Idiocy. Lunacy. Folly.
Call it what you will, but she felt compelled to do something.
Yeah, she'd been spooked. In all honesty, she'd never expected to be found. She thought they were safe, secure, secluded...but they weren't.
He'd found them anyway. Despite all their efforts to the contrary.
And, ever since then, she'd been feeling agitated, irritable, and on edge.
So, she'd decided to do something about it.
Yeah, Obi-Wan was going to kill her. If she wasn't killed on this mission first, that is.
Not that she planned on this mission being particularly dangerous, of course. After all, she'd been on plenty of missions with much higher risks than this one. Like the Spire for example. That particular mission was tantamount to suicide almost. She shook her head. But, she'd always had Obi-Wan at her back, ready to swoop in if things got out of control. No, it wasn't a fail safe...but it was more protection than none. Actually, a Jedi was about the best protection she could ask for in just about any given circumstance. Plus, she thought grimly as she zoomed in with the binoculars on the pirate ship down below, I usually have Rex and his team with me, too. This time though, she was alone, on her own...and no one knew where to find her. She'd made sure of that when she'd snuck out of the house late at night to go on an unsanctioned, unplanned mission.
Operation Retrieval.
It was purely a spur of the moment mission. She'd spent a week since Vader's invasion of her home cooped up inside, climbing the kriffing walls, and enduring arguments aplenty between her and Obi-Wan-about where they should go. About telling the Alliance. About training her children to become Jedi. They no longer seemed to agree on any point. Obi-Wan thought they should find another hiding place in the Outer Rim. Padme disagreed. She knew Vader would just find them over and over again. No matter where they ran. He'd done it this time. He'd do it again.
Vader was tenacious to a fault. Anakin had been like that, too. Once he set his sights on something, he didn't let anything stop him from succeeding. Seems that hadn't changed with Vader's rise from her husband's proverbial ashes.
And, strangely, for some odd reason she couldn't fathom (or explain), she didn't think Vader would tell the Emperor about their whereabouts or even their existence...but running from that possibility was no longer an option. If Vader really wanted to, he'd have taken them already. Granted, she'd have fought tooth and nail against such a thing, but in all honesty, she knew she wouldn't have prevailed. Not really. Not with all those Stormtroopers present...and not without her lightsaber in hand, which he'd stolen from her, dammit! How dare he take her husband's lightsaber from her! Who the kriff cared if he'd been the one to build the damn thing all those years ago? It was hers now.
And, he'd taken it. It was like having another piece of her Ani ripped from her. Obi-Wan had been livid to find out about that. He'd sworn to build her a new lightsaber, but he would have to go off planet to get the kyber crystal and the necessary parts to build her one, and thus far, he wasn't willing to leave her and the twins and her mother unprotected for any length of time.
Furthermore, Obi-Wan thought they should tell the Alliance what happened, and Padme thought it would cause the Rebellion to mark her as a compromised agent, and she'd be left with no choice but to stay out of their affairs. And now, more than ever, she couldn't sit still and stay at home doing nothing but baking cookies while the galaxy was waging war for freedom from the Empire. Obi-Wan, of course, thought her twins needed to be trained now more than ever in the ways of the Force...and Padme argued that two-year-olds, no matter how gifted in the Force, weren't going to do the galaxy any good at this juncture. What neither of them said, was the unspoken true reason why she refused to let them train: She didn't want them to be taken from her.
And, Obi-Wan knew it.
Then there was Yoda. Though he never argued, anytime he brought up his opinion, he insinuated that all was not as it seemed. As if Vader could be returned to her Ani. Nope. That wasn't happening. At least she and Obi-Wan agreed on that point. Anakin Skywalker was dead. The only thing Master Yoda would say was a simple, "Hmm...See, we shall." And, he left it at that.
Sometimes, I just don't understand that little green gnome, she thought to herself.
