#i must remark that this padmé was a little bit more messed up even before like meeting Anakin again in AOTC

[galactic-rhea]

I love your empress padme au, they should be evil and unhinged. I'm misly curious as to what the kiddos are up to, (and some of the other characters, I imagen they're mostly side eyeing anidalla like "wtf is happining over there???") Anyways I kind of love the consept of "evil chaos family fun"

Neither of them are stay at home parents but the imagen of vaderkin in a frilly apron trying SO hard to cook for his family has popped into my head and will not leave

Vader should get a cloak wich has "property of Padme" embrodered on the back

dfkjgnkjngfdjk thank you, Padmé would ask him to cook with an appron and nothing else

About the question, well! Just yesterday someone asked in the comments about the twins too! And well, you see, I'm undecided! This will get long!

See, when I originally envisioned the empress Padmé AU, what I had on mind is that Padmé spent about 5-6-7 years with the rebels, and that's why we have Vader as...as we known him, you know, almost-classic Vader. Unknown to the rebeels that Padmé's goal was sliiiiiightly different as theirs. She would have the twins (or at least, known where they're being hidden, and visint them and everything) and her goal would be to reunite her family, she's a bit obssesed with having her family fully and complete.

But! The idea that, for example, after having the twins she was unconscious for several days or something, and it was decided that hidding the twins was the better choice and told her they died it's so very tasty and angsty! Vader and Padmé would be EVEN MORE codependant and messed up out of the grief (also THE GUILT Vader feels about thinking he caused their kids death as he sees Padmé so distraguth?!!!! He wants to constantly kill himself, he probably wants Padmé to kill him, tasty angst) If she believes her twins to be dead, then she believes she only has her husband, and she's very overprotective of him (and possesive, a lot).

And then you would have the plot following slightly similar to the movies, but now the twins have to redeem BOTH of their parents who are kinda enabling each other so hjhbdgdfsf

(Either Leia wasn't given to Bail and Breha because...come on, or I'll have to invent a super duper and convenient explanation)

Also @squad-724 suggested the idea of Padmé and Vader somehow sort of bringing Ahsoka (inquisitor ahsoka, wahoo!) into this and now I won't stop thinking about it (unconsciously) having Ahsoka as their stand-in-daugther because they lost their twins. Messed up, messed up and all these conflicting feelings guys!!!!

BUT! On the other hand, Imperial twins raised by both EVIL PARENTS is super fun, like, this poor galaxy can't catch a breath. Because my Vader raises the twins AU have them being double agents with Vader trying hard to cover them up so the emperor won't kill them. But here it probably makes them less likely to turn against their parents! However, 5-6 years being raised among rebels, and then being raised in the imperial palace and becoming prince and princess and at the very least knowing your mom kinda betrayed the rebels is probably enough to give you suspicion and "huh,,,this is kinda bad? Maybe"

For Padmé and Vader though, I think it would bring a very devoted and angry protectiveness for both Padmé and Vader; they aren't that invested in the empire and power tbh, they just want to have their Little House On The Prairie fantasy with a family fully complete and safe, at all costs. It would make them even more of a team and less weaknesses. Though, I once kinda as a joke just imagined Padmé getting tired of all of it and going "ah whatevery, let the galaxy burn by itself while we ran a way somewhere" and that's it because seriously Padmé wanted to actually give up on all the work, no big redemption or big epic dramatic moment, the imperial family just disappeared one night and no one knows what happened (surely they were murdered?) when they're just chilling in some super random and secret corner of the galaxy doing, idk, the most boring thing ever, farming. Luke and Leia get bored and become spice smugglers . The end.

For the last question, though, I think half of the people think Padmé is a victim of this terrible situation somehow (oh noooo, she was kidnapped by that monster, who knows what she's enduring, or she's being mind-controlled :( ), that she's some sort of puppet empress while Vader actually makes all the choices because,,,come on, that was the emperor's second hand right there. The other half of the people remember Padmé was a bit of a political apprentice for Palpatine, and they're also both from Naboo, and it was also thanks to her Palpatine became the Chancellor, maybe she did want power from the start, maybe Naboo is fucked up, never let politicans from Naboo have power again.

And then there's the third secret thing, which is only a very limited number of people like Obi-Wan and Bail (and Padmé and Vader's palace staff lol), that are fully side-eyeing her.

