She hoped there was. She prayed to the heavens, to the Force. She hoped that it was all some sort of sham; that Lord Vader wasn't as powerful as he and the emperor claimed to be and that he could make such a mistake.
Ultimately, good always prevailed over evil in the end.
Or so she allowed herself to believe.
She held that belief tightly, fearing that if she let it go, the darkness would consume her. She needed to have faith. Good would prevail, and evil would fall. The sun would rise after the darkness of night, and light would find them once more. She just had to cling to hope.
At the thought, she felt warmth spreading throughout her body (though she admitted it might have just been the wine). However, as she glanced at the open balcony, a sudden wave of paranoia washed over her, and a chill settled in.
She trembled.
But before she could investigate further, the sound of her droid's return made her glance away from the city lights just as the blue astrodroid extended its mechanical arm, holding her retrieved device firmly in his grasp.
"Thank you, Artoo…" she said as she took the holopad from his grasp. The little droid responded with a series of whistles before scurrying back to his spot in the corner of the room.
Oddly enough, Padmé found herself clutching the small device in her hands, almost to the point of pain. She couldn't say exactly why, but she felt her breath growing shallow and her heart thundering in her chest. However, she couldn't determine whether her body's reaction was driven by fits of curiosity or an instinctive warning about the dangers she already understood. It was probably a bit of both.
She reasoned once more that her curiosity was solely for the benefit of the Rebellion, yet she recognized it was partly a fabrication. Nevertheless, that was sufficient to hold herself back.
Unlocking her device, she accessed the desired search results after typing "Darth Vader" into the search engine. Almost immediately, she was inundated with news articles and headlines filled with both high praise and cringe-worthy propaganda about the Sith Lord, which she reluctantly bypassed as she scrolled to the section displaying press photos.
If there was anything beneficial about Vader's recent emergence from the shadows, it was that the galaxy could finally assign a face to the Empire's ghost. Or at least a figure, since his face remained concealed. Nevertheless, this allowed for some images to be available for her viewing. While there still weren't many photos of the Sith Lord, there were a few, which sharply contrasted with a few months ago when Darth Vader had remained faceless to the galaxy, with no image on record.
She assumed that the emperor's forthcoming details about his prized butcher, including pictures of the Sith Lord, did not stem from his eagerness to share his apprentice with the galaxy but were instead simply unavoidable, especially with his recent excessive use of Lord Vader, suggesting that the older man had let things unfold while leveraging the press to his advantage. After all, he was nothing if not cunningly tactical.
She also assumed that most of Vader's true images – those that revealed his true nature had been erased from the HoloNet servers by the Empire, as the only available images were sanctioned, press-released pictures of the Sith Lords. These conveyed the appropriate image. None of the images were candid shots or anything remotely personal. They didn't show him on the battlefield slaughtering innocents or holding a man by the neck through the air. Nor were there the typical celebrity gossip photos one might capture when someone lived in the public eye, such as when a random photographer caught a senator at a party they weren't supposed to attend or in a restaurant sharing a meal with friends. Only official photos from the Empire's political or military events existed. They were all professionally contained. No unflattering or spectacular photos would expose Darth Vader in his true monstrous light.
No. Every image had been calculated and strategically planned- just enough to be intimidated by him yet reveal nothing. Each image reminded her of the Sith she had seen that day or even the previous night at the party. He was motionless and cold, concealed in black to hide every aspect of himself.
The articles were even worse, though she tried to ignore them on the grounds of not wanting to throw up. All the press was manipulated to praise Lord Vader and his talents instead of calling them out for what they were. They referred to him as a hero, but she knew better.
A villain.
A murderer.
A monster.
Evil. She saw him for what he truly was. She saw through his lies.
And yet, some part of her felt as though she didn't see him at all- perhaps even less than the others around her.
Which was a contrasting and confusing thought.
She wasn't fooled into believing that Vader was anything but a monster, and yet, there was so much more hidden behind those words. Villain. Murderer. Monster. Sith. Nothing but words. They were merely titles. Labels. True, yet nothing of real substance.
And for not the first time that day, Padmé found herself wondering again: Who was Darth Vader?
He was a Sith. Yes, a monster and a murderer, but who was he? What was he, beyond all of that? And that also raised the question: Why did she care?
Beyond wanting to know information, simply for the Rebellion's sake, she wanted to know why she wanted to know.
She hated this man- if that was even the correct word to use- because, again, she didn't know. But she did know that she hated him. She felt it so intensely. It was undeniable. But why was there so much curiosity?
.
.
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