Then the kids were another issue...Her poor precious children. Sweet Luke still had nightmares, and she'd frequently wake up to find him crawling in bed with her. Leia claimed she didn't have nightmares...but she usually followed after Luke anyway. While they normally loved playing outside, and wandering in the forest (with herself, Yoda or her mother supervising, of course) looking for Bob the Frog, they rarely asked to go out now, and if they did, they stayed within easy shouting distance of her. While she was personally relieved they had enough sense to stay close to safety and protection, it also made her furious. They were two! They were meant to be carefree, innocent of the dangers the galaxy beyond them posed. Now, they'd had their first taste of danger...and while they didn't know it, of course, it was from their own father. Though, to Padme's horror, the morning after the attack, Leia had asked her, "Mama, why bad man 'ook 'ike 'uke?" (She had trouble pronouncing her L's) Padme had silently cursed Vader in Huttese - and the other six languages she knew fluently - for taking off his helmet in front of the twins, and told Leia he didn't. She wasn't sure if Leia believed her, but she hadn't brought it up again, and Luke didn't seem to have noticed. Thank the Force.
It got to the point where she couldn't stand being in the house anymore. All of the stress, the worry, and the negativity… she needed...she needed...Hell, she needed to punch someone. At the very least. She'd called Mon Mothma, asking to come back early...and had been gently rejected. (She suspected Obi-Wan had had something to do with that particular decision) Though, while they had made pleasant small talk at the beginning of their conversation, Mon had mentioned Rebel supplies being stolen by pirates in the Horuz system, and Padme had gotten the brilliant (insane?) idea to take matters into her own hands after her request had been denied.
It was supposed to be simple: Find the pirates, take back the supplies under cover of darkness, and then fly the supplies to the nearest Rebel cell base and get back home. Easy. Piece of Alderenian fig cake. And, once she'd arrived in the sector, it had been easy to find out where the pirates were rumored to be hiding, from the locals. A group of Weequay's...At first, she'd wondered if it was Hondo's gang, but as it turned out, that wasn't the case, to her actual disappointment. It would have been simpler to deal with Hondo as, based on the stories Anakin and Obi-Wan had told her, he was known to be...reliable. Sometimes.
Now, here she crouched, hidden in a tree, watching their movements, her comm turned off so she could properly ignore the millions of calls Obi-Wan and her mother were probably making to her at this very moment. Yeah, she'd left a note. She would be fine. She was quite the skilled assassin now, after all, and so far, she hadn't seen anything at the little forest base that would make her assume she'd need any kind of back up. Fortunately, it was a small pirate cell, and they were loading what looked to be the Rebel supplies into a small, unremarkable cruiser. Oh yeah, this would be easy.
She'd be home before she knew it.
Though, she thought with a scowl, her hand going to the blaster at her hip, she wish she had more weapons with her. Specifically, her lightsaber. Even when she got her new one, she wasn't sure how she'd feel about it. It wasn't...it wasn't Ani's. She scowled once more just thinking about it, putting the binoculars away. Vader likely wouldn't give it back...not unless she killed him for it. But, taking the lightsaber back was the least of the many reasons why she needed to kill that man.
With each passing day, the Empire's atrocities against the galaxy grew...as did her list against Vader.
She waited until cover of darkness, watching as the platform was cleared into the ship. Soon, it appeared that most of the pirates had retreated into their little base, leaving only a few guards at the ramp to the ship. She smirked.
Too easy.
She dropped from her perch, landing softly, quietly on the earth, pulling her blaster from the holster at her side. If she played her cards right, she thought, creeping forward, sticking to the shadows, as she climbed down the hill towards the platform, she could sneak into the ship and be out of there before the guards even had a chance to retaliate. Or, she thought mildly, stepping onto the platform, peering at them, I could just kill them and be out without any alarms raised at all. Honestly, that was probably the better option. With a sigh, she crept forward, almost completely silent as she approached from behind. The two Weequay's were discussing something quietly to one another as she silently holstered the blaster again and pulled out two daggers. Again, she wished she had Anakin's lightsaber as she struck quickly, slicing their necks, cutting off their conversation with a spray of blood. The two thumped to the ground, dead.
Pleased that she wouldn't be interrupted, she turned, running up the ramp. She was clear-just steal the ship and get home free…
Problem was, the ship wasn't exactly empty as she'd expected. Instead, she ran into about fifteen pirates with blasters already pointed right at her. She slid to a stop, her hand going to her side for her lightsaber...to meet an empty belt.
Kriffing Vader.
One of them stepped forward, tsking. "Shame, poppet, that yeh had to go an' leave a bloody mess." He motioned behind her, indicating the dead guards beyond. When Padme said nothing, just stood there, frozen, weighing her options and finding them basically non-existent, the pirate asked innocently, "What? Yeh didn' think we'd hear yeh've been snooping around, tryin' to find our humble band o' pirates?" The other pirates sniggered. Padme had no doubt they'd want nothing more than for her to try something stupid so they could kill her. "Drop the weapons, dearie."
