Padmé was standing in the middle of the room. The other slaves bowed down a little, or turned away hurrying to continue their tasks. Padmé wasn't moving. The broom was still lying in front of her, she hadn't even picked it up in the first place.
It had been a week, and she was still resisting. She looked up to the person that had just arrived and he looked directly at her. She had seen this man before. He was one of the higher ranked masters.
She believed he was the one who chose who left the planet to be sold somewhere else. A slap landed on Padmé's cheek. She didn't budge. "I told you to clean up!", he barked. He packed her collar and studied the engravings.
He pressed the numbers 583 on the device on his wrist. As he pressed a green button below the digits, another shock echoed through Padmé's body. She fell to her knees, panting and gasping for air.
She doubted she would ever get used to the collar. She had already lost track of how many shocks she had already received. It had been quite a few. The morning of her enslavement was only a week in the past. Yet it felt like months.
Padmé looked up to the nautolan, who smirked down at her. "I'm sorry.", she whispered. He chuckled as he crouched down and took her face in his hand roughly. Padmé was disgusted. By everything around her, including herself.
She had sworn to herself, not to stop fighting. Not under any circumstances. Now she could feel her will slowly fading, and all it took were a few shocks. She knew that she would be broken eventually.
They could already force her into single defeats by torturing her. It wouldn't take long until her will slipped away for good. The nautolan looked at her, through big black eyes that were hard to read out of.
"You're a feisty one, aren't you?", he said softly. His voice made Padmé feel sick. "I'll take that as a compliment.", she replied. Another shock went through her body. and she dropped to the nautolan's feet.
This time, she took the pain without making a sound. "You won't break me.", she spat. The nautolan smiled his greasy smile. "You'd be surprised how often one hears that around here, feisty one."
Padmé looked down. Maybe he was right. She had seen slaves before. Slaves that had spent years in bondage before they were freed. Their spirits had been so broken. Maybe she wouldn't be able to resist either.
"What do I have to do, so that you will let me go?", she asked. The nautolan broke into laughter. "Pay me more, than your slavery would. Which you can't. You are an interesting case though. Very little have tried this move before."
Padmé wanted to punch him as hard as she could, and then spit on him. He was the kind of scum that the galaxy was infested with. "You should be ashamed of yourself.", Padmé whiffed.
"Speak up, slave.", he hissed, pronouncing her title as stressed as possible. "You are a disgrace!", Padmé said louder. Another shock went through her body. She didn't know how many of those she still had in her.
Vader looked at Ahsoka in surprise. "He didn't mean to.", Ahsoka explained. "It slipped out. Don't feel guilty Obi Wan." Obi Wan clenched his teeth. "Don't tell him Ahsoka! If you have any respect for the senator, you won't say a thing."
Vader watched how Ahsoka was standing there, in spite of herself, not knowing what to do. "I believe, the senator would love to be reunited with her husband and children. I really want them to be too."
Vader remained silent, spectating. "Don't do it Ahsoka! She will be enslaved like the twins, she deserves freedom." Ahsoka shook her head. "You can be really offensive, you know that?", she told Obi Wan.
"The only reason I see not to say it, is that the two of you have to get along. Just make up, like grown ups.", she said and crossed her arms in front of her chest. Obi Wan looked at her angrily. "This is not a game, Ahsoka!", he called out.
"He's right.", Vader agreed. "It's not like we had a childish argument, this is about me killing nearly every member of the Jedi order and terrorizing the galaxy." Ahsoka's eyes swung back to Obi Wan.
She looked confident of victory. "Do you disagree in any way, Obi Wan?", she asked with a stretched voice. Vader knew how much Obi Wan wanted to disagree with anything the dark lord said. "No.", he grumbled.
Ahsoka gave him a smile. "You see? We're all on the same side here." "Agreeing that we can't just make up, does not mean that we're on the same side.", Vader murmured. "It means you can get along if you want to.", Ahsoka contradicted.
"Both of you know what you have done, master. And both of you have the same opinion on it. I don't see why you can't work together." Luke pointed at Obi Wan. "You say daddy a hero.", he babbled.
Obi Wan's face turned a little red. Ahsoka and Vader looked at him in surprise. "Have you?", Vader asked quietly. "I said Anakin Skywalker was a hero, not you!", he spat. Vader nodded. "Understandable."
Ahsoka grunted in frustration. "You are driving me crazy!", she called out. "If that was Vader, both of us would be dead and the twins would be training to be sith in this very moment. Could you please just consider that this is Anakin?"
Obi Wan frowned. "I know he isn't, Ahsoka." "Well, I know he is." Vader didn't say anything. He didn't know who he agreed with. Or if he agreed with either of them. Leia rested her head on his shoulder, visibly tired.
Ahsoka and Obi Wan were still staring at each other. "I'm going to put the twins in bed.", he said and left them to it.
Nuha gave her a little of the cream. It was only a finger but Padmé was thankful anyway. "Sometimes, one of us steals a little of it. All of us get something, so the masters won't know who it was.
Nuha lifted her collar up to her chin, revealing red and sore skin. She put the cream she had taken for herself on her neck and spread it carefully, before dropping her collar again. Padmé did the same.
