Padme dared to say Cadus was the most powerful, ferocious, precise, and finest swordsman in the Jedi order. The Jedi Master he had trained under, Sifo Dyas, and the other Jedi Masters he had trained under, had considered him one of the best they had taught in their more than ten thousand combined years of serving the Jedi Order as a whole.

Cadus had fought in thousands and thousands of conflicts, and more wars all across the galaxy in the span of his life and against odds so great that many others would not have stood a chance. He had survived battles that had tested his skill, strength, patience, and resolve in every conceivable way.

Padme knew she wasn't his equal in weapons training, and even if she had the advantage of being younger and stronger in human terms, Cadus was more agile and more powerful than her all around. Though he was very old, his youth was not behind him and his strength was nowhere close to beginning to diminish.

His edge came from brutal intensity, inhuman precision, and frightening speed. The edge was hardened by his long experience, an intuitive grasp of how his adversaries might employ a light-saber, or any other weapon against him, and knowing what emotions to feel for whenever such a moment would arise, or before it even did in the first place.

Padme brought the spring of youth and stamina, she brought nubile grace, deft footwork, dazzling acrobatics, amazing dexterity, and while she had fought in many battles over the course of the Clone Wars, and was battle hardened by the average standard, she knew she was not battle hardened like Jedi or Sith.

Padme was able to hold her own, but her efforts at attacking, at assuming the offensive against Cadus to press the tempo, were all entirely inadequate. Cadus was a hardened warrior in his prime, constantly improving and honing his craft.

In addition, he was driven by his knowledge and disdain of slavery, the enemy of all living beings and creatures for thousands of millennia. In some way, Cadus had worked so hard and trained so intensely all his life for this moment, for a chance to meet a person, and train them to become a Knight.

It was an added bonus that he was able to marry her.

He had no fear for himself, no doubt that he would be able to keep her out of his target zones. Cadus's focus was so streamlined, his concentration heightened in such an extreme way that Padme recognized at once it was beyond a Jedi's focus.

Padme deftly threw up a wall of defense as they fought their way across the mountain clefts, light-sabers flashing, and she was bringing to bear every skill she had acquired over the years and most recently. She felt the need to continually press the attack, and Cadus did move away and back towards the mountain cleft's far wall.

Padme recognized within a few seconds that while it might seem as if she were driving him back, it was he who was controlling the tempo. Stepping and shifting, twisting and lunging with astonishing ease, he arced and brandished his blade thrice for every movement they each made.

She had no choice but to go where he was taking her, drawing to a place of his own choosing. Her agility and dexterity allowed her to just barely keep him at bay, constantly dodging while at the same time, he effectively blunted her counterattacks, relentlessly striking for openings in her defense.

Long hair flying out behind her, she attacked with grace, poise, and determination.

She challenged Cadus quickly, and just as quickly she discovered that her best efforts were not good enough to achieve an early resolution to the duel. They settled into broken patterns then, working as a team as much as they worked against each other like they were their own enemy, waiting for an opening, whirling parries and flourishing slashes.

Both were too smart to give up even the slightest margin of an opening, and so the battle had gone on.

They fought their way out of the main outcropping through an arched pathway that led into a clearing.

Forest and jungle crisscrossed below like a pit in which a tandem of vines and gnarled foliage, that served as the forest's tendons stretched high into the canopy.

The entire landscape below was cavernous and filled with the noise of life.

Sunlight filtered away in clouds like rays.

They battled onto one of the narrow paths above the forest, and the air sounded off with the crashing and clashing of their light-sabers.

Alone atop the mountains, hidden from the rest of Naboo and its occupants, they intensified their duel.

Cadus leapt from the path they had been fighting on to the one above, eyes shining with the heat of the exchange and his own enjoyment. Padme took a deep breath, and threw herself into a flip, following, coming up in front of him, blade arcing from between her legs, so it would strike Cadus on the ridge of his chin.