For a moment, Padme had the irrational urge to try to kill them anyway. But, she wasn't stupid. Without a lightsaber, and with fifteen blasters pointed at her by trigger happy pirates, she wouldn't last a second. She was screwed. Very, very screwed. She glared at the pirates, and unholstered her blaster, the daggers, and her various types of grenades. The moment she did, two pirates stepped forward and roughly grabbed her arms, forcing her to her knees, hitting the metal floor of the ship hard. "You'll regret this." She warned as the pirate who'd spoken (maybe the leader, she wasn't sure), approached her. "I have powerful friends. If I don't report soon, you'll have an army at your door." It was a lie, of course. A bluff. No one knew where she'd gone. Force, she should have brought Obi-Wan. Or hell, Rex.
And, if she got out of this alive, she was going to get an earful from every direction about undertaking something this suicidal. Without any backup.
The pirate smirked as if he saw through her bluff. Then, to her horror, he reached out, slipped the hood off of her head, and then reached for her mask, pulling it off. Padme's entire body clenched as she watched for any sort of recognition in the pirate's eyes. It was highly likely they didn't know who she was-this far out in the Outer Rim, news from core planets would be scarce and the likelihood that anyone cared about a former Senator from Naboo (especially a so-called dead one), would be pretty slim. To her marginal relief, it didn't seem like the pirate leader (or any of the others either) recognized her. That, at least, was one good thing in this mess. "What's a pretty little thing like ye doin' way out here?" The pirate leader mused, "An' wha am I supposed to do with yeh now?"
"Release me." She said, with more confidence than she felt. That got some laughs from the pirates, and her heart hammered erratically against her rib cage. How to get out...how to get out… "If you allow me to return with the supplies you stole, I can assure you the benefits will be greater than anything else. And, you won't end up dead."
The leader snorted. "Wha that'll do is get a knife stuck in me back, I'm sure." He tilted his head, considering her. "I'm sure yeh don' wear the mask fer no reason. I bet the Empire'll pay a pretty penny fer you." Padme's heart sank further at those words. Oh, she'd been so, so kriffing stupid to come here alone without help. The leader inclined his head to the pirates holding her. "Bring her to the brig. I'll contact the Empire."
It was a struggle to keep a level head as she was dragged into their base, past more pirates than she'd noticed during the day time. For such a little base, there were a helluva lot of them in there...and all of them looked heavily fortified. As she was dragged through a mess hall, some of them were admiring a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon, and she figured, based on that, they were more heavily fortified than she'd initially thought they would be. This, she thought scornfully as they tossed her rather roughly in a cell on the basement level, was just one more reason why she should have brought Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan was always investigating every possibility, preparing for the worst. He didn't jump headlong into the fray. But, after all, she had married a Skywalker. And, Skywalkers were not known for their patience. Now, however, if she didn't get out of there fast, she'd be turned in to the Empire, and while these pirates didn't truly know the value of the prisoner they held, it wouldn't take the Emperor long to figure out who she was. And that, was something she could not allow. She had a feeling that the Emperor would not let her go as Vader had.
As soon as the pirates had left her alone in her cell, tossing her mask and weapons onto a table at the end of the prison, Padme leapt into action. Many things had changed since that fateful night on Mustafar, but Padme's preparedness for situations such as this had not. Reaching down into a hidden sleeve inside her boot, she pulled out her trusty pins. She smirked. For whatever reason, whenever she'd been captured, none of her captors had bothered to check her boots for anything she could use to escape. Or her hair. Sometimes, with the right hairstyle, she could hide the pins in there, as she had done on Geonosis. Hence, her ability to escape. Always. Though, how she'd make it through all of those pirates without getting caught - or worse killed, she had no idea. Yet. Without her lightsaber...she was good, but the edge she'd learn to wield over her adversaries was gone. She'd have to make do.
Fortunately for her, she was known for being a master of improvisation.
It took longer than she would have liked to spring the lock. It was more complicated than she initially thought, but after much patience and determination, not to mention muttered swearing, she heard the satisfying click that indicated she'd unlocked it, and she gently pushed the cell door open with a groan that made her freeze and cringe, listening for the approach of suspicious pirates. After a few moments of silence, she breathed a sigh of relief, as she rushed over to the table to begin re-outfitting herself with her weapons and mask.
