Hand of Fate
Chapter 7 / Battle for Naboo
For nearly six years of Sabé's life, the palace had been a familiar and safe space. The entirety of the structure was all imprinted in her mind in mental blueprints: the more prominent features such as the banquet and ceremonial halls, the throne room, the prayer and sacrament rotunda, the grand royal quarters, the mezzanine sunroom, the indoor garden sanctuary. As well as the more humble features necessary for operation: the kitchens, the laundry and tech stations, the staff and servant's wings. So many memories were here from her days at the guard. More than knowing the way the palace was laid out, a familiar feeling of home and safety came with these marble floors, gilded columns, and generously sized pristine duraglass windows that let in the beautiful light of a Naboo afternoon.
But today, the palace felt like a snaring trap, and no feeling of safety existed. Only danger of the most lethal kind.
Sabé could hear her heart pounding in her ears oddly against the scream of laserfire currently being traded in the lower grand hallway. From behind cover of a massive pillar, several of which lined either side of the hallway, she returned fire with her S-5 blaster pistol, a rain of green laserbolts screaming out toward droid after droid that stood between her group and the mission at hand—getting to the grand staircase behind all the droids blocking their way. Beside her, Eirtaé and another officer did the same, knelt and crouched and using the column's base as cover as they fired on the enemy. Just—a few—more! Just then a red bolt nicked the side of Sabé's headdress, making her head jerk a bit, and she breathlessly pressed herself back against the cool marble, shielding herself from the relentless laserfire for a brief moment as she panted heavy breaths.
The original plan had been to create a diversion in the hangar bay plaza, storm the hangar bay, get pilots to their fighters, put Anakin somewhere safe to wait, and then go to the palace through an adjacent passage. They'd accomplished all but the last part: coming face-to-face with the dark warrior from Tatooine when they attempted to enter the palace. The second the doors parted to reveal the waiting enemy blocking their way, the Jedi had stepped forward protectively, igniting their sabers—and Padmé had moved her group out to another way with haste. After they fought their way out of the far side of the hangar bay and made to use a service entrance as their exit, Sabé had looked back at the three warriors locked in combat, almost unable to tear herself away. Their flashing sabers, blue and green on red, stuck in her mind. Would the Jedi be able to defeat their insidious opponent?
Sabé came back to the present moment as glass crunched beneath her boots from where Panaka had shot out the adjacent window. Just a moment ago, Blue Group, headed by the captain and Padmé, had used ascension guns to skip this tedious and dangerous task of clearing the way. They would be upstairs already. Gritting her teeth, Sabé returned to her post and made another headshot on an advancing droid. A couple other droids further down took fire and crashed to the ground thanks to the group of officers and Rabé across the hall opposite of them. And then just like that, ceasefire began. Quiet returned. No more sounds of droids advancing, only birds singing somewhere outside through the broken window. Sabé looked across the hall at where Dakana and five other men held their cover. A couple more had made it to a column a little further in toward the staircase. "Is that all of them?" Dakana shouted.
"Think so!" Came a call from another officer ahead.
Rabé, crouched beside Dakana, gave a nod that she saw an all-clear. Sabé cautiously stepped back into the hallway, saw the way was indeed, clear and led the charge with a hand motion of urgency to everyone under her command. The entire group stayed close and ran, knowing every second was necessary.
They sprinted up the grand staircase ahead then took a hard turn to run up another marble flight to the smaller corridor that would take them to the grand hallway, at the end of which was the throne room entrance.
But they were thwarted. The group stopped and ran for cover on opposite sides of that hallway when they saw two destroyer droids perched and waiting there.
Even as the droidekas opened fire from behind their impenetrable shields, Sabé threw herself behind a column, narrowly missing being shot. Beside her, Eirtaé was panting hard. "You okay?" Sabé whispered hard, and the blonde nodded, clutching her weapon harder. She looked shaken up. Rabé gave Sabé a dire look—they were both very scared, and rightly so. Sabé felt it too, but more than afraid, she was determined. There was no option except emancipation. Sabé could hear the march of more battle droids below. They were coming up the stairs they'd just ascended—a clever trap to press them in from both sides. The battle droids were moving slowly, but they'd be here within half a minute at the least. The destroyers were still unleashing pelting laserfire that made thinking difficult and moving forward impossible. Their shield generators would absorb most laserfire and tangible weapons attacks too. Sabé's mind raced with possibilities, all which weren't possible in this exact predicament.
"We can't get past those things without heavy artillery!" Dakana shouted, saying exactly what Sabé had been thinking.
"Which we don't have!" Rabé shouted back.
