Work Text:
Vader waited impatiently for the cell door to open, but when he stepped inside and it closed behind him, he just stood there, silent except for the unceasing rhythm of his respirator.
Padmé stared back at him. He could sense her fear, tempered under her own will to hide it, but there was nothing she could hide from him. She had certainly tried, at first claiming their child had been stillborn. But he had pried the truth out of her eventually, that she and Obi-Wan were hiding his son from him. Where, he had not been able to determine, because Padmé herself did not know where they were. She had known he would get her back, and had feared him so much that she would not even let herself be privy to the location of her own child.
Part of Vader hated her fear – she shouldn’t be so afraid of him. If she hadn’t been taken in by all the lies that turned her against him and made her tear apart their family, everything would’ve been as it should, and Vader was eager to return to that. Even as mangled as he was now, he knew that would be no obstacle to their love, that she could, would love him again, if only she hadn’t been told to fear him.
But another part of him knew that fear was a tool. His new Master had taught him that. Fear could ensure cooperation even in the most unwilling beings, and right now, Padmé was very uncooperative. His own fear had held him back, fear that he would hurt her again, nearly lose her again. That was an unacceptable outcome, the echo of that awful memory haunting fingers that no longer existed. But if he could press this advantage, Padmé would come to understand, in time, that he was doing what was best for both of them. That this had always been all for her, and that she belonged at his side. He could still feel the way her throat had closed under his strength. He could do it again, he could push that boundary between life and death just far enough that she would understand how it felt when she betrayed him.
“Anakin,” she said, breaking the long silence. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me in here.”
There was an edge of weariness in her words, that seemed promising that he was beginning to wear her down, but the bite of the accusation rankled him.
“I would never forget you, Padmé,” he said, pouring such fierce sincerity into the words that she flinched. “I was away, dealing with some of your friends. The Emperor was much insistent that they be taken care of, after your stunt let so many of them get away.”
Vader hadn’t, of course, cared much at the time. Of course, they were all traitors, and they had helped keep Padmé away from him, so he wanted them dead as much as anyone, but he had recovered Padmé, and that was the most important matter, even if the Emperor was growing frustrated with his “fixation”, and giving him a constant barrage of assignments to test his loyalty, taking him further and more often from Padmé even as she had just come back into his grasp.
He sensed the pangs of grief from Padmé as she briefly closed her eyes. That she would mourn over traitors that had twisted her into a rebel and separatist when she had once been a loyal Senator of the Republic! But he held his temper in check, for now. He would show her the way forward, away from the weakness of the Republic into the strength of the Empire.
“How long do you think the Emperor will let me live, Ani? He won’t let you keep me in your fortress forever.”
“You do not need to worry about that,” he said. “I will deal with him, if it comes to that. But if you recanted your treason, and gave up the names of your co-conspirators, the Emperor will be lenient.”
Her skepticism cut sharply against his senses, and anger stirred at his gut. When had she stopped trusting him? When had she stopped loving him?
She claimed she hadn’t, of course, but if she had still loved him, she would have trusted him and remained loyal to him and the Empire.
Instead, she was in a prison cell, a traitor and enemy of the state, and himself, duty-bound as her jailer.
But Vader would make things as they should be. He only needed time.