"Guess you didn't need saving after all."
The voice was deep and amused, and it came from the shadows to her left. She reacted on pure instinct. She grabbed her heavy Corellian blaster and whirled, pointing it at the intruder. But, who she found was not at all who she would have expected: She'd expected a pirate, or, in her surprise, an Imperial (which wasn't logical since they couldn't have gotten there so fast). Instead, she found herself looking at a rather muscular masked man, who immediately raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa there," his voice came through a metal black mask that covered the bottom half of his face, much like her own did, except his had a voice modification device attached somewhere in it. At least, that's what it sounded like. It was too deep and metallic sounding to be anything near natural. "At least you could thank me for attempting to rescue you before blowing my head off. Don't you think?"
Padme frowned, frozen to the spot, taking him in with a sweep of her gaze. He was dressed almost similarly to her: With a hood that cast his eyes in shadow, a black leather form-fitting tunic, black pants with a black leather belt, and black knee-high boots with black leather gloves covering his hands...and something hanging from his belt. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the guy had deliberately dressed to match her. "Well, I don't need saving, as you can see." She said sarcastically, "Who the hell are you anyway?"
He splayed his hands out wide innocently. "Just a friend." She shifted the gun a little higher, her arm steady - and her aim straight at his head, and he quickly added, "You can call me Sandstorm."
She stared at him in utter disbelief, her eyebrows shooting up and her eyes going wide. "Sandstorm?!" She echoed incredulously. "What kind of person goes by a stupid name like that?"
His voice, even through the vocoder, was amused,"The same kind of person who goes by the name of Nightblade, milady.." Her grip tightened on her blaster in annoyance, and he seemed to notice that. In fact, he seemed hyper-aware of her every movement, her every breath even. "It's not hard to figure out who you are, Madam. Most people don't run around dressed like...Well. Us. And you were targeting these pirates for the shipment they stole from the Rebellion, right?"
When she didn't answer, he sighed through his mask. "It's not a secret in these parts that the shipment was stolen. And, most of the Outer Rim worlds are beginning to talk about an assassin for the Rebellion named Nightblade. I took a wild guess." He cocked his head, watching her. "Though, I guess I could always mention what other name you go by…"
She realized, then, that her hood was still down, and she'd yet to put on the mask. He needed to die. Now. "Well, I can't have that secret being slipped out to the entire Galaxy…" she began, and he laughed, startling her more. Who the hell was this guy?
"Oh, don't worry, your secret is safe with me." He reached down to his belt, and she jerked the gun forward in warning. He paused, his hand hovering over the object on his belt. "Relax. You aren't the only one who is supposed to be dead, y'know. I'm a Jedi." A Jedi?! Padme thought, even more incredulous, as sure enough, the man calling himself Sandstorm pulled out a lightsaber and ignited it with a snap-hiss, the blade glowing bright azure blue in the darkness. For a moment, she saw blue eyes under the hood...but nothing else to give her a good indication of who the man was. She tried to get a glimpse of the hilt of the weapon, but it was wrapped in black leather, naturally, obscuring it.
She did not lower her blaster, but she didn't make any moves to attack either. If he was a Jedi, shooting at him would just be pointless. "You're supposed to be dead."
Another cock of the head, another amused reply. "So are you." Damn that vocoder. She'd met most of the Jedi during her time as queen and senator...many of whom had blue eyes. And, were human males...at least she thought he might have been human. And, had blue blades. Hell, she'd even known a couple who had added leather to the hilt of their lightsabers because it supposedly gave them a better grip on it.
"You know having that lightsaber doesn't prove you're a Jedi." She pointed out, logically, with a quirk of her brow.
"True. I'm hoping you drop that blaster and allow me to prove it to you by assisting your full escape from this den of scum and villainy." He sounded more amused than he had any right to be. But, if he was telling the truth, and was either a Jedi or at least trained in the art of the lightsaber as she was, he would block any shot she took at him. Or, the pirates took at him.
She hesitated. If he was a Jedi, then it would mean a lot not only to the Rebellion, but to Obi-Wan and Yoda. Even more immediate, she would definitely get out of there in one piece. But, if he was lying and this was some sort of trick… "Why are you here?"
