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Anakin turns around, he knows where he is, the lake house on Naboo… the room he and Padme had made up for the baby, but… something is wrong. He just can’t place it.
The baby is crying.
Oh, okay. He can do this. He’s done this before. At the Temple, and here with his family, of course. Luke.
(Something is wrong, here.)
“Shh…” he says. “Go back to sleep little one.”
Soon, blessedly, the boy does. He goes back to his and Padme’s room, his wife awake in bed.
“Angel,” he says in awe, the same voice he’ll use always and forever when he can see his Angel. She smiles.
“Ani,” she says. “My love.”
Anakin smiles, climbing back into bed.
“My Angel,” he says. “I never tell you that I love you as often as you deserve.”
Padme just smiles.
“It doesn’t take words for me to know,” she says. Then, hesitantly… “Ani… you’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”
Anakin nods. Of course he would and without hesitation. For her, he’d burn the Galaxy down, and he only doesn’t fear that fact because he knows that she’d never wish it.
“Of course,” he says. “You know this.”
Padme nods, but her eyes are sad and serious.
“Yes,” she says. “I do… Ani, tomorrow you’ll be given a choice.”
“What?”
What was Padme talking about, how does she know…
“A choice,” Padme continues, pulling Anakin closer but not breaking eye contact, “that will decide everything… please, Ani, make the choice that I would ask of you. Promise me.”
Anakin nods, still not entirely understanding, but Padme is obviously serious, and she also doesn’t seem insane.
(Oh, Vader.)
“I will,” he says, “But, Padme—”
Padme looks away.
“I’m sorry, Ani,” she says. “But it’s time for you to wake up.”
“What—”
Vader wakes up. Alone. Of course he does. His wife, his Angel, has been dead, by his hands, for over twenty years.
He lets his hyperbaric chamber dress him, numb to the world.
The Emperor will be arriving today.
(He makes the right choice.)
Anakin wakes up. He’s back at Varykino once more, back with Padme in his arms.
“Did I make the right choice?” he asks. Padme smiles, and kisses him.
“Yes, love,” she says. “You did it… I never doubted there was good in you.”
Anakin resists the urge to flinch away from her. He doesn’t deserve this.
“I love you,” he says. “And I’m so sorry for every way that I failed you.”
Padme smiles.
“I forgive you, Ani,” she says. Anakin sighs.
“So what happens next?” he asks. Padme laughs.
“Well,” she says. “I have you for tonight… but, in the morning, Obi-Wan still has one thing left to teach you.”
Anakin doesn’t focus on the second part of the sentence, just the first. Back. Home. With Padme, his Angel.
For now, he can enjoy that.