Vader had come here as soon as he could because he couldn't imagine doing the things he intended to do without Padme's knowledge and blessing. And yet, in doing so he might have ruined this second chance before he could even get it off the ground.
Sidious had established Force Bonds with all of his Hands in the future, even those who weren't Force Sensitive. These Force Bonds allowed him to contact them from great distances. It also allowed him to see through their eyes and hear through their ears.
If the same was true of Padme… then she was the ultimate trojan horse. It wasn't a matter of whether he trusted her or not, it was a matter of whether Sidious could be looking and listening in this very moment. Of course, given what Vader had already said, the nexu was already out of the bag, so to speak.
In the end, he can only hedge his bets, taking Padme's hands in his and looking her in the eyes, even as he calls upon the Force to examine her from a metaphysical distance.
"I had a powerful vision of a possible future. I saw what would become of us, of the galaxy. It was what drew Ahsoka to me in the first place… because I couldn't see what I saw without giving in to the Darkness within me."
Even if she's not his original Padme, this Padme still hangs off his every word as Vader speaks. He can see the love in her eyes, can feel it in the very essence of her being. Nevertheless, he stays away from her mind, instead focusing on connections.
Everyone has connections in the Force, but most people don't know about them, let alone being able to sense and feel them. It's very, very rare that someone can see those connections… and as far as Vader knows, only two men besides him has ever managed it. Jedi Master Mace Windu. And Sith Lord Darth Sidious.
Both of them focused more on the events than the people themselves, and as such categorized it as the ability to see 'Shatterpoints', those moments in time where certain actions could change the course of history in a massive way.
They even both acknowledged that people themselves could be Shatterpoints. But their ironically mutual lack of empathy and emotional depth meant that neither man had truly understood the foundation of the ability. Shatterpoints weren't the start, they were the end. And every action had a person tied to it, making choices, altering things with every decision they made.
It had taken him a long time, but Vader had developed the ability to see beyond Shatterpoints to the connections that caused them. That's what he does now, looking for the connection between his Padme and her Sith Master… and he finds it.
"What… what did you see, Anakin? What becomes of us?"
Padme's voice cuts through his thoughts, even as he splits his attention between her and analyzing her connection to Sidious.
"… You died. I suffered. And Sidious won. Everything else was… background noise."
Not quite true. But Vader isn't going to mention their children. Luke, so bright and full of life. Leia, so bitterly defiant and determined. But this wasn't his Padme. And there was every possibility that the twins would never be born again, not in this timeline, not in the same way.
Padme shudders, her eyes growing dark as she considers his words in silence for a bit. That's good, it gives him more time to assess the situation.
"What of the Jedi?"
He raises an eyebrow, a little surprised that this Padme, Dark as she was, would care. But to be fair, if Palpatine was already her enemy, then she no doubt saw the Jedi as a tool against him. A fair belief, all things considered.
"Dead, mostly. Hunted to the last."
Again, silence falls save for the light snoring of a certain sleeping Togruta sprawled out on the floor. Finally though, Padme pulls one of her hands free and puts it on his chest.
"Anakin… what do we do?"
Fortunately, that question happens to coincide with him finishing his investigation of Sidious and Padme's connection. Letting out an explosive sigh, he looks at his wife. She might not be the light of his universe and the love of his life… but she's still a love of his life.
"There's good news, bad news, and worse news."
Padme raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow in a manner that makes his heart clench in fond remembrance.
"Cut down the middle, let's start with the bad news."
Smiling grimly, Vader nods.
"Sidious has a Force Bond with you. You have no secrets from him. That's why you couldn't keep our marriage hidden. And it means he's almost certainly aware of your hatred and anger towards him and how deeply it runs. He's using you as a pawn for now because you're still useful to him, but he likely intends to dispose of you once he's got everything he could want out of you."
No doubt this Padme would have died much the same way as his Padme died, if not in quite the same manner or for quite the same reasons. Sidious wouldn't have accepted an Apprentice with split loyalties after all, so he would have almost certainly killed her off once he got this universe's Anakin on his side.
"Well… fuck. What's the good news?"
Its Vader's turn to raise a brow, but he answers promptly all the same.
"The good news is that the Force Bond is not as strong as it could be. He can communicate with you over great distances, yes?"
Padme nods hesitantly. Vader's lips curl into a wicked smile.
"However, he cannot truly probe your mind unless he's face to face with you. Your secrets remain yours until he arranges for another meeting."
Vader didn't remember that being a limitation Sidious suffered from in the future. But then, Padme was something of a prototype wasn't she? She wasn't a true Emperor's Hand; in this universe she was more like the initial blueprint. Given enough time, Sidious would no doubt iterate and improve upon the idea… but Vader didn't intend for him to have the opportunity.
Padme, meanwhile, looks relieved by that. She lets out an explosive breath, even as she considers what he's said.
"That's… good. Not amazing, but it's not as bad as it could be I suppose. Still, I can't avoid him forever. Even if he has me operating as controlled opposition to this war and his continued collection of emergency powers, there's still the 'controlled' part to be considered. Eventually he'll order me to his side and then… he'll know that you know."
Vader shakes his head at that.
"I have a plan for that. Now that I can see his hold on you, I can subvert it. It won't be difficult to create an overlay of sorts so that he sees exactly what he expects to see, coating your true mind in the lies that he wants to be told."