"In this room? At this base? Or both?" When she shot him a glare, he replied, "I was here because I too heard about the stolen shipment. Like I said, it isn't a secret in these parts. When I arrived, I saw you get dragged into the base and, well..." he shrugged his broad shoulders. Force, she hadn't realized how tall he was. "I wasn't about to leave you to your fate. I did, after all, used to be a Jedi. Saving people is sort of what we do. Well, did. So, I snuck in here after you and…" he waved his hand to indicate them, "the rest is history."
She still didn't move. It was a gamble, trusting a masked person she didn't know. Maybe he was one of those Inquisitors she'd heard about, and he was working for the Empire. Maybe, he'd decided to do his own thing and was only out for himself, like a smuggler. If Obi-Wan were here, he probably wouldn't have trusted the man named Sandstorm. But, what choice did she have? She was one person against many...too many without a lightsaber of her own...and if this man was who he said he was, it would certainly level the playing field. Finally, she came to her decision and lowered the weapon. "My name is Nightblade." She said firmly, warning in her voice: Call her any other name, and she'd put a blaster bolt through his head, Jedi or no. She holstered her weapon and proceeded to put back on her mask and hood.
He seemed to have gotten the message, based on his smirking reply, "Well, better get ready, Nightblade. We've got a ship to take back."
What the hell was she thinking in doing this?
Honestly, being foolhardy was never one of his wife's traits, but somehow, in the last two years, she'd developed it. He shook his head in exasperation, watching as she dashed up the stairs.
He'd already sensed at least fifteen pirates waiting for her through the Force when he'd arrived at the scene. He'd watched, impressed in spite of his irritation, as she ruthlessly dispatched the two guards at the base of the ramp.
Impressive. Most impressive, the Dark Side whispered to him. Still, he couldn't deny a niggling sense of… What? Outrage?...No, shocked disbelief that his sweet, caring, pacifist wife who abhorred violence...had turned into such a cold-blooded killer.
Even so, she was smart enough to know she'd need backup. Especially for something of this nature.
How could she be so unbelievably reckless?! Vader thought furiously for about the billionth time, as he followed Padme up the stairs towards where the first set of guards had stood. The room beyond would still be full of pirates...heavily armed pirates. Hell, even for a Force-sensitive taking on a band of pirates was a challenge by themselves. Even with Padme, as skilled as she now was, fighting at his side, and without the use of the Dark Side, he was going to have trouble getting them both out of this mess. But, he couldn't resort to using the Dark Side, not as Sandstorm. He couldn't help mentally swearing in Huttese at that. Yeah, even Sith Lords get frustrated.
But, he sighed, it was necessary for his ruse.
Padme knew enough about the Force to spot its use...and the moment he used it, his eyes would turn Sith yellow again, and then all of his carefully devised plans would be ruined. Not that he'd planned on enacting his grand plot so soon, but when he'd woken up one morning and checked on the holofootage to find Obi-Wan and Jobal freaking out about a note Padme had left behind...well, it didn't take much for him to rewind the footage, see her sneak off in the middle of the night, and...well, the droids didn't follow her beyond the property. The only reason he'd figured out where she was going was because he'd listened in on the conversation between her and Mon Mothma and overheard about the stolen Rebel shipments.
If he hadn't had his droids watching her, he fumed silently, his teeth grinding behind the mask, she would have been killed. Probably. Most likely. But, even taking that risk, when she had their twins waiting for her at home, was a stupid one! He longed to take her by the shoulders, shake some sense into her, and demand to know what in the kriff had possessed her to come out on this mission?! And, alone with no backup?! Without even telling anyone?! But to do so would again, not only blow his cover, but it would also alert her to the fact that he was keeping a very close eye on her and the kids. Not a conversation he wanted to have in the middle of a band of pirates. Thank the Force that he'd ordered Piett to procure this disguise immediately after he'd decided on this course of action; otherwise, he wouldn't have been ready to jump in and help her.
Still, if he was honest with himself, being next to her, ready to face a horde of enemies...it was like old times...Exhilarating and intoxicating. Padme, the fierce love of his life who, despite her seemingly delicate upbringing as a queen and then a senator, was a bit of a warrior herself with nerves and a spine of durasteel. He, her Jedi protector, sworn to give up his life if needed to protect her, not just because he'd been a Jedi, but also because he loved her with every fiber of his being. They had made quite the duo, a unified team, despite their many differences. Things had obviously changed, though. He wasn't a Jedi anymore, only pretending to be one. She wasn't a senator any longer, but rather an assassin. A very lethal and efficient one at that. And, they weren't just looking out for each other for the other's sake, but now their children's sake. But despite that, he couldn't help but look at the back of his wife's hooded head and smile.