Sabé's eyes left the enemy and flickered over the massive nearby stone statue of the goddess Yilna the Peaceful that stood to the side of where the droids had stationed themselves. The statue stood in a thoughtful pose with a hand resting to the side of her face. Her flowing dress hitting just above solid stone ankles… ankles that could break. In a flash, she knew what to do. "Follow my fire!" Sabé shouted, turning her crosshairs to the ankle closest to her. Everyone who had vantage did as commanded, firing onto the weak point together. The ankle snapped and rubble exploded as the goddess leaned and then crashed straight down onto the destroyers, crushing them like bugs. The air went quiet again.
Sabé looked between Dakana and Rabé breathlessly, a brief rebel smile popping onto her face. "You were saying?"
"Lucky break," Dakana muttered.
Sabé was already on the move, motioning to three officers in the back—"you three, cover our retreat!"—then signaling the rest to follow her. They ran down the corridor and turned a sharp left into the grand hallway, which was completely empty. They sprinted down the length, seeing Padmé and her group weaponless and surrounded by droids in the throne room. The Viceroy and Rune Haako had them. But not for long.
Even as they ran, Sabé gave a loud, commanding shout that dared all in ear range not to turn their attention to her. "Viceroy!" All heads turned, and droids swiveled too as she came into range. Her blaster was already raising. "Your occupation here has ended!" She declared, and with two precise headshots at two of the droids closest, Sabé turned and ran to her right with her group close behind.
"After her!" The Viceroy could be heard shouting. "This one's a decoy!"
"Cover and fire!" Sabé shouted to the group as the telltale clicking sound of droid footsteps sounded behind them. The group split into two and took cover behind two opposite columns. The sound of laserfire from the throne room, recognizable D-6 blasts, let them all know that Padmé had successfully gotten the hidden blasters out of the throne's secret compartment. Sabé's group shot down the droids that pursued them easily, and even as the last one fell to the ground, the throne room door could be heard closing and sealing. Quiet again returned to the palace and everyone remained in defensive positions, watchful for more enemies. But none came. Daring to hope, Sabé straightened up and others began to do the same. Now they just had to trust that the fighters would get to the droid control ship in time and be able to destroy it.
"All right, I want groups of three to sweep this level for more battle droids. Once we clear the upper level, we'll move downward." No sooner had the words left her mouth than Sabé felt as if her entire sensory system was lit on fire, and a single word—NO!—screamed through her mind, leaving a shocked feeling inside. She looked around in a dumbfounded, adrenaline-drunk panic. What was that? The officers and two other handmaidens were grouping up, unaware of Sabé's sudden fallen face. It was if she was suddenly drowning, and despair and pain ricocheted, her chest ached—in a dreamlike state she drifted to the window to look out, where she saw the plaza they'd just sieged laid out below. Beyond it, her gaze and feelings were drawn to the hangar facility. Her senses struggled to understand. Searching, she happened to look down at the street below, and her heart lurched and leapt sickeningly—a girl with two buns perched atop her head like little ears ran from a fleet of marching droids. And that girl looked like Zana. Her blood surged and without a coherent thought, only instincts, Sabé flipped her blaster in her hand and smashed the hilt into the duraglass panel, sending glass falling like rain even as she clumsily climbed the sill and stood on the precarious ledge outside the building.
"Zana!" she screamed, but she no longer saw anyone… just the squadron of droids. She was too high to jump down safely, but… her eyes darted around then found a nearby ledge that would work and she fired her ascension cable into it—not the exact intended usage, but it would have to do. The moment the anchor took hold, she jumped, not downward but in a sideways arc that would make for a less high-velocity fall. She activated the extension switch as she jumped, coaxing as much length out as possible. Swinging down nearly two stories, the length of it wasn't quite long enough to take her to the street, and the harsh jerk of tension when the length maxed out caused her to lose grip. Her weapon uselessly bounced back out of her hands and Sabé fell the extra eight or so feet with awkward grace, landing in a protective roll and springing to her feet right in front of a battle droid. If a droid could be surprised, that one thankfully was—and thanks to its slow response time, Sabé yanked its gun from the spindly fingers holding it and ran sideways, dodging the laserfire that began while returning with her own—crashing behind the cover of an abandoned speeder parked in front of a little home nearby. It was there that she realized she wasn't alone. A group of perhaps fifteen children stared back at her with wide, fearful eyes—varying in ages from very young to young teens. They looked as shocked to see her as she was to see them. No familiar faces greeted her. Laserfire continued to pummel the speeder and scream off the cobblestone just a few paces from where Sabé crouched.
"Queen Amidala…!" one of the little boys said, his voice filled with hope and awe.