And all without violating the sanctity of her actual mind in the process. Vader was quite pleased with himself for that. Of course, he could only do all of this because he himself had been doing it to keep out Sidious for ages before his death. Letting Sidious only see what he wanted him to see had been something Vader had been able to do for over a decade… it was just unfortunate that there was never any real point to it when he was trapped in that suit and missing all four limbs along with a great deal of his connection to the Force.
But now Vader was back. He was whole again. And his connection to the Force felt more powerful than ever before. The Dark Side answered his call like an overeager puppy and thanks to Sidious' own strategy of blanketing the galaxy in Darkness to confuse and debilitate the Jedi Order, Vader was able to hide his movements all the easier.
He was sure he could protect Padme from Sidious' probing and ultimately act as a go-between to make sure the Sith Master no longer had any true hold over his wife's mind. It would just require a certain degree of… intimacy first.
"We can get started immediately if you like. Though it will be easier if we're both naked."
Padme blinks at that, before grinning slyly and chuckling throatily.
"How forward of you, husband. And when we have a guest too."
Vader's eyes slide over to the unconscious form of Ahsoka Tano laid out on the floor in the middle of Padme's living room. He huffs, even as he shakes his head.
"I shouldn't have brought her along. I don't know what I was thinking."
Biting her lower lip, Padme glances over to Ahsoka as well.
"… I don't mind, you know."
Blinking, Vader furrows his brow.
"Mind what, exactly?"
Humming, Padme tilts her head to the side, making a show of looking Ahsoka up and down.
"She's rather attractive, isn't she? So I don't mind sharing all that much."
His eyes widen in disbelief… until Padme grins wickedly at him, her gaze becoming hooded.
"Sharing her WITH you, that is. If you wanted to bring a nasty little Togruta slut into our bed, Anakin, all you had to do was say so~"
Vader opens his mouth… and then closes it a moment later. He's reminded that this is not his Padme… and yet, at the same time, it very much IS his Padme. He's not just the Darth Vader of the future, after all. He's also the Anakin Skywalker of this timeline as well. Melded together, their memories seamless in some places and incongruent in others.
It was difficult to come to terms with but staring at Padme as she licks her lips and looks back at him… makes it a lot easier. Of course, she also reminds him that for all that she's acting like a horny pervert at the moment, she's still very much the same Padme Amidala who was Queen of Naboo and is now a Senator of the Galactic Republic.
"Of course, before anything we should probably cover the worse bit of news. Lay it on me, Anakin. What could be worse than Sidious having full access to my mind the moment that I'm in the same room with him?"
Vader sighs. Right, of course she wouldn't just forget his words.
"From you asking about the Jedi, I assume Sidious hasn't seen fit to inform you of how he intends to deal with them. Likely because he knows you aren't truly on his side."
Taking her hands in his own again, Vader looks Padme in the eyes.
"Padme, I could walk into his office right now and kill him dead. I'm sure of it. I'm more powerful than him by far. My connection to the Dark Side trumps his in every way and his trickery is less than useful given the future I witnessed."
Padme stays quiet, no doubt sensing the 'but' coming from a mile away with her politician's instincts.
"… However, we're not just up against Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith. He is the culmination of a thousand years of planning. He is the heir to a millennia of Sith working in the shadows and striving towards the singular goal of destroying the Jedi and conquering the galaxy. And he's not the type to go quietly."
Still, Padme doesn't speak. Vader knows he's rambling a bit now, but at the same time, this is all very important information.
"The contingencies that will be enacted upon his death are too many to count… but to name just one, if he dies before he can form his Galactic Empire, then he already has recordings set to go out and deliver numerous Emergency Protocol Orders to the Clones that will see them turning on their Jedi Generals and setting the galaxy ablaze in the aftermath."
Order 66 was the best case scenario, as Vader had eventually learned in the aftermath of the Galactic Empire's formation. If Sidious had died to Windu's little hit squad, or even Vader himself before he could become Emperor, than the clones would have done a lot more than just kill the Jedi.
"How… why would they follow his orders if he was dead?"
Vader lets out a shuddering breath, his hands starting to curl into fists for a moment before he remembers that he's holding Padme's and would crush her fingers if he let that happen. Clinging to her hands allows him to ground himself, even as he harnesses his white-hot rage, letting it fuel him and fill him with power. It's a righteous sort of fury, felt not for himself… but on behalf of others.
"The clones are slaves, Padme. Each and every one of them has an organic biochip implanted in their heads that will activate if they receive one of Sidious' orders. And that… that is the least of Sidious' failsafes. The flashiest and loudest, designed specifically to hide the rest until it's too late."
And Sidious wouldn't be killed easily either. Vader liked to think he was the only one who could make sure it stuck, make it permanent… probably by consuming the other Sith Lord's Force Spirit the moment after he expired. Otherwise, there was a likelihood of him finding a way to come back using one of the clones he had on Byss that he thought Vader had never learned about.
But if there was one thing Vader was certain of, it was that as much as he'd managed to uncover of Sidious' contingencies… there were likely even more he didn't know about. Getting rid of the Sith Lord was the easy part. Cleaning up everything he left behind could be the work of a lifetime.
"Well then… I suppose we'd best get started."
Vader blinks, thinking he's spoken that last part out loud for a moment. But no, Padme means something else given that she's pulled away from him, stood up… and begun stripping down right then and there. As her dress pools at her feet, Vader's breath hitches, his eyes sliding over his wife's beautiful body.
She smiles at him knowingly as he feasts his gaze upon her form… and then glances to Ahsoka again for a moment.