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He goes to the temple late at night, when there are few attendants – two young novices and one Gungan guard. They scurry away as he approaches, into the unlighted recesses of the temple. He can hear the rustle of their cloaks, the soft clink of the Gungan's armor. He can feel their fear.
I am not here, he thinks to them as he passes their hiding places. They believe him because they are weak minded, but they do not move.
There is a sepulcher at the far end of the temple, and before this Darth Vader kneels as he might to his master. His long black cloak spreads behind him on the cold tiles and the only sound is his own heavy breathing.
He could blast the sepulcher's doors open if he chooses, but his gloved hands remain at his side, the fingers curled. Behind the ornate doors, a woman lies entombed. Vader wonders if her body is preserved, or if there is nothing but a pile of bones beneath the burial attire. He never bothered to learn much about the culture of the people of Naboo; Padmé never talked about funeral rites.
He can't imagine her bones. There must be flesh as soft as cream. Her hair must lie about her in shining brown waves. Her lips, stained with shoong berries, must be curved gently as they were when she dreamed, when she lived. He imagines the swell of her belly, and their child dead inside, curled like a sea creature, barely formed fingers pressed to the tiny hole of a mouth.
They lie together, his wife and child. Hide together.
Stay safe.
It's so quiet here.
If he could, he would take his armor off and go to lie beside them. Smash her coffin. Press his shriveled lips to hers and then watch with his last breath as she withers like a strip of paper in a flame. Watch her belly crumple as the child turns to ashes and dissolves.
I would have forgiven you, I think. In all the Galaxy, only you.
Padmé.
There is a ripple in the Force, so deep and distant that he barely feels it. Not yet a tremor.
And not here. Everything is still and peaceful in this temple and so it must remain though all the rebellious worlds tremble under the Empire's stretching arms.
Vader rises stiffly, turns, and strides back toward the temple's entrance, his boots clicking against the tiles.
On his way, he kills all the witnesses.
10/07/05