I love what is inside, not this armor, not your flesh. I will never stop loving you, no matter what has happened or will happen." She ran her hand down his bicep. "Now, help me take this mask off."
"You have no idea what's inside. You don't want this. You don't know what I've done."
"The future is what matters, not the past."
"But I could do it again. I would do it again, to save you, to save Luke."
"Anakin, you know you won't. I don't have to be a Jedi to feel your conflict, your love. You are still the Chosen One. Redemption is always possible."
"You believe that? You trust me? Even after I killed you?"
"You didn't kill me, Anakin." Padmé ran her fingers along the edge of the mask. "You weren't even yourself. Are the clones to blame for Order 66 because they were controlled by Sidious?"
"No."
"Then neither are you. I've had eight years to ponder it. You weren't the same person that night. Even your eyes were different. You weren't in control. Sidious was. Sidious is guilty, not you." She pursed her lips. "Over these last few days, you have been the Anakin I remember. Imposing, yes. Dictatorial, a bit. But loving. You love Luke. You love me. I think even Piett sees it."
Anakin nodded with a slight grin. "Poor Piett. I don't think he knows what to think."
"Oh, I think he does. I think he's your strongest ally in the Empire. His loyalty is as strong as Obi-Wan's. He'll help us." She tilted her head. "Now, if we're done with the pity party, take this helmet off."
Anakin hesitated, his hands half-raised.
Padmé leaned in and kissed his fingers, first on the right hand and then on the left. "Please, Anakin."
He depressed the buttons to release the seal. It popped and hissed.
Padmé placed her hands over Anakin's as they both lifted the helmet off. Padmé gasped as his mutilated face appeared.
Entirely bald, open wounds gaped on his left skull above his eye, along his left jaw, and along his neck. The white skin glistened with moisture that oozed from the wounds.
His piercing blue eyes now gleamed with tears—tears of shame, tears of pain, tears of love.
With hesitation, Padmé stretched forth her hand and stroked his right cheek.
He jerked back.
"I'm sorry, Anakin. Does it hurt?"
"No. You don't deserve this. Leave me." He turned his head in shame, the tears streaking his pasty skin.
She leaned across his chest, grabbing him by the respirator that sat on the lower half of his chin. She quickly moved her lips to his before he could pull away.
He stared at her, unsure of what to do.
Padmé sat back on her heels. "What? Do I disgust you, Anakin?"
"Never."
"Then kiss me back, Anakin, or have you forgotten how?"
He smoothed her hair back with his right hand and pulled her close to him, past his respirator.
Padmé lips were full and soft. His were thin and old before their time. But she never flinched, she never pulled back. She moved her hands down his suit, pulling at his shoulder armor.
Anakin grabbed her hands, softly massaging them. "I can't, Padmé. This suit controls more than my oxygen intake. I will die without it."
"You mean we can never . . ."
Anakin shook his head "no." "I'm more machine now than man, Padmé." Tears ran down his cheeks. "You deserve so much better."
She grabbed his cybernetic right hand as she pulled down the bed coverings. "The mind and the heart are still human, still my Ani. That is all that matters."
She moved her hand back to his face, tracing the borders of the open wounds—wounds that had oozed for eight years now. "Ani, why didn't you have Bacta treatments?"
"I did. For a few weeks. Sidious needed me before they finished, and now it is too late."
"These wounds have not healed. It may not be." Padmé pulled the covers over him. "Now rest. It's been a long day, and you hardly slept at all last night."
"I don't sleep well, Padmé. I'll keep you up all night."
"The dreams?"
"But this time . . ."
"Tell me, Ani. What are you dreaming?"
"Luke, years from now. I . . ." Anakin turned his head from his wife.
"What about Luke?"
"We fight. We duel. He's hanging off a gantry somewhere, and I cut off his hand. And then he falls away from me, rejecting me." Anakin's tears hit his mouth. "And in another Sidious is killing him with lightning. Padmé, I can't lose him, now that I have found him. I can't lose you."
"These dreams are warnings, Ani. Nothing more. Once we destroy Sidious, they will stop. You'll see." She stroked his cheek again, touching his flesh. He needs touch. He needs to feel he's still human. "Now, let me feel you wrapped around me, Ani. Let us have one night together with no worries, no concerns, only us."
Padmé woke to Ani thrashing in bed and yelling.
"No, no! I don't want to do that. That's not me." His left arm struck her in the chest with full power, leaving her bruised and gasping for breath. She pulled the covers off an knelt on the mattress beside him, shaking him.
"Ani, wake up. Wake up. It's me, Padmé. Wake up."
He sat up quickly in bed, his eyes wide with fear.
"Was it Luke again?"
Ani shook his head. "No. It was a young woman with chestnut hair wrapped in two buns like you wore many years before, but it wasn't you. She had your eyes, but I know it wasn't you. I think it was Leia. I was torturing my little girl." He sobbed. "I want to meet her, Padmé. I want to see her. If I know her, I will never hurt her."
Padmé stroked his face softly, wiping his tears with the sleeve of her gown. "Oh, Ani, I want to meet her, too."
Did you know . . .
● Everything is still a possibility. If Anakin stays down this path, everything that happened in the original trilogy will still occur.
Tell me what you think . . .
● Do you think Padmé will stay with Anakin if he remains a Sith Lord?