Sabé looked around quickly, assessing the situation in a moment of sheer panic. It was no longer just her, but all these other little lives. They were in a corner of the plaza with no escape. There was a walled staircase beside them that was too high to jump to from here. The other escape option was out in the open. She had to act quickly. Formulating a plan the only way she knew, Sabé gave the frightened children the best encouraging smile she knew how. "Hang tight kids," she said, "and whatever you do, stay down!" She sprung up to a protected crouched position with the gun and her eyes the only things above the hood of the speeder. There she unleashed a blazing spray of laserfire onto the droids, cutting the advancing group down one by one with the faster report of the heavier artillery droid gun she'd stolen. But beyond the remaining droids, she saw a much worst threat. It was a tank that slowly approached—its cannon was rotated the wrong way but slowly cranking toward them, a death sentence if they didn't act. Do something, now! Sabé, half crazed with adrenaline, stood and strode out from cover, firing the entire time and holding the larger droid's gun with both hands. Only a handful of droids were left, but if she didn't somehow disable that tank, they would all die in a single blast. It was then that she noticed the cover fire. Someone else was shooting the droids too—from the staircase she'd noticed. The last advancing droid took a laserbolt squarely to the chest and fell over, but not by her shot.
"Nebira!" came a familiar voice, and with a whip of her head, Sabé followed the voice to where Gregar—limping down the stairs with a bloody bandage tied across his head to cover one of his eyes—held a detonator ready to toss to her. Behind him, giving cover fire with another stolen battle droid gun, was Officer Ludo.
Sabé raised her hand automatically even as Gregar tossed the small, apple-sized weapon. The second she caught it, she took off at a mighty sprint, watching the barrel of the cannon slowly swivel toward the group of children as she willed herself to run faster than she ever had before—teeth gritted, feet flying, leg muscles screaming, hand clenching the detonator, she felt like she wouldn't make it—like she would be met with a lethal blast straight to the chest. Even as these half-formed thoughts raced through her brain, she pushed herself even faster and in the last stretch took a flying jump, simultaneously switching the detonator on—the rapid beeping indicator started—she had three seconds. She crashed into the tank a millisecond after pressing the switch, an arm around the weapon as she stared straight down the barrel with her heart in her throat. She slammed the detonator into the hole with everything she had, hearing the beeping rapidly increasing in pitch and speed even as she shoved off and jumped again, desperately clawing for escape from the coming blast, which went off just then, sending her flying further than a natural jump ever could. A sickening blast of heat and enormous pressure slammed into her, sending her barreling toward the ground as shrapnel screamed against her skin in several places she couldn't make sense of in that moment. She collided with the ground shoulder and headpiece first, aware of one thing: she was alive.
Pain shot through all her body in various ways: screaming aches, stings, pangs. She shakily pushed herself up, blinking against doubled vision, trying to locate Zana. Had she been hallucinating what she saw? She managed to stand up. Her headpiece and the attached wig had gone askew and Sabé ripped it off completely, wincing anew at the pain that the few remaining clips gave as she pulled it off. She threw it aside, leaving her natural hair that was gathered in a low bun.
"Sabé, thank the gods!" said Officer Ludo, who had jogged over to her. Her uniform was dingy and torn in places, she no longer wore a hat—but she was in one piece and stood proud and strong, unlike Gregar, who was a few steps behind, limping with a leg injury and eye injury. Sabé stumbled past Ludo, only one thing on her mind.
"Are you all right?" Gregar asked her, stopping her with two firm hands.
Sabé looked at him dangerously. Everything else had to wait. "Where's Zana? Where is she?" She asked, voice trembling. Gregar looked at her for two seconds that felt like an eternity, then toward the house the children were huddled outside of. Sabé didn't understand, and all she could feel was dread and a conviction that her sister was dead. And then her gaze lifted to the window where a few wide-eyed faces were now peeking. One of which was, indeed… Zana!
With a cry, Sabé raced toward the house even as Zana's head disappeared from the window—two seconds later, Zana ran out of the front door even as Sabé sobbingly caught her sister in the most intense embrace, falling to her knees to be the same height as her sibling. Who was hugging who tighter, it was hard to say. Sabé pulled back, examining her sister franticly and quickly. She saw no injuries, only dishevelment. "You're all right?" she asked urgently. Zana nodded, her eyes full of overwhelmed tears.
"Are you?" she asked.
Shaking and smiling with glinting eyes even despite the pain Sabé was overjoyed. The blast had left her with some injuries and a sooty layer, her makeup had smeared and her hair was wild. She was sure she looked awful, but she could only rejoice. "Yes, I am." She hugged Zana again and squeezed her hard, feeling her sister's heartbeat against hers. Her eyes closed tight, and gratitude brought her to her metaphorical knees as she cradled the back of Zana's head in a tender embrace. "I am."
In the sky above, a great and sudden explosion sounded and everyone looked up, tensing. The droid control ship. "They did it…" Sabé breathed. Even though she couldn't see any droids nearby, she heard the telltale sound of them falling down uselessly beyond their field of vision in the plaza beyond. Relief made her shoulders sag and tears spring to her eyes anew, and she gave a breathless little laughing sound. That meant they had won. Everything was going to be all right again.
