Scarlet
By Sapadu
We've not spoken much, yet, of the goings on in the Senate, since Padme left. In her absences, the long stretches of period become heavy with guilt for other Senators, and their minds all beget questioning of the justice that is bestowed. For what purpose is adultery and premarital intercourse forbidden, when there is no damage done? Indeed, the one to disagree with such relations would be Padme herself, for she was the one to be injured by the incident, yet she had no qualms of the younglings she'd bourne.
Only the louse stood strong against these mutterings, occasionally dispatching his arm to silence the more persistent infections on the Senate floor, until there came the conclusion among other speakers that perhaps it was best to simply not disagree with the power of the Imperial Leech, and justice was scrubbed, harsh and brutally from the governing system.
Few knew, though, of the ailments that had seized the parishioning right arm of the Emperor. He was sought with pains in the chest, and the louse, unknowing of the cause, blinded by his thirst for bloody revenge, prescribed the removal of pains and replacement with a false organ, so that any infection simply could not return- when a leech latches for blood, and the tissue dies, there is no need to return, for there is no living thing to feed on anymore.
Instead though, Father Skywalker was lost to further torment. He lost all semblance of healthy weight, and his appetite shriveled with his stomach. His face became pale, and his arms like bone, while his eyes grew darkened as age and his legs crippled as wind blown sticks. Finally, the louse had no alternative, but extracted his adviser from the bones of his once supple body, and placed him into a new shell, mechanized and black as himself.
It was not coincidence by which Padme and her young ones discovered the tragic fate of Skywalker. For on the day of hearings, when Padme went to claim her final rights as a mother to the little ones with offerings to her idols- it was the day of their bearing, and thus, only right that they should be offered some appeasement for their sufferings and patience.
By stroke of fate, the Louse demanded audience with Padme on this day, his wicked thought being that her young ones may know by her voice and be innocent to reveal her fatal secret. As arrival brought Padme to the door of the Emperor's lair, the shiny floor reflected her from bottom up with her young ones holding her hands. Luke pointed to floor, gleeful in his discovery.
"Mother, looket thus! I see your face in the floor- how beast this possible, when thy face is on thy shoulders?" The young one was trustful of his mother to honestly answer, but poor, ailing Padme could only see the red letter that enscribed her breast, not the face that her children linked it to.
"Tis not mine own face, my son- rather some other, goodlier woman who wears my skin as a mask to cover herself. This is the nature of mirrors, for they show the other inside a person's skin, and surely my other self is better than I, whom have done such great wrongs." Padme answered, sinking to her knees and petting the angelic head of her one son, as Leia came from the other side, pulling her mother's arm into an embrace as tight as any her mother had mustered in her young babe days.
"Mother, thou hast nurse'ed us from babes, and loves us with all of thy so declared blackened heart. How couldest this be such a badliness when no other mother cares for her young sparrows as dost thou?" She replied, with all the wit of her mother's diplomatic tongue, causing Padme to laugh, lovely and light.
"Cheeky imp, as thou be- of course I love you both, despite the little monsters you be, but it is not how I care for you that determines my evilness. Indeed, if love brought all salvation, I would be all the more eager to reveal thy father and share the passion we had that begot you two. However, it was that love that hast brought all three of us misery and the truest evil more pleasure." Explained their mother, bringing the two pearls to her chest, in the warmest of embraces.
"Who is this evil, Mother? For we shalt never let him touch thee, else he infect our dear mother and leave us with nothing but hate, to become as horrid as he and ruin the little light left in this world." Luke asked, placing his hand on his mother's cheek and snuggling closer to her.
"Ah, if I could tell thee who he be, I fear accusations of murder." Padme wisely replied, knowing the devilish workings of their little minds, "I know how thou both do plot for the safety of our pride and lives, but it is done overmuch when not needed. Please, do not ask me more." And her sly little imp replied, coy and sweet,
"But Mother, murder is of that who is innocent. Is it not divine justice, and goodlier assassination to destroy a swearer and a liar?" Leia muttered, with an arm around her mother's pulse. Luke, struck in ice cold horror, scolded his sister, remembering his own devilish mind, to absolve them both any alibi.
"Leia, how could'st thou suggest such tricks of devilish stuffs? To take ones life is for honest men to do, and we are nothing of such sorts- all would think of who mother is and assume us to be the same, and thus, even if our own character would prove us not, we'd be damned before a word could be spoken in defense." He gasped in shock to prove innocence.
"Luke, brother! Thou art fool! If the accusers were any smarter to discover that, they'd know to destroy the honest men that still live, for there are more of them evil ones than good." Leia rebutted, patting her foolish brother's head.
At this moment, the doors before them opened and revealed the priestly Skywalker, in his galvanized darkness, masking the face that bore shock at seeing the affectionate scene between the family before him.
The black figure towered over the mother and her children, filling them with impenetrable fear, before ushering them to their purpose of summoning. Padme stood, took her children's hands in hers, and entered the chamber of the Emperor Louse.
A/N: Eh heh... sorry this took so long again. But... it's difficult.