Authors Note: Thank you for reading my story. This is my first Star Wars fanfic and I hope you like it. Please remember to read and review. This story takes place during the Episode III time frame.
Title: Hiding From Darkness
Author: Kimberly
Summary: After Palpatine took control of the Senate and declared himself Emperor, Padme Skywalker flees for her life trying to escape from the Emperor and his right hand man, Lord Vader, but what will happen when the past catches up with her.
Disclaimer: I pretty sure that I own Star Wars but my psychiatrist says I don't so I think I need to go by what he says.
Chapter One: Fleeing
The normally sunny planet of Naboo was now a rainy, dreary place; reflecting the moods of all those around the galaxy. Only days before, the former Chancellor Palpatine had declared himself as Emperor of the Galaxies and completely dissolved what was left of the Galactic Senate after the Clone Wars had taken its toll. All of the senators that were against the forming of this new Empire fled as fast as they could from Coruscant in hopes of escaping to somewhere that was safe. Most got away, but many others had been captured by the Imperial troops and taken back to Coruscant as prisoners. The few that supported Palpatine were promoted in office and serve as his more trusted officials.
The Jedi had tried their hardest to help those escape from Coruscant but many failed in trying, losing their lives. Palpatine's forces were unbeatable in their killing skills against the many Jedis and Senators. After the small battle that, resulting from Palpatine's declaring of himself as Emperor, he announced his new right hand man, Lord Vader. For the next several days after that, Lord Vader worked at hunting down all the Jedi that were left, leaving only a very small few alive.
Three days after Palpatine's Empire was established, a small space cruiser enters the Naboo sky heading for the mountain ranges on the planet. Gazing out of the window of the ship, former Senator from Naboo, Padme Amidala, waiting for the ship to land. Padme was one of the lucky Senators to escape from Coruscant. Padme was instructed by the remaining Jedi to head towards Naboo, where she would meet a friend who would help her to escape from Palpatine and his Empire.
Padme could still not believe the events that had only recently happened on Coruscant. She wished none of it had happened, that all would be well again and she could be happy. But she also knew the only way she could be happy would be to be with her husband again.
Anakin," Padme whispered quietly to herself. Anakin, her husband, the man she loved with everything in her. The man who had disappeared 4 months ago during The Clone Wars. No one knew what had happened to him; they had gone out searching for his ship that had crashed on a planet that the Separatists' had overrun but couldn't find the ship or him. The Jedi had pronounced him dead when they couldn't find him.
'If only you had been there Anakin... then maybe you could have stopped it,' Padme thought, saddening at the thought of her supposed-dead husband. When Padme had received the news of Anakin's death, she had sat in her room crying, wishing beyond anything that he was not dead and that he would come back to her like he always had. But the days of mourning had quickly slid into weeks, and then 4 months later all hope was lost.
Padme gazed longingly at the landscape of her home planet, but knew she would have no time to enjoy being back home again. Her instructions were to have the ship land near the base of the main mountain range on Naboo, where she would meet a mysterious, old friend of hers whom she would stay with for a few days; then leave Naboo forever. The Jedi had not told her who this friend was, all they said was it was an old friend that should be able to protect her in the safety of the mountains for a few days.
Slowly the mountains came into view. Sighing, Padme got ready to disembark the ship and meet whoever was there to protect her. The ship came to s smooth landing and Padme started walking off the ship. She looked around and saw one person standing on the landing platform. Padme immediately recognized who it was.
"Sabe!" Padme exclaimed quietly to herself, happy to see a familiar face. She walked towards Sabe quickly and greeted the friend with a hug. Sabe had once been Padme's handmaiden when she was Queen. Sabe had been her most trusted handmaiden and had even served as her decoy when the Trade Federation had invaded Naboo.
"It is so good to see you again Padme, we were so worried about you," Sabe told Padme with a smile on her face.
"I know, and I am glad to see you too," Padme replied.
"I was so happy to see your ship arrive. I didn't know if it had made it here or not. There has been a bounty placed on all the missing Jedi and Senators, and I could only hope no one had found you," Sabe informed her.
"A bounty on us!?! Why would Palpatine want to do something like that? I would have thought he would be happy with all the Senators who apposed him gone," Padme said.
"I'm not sure why either, but I do know that the bounty on you is much higher than on any of the other Senators, and he wants you found alive," Sabe answered.
"Palpatine probably just wants to get rid of me. Probably thinks if he lets me go I may start a rebellion against him. He can't afford to have something like that going on I guess," Padme replied.
"Yeah, probably. Anyway, I think it would be best if we don't linger here on Naboo for too long. He may suspect that you will come here and we can't risk him finding you," Sabe told her.
"I know. How long do you think we can stay here, and where are we going when we leave here anyway?" Padme asked.
"We can probably stay overnight, then head out early in the morning, while it's still dark would be the most ideal time. And personally I don't know where were going. Obi-Wan told me he would contact me sometime tonight, whenever he got the chance. He said he would have all the plans figured out by then," Sabe told her, "Come on, we had better get going, we have a bit of a hike to get to the place we are staying at."
Padme grabbed her small luggage bag and trailed after Sabe towards where ever they were staying that night.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading my story. Please read and review. The more reviews I get the more I will motivated to post sooner. I will accept constructive criticism. Any flames will be used to warm my toes and get feeling back in them after my ski trip.