He simply sidestepped the swift stroke, following Padme as she recovered.

They crashed together, and they flew down the length of the narrow paths, light-sabers flashing, sparks flying from each exchange, until Cadus caught Padme off balance and with a quick, powerful kick that knocked her back into a stagger, forcing her to dig her heels in for purchase on the ground.

He almost kicked her completely over the edge.

Taking advantage of the fact he had but a second to regain his balance, Padme forced Cadus back, and pressed until he had to leap off and over the edge as well, landing on his feet in a clearing several levels below Padme.

The force of the fall didn't faze him.

Padme hissed softly and leapt down after him, sensing no chance to put an end to things. Padme doubled her speed and tripled her exertions, moving swiftly, legs and arms pumping, light-saber flashing about her. She was worn and battered, close to exhaustion, but Cadus was slowly moving on the defensive at last, and she did not want to give him a chance to regroup.

Worry nudged Padme. She could admit it to herself, privately. Cadus should have won this battle long ago. Any other duel, he definitely would have. He was battle trained, seasoned, and hardened well beyond anyone she ever encountered before.

She had matched him blow for blow at times, but she wasn't any closer to winning an exchange now, than when she had been in the beginning.

Padme stared down the length of the path, measuring the distance she would have to travel to reach Cadus, and she knew from experience she would only see a momentary blur, her blade would rush up to meet Cadus...

But, he'd be out of reach in a matter of seconds.

Padme had to be quick and precise.

Very quick.

Very precise.

She did not want to be flung upside down or struck over and over on her marks of contact like many, many times before during training.

In front of her Cadus rubbed at his arms, barely visible bruises dotting his forearms. He was backed near the edge of the split cleft, and beyond that, the forest, keeping a close watch on Padme, his face flinty, his eyes glinting intensely.

His light-saber rested in both hands, as he remained in the ancient stance.

He saw Padme staring and smiled.

At that instant Padme sprinted ahead, launching herself across the gap, and finally catapulted through the final space separating them, that led into the forest and closed with Cadus, forcing him back, but not out of the passageway completely.

Padme put on a new burst of speed, howling out at Cadus, as if by the sound of her voice she could bring the blade to bear on him. Then she heard the buzz of the air around coming alive once more, cycling to grow and expand, then narrowed.

Padme threw herself ahead, still too close to the growing vortex of power, though, and too far from the cleft's end.

Light-saber clutched in both hands, she watched helplessly as it left her flailing fingers, leaving them to battle the air of the vortex that encircled her. A stream of insular energy, within the maelstrom, was all that kept her trapped and contained, but it might as well have been a wall of permacrete thousands of meters thick closing in on her from every conceivable angle.

Desperately she cast about the air with her hands and feet for purchase, reaching into the force and calling on it to help her gather her orientation and probe around her for an opening that might nullify the technique useless, but she had no better luck doing that than she had trying to control her own body from spinning like a top.

Cadus could only watch and wait to see if Padme could hold on long enough, or break out of the whirlwind of power somehow.

It appeared that Padme would be able to hold on.

She had slowly been able to keep control of her flaring emotions whenever she was thrust and spun upside down, though for every time she improved, the speed got twice as fast. She had found a fresh reserve of strength during her meditations, and now she was attacking that which held her aloft and helpless with a ferocity that seemed to have the vortex stymied.

With quick, hard strokes of the force, she bored into the whirlwind, deliberately engaging in close-quarters combat with the powerful whirlwind, refusing to let the storm bring her to bear just before she lost consciousness like so many times before.

She drove the whirling energy backwards and up, constantly prodding and pressing the vortex, but inevitably forcing herself to rotate even faster than she had been before by her prodding.

Padme clenched her teeth, straining, struggling, pressing in steadily.

Cadus was old by any standard, but he was ghastly powerful.

Padme's strained face took on a frenzied, frantic look, and the glitter of her eyes brightened with uncertainty and fear.

