WHAT IS REAL

XXVIII

Vader stayed on the veranda after Padme left. He was so angry at the way things were unraveling in his life. Everything about his life was a lie. First he finds Padme in the hallway of the Emperors Star Ship. Now he finds out that his children were born and they could possibly be alive. He had not even considered that possibility when he had found her. He was so caught up with idea of having her back that he had totally forgotten about the children. The thought of the children excited him, and the thought that they were taken from him made him angrier. His anger, needing an escape, came bellowing out of his throat in and angry howl as his fist curled into metal fists of force. The chairs on the veranda started to bend from the force of the anger radiating out of Vader's body. He realized the house was shaking from the scream. The doors to his room flew open shattering the glass and Vader stormed back into the room. He expected to find Padme in there possibly hiding in the corner, from his rage filled out burst. His anger was still there but it had subsided some from his outburst. He needed to talk to Padme and find out more things about the day the children were born.

"Padme" he called with anger lacing the call. "Come here I need to ask you some more questions."

Silence.

Vader checked the fresher, and the closet. Both were empty and this served to upset him more causing him to feel enveloped in a cloud of blackness. He wanted to find Padme and bring her back kicking and screaming but suddenly the thought of treating her that way caused him to stop and pause and think about what he was thinking of doing. I need to calm down and think clearly. When I normally find myself in hard and unpleasant circumstances I remain calm. I can do that now. He allowed the anger to flow through him and make him more in tune with his surroundings. He reached out with the force to look for her signature. He found her in the bedroom down the hall. She was crying. He was shocked until he remembered what had transpired not long ago. Suddenly he felt bad for slapping her. Regret? Regret is not something I have dealt with for 3 years. Regret shows weakness. Yet for this act of anger he could not push away that feeling as easily as he had other times.

Jennifer brought Pamde a cool cloth to put on her face where Vader had hit her. Padme held the cloth to her face and when she pulled it away blood was on the cloth from a cut on her lip. She had been so desperate to get away from Vader that she had not even noticed her was bleeding. She looked at the blood on the cloth. Vader's metal hand had caused more damage than she had realized. Her handmaid sat on the bed beside her.

"Milady what will you do?"

"I am not sure, Jennifer."

"Milady, forgive me for saying it, but you need to leave him."

"How Jennifer? You tell me how. I have nothing. I have been nothing. I was stripped of everything 3 years ago. I don't even have clothes to go anywhere. Vader gave me this robe and it is about the only thing I have that is mine. If you can call it mine." Padme ended on a dejected note.

"Milady, you and I are the same size. I can let you have my clothes. I am almost sure not one of the servants here would stop us. I just don't know how Akaash, the one in charge of all of us, will react to such a thing. I have not figured out if he is loyal to Vader or if he is too scared of loosing his head to defy him."

"Aren't you afraid of defying Vader?"

"Yes but my life is not that important. If I can get you away from him, my life would be worth something then. He is nothing but meanness and anger. There is nothing good in him and if you stay with him he will kill you. Just like he has every other person who he knows."

"Jennifer how do you know he kills everyone he knows? You have only been here two weeks."

"Well its what the other servants have said to me."

Jennifer was cut short by a scream that seemed to rip through the whole house. Windows rattled and the walls shook. Fear ran through Jennifer and she ran to the fresher to hide. Padme on the other hand absorbed the waves that shook the house knowing exactly what had caused the scream. In that scream, she could feel Vader's Anger but also his pure grief at the knowledge that his children were ripped away from him. She felt sorry for him and if she could she would have went and put her arms around him. She knew it would not help and it would not make anything better. She would wait for him.