Nearby, Yané and Saché came out of the house, no longer in gowns but in what looked like pilfered utility clothing. Guns were strapped to them, and they were holding and held by clinging children—all in school uniforms. Relieved, anxious smiles were tense on both their faces. Sabé smiled back, her eyebrows moved toward each other deeply in a fiercely emotional and relieved expression. Their relief mirrored her own. Sabé looked at Zana again and then realized her sister—her squeamish about weaponry and fighting sister—was wearing a stolen battle droid's gun slung across her back. Impressed surprise made Sabé's eyebrows raise slightly. "I left for a few days and you're a warrior now?" she asked softly.
Zana shrugged, seeming almost shy.
"You're not the only brilliant shot in your family, turns out," Gregar said with a grimacing smile. But he had other things on his mind. "Where's the queen? What's happening?"
Sabé stood up on weak legs, not sure where to even begin. "It's…" a sudden pang struck her like lightning, and she forgot everything, only felt called to look toward the hangar bay again. That same sensation she'd felt moments before was back, and even more intensely. Pain that swallowed whole, loss, a terrifying sensation. "Wait," she breathed, drifting a few steps forward as if that would help her see or understand better. She felt it in her bones then, crystal clear like the sound of a glass bell in her mind: Obi-Wan.
She'd forgotten for a few brief moments. About him. About Qui-Gon. Their sinister attacker. It was all coming back like a tidal wave, and a terrible feeling of dread came over her as she continued forward toward the hangar as if in a trance. She heard Gregar calling her name in confusion but she didn't stop. An undeniable pull carried her forward toward the still and empty hangar. And then Obi-Wan appeared, coming out of the hangar entrance without his robe, alone. Carrying someone.
Oh gods. Understanding floored her. Sabé suddenly was running again as Obi-Wan stumbled a few more steps.
She got to him just as he began to go down, and she tried to brace him as his legs gave out—but he was too heavy and too determined to fall. He collapsed to a knee there at the plaza's edge, Qui-Gon's limp form lolling onto the ground. Sabé had gone to her knees at his side as Obi-Wan slumped over his master, crying into a hand pressed to his face. Only crying wasn't the right word. it was weeping—the type of grief that comes from the deepest and most painful place in the soul. "He's gone, he's gone," he said in a ragged and wretched whisper. Sabé pressed fingers to Qui-Gon's neck where a pulse would be. The skin was already cold and felt more dense than it should. Her fingers came away as her face creased in utter dismay. He was dead. How? Shocked and horrified, her heart felt like it burst as Obi-Wan's miserable sounds continued. Not knowing what else to do, Sabé grabbed him hard and held on tight and close—her makeup smearing into his face and hair. His grief was so tangible to her that she thought she might cry too. He grabbed back, sobbing, and when he did that she held on tighter, her one arm curved around his back and grabbing into the fabric at his shoulder, the other one going to the side of his face as if to steady him. His face hid in the curve of her neck, and his pain cried out of him brokenly.
Having approached slow and unsure, Gregar and Ludo, the handmaidens and all the children hung back about twenty paces. None of them even knew who Obi-Wan or Qui-Gon were. The handmaidens began to guide the children away from the site, while Gregar and Ludo remained watchful and vexed. Sabé barely noticed them. It was like Obi-Wan's emotions were hers, and they were suffocating, blinding, weighing more than the entire universe in that moment. It was the kind of pain she knew, that she would never want anyone else to ever feel. How could she protect him from this? She knew she couldn't. But the instinct was still there. She heard herself saying shh, shh. It's all right. It's going to be all right.
Overhead, yellow star fighters soared, the familiar whine of their engines causing Sabé to look upward with hurting eyes. Behind the yellow streaks of the aircraft, the destroyed droid control ship was still breaking apart in pale blue grace.
Victory—but at such a cost. Warm tears fell out of her eyes, and all she could hear were the utterly wretched cries of the one she held in her arms. Her fingers tightened into him and she shut her eyes, wishing she believed in gods and whatever comfort and healing they could bring in a time such as this.
Author's Notes: Omg :'( I remember when I saw TPM in 1999 and Qui-Gon died it just gutted me so badly… well, this version is somehow worse. Exploring Obi-Wan's grief in this story is going to be a little more realistic than what the movies portrayed.
I know this one was a bit shorter and Sabé focused (thoughts on her battle prowess?) but next couple chapters will be a bit longer and have a lot of S/O interactions + a little more Obi-Wan focus too, and then we launch off into original adventures so get ready. I'm loving your reviews and messages, please keep them coming! Don't forget to visit the blog where I post photos, feels, answer reader questions, and tease upcoming characters/plots etc :)
