The Portrait of Senator Amidala

By Blacknayami

Summary: Darth Vader visits Alderaan and is unpleasantly reminded of memories from his past by the portrait of a certain Senator that hangs in the palace. Can a young Princess Leia help him overcome his pain?

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, George Lucas does and I am thankful to him for creating such a wonderful story. This fanfiction is written purely for fun.

Prologue: Rainy Day

Aldeeran was a beautiful, lush planet, but it rained constantly. She got in trouble for venturing outside in the rain, so her pastime during the boring downpours was to explore the almost deserted, drafty passageways of the royal alderaanian palace. The halls were not always well illuminated, and there were creepy paintings that followed you with their eyes and statues depicting beings fighting with long spears and other such disturbing pieces of artwork to be found there. When she discovered these things, young Leia would hurry back to the part of the palace she resided in and run to her mother for comfort, but the next rainy day would always find her back, wandering the halls, curious as to what else she would find.

It was one such tedious day and Leia had, as usual, begun exploring, when she saw a particularly terrifying statue. It was of a pair of humans, one of whose head was one the ground while it was frozen in its fall, the other, who swung a sword, which had obviously decapitated the other, standing triumphantly above it. The artwork was amazingly realistic, and of course the piece sent Leia running off as quickly as she could to find her mother. However, she was in such a rush to escape from the grisly scene that the young princess must have taken a wrong turn, for when she pulled open the door of a room, fully expecting it to be her nursery, she discovered a dusty, deserted chamber full of furniture that was covered with drab cloth drapes. A tarnished chandelier hung from the ceiling, its crystal droplets glinting faintly in the pale glow of light that escaped from between two heavy curtains covering a tall window.

Leia immediately forgot about her fears of the gruesome statue. She ran about, opening the curtains to let light shine into the room, pulled the covers off of faded but still stunning furniture and was excitedly examining a beautifully carved dark wooden table when she saw the painting, and froze.

The woman depicted on the canvas had a lovely, but imperious face that was covered in heavy make-up. She wore voluminous, elaborate robes and jewelry and her headdress was so enormous that Leia wondered that her head didn't snap off under its weight.

She was beautiful, yes, but seemed as cold and frigid as ice. Her gaze bore into Leia's, and the girl felt guilty for having disturbed the woman's room. Quickly she turned and began to replace all of the sheets from where she had flung them, covering all of the furniture once again.

As soon as the task was finished Leia turned back to the woman, bowed, and whispered an apology. Still, the woman's expression remained as harsh and distantly beautiful as it had before.

The girl hurried away. Still, the room seemed to carry some sort of magic to it, for each rainy day she found herself attracted magnetically to the same chamber to look at the lovely woman visage until the cold gaze chilled her so much that she must depart as quickly as she had come.

Leia had discovered the painting when she was 6 years old. For another two years she visited the woman whom she knew was named Senator Padme Amidala thanks to the tarnished bronze plaque that was to be found underneath the painting. On her eighth birthday Leia's father Bail Organa took her to Senator Amidala's room and showed her the painting.

" Look at her Leia", he told her, smiling. " Isn't she beautiful?"

" Yes", hesitated Leia, " But… she seems so… distant".

Bail's smile faded worriedly. " That's just how she was represented here darling", he told her. " I knew her, and in real life, she was kind and warm".

Leia searched the woman's face and could find no trace of kindness or warmth. But… she was absolutely cold in the painting. Leia was sure that nobody was perfectly cold in real life. Father must be right; she must have been painted wrong.

It was a year later that Leia discovered that she was not the only one affected by the cold painting.