She focused inward.

Good Padme. Focus. There is always a weakness to every technique, no matter how powerful or outstanding it may be.

Cadus was eagerly anticipating Padme's sword strokes that would come when she broke free as if they were his own. He back-flipped across the clearing, giving himself some space in which to observe, gaining just enough time to assume a new battle stance.

Slowly, Cadus began to edge Padme towards him, sensing she was reaching her limit and could not bear, but instead of decreasing the speed of the whirlwind, he only increased it.

Padme screamed and hissed soundlessly.

Then Padme tried to heave herself down, but whirled swiftly to the right, flipping back upside down, and with her back to Cadus, he made a small, but sharp movement.

Padme recognized the danger.

The blade of Cadus caught her directly in the midsection, then caught her on both flanks, then on the arm, and he continued to strike without reprieve.

Padme made no sound as her body writhed with pain and shock. A wave of Cadus's free hand sent Padme spinning towards the split cleft.

But Padme was ready, snapping her limbs as far as they could go, exerting the full extent of her physicality and the force to send herself flying harmlessly aside and into some bushes. Cadus clutched at her, taking hold of her graceful body, and propelled it upward.

Small hands waved and Padme's shoulders dropped to the sides, and she slammed her hand into the ground, bouncing across it to some extent by performing the simple hand plant, and snapped herself more upright, all the while fighting against the storm of energy.

Cadus smiled and thrust forth with the force, letting loose a wave of pure power that would certainly accelerate her so fast that she would lose consciousness.

Recognizing it could very well be the end, Padme caught herself in the middle of the storm, straining as she kept herself from being turned aside, but far from easily. There was nothing subtle about her attack, a massive shock wave shook the very foundations of the great mountains around them.

The surrounding area exploded into great chunks of rubble and waves of debris. The archways and clefts collapsed in showers of stone, unleashing tons of rock and mortar thousands of feet below. A second later the rest of the nearby clefts caved in, drowning out Padme's empowered scream with a deafening rumble.

Cadus watched the spectacle of the implosion from the safety of the ground at the foot of the peak.

Billowing clouds of smoke, dust, and small rocks rolled out from the wreckage toward him.

Exhausted by the long light-saber battle and drained by the sudden massive unleashing of the force, Padme could only simply lay where she had fallen until she was covered in a layer of fine dust.

Eventually, she struggled wearily to her feet.

Reaching out with the force, she sought some strength, enough that she could remain standing and jump down from her perch of stone.

She felt a flicker, and so she jumped, landing squarely but far from effortlessly. Bruised, battered, and exhausted beyond any means, Padme focused her eyes on Cadus, slowly firming herself until her feet found purchase.

Padme smiled wearily.

She was standing.

She got out of the whirlwind.

She was making serious progress.

"Now, let's do it again. This time I won't hold back."

Padme's weary smile faded.


"Do you recall what I said in regards to senseless aggression?" Cadus asked.

"Our mission is not to bring death on all those evil or unfit to live in a just and free society. We must serve our true purpose—the preservation of freedom and the survival of people. We must work to grow our power, and to accomplish that we will need to interact with individuals of many species across many worlds, and so by this you know eventually word of our doings will reach the ears of the Jedi and Palpatine."

To refrain from senseless aggression, they wielded force pikes rather than light-sabers. Meter-long melee weapons carried by the Senate Guard, and carried by Jedi Guards in certain parts of the Temple, and unlike most of the light-saber variants, the pikes were equipped with stun-module tips capable of delivering a shock that could overwhelm the nervous systems of most sentient species, without causing permanent damage.

"The next few hours will test the limits of your agility, speed, and accuracy." Cadus said.

Several thousand of the biggest and most skilled battle droids—their knowledge of light-saber combat and fighting styles reaching beyond ten thousand styles, and even going into the archaic and esoteric began to separate themselves from the crowds of their fellows.

