Sorry for the late! I've been sick this week. Thank you so much for your patience!
Chapter 42
Anakin's heart literally skipped a beat. "What do you mean she's missing?"
"We mean she's gone," Acacia said, wincing at the almost-cold indifference in her own tone. "She's not in her apartment, she wasn't at the Senate meeting and we haven't been able to contact her. It's like she's... disappeared."
Anakin swallowed, desperately trying to get a hold of his emotions before anyone suspected anything. "Surely someone must know where she is?" The young Jedi tried desperately to keep the shrill frustration and fear from showing in his voice. He failed.
"I'm sure someone does," Obi-Wan replied. "Just no one we know of."
"And I find the timing of her appearance very, very disturbing."
Anakin turned to Senator Organa. "Why?" The word came out sharper than intended, but for the moment, he didn't care.
Bail appeared not to notice. "Because she's not the first Senate representative to go missing within the last 48 hours. Not only that, but there's something all of them have in common."
"Yeah?"
Bail nodded. "Something very important: all the missing representatives openly opposed the Chancellor continuing his term."
Anakin clenched his hands behind his back, keeping his anger out of sight, but not out of the mind of his sister. He's just now telling us all this? Why?
How should I know?
Can he be trusted?
Acacia let out a mental sigh. We've told him almost everything. It's a bit late for second thoughts.
So I'll keep an eye on him. A very close eye.
Acacia didn't reply, but, to Anakin, her silence was agreement enough.
A quiet beep sounded through the Control room, and Bail thrust his hand into his robe pocket, checking for his pager. A worried frown took over his face as he read the message.
"What is it?" Anakin asked, before he'd even put it away.
"King Chann-Wyle from the Winari system. One of the Chancellor's strongest opposers and one of those that went missing."
"Yes?" Anakin asked impatiently. "Did they find him?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact," Bail nodded. "They found him dead, him and several of his followers. The Chancellor is blaming the Jedi, claiming they are taking their vengeance out on the innocent and that they must be found and slaughtered at all costs."
Bail looked around at his companions, but none of the four Jedi worried in the least for their own safety. What concerned them at the moment was a fact as clear as a Nabooian summer's day: Senator Amidala was in trouble. Big trouble.
"We need to find Padme," Anakin said. "Now."
"Something definitely happened here."
"You think?" Anakin asked, nudging the body of one of his wife's security workers. Or more accurately, former security workers. Nothing personal, but dead guys generally do not make good security guards. "Obi-Wan, you didn't think to search the downstairs when you and Acacia came and checked her apartments earlier?"
Obi-Wan shook his head. "I'm afraid not. We assumed she'd be on the upstairs level. But she's clearly not anywhere down here either."
Anakin surveyed the sea of dead bodies and nodded. In it's own way, that was almost something to be happy about. He turned to Acacia, who was just returning from the other room with Master Yoda. "Any survivors?"
His sister shook her head, frowning with disgust. "Not a single one. Every single solitary member of her security staff is dead, murdered with a lightsaber it looks like."
"Vader," Anakin muttered, nodding to himself.
"Probably," Senator Organa agreed. "But is there any way to know for sure?"
"We could check her security cameras," Acacia suggested.
Yoda nodded, and her and Anakin went over to the security console and checked the recent feeds. Nothing but static. "Someone must've turned it off or erased it."
Acacia slapped the keyboard, as if it were the one at fault. "Probably the same person who killed everyone."
Her brother nodded. "Looks like we're at a dead end."
"Seems this way, it does. But present itself another path will."
Anakin paused a moment. He didn't want to reveal his final security level, mostly because his wife herself didn't know about it and he wasn't sure if the others would question his level of commitment to her security. But every second he hesitated he wasted more and more time, Padme got farther and farther away, and the chances of saving her grew less and less. He nodded once more. "Follow me."
He led them back up to the higher levels of the house, ignoring his friends' confused expressions when he walked over to Padme's front door and reached up into the top right corner.
"Anakin, what are you doing?"
"You'll see, Master. You'll see."