Even as his eyes moved slowly down her delectable figure to check out her very, ah, attractive behind, and for a split second, as he watched her hips sway so sensually as she walked ahead of him, a predatory and feral grin spread on his lips, and he felt that familiar tightening flare to life in his body that only she inspired in him.
Stop that, he chided himself, willing his body to calm down, as they reached the door, You are not Vader, or even Anakin Skywalker: Right now, you're Sandstorm, a hidden Jedi, and if you're going to do this, you can't be checking her out every five seconds! Even if she is your wife. And, hot as hell in that skintight outfit. And, the most amazing woman in the entire galaxy….
"Okay," She whispered, totally oblivious to the thoughts running through her companion's head, and thankfully breaking off his rather amorous train of thought. She turned to him, her blaster in hand. "We go in blasting. I need to get to the Z-6. I assume you're familiar with it?"
He rolled his eyes and gave her an 'of course I do' look, but the effect was ruined by the mask and hood, and the dim lighting in the stairwell. "I served in the Clone Wars, just as all the other Jedi. Yes, I know the gun." Force, it was strange to have yet another vocoder changing his voice. He'd installed one in the mask that wouldn't sound like Vader, but it still changed his voice to where she wouldn't recognize it.
In the dim lighting, he could barely see her dark eyes peeking out over the mask. "Good. I also assume you'll be able to get me over there?" She pointed forward, indicating where they were headed.
"With my eyes closed, milady." He couldn't help it. He should have been serious, especially since their lives were at stake here, but being in her soothing presence...his shields dropped, and he couldn't help but tease her. Force, it felt so good to tease her again. It felt so good to just be with her again...even if she didn't know it was him.
Padme didn't seem amused by his joke, for she rolled her eyes and turned back to the door. "After you, Master Jedi." She didn't say it like she used to, with a slight tease in her voice. She was dead serious, all business, and he had to push down the irritation that instantly rose up in his chest. Gain her trust, he thought over and over again, Gain her trust. He stepped forward, took a deep breath, and kicked the door open, igniting his lightsaber and leaping into the room, cutting down the two guards. He sensed Padme right behind him, firing shots into the crowd of stunned pirates, killing at least four before they seemed to fully understand they were being attacked and ducked for cover.
Soon, blaster bolts were firing on both sides, and he easily reached into the Force to block himself and, more importantly, Padme as she began making her way towards the pirates with the Z-6...who thankfully couldn't seem to get the gun properly loaded. He smirked under his mask. Idiots. These pirates were lucky he wasn't currently playing the role of Vader. They would have all been dead in seconds, crushed like maggots with just a flick of his wrist and a curl of his fingers.
Beside him, Padme fired shot after shot, each of her shots aiming true. He couldn't help but be impressed-she'd always been a fantastic shot before...before everything happened. Now, she was a true Ace with absolutely deadly accuracy, and she showed no mercy to the panicked pirates.
What a woman, and to think, she was all his. Well, she was and very soon will be again, he smiled to himself, his grin once more feral under the mask.
It wasn't long before he got her to the pirates with the gun, and with one easy sweep of his blade, he sliced them in half, the gun tumbling and caught by Padme. He shifted the saber easily, fluidly, in his hand again, deflecting more bolts, savoring the feel of his old blade in his hands. Oh, he hadn't realized how much he'd missed this lightsaber! Somehow, it felt lighter in his hands, more at harmony with the Force around it. He liked his other lightsaber just fine, of course-the crimson color of the blade was pretty cool. But, nothing could compare to his lightsaber, and it felt right having it back in his hand, wielding it to protect and defend once more.
Padme seemed to think the same thing about the Z-6. With a few expert maneuvers (she again surprised him with her skill and knowledge of weaponry), she had the gun locked and loaded and ready to fire. "MOVE!" She shouted, and he quickly ducked to the side, as she let lose a barrage of red lasers into the band of pirates, mowing them down, almost like she was at a shooting gallery, destroying their cover, sending many of them running for the door. He stayed diligently by her side, blocking any who dared shoot her way, and as she pressed forward, so did he. They were the perfect pair-Padme on the offense, him on the defense, until finally the remaining pirates began to turn tail and run.