"I want you to think of this as more than some simple exercise in proficiency. This is a passage of what the future will be like it. Not too long from now, advanced by the Sith, the factions of the galaxy might confront us with war stations or energy beams, but by then we will have evolved, as well, past the need for such things. Power is only a means to an end."

To the clamorous beating of gears and the wailing of the circuitry, the combat droids brandished their weapons, took their stances, and attacked.

Cadus only nodded to Padme, and the two were moving to meet and evade them, flying through their ranks, evading slashes, flashing light-saber tips, going one against one, two against three, four dozen, and then hundreds, felling one after the next with quick taps from the force pikes.

Both of them struck faster and faster with the pike, using its great reach and sharp circular movements to skew and deflect strikes until a collective hum rose from the blades whirling.

"Sometimes killing isn't necessary. Even brute force isn't necessary. Sometimes all it takes is a minute cut on the wrist, fingers, or arm. You must be precise, elusive, unorthodox, graceful, and swift."

He put his words into action, striking at knees, fingers, elbows, and any narrow pressure points. Some of his strikes hurled the droids to the ground with a violent push, he worked the pike quickly to keep the horde back, then he swung back twice before he lunged forward, blade meeting its mark on the knee.

"The Jedi have been tripping over their own robes in a rush to uphold a galactic government that has been deteriorating for thousands of centuries since it began, and has began to rot through in that last one thousand years. But, they are getting smarter now, they are showing their true colors...Yoda, Windu, and some others...They will soon be proclaiming...We know what's best for you."

Cadus paused, then moved to take his robe into his hands.

"A cunning politician is capable of wreaking more havoc than two Sith armed with light-sabers, or shooting lightning from their fingers as you can see. However, only a king or queen can unite. That is what we must become."

"Are we grand enough to be a king and queen?" Padme asked.

Cadus quirked a smile. "We're soon to be living in an age of giants, Padme. One era is dying and another is beginning before our very eyes. Are we grand enough? That could be considered a crude question given the circumstances surrounding everything now."

Gleaming in the distance was the glorious glow that radiated from the sun, a glow that shed its light on the battered parts of the landscape.

Cadus sat down on a stone, where he was attended by Padme. They both sat quietly, thoughtfully, while Padme gently began to rub water and bacta on his wounds.

Gazing up, Cadus saw Padme smiling, and despite being dirtied and battered from training, it was a radiant image.

Her eyes were wide and sparkling with a wondrous glow. Her chest rose and fell from each exertion of having to inhale and exhale. She looked just as she had that first time he saw her, what felt like a lifetime ago, it seemed, when Qui Gon first introduced them.

Even in her moisture farmer disguise she was beautiful.

Padme moved closer to Cadus. "When will we be ready for takeoff?"

Cadus's voice was calm and assured. "I'll meet you when the time comes. It will be clear. Don't worry, Padme, we will see it through to the very end.

Padme cleared her mind, though she refused to agree completely with his assessment. "Please take care of yourself, my husband and Master. May the force be with you."

She spoke with a new maturity.

Standing together, the two faced the inviting heavens of Naboo and saw the sea of clouds in the distance moving into view, then veering off in another direction to soar with great dignity through the great blue sky.

They needed no words in this moment.

Cadus knew that Padme's mind and heart were with him, no matter where he was or what his inevitable outcome was in the end. As to his own destiny, he was a little uncertain about himself, he only knew he had to return to Coruscant and finish things for good, before he set off to join Padme in her crusade.

Slowly he put his arm around Padme, and she leaned into him.

They faced the heavens bravely.


Padme wasn't used to being the aggressor.

In all the times she and Cadus sparred, he had been the one pressing the action. Her light-saber style was built on a foundation of back and forth, parries, deflections, and counter-strikes, hiding behind her impenetrable defense while warding off her foe's attacks fluidly, waiting for her opponent to make a mistake, so she could turn a flurry onto them.

This was completely different.

