There was nothing there but darkness. Where there were once pools of blue, now only blackness lay. There was no trace of emotion, of any feeling, nothing visible on the surface anymore. They were dead now. Decaying silently before her. His dark eyes saw the shock, the pity on her face, and then the unmistakable anger, and accusation.
Inside his eyes emotions were boiling up, bringing a sting to them. But a deep QUIET shut them up, locked the feelings up again.
His eyes watched her open and close her mouth like a fish, and his eyes saw the silent scream.
They saw her shudder.
"What have you done, Ani?" His eyes grew colder at the sound of his former name. "The only thing I could do," was the reply.
"You could have stayed with me," she told him. The overwhelming waves of pain came along with the message, and his eyes became suspicious. What is she hiding?
"I would have put you in danger."
"That�s a risk I would have taken if you�d have GIVEN ME A CHOICE!"
His eyes turned away.
The mechanical, hideous sound of his breathing filled the air, and Padme began to cry. "Please don�t, Padme," he begged.
She looked up, her eyes filling with menace. "Ever since you left me, this is all I�ve been doing, ANI! You became my life and when you left...when you left..." Her voice died away and the stinging grew sharper. "I�m sorry..." he began, but they both knew sorry wouldn�t make anything right again. "You could come with me," he said, underneath the mask his eyes pleading. "No" was the simple answer she gave him, and his eyes darkened again. She stood up, legs shaking, and touched the mask that hid his face. His beautiful face covered by this monstrosity. HE was covered by it. Smothered and buried by it. "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH PAIN YOU'VE CAUSED ME?" she thought-screamed at him, her fingers still tracing over the mask. "HOW CAN YOU BE SUCH A MONSTER? I�VE HEARD ALL ABOUT THE MURDERS, THE COLD BLOODED KILLINGS! THIS ISN�T YOU, ANAKIN!" Padme continued.
Vader tilted his head, and her fingers dropped. "No, it isn�t," he replied sadly, regretfully. Padme's eyes filled with tears, and she ran, ran, away from what he had become.
A few minutes later, Vader heard the blaster shot, and the scream. Inside the coldness of his eyes, he was crumbling, dying with her. "PADME!" he screamed, and his insides turned over.
He ran after her, and found her lying on the grass, gasping for air,a stormtrooper wandering back to the group.
It was the emperor's orders, he knew, and the rage burned inside him. Those eyes filled with fire.
But he picked her up, gently, and moved his gloved hand over her face. "I still love you, Ani." He heard it in his head and saw her eyes filled with the truth, as she surrendered to her fate. Despite the evils he had done to her, she still loved him.
Vader felt like a monster, but he still knelt by her and cradled her in his arms and answered, "I love you, too, Padme. I�m so sorry I�ve been so cruel to you." But he looked down, and she was already dead.
What no one saw behind the ebony protection of Vader's mask, as he boarded his ship, flanked by the stormtroopers, were the tears that flowed freely down his face.
*******
A year later, Vader was on his ship, on the way to a planet he had never heard of until now. He checked the ship�s controls, and saw everything was working perfectly. Suddenly, up ahead of him, Vader saw a planet surrounded by moons. He checked his sensors, and they couldn�t confirm it, nor detect anything up ahead at all. Vader decided to check this out, and as he moved closer to the moons, he heard singing. Beautiful, silky voices all singing.
Sound isn�t supposed to travel in space, he knew, and curiosity drove him closer still. He began to make out people dressed in white...and all of a sudden knew. "Angels..., they live on the moons of Iego..." He stared out the window in awe, and as he got closer, he gasped. There, sitting silently on one of the moons, was Padme, her chesnut hair flowing like a chocolate river around her beautiful face. She looked up at him, past him, through him, and disappeared.
=============