She nearly moaned as the pain went away immediately. Nuha grinned at her. Padmé let go of the collar and smiled back. "The shocks are less painful with healthy skin. And the collar is a little more bearable too.", Nuha explained.
"Thank you, Nuha.", Padmé said. They were sitting in their tent together with the other women. Padmé estimated that there were about twenty per tent. "I've wondered, why aren't there any men here?", Padmé asked.
Nuha raised her eyebrows. "I guess they're kept somewhere else, or sold earlier than us." Padmé nodded. It made sense. Young men were surely a rather valuable good. "They get separated from their families, who stay here."
Padmé's inners cringed. She had seen many women with infants, but never a father. "Did you have someone?", she asked. Nuha bit her lip. "There was a human, yes. We were running from the empire together before we were captured.
They took him to another planet. I have no idea where he is." "I'm sorry.", Padmé said quietly. "What about you?", Nuha asked. Padmé sighed. "I lost my husband two years ago." Nuha looked at her in surprise.
"I didn't know that you were married. You kept it secret didn't you?" Padmé nodded. "He was a jedi. The public couldn't know." "A jedi?", Nuha called out. "Who? I know some of them." Padmé chuckled.
"Most knew my husband. His name was Anakin Skywalker." Nuha gasped. "Skywalker? I remember him." Padmé smiled. "So do I.", she murmured. "I've seen him a few times, when I was in the temple." Padmé's eyes widened.
"You were in the temple?" Nuha shrugged. "I was a padawan, a long time ago. I left the order long before I could have been knighted. I think the empire either forgot me or never even considered me a jedi." Padmé stared at her full fascination.
"You're a surviving jedi!", she called out. Nuha sighed. "I was never a jedi officially. I merely graduated my training as youngling. I abandoned the order as padawan." Padmé frowned.
"But you are still a force sensitive, aren't you?", Padmé asked. "No extraordinary one. I haven't used the force in ages, and I never was very strong with it anyway." Padmé stared at her.
"Being force sensitive is a special gift. Don't you think so?" Nuha shook her head. "Mirialans are spirituals, most of us are force sensitive. It's nothing very special for our kind." Padmé found that hard to believe. Nuha sighed again.
"Don't underestimate yourself, Nuha. I'm sure you're powerful." Nuha only shook her head. "I doubt it. I never was anything special." Nuha yawned.
"I'm sorry about your husband, Padmé. He was a great jedi. I remember the rumours of his powers whenever he went on missions. Everyone was talking about it." Padmé chuckled. "I can imagine that. Were you trained together?"
Nuha stayed silent for a few moments, thinking. "No. I think that he was three or four years older than me." Padmé nodded with a smile. "I met him when he was nine. We married ten years later." Nuha grinned.
"I remember how he was called before the council all the time. I guess he always stretched the rules a little." "Indeed, he did." Padmé smirked.
The medical droid finished his work by putting a bacta patch on Obi Wan's shoulder. Vader was in the old interrogation room with the twins. Ahsoka had stayed with Obi Wan and was now sitting in front of him silently.
She was obviously mad at him. He could understand her too well. He wished Anakin was still alive. But he knew that he wasn't. He felt so much pain and anger through the force. The Anakin they had known was gone.
Ahsoka was trusting him naively like a child. "Please be careful, Ahsoka.", he began. She just gave him a sour look. He raised his hands. "I got it. I can't change your mind. But please just remember your training. Just stay composed."
Ahsoka rose and swirled around, turning her back on Obi Wan. "You mean being an emotionless tool, like the order likes it.", she said. "You have to give him a chance. You know Anakin, he deserves a second try." Obi Wan rolled his eyes.
"You sound like you were talking about some lowlife criminal, and not a sith overlord." Ahsoka shrugged. "Dwelling in the past like that isn't very jedi like, is it now, Master Kenobi", she mocked him icily. Obi Wan looked to the ground. Maybe she was right.
Judging Vader because of the past was somewhat related to revenge. But it was foolish to trust him. Obi Wan didn't know what to believe, or what to do. "I'll give him a chance. But I won't put anyone in danger." He looked up to Ahsoka.
"Don't tell him about Thyferra, Ahsoka. We don't know if he is trustworthy yet." Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "Let's assume he is completely evil for a moment. What would he do with Padmé?" Obi Wan stared up to her.
"I don't know, Ahsoka. But it's an unnecessary risk. I want to protect as many as possible." Ahsoka gave him an exhausted smirk. "How about a compromise?", she suggested. Obi Wan raised his brows. "A compromise?", he asked. She nodded.
"You could give me the coordinates, and I will go to see after her. You trust me not to do anything evil, and Anakin trusts me not to bring her somewhere far away to hide her or something like that." Obi Wan wasn't sure.
"You'd stay here and help Anakin with the twins.", she added. Obi Wan frowned. "Help him?", he murmured. Then he nodded. "Fine.", he said. He wasn't comfortable leaving the children with Vader anyway.
Ahsoka smiled. "Great. It's settled then." Obi Wan sighed. He didn't know what to think. He had to trust in Ahsoka's instincts.