It was not often that Darth Vader slept.

There are many influences that hide behind the inability to sleep, many of which would have been accurate in the troubled former Jedi.

Was it a curse that came with his horrible disfiguration? Was it a dark sense of restlessness that wrestled his tortured spirit? Or was it a scathing and destructive guilt that kept him prowling the corridors of his domain? Was it fear of something. . . human?

When he did sleep, Vader dreamed.

Most of his dreams were in fact nightmares.

Detail cannot suffice to describe the pain and sorrow these dreams entailed, and what’s more, characters from his past, long since departed, would weave in and out. Obi-Wan with his broken spirit would claw at Vader, trying to unmask the human within. Qui-Gon, Mace Windu, and Yoda would occasionally appear, but the main character would always be the same.

She would always come.

If there was anything that Darth Vader feared, it was the dream where she would come to him looking for Anakin Skywalker, and instead she would find Darth Vader, and his master, Darth Sidious...

Upon a steep and jagged cliff above a roaring ocean, far away from anything Anakin Skywalkwer had ever known, was a beautiful garden. Lush foliage loomed everywhere he looked, ripe fruits, singing birds, and blossoming flowers decorated everything in sight, and Anakin found himself ignoring all the beauty that surrounded him. For there was only one beauty that enchanted his sight, and for the first time in a long time, he found himself in the company of Padme Amidala.

She was draped in avivid green silk dress that wrapped tightly around her bodice and flowed freely from the waist down. Her chestnut hair was in loose and free ringlets, devoid of any specific style, the way she would wear it whenever she felt most comfortable.

In her eyes was something faint. A slow and dreamlike appearance controlled her physique, and Anakin sensed a deep and sad determination in her. Hopelessness filled the air, and shards of the past were the invisible knives that cut the air between them.

He had betrayed her.

Perhaps the saddest thing was that the connection he and Padme had once had that was beyond beauty and beyond words, the connection between them that had once been so tangible had been severed.

Anakin began to weep.

Padme paid no heed to him. In fact, she had not yet once glanced his way. She stood near the edge of the cliff and was looking directly in front of her, with her sad determination, while Anakin stood about ten feet to her left and to her front.

Anakin suddenly felt another presence.

This presence sunk into his bones like the cold winter’s chill, a chill that he now depended on for his very life. His Master, his only friend, and his most hated enemy. The only person Anakin hated more than the Emperor was himself. Anakin feared and loathed the Emperor with every fiber of the Force, and therefore, he was the only man that could keep him alive.

Padme’s love used to be the source of his vitality.

Anakin looked to his beloved Master and saw that the lush greenery around him was dying and withering and being replaced with a bleak blue coldness. He looked back over to Padme and the beauty behind her had remained, and she had become more vibrant, even in her meloncholy.

The Emperor was to Anakin’s left, and was facing Padme head-on. With a pang of fear, Anakin realized that the two were facing each other directly and that he was between them.

The tears began to spill over his cheeks uncontrollably. Fear, love, and pain seared through him as he turned to Padme.

“Padme! Padme! Run, Padme!” he cried out hoarsely.

Anakin tried to run to her, but his feet were rooted to the ground.

The Emperor and Padme did not hear him.

Anakin fell to his knees with an inexpressible feeling of pain.

“Why do you come here, my lady?” croaked the voice of the Emperor, with a strong trace of Senator Palpatine.

Hatred burned through Anakin’s eyes.

“Leave her alone. I. . If you hurt her, if you do anything. . .”

“I have yet a reason to return. I will always return.” Padme’s voice was rich with grief with the last emphasis.

The Emperor chuckled softly at her, and Anakin felt sick.

“You have nothing!” The Emperor yelled. “No reason, no fight left in you, you are hopeless!” He was angry, very angry. The ground quaked with his evil, and the cliff behind Padme shed a few boulders in the wake of the wrath that flowed from him.

Anakin cried out and reached out to her, but Padme remained unmovable and stoic.

“That is not true.”

“You stupid little harlot!” sniped the Emperor.

“He tried to kill you and your unborn child!”

“The one you speak of is Darth Vader.” said Padme calmly.

The Emperor continued to rave on.

“That same hand that caressed and tenderly loved you, violently slaughtered many younglings!”

Padme did not betray a hint of emotion.

The Emperor hissed.

“He destroyed the soul of your friend Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

Padme blinked slowly and lethargically.

“Obi-Wan knows what I know, deep in his heart.”

The Emperor slowly began to smile.

“He will destroy your children.”

“Enough.” declared Padme dangerously. Anakin turned to her, surprised. A divine power surrounded her aura, and Anakin could feel the Force flowing within her. Padme’s spirit and patience was winning.

Padme took a bold step toward the Emperor.

“I weary of your shifty lies, your constant twists and distortions. Your fate hunts you, Sith Lord. Your reign is at an end, and what is right will win.”

Padme spoke with no confidence, no triumph or bravery, but instead with simple truth.

“Arrogance!” spat the Emperor.

“No, Sith Lord. No arrogance. I speak with my heart, and all sincerity.”

“Ha!”

“Because you see, Sith Lord,” continued Padme softly. “I have something that you will never have. Something you have lusted for all your life.”

As if for the first time, Padme turned to Anakin.

The eyes that penetrated his soul, pierced his heart, and set him free looked at him and suddenly

the tide turned, and the bond that Anakin thought was once severed was new again.

Padme held her hand out to him and the shackles that grounded him for all these years fell loose, and he went to her. Delicately, he took her hand and with his other hand, he cupped her face and leaned his forehead to hers. When he took in her angelic scent, Anakin knew his fate.

He was home. He was safe. He was still in love.

Padme turned slowly to the Emperor while she held Anakin close to her.

“I am the keeper of Anakin Skywalker’s soul. . .and you shall never have that, Sith Lord.”

The Emperor screamed in defeat, and crumpled to the ground into nonexistence.

Anakin could only focus on Padme as she smiled softly up at him. She ran her hands through his hair and sighed as he pulled her close to him. Their lips met and the past melted away with the loving and chaste kiss that was between them.

Suddenly and abruptly, Padme pulled away and pushed away from Anakin.

“Padme. . .” Anakin cried out deperately, refusing to let go of everything that he had suddenly regained.

“I know, Ani.” Padme said suddenly.

She was backing away from him, toward the rocky ledge of the cliff.

“WAIT!” Anakin cried, stretching and straining with every inch of the force to get to her.

Padme reached the edge, and before she took her final step, Anakin saw the word ‘unless’ die on her lips.

With that word, she disappeared, and Darth Vader woke to the sound of his own screams.