Yet even though Cadus wasn't using light-saber, that didn't mean he was helpless. Padme knew she couldn't simply rush in. Despite his bulk, Cadus was incredibly swift, quick, and agile. He was also a master martial artist and a renowned master of close‐quarters pit‐fighting tactics during war time.

She had to be wary of letting him get close enough to grapple her. She couldn't let him get the opportunity to use his size and strength against her.

There was also his incredibly immense command of the force to contend with.

Simple tactics like pushing an opponent from across the room were impractical against any foe with proper training. Both she and Cadus knew how to surround themselves with an invisible field of energy that absorbed or repelled the most basic tricks taught to any Jedi or Sith.

But, Cadus could unleash devastating bolts of lightning from his hands at will. He could unleash waves of crushing power with a wave of his arm. He could send her flying towards him with inexorable force. As long as she was careful, as long as she was able to avoid them or intercept them with her light-saber, she'd be able to contend.

This caution, however, allowed Cadus to keep her off balance.

She swept in low, then high, spinning and twirling her light-saber. He leapt up high, planting his feet on the rock wall at his side and pushed off hard, sending himself into a high flip just beyond the reach of her blade's arc.

Back on his feet, he sprang backward as Padme swept her blade straight forward, keeping just out of range.

She pursued him down the length of the path, jabbing, swiping, and thrusting her weapon and sending Cadus into a powerful rhythm of footwork. He fought back with short, concentrated bursts of lightning, aiming at her boots, eyes, flanks, neck, and face to disrupt her footwork and keep her off balance.

Padme took quick stuttering steps to avoid the attack and keep him from gaining a reprieve. Cadus feinted as if he was going to strike her on the right, then lunged sideways, slamming his arm into her own and reached down with a huge hand to seize her wrist.

She barely ducked out of the way, lashing out with a kick as he came on her flank. Cadus spun, grabbed her ankle, and wrenched the boot to the side, trying to throw her for hundreds of miles. Padme rolled, then cartwheeled with the violent motion, her entire body spinning along a near vertical plane.

At the same time she brought her light-saber back up over her shoulder to slam into Cadus's arm at the elbow, but caught only air as he released his hold and fell back once more.

She had him cornered against the cliff with nowhere to go.

As she moved in, another burst of lightning came toward her. She caught it with her light-saber, but the impact drove her backward a few steps, giving Cadus just enough room to flip over her thrust and land clear of the wall.

They had switched positions, each facing the opposite way as they began the dance again. The ebb and flow of their battle fell into a rhythm of rapid arcs, thrusts, feints, deflections, and counters, their dance keeping time as she struggled to force him back up the path she had chased him down only moments before.

Padme knew if their positions were reversed, Cadus would have ended the confrontation already. Yet she knew her victory wasn't inevitable. They were both in an impossible situation. He needed to do everything exactly right just to keep her at bay for another pass.

She needed to do everything exactly right just to keep herself able to make another pass on him. She had no margin for error or fatigue, and for all of her strength acquired, even she couldn't sustain peak form forever. The only way she could lose would be to make a careless mistake, or leave herself open to a force attack.

Padme was aware that Cadus would frustrate her with his elusiveness.

But, Padme understood patience.

She knew the value of patience, and she was content to play their battle out as long as necessary.

They reached the end of the mountain path, and Padme thought she had Cadus trapped. This time she used her light-saber to deflect the blue bolts of lightning rather than trying to absorb them with the blade itself and stumbling back.

Cadus still had more than one more trick up his sleeve, however. She was less than a full meter away, her blade already arcing in for the decisive blow, when she felt all the hair on the back of her neck rise. A shimmering cocoon of energy enveloped Cadus, a shell holding back a storm of pure power.

She tried to pull back on her blade, but it was too late.

As her blade bit into the cocoon the energy was released in a sudden burst that sent both of them flying in opposite directions. Cadus slammed hard through a wall, cushioning his body with the force as his back scrapped along the ground.