There's also the problem that since she actually worked with the rebels, she,,,knows a lot, she probably knows almost all the names of the rebels' leaders, she probably knows there's a underground society helping jedi run and to which planets. She knows so much, and yet she doesn't actively chase them (or more like, she doesn't actively send Vader to chase them), and if she does send her husband, which is rarely since she wants him to stay where she can see him (remember when I said obssesive and possesive and overprotective?), she's probably doesn't tell him that much info because it's entertaining, giant galactic chess game, lmao.

Also, her empire isn't half as awful as Palpatine's, like, it's still very bad but it's leagues better and she does probably finally forces the good charity projects she never could as a senator, and well, complacency it's extremelly dangerous for freedom. So there's that.

[strrne]

Give Me a Signal, Ch.4

Chapters: 4/?

Word count (so far): 10185  

AO3  Ch.1 Ch.2  Ch.3 Ch.5  Ch.6  Ch.7

Summary: When Padmé Amidala is unable to contact Coruscant while negotiating a loan on Scipio, the Senate suspects trouble, and sends Anakin Skywalker to go check on her. Of course, the resourceful senator isn’t really in any trouble – don’t flatter yourself, Rush Clovis – but there’s definitely some brewing.

Chapter 3

“My Lord,” Dooku greeted with his usual placid and deferential tone – although secretly, he really wanted to raise an eyebrow, at least.

He might have been mistaken, for it was such an unlikely scenario – but Sidious appeared frustrated. As though the Sith lord was about to stamp his foot and burst out screaming, ”Do you have any idea how long I've been trying to call?!”

Sidious' voice and manner, naturally, still held the perfect composure as he spoke, ”Lord Tyranus, the first stage of our plan is almost completed, and it's time you removed yourself from that troublesome planet. Primitive contraptions indeed, these holograms… relying on such a fragile structure.”

Dooku wasn't certain, but it was almost as though his master was trying to say, ”Even with my immense Force abilities, I still haven't found a way to control the holo signal.”

-

This time Padmé didn't greet her husband mouth first. She greeted Anakin with an embrace. A long, warm, loving embrace. Gone was the dark of night, gone were his darker thoughts. In was the blaze of morning, the scent of her… freshly conditioned hair. Yeah, he'd have to work on his poetic prowess.

”They allowed you to retrieve me alone?”

As she withdrew from the hug, Padmé gave him a very curious look. She seemed to be still assessing his mood, which made Anakin feel very guilty. He still deeply regretted blowing up at her back at the detention, uh, hostel – she had not deserved that. He tried very hard not to recall what the fight had been about, but just as he unfortunately remembered, she gave him a playful grin – apparently having made a very favorable appraisal of his state of mind.

”Better. I asked for a few minutes alone with you in this very cell. To, uh… well… scold you.”

She brandished the cell keys, her grin transforming into a mischievous smirk, ”You know… collegially.”

Anakin gaped. He must have fallen asleep after all, for he could have only dreamt up such an utterly sublime and blissful morning. He reached to scratch his head, wondering if he was even the same person he had been last night. Did that person have a perfect life – or a perfect wife? Or the ability to laugh at accidental rhyming?

”Oh, I'm sorry, you must hate this little coop by now,” Padmé deduced as Anakin was still taking his time to react, though she did seem to find the cell quite remarkably nice and tidy, “I understand if you don't–”

”No no, no no,” Anakin hurried to clarify. He took a cautious step closer, then suddenly reached out both his arms to lift his petite wife into the air in one, sweeping motion. ”I thought its greatest defect really, was not having you in it.”

Airborne, Padmé slammed the door shut with her heel, tossing the keys into the farthermost corner.

”Can you show me where, specifically, you would have wanted me?”

-

It had actually taken Teckla and Typho quite a while to collect all the clone troopers that had arrived with Padmé from the spaceport – or more specifically, all the various bars, nightclubs and hotels surrounding the spaceport. The squad members had apparently taken full advantage of the prolonged nature of the Senator's visit, and decided to live a little while they could. They did seem to have caught wind of General Skywalker's plight, and saluted him a little too deliberately as he arrived.

Padmé was still gauging Anakin's reactions, although she knew the General to always treat the troopers with respect, and he had already somehow managed to walk side by side with Rush Clovis and the rest of the party all the way to the two ships that had carried them here. Their stolen moment of pleasure an hour earlier had probably smoothed things over – but now he again seemed to be carrying a more severe, unsettled air. Sometimes Padmé wondered if she was actually Force-sensitive too, in very limited capacity – only sensitive to the Force surrounding and flowing through her dear, imperfect husband.