"Oh," Padme said, as she paused on the gun fire. Vader turned to look at her, arching his eyebrows under his hood, and though he couldn't see anything but her beautiful dark brown eyes, they were alight with eagerness and...dare he say, exhilaration. "I like this gun." She raised it up a little, a fierce determination flaring to life in those chocolate depths, and began firing once more, almost gleefully, into the retreating pirates.
Vader smiled. A true, wild smile. She may have been insane for going after these pirates by herself, true...but by the Force, the woman knew her way around a gun. And, it was getting him all hot and bothered just watching her. It wasn't the first time she'd turned him on during battle (the first being at Geonosis when she'd quipped the "aggressive negotiations" line back at him so cheekily), and he seriously doubted this would be the last time.
At that moment, pirates be damned, he wanted nothing more than to pick her up by her thighs, press her firmly back against the wall with the weight of his body, and kiss her senseless right there...and maybe even more. They'd certainly done that many times before. But, unfortunately, he didn't think she'd changed that much to find making out in a sea of corpses sexy, and they still weren't done with the pirates. So, setting all romantic notions aside from his mind, onward they pressed, out of the now torn apart base and onto the landing pad, where the pirates were racing towards the supply ship. "Oh no you don't," He snarled, "If we don't want to miss our ride, we'd best drop the gun and take them out at close range. Quick."
"Well, you must be a Jedi, because you read my mind." She said sarcastically, and she dropped the Z-6 to the floor with a thud, before both of them sprinted to the ship. Sensing that the machine gun had stopped, some of the pirates attempted to take cover within the ship, poking out of the ramp opening when they thought it was safe to fire on them. Again, Vader blocked them easily. How were people so stupid? He wondered-didn't they know that if they couldn't stop him when they were at full force, they weren't about to stop a Jedi when there were only a few left?
Wait...not Jedi. Sith. He was a Sith. He needed to remember that.
Apparently, the pirates didn't get the memo, and they continued to fire uselessly. One even threw a grenade, but Vader quickly Force-pushed it out of the way, careful to keep the ship undamaged, as it exploded in midair way off to their right. They reached the ramp, and with a clear shot, Padme dispatched more of the pirates while Vader blocked, until there were only two left, cowering behind one of the crates. Vader stalked forward, Padme close beside him, and Vader reached out and Force pushed the crates away, leaving the pirates exposed. They stared at them with wide, frightened eyes, and though Vader moved forward to finish them, Padme held up a hand, stopping him. "Nightblade," Vader warned as she moved forward towards them, but she ignored him, much to his annoyance. Still, he honored her wishes, despite his deep desire to jump forward and pull her behind him, back to safety. He couldn't help it. He was still her husband, even if she didn't know that, and it was his job, his duty to protect her. Always.
"I told you that you'd regret this." She said softly to one of them, whose eyes were so wide Vader was sure they'd pop out of his head. She raised her blaster to his forehead, her voice switching to Hothan ice in a split second. "Who did you contact? What did you tell them?"
The pirate trembled so hard, it was a wonder he could stay upright. "N-no one, I didn' c-c-call n-no one, communications were j-jammed, I swear!"
"Ah." Vader said, shrugging his shoulders. "That would be my fault." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the jamming signal he had modified for situations such as this one. He'd had a feeling that if the pirates knew Padme, or they knew she was a Rebel operative, they'd attempt to turn her in to the Empire. He couldn't have Sidious finding out about the survival of his wife, or Force forbid, his children. He'd die before that happened. So, he'd come prepared. As usual.
Padme cocked her head at the pirate. "Good."
"I-I swear to tell no one, milady, I…" the pirate began, but he never finished. To Vader's utter surprise, Padme shot him, without compunction, and then, before his partner could utter a word of protest, she shot him too, and the ship fell silent.
To his amazement, despite his own record of ruthlessness and cruelty across the galaxy, Vader found he was actually disturbed by this same behavior from his wife. It wasn't like her to kill mercilessly, without any remorse. Yes, she'd killed before...both during the Nabooian invasion by the Trade Federation...and during the Clone Wars, but those circumstances were completely different from this.
This was cold blooded and calculated. And, he couldn't hide the surprise in his voice, even through the vocoder.
"I, uh, didn't think you'd actually kill them." He admitted after a moment of silence.