Padme was tossed farther, landing hard on the ground.

They rose to their feet at the same time, neither seriously injured.

Yet again Cadus thwarted her attack and worked himself out of the corner she tried to chase him into. Yet again, he allowed her moment of decision to become her moment of impatience. Padme firmed her grip on her blade, and began another slow, careful advance.

She paused for a moment, running through her options.

She could break off the battle and run for the lower parts of the mountains, where it opened up into a forest verdant land or throw caution to the wind and take one last reckless charge at her Master where they were at the moment.

She couldn't let Cadus get in open space.

She had to end this now!

As she gathered herself to charge, Cadus fired off a series of blue bolts of lightning. Padme ducked to the left, right, then dropped into the splits, hissing as the bolt whizzed past her ears and skull, striking the rock walls and sending up a shower of dust and stone flecks.

Despite missing her the first few times, Cadus followed it up with another series of blasts, all moving on a different trajectory then before. Turning her head to follow the course of one misguided bolt, Padme saw where the first had hit the stone wall.

The rocks had been disintegrated in a speeder‐sized hole, revealing something that looked like...

She recognized it as the foundation to the towering stone above her just in time to throw herself backward, using the force to shield herself from the worst of the explosion. She was thrown clear as the entire earthen section blew out, sending huge chunks of stone spewing into the passage and down the ravines.

The surrounding stone towers began to shred apart, tearing loose massive blocks that tumbled to the ground, busting through it so it could travel on into the great forest below in a great and wild tumble.

Choking on the cloud of dust and smoke, Padme picked herself up. The mountain passages in front of her were completely blocked by rubble and debris from the implosion. She could feel Cadus on the other side of the rocks, of course he had survived the blast, just as she had.

But, now they were separated by tons of impassable stone.

She walked to the collapsed section of the mountain path and placed a hand on the edge of one of the gigantic stones blocking her way. Even using the force, it would take hours to clear a path, and she wouldn't be able to move some of the great chunks of debris.

There was no way to deny the truth.

She had endured the spar to the end, but she still had much to learn.

Standing at the path's edge, Padme saw that all but the tip of a peak of a nearby mountain had disappeared beneath the mountain of rubble.

"Fantastic." Padme moaned. "Just fantastic."

Padme could feel Cadus striking her shin with a stick, his scolding a severe one despite his calm tone. You haven't even tried. Always with these observations. Do you hear me and not listen? Why do you think so much before doing? You must do.

Padme glanced at the other side where Cadus was, then looked doubtfully toward the mountain of debris.

She couldn't help but feel frustrated and frazzled, which soon gave way to mild anger. Cadus wanted to say lifting megatons was no different than lifting rocks, but that was unreasonable. The differences were not just in her mind, they were right in front of her eyes.

Of course Padme trusted Cadus. If Cadus said this could be done, then she should try. She looked at the debris and readied herself, slowly sinking into maximum concentration, sharpening her focus until in her mind's eyes, she could see it glint like a needle's thread.

"The difference is in my mind..." She spoke softly, trying to understand the words.

There is only doing...

Padme closed her eyes. She envisioned the contours, the edges, the jagged spikes, to feel the weight of the mountain of debris.

She concentrated on the movement it would make as it rose from the path.

As she concentrated, she began to hear some blocks shift and crack, and then begin to shakily rise with the top of the pile slowly inching higher. The top part of the pile was slowly rising up, and it hovered there for a moment, then fell back into the rest of the pile with a loud crash.

Padme gasped for breath, her lungs wheezing as oxygen flitted into her drained body, hands bracing on her knees to prevent her collapse.

I can't...It's too much...

On the other side, Cadus clutched up at the debris, breaking free great blocks that tumbled down at him.

But, he reached out with the force, keeping the boulders held aloft to his sides, rotating all about him. Reaching into the force, he took hold of one of the gigantic blocks within the wall and began to shift it, pushing it towards Padme's direction before harshly pulling upwards.

