For disclaimers, warnings and pairing notifications, see Chapter 1.

Author Note: Well, for those of you that thought I was dead, or had abandoned this story, I'm not, and I haven't. Only you can decide whether that's a good thing or not. :) The substance of this note must begin with a credit, which is to Fialleril for Sabe's last name: Ellinai. I'm sorry to say I stole it without realising I was stealing it, I thought it was actually her name from canon. Anyway, Fialleril has graciously allowed me to carry on using it now that I've started, so many thanks to you for that my friend. The other thing I have to do is apologise for how short this chapter is. I did spend quite a lot of time looking for a way to make it longer, but in the end everything I tried just felt too artificial, and dragged on the important parts of the chapter, I hope you'll agree with me that it was better in the end to keep the focus tight and to the point rather than introduce other fairly useless material. Anyway, enough of my babble, on with the show...


Roganda Ismaren smiled hungrily at the walls of the Alderaanian Royal Retreat at the Droman Lakes. It had taken her over five months of investigation to get this close, but she was certain beyond doubt that her quarry was in the palatial complex below her. She had chased leads and Force intuition half way across the galaxy to track down the assassin Gann, who had revealed that the onetime Lady Vader had fled to Alderaan. Unfortunately the assassin's mind had then sunk beyond the ability to form coherent thoughts before she could extract a more precise location from him. That slip-up had lengthened her hunt by almost three weeks as she kept watch on Bail Organa through the proxy of Imperial Intelligence.

Eventually, however, an outgoing message had sparked her talent as a Seer and she had read it closely. It had been addressed to a woman named Sabé, and she had managed to find a match in the lists of people associated with Padmé Amidala Vader: a Sabé Ellinai, formerly Royal Handmaiden and bodyguard to the Queen of Naboo when Amidala had held that position. It was a tenuous link, but Sabé Ellinai had been on personal leave from the palace for virtually the entire time Vader was searching for his lost wife. His first visit was to Naboo, and only days later the Ellinai woman left Naboo and disappeared, and now Bail Organa was sending communiqués to a woman of that name living here in one of the most secluded of Alderaan's Royal Residences. It was quite a coincidence to Roganda's mind, and this fact filled her with excitement. If she could prove that Darth Vader had betrayed his master then she might find enough favour with the Emperor to move into the position of Sith Apprentice herself.

Her plan here was simple. The complex was too secure for one person to break in, kidnap someone and then hope to escape with a prisoner, it was a fool's errand to try. That was why she had used her Imperial authority to requisition a platoon of stormtroopers from the local garrison. A few missing troopers would not be noticed, and the garrison was aware that her mission was covert and were doing everything in their power to cover the sudden shortfall of men in Aldera. Once she had secured the former Lady Vader, she would return to Coruscant with her prize and present her master with the woman and with her suspicions.

She turned to the armoured figure standing beside her, awaiting her order.

"Signal your men, Lieutenant, we are moving in. Remind them that their weapons should be set to stun only, I want the occupant as a prisoner."

The stormtrooper nodded and gave the appropriate signal. At once thirty men in camouflaged armour rose up from the long grass and charged up to the main door of the complex. It was open within thirty seconds, blasted inwards by a powerful demolition charge and they moved into the palatial complex. Thirty more circled around the back and used grapples and climbing ropes to begin scaling the rear walls in order to enter through the entrances on the roof.


Obi-Wan Kenobi raised his head automatically when he sensed a small tremor in the Force, much as a dog would on hearing a high-pitched whistle. He traced the disturbance back to its origin, and did not like what he found, not one bit. The tremor led back to the Droman Lakes Retreat, to Padmé, and it had danger written all over it, and no small amount of the Dark Side either. He did not waste time probing the matter too deeply. Danger involving Padmé could only mean that they had been discovered. He summoned his lightsaber to himself mentally, even as he ran out the door of his room.

Minutes later he was in his starfighter and blasting away from the Jedi Enclave in the Castle Lands at a speed well beyond the maximum safe velocity for flying in the deep canyons. He climbed out of them and screamed through the air towards the Droman Lakes. Even pushing his fighter to its tolerance limits for atmospheric speeds, however, it would still take him twelve minutes to reach Padmé's hideaway. He prayed to the Force that he would not be too late.


Sabé cursed herself for a fool the moment she heard the inner door give way under the concerted efforts of blaster rifle fire and a couple of thermal detonators. The Imperials had caught them unawares and woefully unprepared. They had counted too much on their presence in this place remaining a secret, and had not made enough preparations for the eventuality of their discovery. She had not even planned an escape route for them, for Force's sake! She was definitely slipping. At least they had weapons, they were not totally defenceless. Before they had gotten shot out, the cams in the entrance hall had shown thirty troopers and a woman in a black jumpsuit. Fifteen-to-one odds were not great, but they had faced worse and triumphed. She did her utmost to ignore that those triumphs had uniformly been the result of outside intervention, which they could not count on here.