Padme sighed, her shoulders slumping a little, as she continued to stare at the dead pirates before them. "I'm not a Jedi, Sandstorm. I'm an assassin. Killing for the Rebellion is my job. It's what I do. I have...important things I need to protect." His mind strayed, as it often did these days, to their twins. He had a feeling she was talking about them. "I'm not about to trust pirates to keep my secrets." She turned to him, her eyes boring into his. "I'm not even sure I should trust you with it. I don't even know who you really are."
Vader forced himself to stay calm and casual. He'd gotten good at lying since he'd become a Sith. It wasn't just about words, but also tone of voice, gestures, even body language. He felt certain, however, that she wouldn't kill him like she had the pirates. In her mind, he was a Jedi, and Jedi were the good guys, in her eyes. "Understandable," He admitted coolly, leaning against the side of the ship. "But, I too have important things I must protect." Like you, my Angel, and our children, he added silently to himself. "I too have to do what I must to keep them safe." He shrugged again. "Perhaps someday I'll reveal my secret. If I decide I can trust you."
He could practically feel Padme frown from behind her mask. Her eyes narrowed. "How did you escape Order 66?" She asked, her voice suspicious. Naturally. He'd expected this. And, he had a ready answer for her. His was nothing if not meticulous in his planning.
"I was assigned to a secret mission." He explained, though of course he'd made it all up: based on fact, of course. There had been plenty of Jedi who fit the description he was telling her. "I only had two clones with me. They were relatively easy to escape from." he paused for a moment, making it sound believable. "Unlike my brothers and sisters, who were surrounded by entire squadrons of them." He said this softly, looking away from her, as if thinking back to the night it had happened.
There was a silence. Then, "I'm sorry." She sounded like she meant it, too. "Where have you been all this time? Did you get Master Obi-Wan's message?"
Vader scowled behind the mask at the mention of his old master's name. "Yes, I did." He said, gravely. It hadn't taken them long to find out he'd changed the message to all of the Jedi, warning them to stay away from Coruscant and the Temple and to go into hiding across the galaxy. It had certainly made his job much more difficult...but now, it gave him an excuse. "I was hidden. I strayed from planet to planet, always looking over my shoulder to make sure the Empire hadn't caught up to me. It...gave me an opportunity to witness the brutality of the Empire first-hand. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore, and I was looking for a way to introduce myself to the Rebellion. I heard the talk about this stolen shipment and figured it couldn't hurt if I introduced myself after delivering back their stolen goods."
For a long while, Padme studied him, as if measuring every bit of his story, looking for any flaws in it. His wife wasn't an idiot. Far from it, and he willed her to believe it. To believe him. Finally, she seemed satisfied that he wasn't lying, giving him a quick nod of her head. "Fine, Sandstorm, or whatever your name is. You've got your invitation." She held out her hand for him to shake. "To the Rebellion, but not it's leaders. Not yet. Even the Rebellion's top leaders know who I am, so until you're ready to reveal your identity to them, I have no interest in bringing you to them. Understood?" He took her hand and shook it, nodding his head. Fair enough. He'd honestly expected that. Most importantly, he was in. Darth Vader, the sworn enemy of the Rebellion, had just infiltrated it...and by the time he was done, Sidious would be dead, along with the last of the Jedi, he'd have the Empire firmly under his control, and he'd have Padme and his children back home, safe and happy with him, where they belonged. "Now, are you going to help me shove these bodies out of this ship so we can get out of here?"
He grinned behind the mask, pleased at his handiwork. "Right away, milady."
So far, this is my Beta's favorite chapter. I enjoyed writing it-having Vader and Padme be sexy badass killers is ALWAYS a win for me. But I'm not sure if I'd call it my favorite chapter...especially for what's to come (seriously). So I'm curious to hear what ya'll think (yes I said ya'll, I grew up in Texas, after all).
Also. Idk if I've said this, but I'm saying it. This is obviously massively AU. I'm having fun with it. So yes, I know Padme is different, and I know some things that happened later in timeline are pushed up. I try to be more accurate with my other two stories, but this one is just a hell of a lot of fun to write, so it's easier for things to get all messed around timeline wise, cuz I'm focused on the action/romance/angst. So...sorry, but I hope you enjoy the ride anyway.
The song for this chapter...and frankly the entire story... is Woman by Wolfmother. If you haven't listened to that song...do it. It's one of my favorites, and when first coming up with this story, it was the song that played over and over again in my head. It's a huge inspiration for this one.
Review!
Love,
Sarah