It was time to decide who would go home on which ship. Teckla, Typho and the clone troopers already had their feet pointing towards Padmé's star skiff. Padmé, Anakin and Clovis all seemed to be caught in a game of who could stay silent the longest, before one of them would have to make the initiative.

That somebody turned out to be Anakin.

“Senator Amidala, Representative Clovis…” it seemed to require physical effort from Anakin to form the next sentence. Even the troopers looked uncomfortable. “I'm sure you have… much to discuss… in regards to those data files. Please – the Twilight – my –“

“Thank you so much, General Skywalker, for the kind invitation,” Padmé relieved him of his misery. As the party began to split into two, Padmé insisted on thanking Teckla and Typho personally one more time before they got into the ship, leaving Anakin and Clovis to head over to the Twilight alone.

-

“Well, come one then,” Anakin spat at Clovis, striding along two or three steps ahead of his passenger.

”You know,” Clovis said, seeing the Jedi's shoulders stiffen at the sound of his voice, “it's really quite endearing, seeing you trying to behave for Padmé's sake. Look at yourself. You're coming apart at the seams trying not to punch me in the face. Why don't you just get it out of your system, show her who you really are.”

Anakin said nothing, but in a significant gesture, opened his fists at his sides and stretched them. As he did, one of them seemed to make a funny clanking noise.

“Oh, that's right,” Clovis pressed on, aware that he was hitting below the belt, but unable to control himself, “you barely made it out of this system.”

”You don't know anything about me,” the General shot back.

”I know you're in love with Padmé.”

”As I said…” he spun around to stand in front of Clovis, stopping his advance. ”You really don't know a thing about me... or her.” The General slightly inclined his head towards the woman they both loved, who was presently bursting out laughing so hard at something a trooper had said, she had to lean on Teckla's shoulder.

Clovis said nothing. The General marched off to open the doors to his freighter.

”I'm telling you. Not a thing.”

-

As Padmé had feared, Anakin appeared to have been hit with another pang of jealousy as soon as he had once more laid eyes on Rush Clovis. She couldn't help but resenting him ever so slightly, for making her far too distracted to really concentrate on the all-important data analysis with Clovis – Anakin was upset enough to have put his treasured freighter on auto-pilot at the earliest opportunity, even though he loved flying. Instead, he had sat on the floor behind the passenger seats, and opened at least ten wall compartments since they had set off. He was fervently delving through them, either searching or pretending to be searching for something.

“Padmé,” Clovis momentarily tore his eyes from the data processing unit, “General Skywalker,” Anakin twitched on the floor and immediately got his finger stuck between something, “On behalf of my Muun brothers, I apologize for the... trouble.”

Anakin slightly craned his neck, just enough to acknowledge the apology with something that definitely wasn't a smile. Then he momentarily turned towards Padmé, and did smile, in a very special way. He had probably just thought of his cell, the mess they had left behind, and the reason for said mess.

“Think nothing of it, Representative Clovis. Congratulations on successfully completing your mission.”

“Well,” Clovis said, “the first stage, anyway. Senator Amidala and I still need to–“

“Analyze the files, got it,” Anakin cut him short, his special smile gone. “Just pretend I'm not even here.”

About halfway through their hyperspace journey, a miracle happened – Rush Clovis fell asleep on the seat. The files had proved more well-protected and harder to crack than he and Padmé had expected – and the man had barely slept last night, either, too busy trying to convince Padmé to try the punch at the loan contract celebration. Padmé had tried everything but the punch – somewhere in the back of her mind, the poison trauma was still there.

Padmé couldn't help but find the situation a bit amusing – this was really the only way she and Anakin could have a private conversation these days, with the third wheel knocked out cold?

”Are you okay, Anakin?”

Anakin looked up at her, surprised. He gestured towards Clovis as though to ask, “Are you sure he's asleep?”

“Oh, he's asleep,” Padmé laughed, knowing her old friend like a pocket on a worn-out dress. “Can't you feel things like that through the Force?”

“Trust me Padmé, I'd rather not feel whatever things or forces float around him.”

Padmé sighed. “I feel like you are going through those toolboxes in a highly passive-aggressive manner.”

”No. I'm going through these toolboxes because I need to find a tool.”

”What tool?”

”CMT Model 87G electro-wrench. To connect F8-series part 399 with a Signal Stabilizer. That I invented.”

Padmé's expression was blank, although the word 'signal' seemed to be awakening something.

”Padmé,” Anakin then began slowly, looking guilty. He stopped what he was doing to look her straight in the eye. “The thing is… I kinda broke out of my cell last night.”

Padmé stared at him.

