[It's like being short circuited. It sets all his muscles to tense, a complete system failure that leaves his eyes blown wide, leaves him incapable of moving past that one particular point. When everything starts to come back online, when his son offers him no further questions, no information, it comes back slow. His fingers go lax, and his eyes skirt to the ground]
You don't know her either. [It's not a question, but a realization given voice, because once it's given to the air, it makes it real. It's not something he can pretend to misunderstand, to gloss over as if he hasn't heard it. It's what he needs. To make it an irreversible truth] Padmé.
[It's a small, offhanded answer. There's grief layered there, wrapped around the vowels, but they are nothing compared to the rage that settles in. He's never, in all his life, felt an anger like this before. Not only did this Vader- this liar, this betrayer- (monster) rob him of his future, rob his son of one parent- but two. He must have, for their marriage was secret, Padmé's enemies laid to rest long before, there is nothing to link her to a Jedi- nothing but him. Nothing but the child she carried, and-
It would not go unanswered. The anger- It's quick, all consuming, burns him from the inside out and leaves him hollow. An eerie calm settles over him. The sort that blankets his eyes, leaves them unreadable and empty, drives his thoughts with a narrow minded focus- to a place no one else can follow. Vader had plagued the Jedi, had taken the one thing from him that made him whole, the person he loved and couldn't live without- and Anakin would show him a suffering unlike anything he'd ever known.
His voice turns silky, convincing- almost without him noticing it. It speaks of someone used to getting their own way, into pulling even the most stubborn of people into revealing just the right sort of information] What happened to her? If you know-
no subject
You don't know her either. [It's not a question, but a realization given voice, because once it's given to the air, it makes it real. It's not something he can pretend to misunderstand, to gloss over as if he hasn't heard it. It's what he needs. To make it an irreversible truth] Padmé.
[It's a small, offhanded answer. There's grief layered there, wrapped around the vowels, but they are nothing compared to the rage that settles in. He's never, in all his life, felt an anger like this before. Not only did this Vader- this liar, this betrayer- (monster) rob him of his future, rob his son of one parent- but two. He must have, for their marriage was secret, Padmé's enemies laid to rest long before, there is nothing to link her to a Jedi- nothing but him. Nothing but the child she carried, and-
It would not go unanswered. The anger- It's quick, all consuming, burns him from the inside out and leaves him hollow. An eerie calm settles over him. The sort that blankets his eyes, leaves them unreadable and empty, drives his thoughts with a narrow minded focus- to a place no one else can follow. Vader had plagued the Jedi, had taken the one thing from him that made him whole, the person he loved and couldn't live without- and Anakin would show him a suffering unlike anything he'd ever known.
His voice turns silky, convincing- almost without him noticing it. It speaks of someone used to getting their own way, into pulling even the most stubborn of people into revealing just the right sort of information] What happened to her? If you know-
Tell me.