The sound of running boot-steps brought her out of her self-recrimination. She had made a mistake, but now was not the time to dwell on that. They had other things to do now, like get out of this alive. She would learn from her mistake later. Seconds after she completed this thought, storm-troopers in camouflaged armour came charging into the t-junction they had picked to set their trap in, led by the woman in black they had seen. Sabé did not hesitate, but simply opened fire, red darts of blaster fire emerging from her weapon as fast as she could pull the trigger. She heard Padmé join in as well. What happened next caused her to feel surprise and no small amount of fear. With the distinctive snap-hiss activation sound the woman pulled out a red lightsaber and began deflecting the blaster bolts.

She was obviously not fully trained, Sabé remembered seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in action on Naboo years ago, they had made it look totally effortless as they warded off the fire of over two dozen battle droids while this woman was obviously putting in considerable effort to blocking the fire from just Padmé and herself. Nevertheless it was being blocked, and the Imperials were advancing, albeit much more slowly, up the hallway towards them. Sabé caught Padmé's eye and cast a very quick flick of her eyes in the direction of the corridor behind them. Padmé nodded her agreement, and with a final withering hail of shots, the two women broke cover and fled up the hallway, the Imperials breaking into pursuit as well.

When they reached the next intersection of hallways, a crossroads junction as it happened, she went left, and was gratified to see that Padmé was thinking exactly the same way she had, and ran the opposite way from her, setting the Imperials up for a crossfire. They had just enough time to duck into doorways for some minimal cover before the Imperials entered the junction of hallways, the woman with the lightsaber in the lead. Instantly they were in the teeth of Padmé and Sabé's crossfire, and four troopers went down in an eye-blink.

More rushed to take their places, however, and sheer weight of numbers forced both women back as they themselves came under a withering hail of stun-bolts. At least the Imperials were trying to take them alive, but this was little consolation as she would probably be interrogated and tortured to death, while Padmé was already slated for public execution anyway. Sabé therefore felt no real qualms as another stormtrooper fell to her lethal fire. Happily enough, at least to Sabé's mind, the woman with the lightsaber chose to lead the way towards herself, leaving Padmé only ordinary stormtroopers to deal with. She retreated as quickly as she could while keeping up the withering hail of fire that was her best protection against her enemies.

Roganda snarled as yet another of her troopers went down to the lethal fire of the woman she was chasing. The Lady Vader and her companion were reasonably smart and had chosen to split up. Unable to tell which was which from a distance, she had made a snap decision to follow this woman, but the pursuit was proving difficult. The woman was obviously highly trained in combat, which led her to think that she had come after the wrong woman after all. She could not risk it, however, she had to bring them both in, capturing the wrong woman and allowing the Lady Vader to escape would result in severe punishment from the Emperor, which was not something she wanted to evoke.


Obi-Wan virtually crash-landed his small starfighter onto the landing pad of the Droman Lakes complex in his haste to get on the ground as quickly as possible. He was out of the fighter seconds later. A cursory glance showed that the door leading into the complex had been blasted inwards, with explosives judging by the scorch marks on the doorframe. The detail increased his anxiety, but also served to clue him into the nature of the danger. Clearly there were intruders in the complex, hostile ones, which must mean Imperial agents.

He took a moment to calm himself and stretched out with the Force as he did so, looking for living Force signatures nearby. He found them almost immediately, and did not like what he felt one bit. Padmé and Sabé should have been the only ones here, but now he could sense more than fifty individuals within the complex, in four distinct groups. He also sensed the presence of a Dark Side user. It was not Vader's signature, he remembered that one well from their last encounter, but it was definitely a trained Force-user, and one of reasonable skill and power at that. The Dark Sider was with the smaller of the two groups of Force signatures, their use of the Dark Side clouding his senses concerning the exact identity of who else was there.

Two more groups of Force signatures were composed of individuals he did not know, he could only discern their hostile intent, although it was strangely muted. The final group contained Padmé and a number of other individuals that he sensed to be hostile. Padmé, however, did not seem particularly afraid, so he guessed that she was not in grave danger just yet from these intruders. Since he had not been able to sense Sabé, he guessed that she must be in the group that was near to the Dark Sider, the group he could not sense very well. It was therefore clear to him that she was in the most immediate danger and that he should help her first.

The decision made, he set off at a run towards the location of the Dark Sider, his lightsaber lit and thrumming in his hand. It was mere minutes before he ran into people, but it was not whom he was looking for. Instead he ran into a group of white armoured stormtroopers. Thanks to the Force he had ample warning of their presence, and so he was ready for them, but nevertheless they cost him precious seconds as he reflected bolts and slashed his way through those that were too close to direct blaster fire at.

The troops disposed of, he continued on at a dead run. He finally came close to his intended target. Unfortunately Force intuition works both ways, and Roganda's talent as a Seer meant that she was much more attuned to such prompts. She was therefore already waiting for the Jedi when he came barrelling around the corner, her lightsaber raised in a combat stance.

