The Fate of Angels

8. Unmasked

"The emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it...” 

- Nicholas Sparks 

Padmê 

Everything seems to freeze, the laughter of Luke and Leia fades away and Vader's (or is it Anakin's?) lips are moving but I can't hear what he's saying. I only hear words from the past, words that have been brought back by the appearance of those shocking blue eyes.

"Are you an angel?"

    "You'll always be that little boy I knew on Tatooine"

        "From the moment I met you, all those years ago, a day hasn't gone by when I haven't thought of             you"

            "I truly, deeply love you"

                "You are so…beautiful" 

                    "It's only because I'm so in love"

                        "Anakin, your breaking my heart" 

                             "LIAR"

Liar, liar, liar liar, he'd honestly thought that I'd betrayed him. I stared at this phantom standing only a few inches away and I instinctively took a step back. This unmasked Vader looked like Anakin, my Anakin, not the yellow-eyed, vengeful, Sith that had nearly killed me and the twins. Vader looked identical to Anakin with the same blue eyes and there was the scar that slid across his right eye as well as the dark blonde locks that fell messily to his shoulder. This was a trick, none of it made sense. Firstly, if it was Anakin, which it wasn't because he was dead, why wear a clunky black suit all these years when he was in perfect shape? However what could Vader gain by pretending to be my dead husband? How would he even have found out that Anakin and I had been married? There were too many loose puzzle pieces that were almost all unfathomable. I snapped out of my reverie and tuned back into the environment, Vader was still speaking. 

"Padmé? Padmé? Would you just answer me please?" Vader pleaded sharply, his face twisted into a look of almost childish anxiety and fear.

"Is this some sort of sick joke? I don't understand what you could gain by this little getup" I hissed. 

"I know it looks completely impossible but I'm telling the truth, I swear, it's me" Vader replied desperately, looking perplexed. Obviously he'd expected things to go a bit differently. "Your not Anakin, your Darth Vader, your a murderer, a Sith" I retorted scathingly, turning away in disgust. Vader wrapped his arm around my wrist lightly but I quickly wrenched my arm away, shying away from his towering figure. "I think they're one and the same, don't pretend they aren't Padmé. You were there on Mustafar" He said slowly, crossing his arms over his chest resentfully.  "I was, but you weren't, I don't know who you are, some impostor no doubt but this is a little low, even for the empire" I sniffed contemptuously, trying to mask my pain. I'd wished everyday since Mustafar that I could see Anakin again, even just for a few minutes and now I'd gotten that wish but this wasn't Anakin, Anakin was dead. This man was just someone who was brainwashed to believe that he was the Hero with No Fear but two could play this game.