He grabbed at the plummeting wall of debris and held it fast.

Cadus tilted his head and peered through the gigantic blocks of earth, slowly, but surely moving, and as he did the ground began to swirl with dust.

Slowly, from the waves of dust, the peaks of the surrounding mountains appeared again.

Padme gasped in astonishment, staggering back, barely able to brace her fall. She couldn't grasp what she was seeing, nor could she believe it. The gigantic blocks, the whole wall of gigantic debris, even the most mammoth chunk gracefully rose from their resting spots and moved majestically high over head.

She vowed never to give up again. Even if it was hopeless or every single odd was against her, she wouldn't waver or second guess herself. For there, standing on his own giant stone, was Cadus, effortlessly gliding the debris from the path onto the mountain passes close by.

It was a sight that Padme could scarcely believe.

But, she knew that it was a potent example of Cadus's mastery over the force. Of course it was the most basic and forward example of his mastery, it showed his immensity, more than cunning, more than cutthroat, it was his sheer strength of will.

The gigantic wall of debris floated onto the ground nearby, and with a strong inhale, Cadus gently brought them to a stop.

Padme was enthralled by the feat she had witnessed and approached Cadus in awe.

"That was incredible..."

"I was waiting for you." Cadus stated. "I couldn't be patient any longer."

Bewildered and slightly amused, Padme shook her head, running to Cadus, wrapping the wounded man in a tight, loving hug. She clung to him, just breathing in the powerful pheromones of him after sparring and training for so long, resting on his broad strong chest while he murmured love into the coils of her damp hair.

Some time later, Padme found words again. "My husband..."

She trailed off, the image from before still fresh in her mind.

"Every day—"

"And forever more." He finished.

"I will always be yours, Cadus. You'll always have my love."

"I'll always come back to you." He reached up to the burn-scar high on her forearm.

"Nothing serious. You have good control." She said with half a smile.

"Just a friendly reminder to keep up with your light-saber practice."

"It's almost been three months. Three months that we've just had each other. I am certain there are some people we know that are wondering...'' Padme almost grinned widely.

Cadus looked at nothing in particular. "If Ventress hadn't come here, I'd still be out there somewhere or in the Temple. I'm grateful that I have this opportunity to be outside of those constraints and contradictions. It feels like you've brought me home, Padme."

His arms were so strong, and so warm.

"Cadus, not now."

"Exactly here and now. Who cares about the sweat and dirt covering us?" He drew her against him again, overpowering her halfhearted resistance.

"I'd prefer to be by the ocean or on the beach. Not in the rainforest and swamp."

"To roll around on the sand?" Cadus asked, amusement evident in his tone.

"To cool off and bathe in the sun..." Padme smiled up at him fondly "The right way."

Cadus drew his hand up her side.

"Cadus!"

He could still fluster her without even trying.

"Listen to me. We're going to the beach. We can spend the rest of our days there." Padme looked at him, eyes curious and observant.

Cadus nodded. "You can be quite convincing when you want to be. Why did you choose to become my apprentice? Why did you choose to have no way?"

"Power." Padme replied quickly.

"Power is only a means to an end, you know that. It is not an end in itself. What do you need power for?"

Padme furrowed her brow.

Cadus recognized this expression as a sign she was mulling the question over, perhaps overthinking, and that led to her struggling to come up with an answer.

"Through power I gain victory..." She said when she finally spoke, reciting the lines of the Sith Code she had learned weeks earlier.

From her tone it was clear she was trying to work through her limited understanding of the force, just not light or dark, to arrive at the answer she wanted.

"Through victory my chains are broken...The force sets me free. There is no death, there is only the force." Padme continued, slowly searching for an answer just beyond her reach.

A second later her eyes widened.

"I want power for freedom. To be able to fight for my freedom and the freedom of others, to protect that freedom...That is why I need power! The force sets us free!"