Obi-Wan did not hesitate, merely raised his lightsaber and continued with his forward momentum, charging straight at the Dark Sider. Red and blue lightsabers spat and hummed as the pair moved seamlessly into a deadly dance. Obi-Wan was clearly the better swordsman, but her superior prescience allowed her to hold her own as she foresaw his actions far enough in advance to be ready with a counter.

Obi-Wan grew frustrated as the duel dragged on. He knew that this woman was his inferior in lightsaber combat, but somehow she knew what he would do even before he did. He was gaining ground, but at the cost of time, the woman was clearly trying to delay him while her troops captured Padmé and Sabé. In an attempt to hasten the inevitable, he switched styles from his preferred Soresu to the much more aggressive Djem So, the fifth form of lightsaber combat. While he was not as proficient at it as he was with Soresu, it was clear that the woman was not able to match him in its use either.

She gave ground more quickly, but inexplicably, with each backward step she took her smile, which had appeared about the same time that he switched styles, grew wider and more feral. It was only the very faintest flicker of the Force that alerted him to the small-bladed Shoto lightsaber that suddenly appeared in her left hand and flickered out in an attempt to shear off his own saber hand. He threw his whole body backwards to avoid the strike, performing a Force-assisted backwards roll to gain distance in case she made a second strike while he was on the ground, and came up in a crouch two or three metres from his starting point.

To his surprise, however, the woman did not press her advantage. Instead she extinguished both her sabers and stepped backwards.

"You're too late, Jedi," she spat, "I have what I came for."

Then she fled down the hallway away from Obi-Wan. It was not hard for him to surmise from her statement that Padmé had been captured, since it was unlikely that an Imperial agent would have an interest in Sabé, or anything else that might reside here in a remote residence of the Alderaanian Royal Family. He therefore gave chase immediately in the hopes of either stopping the woman before she could escape, or at least following her to where Padmé was in the hope that he might be able to rescue her if she was indeed captive.

The chase led them through the complex as the woman ran for the main entrance to the complex. As they ran, Obi-Wan remained frustratingly just too far behind to catch and stop her. He was close enough, however to hear her barking orders into her com-link. She was instructing her troops to be ready to pick her up outside the entrance, and she called off a plan designation he did not expect to recognise. In any case her escape plan became abundantly clear when they reached the main gate of the complex.

Hovering a good fifteen feet in the air on repulsorlifts directly in front of the main gateway was a medium-sized Lambda-class shuttle. The ramp was extended and the woman showed no hesitation in making a Force-assisted jump straight onto it. He attempted to follow her, but fell short as the shuttle began to move away. He landed once again and looked up to see the woman looking down at him from her higher position. She smiled and raised her saber hilt in a mocking salute at him as the shuttle moved off, then turned and made her way up the ramp, which retracted behind her as the shuttle began to pick up altitude and velocity.

For a moment the sense of failure threatened to overwhelm him, but he fought the feeling. He would need his wits about him to rescue the two women, because it hardly required a genius to surmise that they would be taken to Coruscant, to Vader and the Emperor. He turned to enter the palace complex again, intent on returning to his starfighter and heading back to the Jedi Enclave to begin planning his own intrusion.


Half way across the galaxy, in orbit around the third planet of the Praesetlyn system, Darth Vader felt a small tremor in the Force. It was faint, so faint that he doubted a less-attuned person than himself would have felt it. He followed it, searching for the cause of the disturbance. Unfortunately the feeling quickly grew too cold for him to follow. He managed to follow it far enough to know that it had originated somewhere in the Galactic Core, but more precisely than that he could not say. He also guessed, that for him to feel anything at all over this distance it must hold great significance to him personally, or else be to do with someone to whom he was particularly attached.

His mind slid instantly to Padmé on Alderaan, but he dismissed it. She was safe hidden on Alderaan, Organa would see to it that she could never be found. Nevertheless, he could not shake the feeling that something had changed, that the balance had tipped against himself. He just did not know how, and the feeling filled him with foreboding.

The approach of an ensign drew him out of his introspections.

"My lord, the Emperor has sent you his personal summons," the ensign said with a respectful bow of the head, "He commands your presence on Coruscant as quickly as possible."

"Very well," he told the ensign, "Ready my personal ship, and send Admiral Ozzel to me, I will instruct him on how to proceed with our mission in my absence."

"Very good, my lord," the ensign replied and marched off at double time to fulfil the commands of the fearsome Sith Lord.

Vader watched him go as he considered what his master might want. Perhaps Palpatine had finally grown tired of his apprentice's continuing failure and was preparing his death. Perhaps that was what the disturbance he had felt in the Force had been warning him of. He set it aside for now, he would find out what Palpatine wanted when he reached Coruscant. In the meantime he would need to give Ozzel very precise and strict orders in order to ensure that the fleet and the search for his wife remained bogged down here between the Mid and Outer Rims in his absence.


Well, there you have it. Now it's your turn to get writing and tell me what you thought. Was it good, bad or ugly?