He'd created the camera himself, so tiny it was almost invisible, and yet with the highest quality lens money could buy. He'd always worried that something like this would happen to his wife, so he'd made the camera and set it up in secret, knowing that if she knew of it she would disapprove of more security, tell him he was being silly. Even at the time, he himself hadn't been sure that it wasn't just paranoiac worrying.
Seems like I was actually right to do this, Anakin thought as he pulled the camera down, cupped it the palm of his hand and showed it to the four standing behind him. But just this once, he realized, he would give anything to be wrong.
"Anakin, what is that?"
Though he'd already known he couldn't tell them the truth about why the camera was there, Anakin still felt surprised at the easy way the lies slipped from his lips. "Padme was frightened after the attempts on her life a few years ago, so she asked me to set up this camera and keep it a secret. In case something like this ever happened."
He sensed that, while they bought his story, all 3 of the other men were worried about how close he and the senator obviously were. But, in light of the situation, how could they fault him?
As Anakin connected the camera to the nearest computer console to get the video feedback, Obi-Wan examined the camera. "I've never seen one like that before. Where'd you get it?"
Anakin coughed, clearing his throat. "I invented it."
He didn't have to look at Yoda and Obi-Wan to know they were raising their eyebrows and exchanging looks.
"Here it is." Nothing important at the beginning of the video, he fast forwarded a little ways - and then stopped dead. There he was, Darth Vader, standing in front of Padme, his lightsaber in a black-gloved hand. Anakin gritted his teeth, tried and failed to stop his racing heart. They hadn't seen Padme's body anywhere. That had to mean something.
Didn't it?
Anakin could feel all eyes on him when Vader referred to him as Padme's "dearest lover," but he ignored it entirely. Who cared if they figured it out? At this point, he wasn't sure that he'd mind if he was kicked out of the Jedi. It wasn't as if there was much left to be kicked out of.
As the video ended with C-3PO's death and Padme's kidnapping, Anakin sat back, suddenly understanding the last few hours. And knowing what he had to do next.
So he was fully prepared when his sister asked, "What are we going to do now?"
"Simple," Anakin replied. "We're going to follow them."
A quiet grinding sound rang through her prison and Vader strode through the door. He walked over to Padme and yanked her to her feet, entirely ignoring the fact that she was pregnant. "Come on, you."
Padme didn't bother resisting. She didn't want to run the risk of him hitting her and hurting the baby. "Where are we going? What are you doing with me?" she asked, ignoring the pounding in her head and the fear racing through her body.
"I want to show you something."
Padme watched her surroundings as they walked down the gangplank. They had landed on a sort of metal platform set in the middle of a sea of lava. Huge bursts of orange fire shot up from the flaming river hundreds of feet below. She knew there was some planet in the outer Rim fitting this description, but at the moment, she couldn't remember the name. Did Vader plan to kill her here?
But no, the Sith Lord kept going till they came to a short hall covered by a thick metal ceiling. As they walked through, tiny lava rats scuttled out of his way, sensing the evil and hurrying to get out of its path, she guessed.
Cocking her head to the side, she noticed the sound of voices ahead and recognized one: the Trade Federation Viceroy, Nute Gunray. That scumbag! Had he organized this, too?
"Ah," the Viceroy turned and greeted her captor as they entered, "you must be Lord Vader. We've been expecting you." Gunray glanced at Padme and his big red eyes widened in surprise. "Senator Amidala? What is she doing here?"
I'd certainly love to know.
"The Senator is here, so that I can give her what she always wanted," Vader replied.
Gunray tilted his head in a questioning manner. "And what is that?"
Vader didn't say anything. Instead, he lifted his hands and all four of the doors slowly descended, grinding their way down to the ground. Gunray, Padme, and all the rest jerked their heads, looking around, all of them beginning to feel that something sinister was about to happen.
Vader turned to Padme and winked, grinning rakishly at her. Then he turned away and ignited his lightsaber so close to her stomach she gasped. "There is room for only one government in the Galaxy," he announced, "It is time for the Confederacy of Independent Systems to come to an end."
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