“A-and locked myself back in,” he rushed to add. “Obviously.”

Padmé opened her mouth, eyes already fierce, but Anakin hurried to further elaborate, ”Not to spy on you. Not to spy on,” he grudgingly pointed his chin at the seat next to her, ”Clovis.”

”How–”

”Ah, you know, a mind trick here, grab-the-keys-with-the-Force there…”

Padmé momentarily froze in place, her hands up in an incredulous gesture, blinking violently at the flashing buttons on the ceiling.

”Anakin… what did you do?”

”I climbed to the top of the main reception tower in the city.”

Padmé stared at him some more. She quickly did the math: the reception tower was that tall and highly conspicuous construction on the outskirts of the city… at least 10 klicks from the detention center.

”You… climbed on top of it?” She skipped the question of 'how' this time. A Jedi trick here, superhuman ability there… “To do what?” she figured out the answer before Anakin had a chance to provide it, ”To try and stabilize the signal.”

”That's right,” Anakin nodded. ”And I think I succeeded… to an extent. I thought I had at least two 87's right here…” He plunged his hand into one of the toolboxes, coming across a laced piece of clothing instead. “But they must be in my quarters at the temple.”

”Anakin,” Padmé huffed, leaving her seat to join him on the floor, and grab the laced piece of clothing, “I'm sure they have perfectly qualified professionals on Scipio…”

”Didn't you say they've been plagued by bad signal for a few weeks? And no one's fixed it. I can. I know exactly what to do. Once I get an 87.”

”Anakin, you can't go back to Scipio. The last time you went, it almost caused a diplomatic disaster.”

”Because they had bad reception.”

Padmé couldn't exactly argue – at least not for the moment – but Anakin had lots of ammo prepared.

”You go on all kinds of unauthorized missions all the time. You just stole data files–”

”Anakin.”

”At least I'm trying to help people here, not expose them for something. You know, the little people who can't even contact their relatives–”

”Oh, that's the reason you need to do this? And not because I'm working with Clovis? Not because you need to,” she closed her eyes, already regretting what she was about to say, ”Compare sizes?”

Anakin gaped.

”It really wouldn't be much of a–”

”I can't talk about this right now,” she finally declared, going back to her seat. She lowered the front of her headpiece so that it covered her eyes, and leaned comfortably against the head cushion. ”And you know what? We don't even have to expose anyone. You've already made the contract technically invalid, because you broke out. Did you know that was actually on the contract? Thanks for making my job easier.”

-

Of course Anakin wanted to show his wife that he was good for something. Of course he wanted to show Clovis that he was good for something. He needed to show the whole galaxy – including himself. And if he could do it by helping people - he failed to see the issue here. The banks were about to go down anyway – if the offense mattered little the first time, it would matter even less now. Would it not be the ultimate sign of trust to leave his wife on Coruscant to work with Clovis? Besides, this time, he'd make sure not to wind up behind bars.

“Skywalker, honestly, with your track record of winding up behind bars…” Master Windu’s stern voice almost made Anakin hit a wall beam. Sometimes he just hated the Senate building – just like with his cell, the addition of Padmé made all the difference. Anakin spun around, arranging his face into a neutral, deferential expression to greet the Jedi masters.

“Adventures have you had on Scipio, hmm?” Master Yoda teased.

“I suppose,” Anakin responded, a bit embarrassed. “Thank you,” he added, without understanding why. The cluster of council members walked past him with an air of importance, and, as he did somehow manage to walk headfirst into the wall beam, were given a convenient excuse to shake their heads.

Anakin was still rubbing the slight burn on his forehead, when the Chancellor appeared and immediately glided over to meet the Jedi Knight.

“My dear boy,” he greeted, “how utterly unfairly indeed they treated you on Scipio. I am ever so relieved to see you return unharmed.”

“Thank you, Chancellor,” Anakin said with a nod. “I was just trying to complete my assignment, which was to confirm Senator Amidala's safety.”

“Of course you were. If you did lose your temper, you were well within your rights.”

Anakin gave a slight smile. The elderly man was as understanding as always. But as the Chancellor continued to make a bigger and bigger fuss about the importance of Anakin's safety and the Scipians' appalling treatment of him, Anakin came to realize that he couldn't possibly ask him to authorize a covert mission to such a treacherous ground. Of course, he couldn't ask the Council either – they thought it a miracle he even made it out the first time.

Obi-Wan wouldn’t go, only to get arrested a second time. Ahsoka– how much longer ‘till he stopped doing this?

Anakin was on his own.