Chapter 3-Ghost Stories

"Ani, are you hungry tonight?"

"Not really, angel. I'm thinking of skipping my meal."

Padme walked into the living quarters of the ship that they had called home for the past year, a glimmer of hope in her eyes as she approached her husband and put her arm softly on his shoulder. "Ani, let's have a feast. Let's engorge ourselves, let ourselves go, give in to our stomach's desires."

Anakin turned around to face his wife with a confused look on his face. "Padme, if you're that hungry, then just say so. Don't be ashamed of it."

"Well, I'm not really hungry at all," confessed Padme sheepishly.

"So why all this talk about a feast?"

"Well…" Padme broke away from her husband and started pacing around the room. "Ani, the sooner we get rid of the food, the sooner we can go to Chandrila! God, I don't think we've left this damned planet in months now."

Anakin wanted to comfort his wife. He couldn't bear to see her in despair like this, because of him. "Padme, if you want to go to Chandrila, then just say so."

"No! We can't go to Chandrila. Going there too much will endanger us, and it'll endanger Senator Mothma and the rebellion and God knows what else. So we'll stay here. We're stuck here until you're done with whatever you're doing!" She shot an accusing look at her husband.

"Look, I don't want to stay here either. I want more than anything else to get this Chosen One business over with, defeat the Sith, see our children again! But I can't, I just know I can't! Not until I find what I'm supposed to find."

"And what exactly are you looking for?"

"I don't know."

"So how are you supposed find something when you don't even know what it is? Aaarh! We're stuck here, forever, just because of some…some vague notion you have."

"It's not a vague notion, Naberrie! It's what the Force is telling me!" His words fell on deaf ears as he rushed to catch up with Padme, who was by then already storming out of the room.

Padme found a chair in the kitchen, sat down, and broke down in tears. Her husband stood helplessly in the doorway. He didn't know how make her feel better, especially since was his fault his wife was in this situation in the first place. He immediately regretted yelling those last words at her. She didn't deserve it.

"Ani, what's happening to us? Why are we arguing like this? Why are we fighting? Why am I so, so selfish?"

"Angel, you're not selfish. It's, it's just this damn planet. The Dark Side is strong here. It distorts the strongest of us." Anakin pulled up a chair next to his wife and reached for her hand in her lap.

"Damn the Dark Side! Damn the Force! They can all go to Hell for all care! Ani, I wish the Jedi never agreed to train you!"

"Padme, how could you say that? I know more than anyone that the Jedi aren't perfect, but without them I'd be…"

"Without them we'd be normal, Ani. I'd have kept you on Naboo, and we would've had ten more years to spend with each other. We could've rescued your mother earlier, and we'd all be happy. Ani, we would've been a normal family."

Anakin held his wife tightly and meditated on his wife's words. He admitted to himself that he would've preferred to stay on Naboo, to grow up with Padme, to enjoy the normal life that had evaded them for so long. No, he had to get rid of those fantasies. They just weren't meant to be. "Padme, I would give the world for an extra minute with you, but we can't change the past, we can't change our destinies. Even if the Jedi hadn't trained me, Sidious still exists. And he still would've come after me."

"I know, I know. You're right, I guess."

"I'm sorry I had to bring you here, angel. This is a bad place."

"Anakin, do you believe in ghosts."

"I'm not sure."

"Me either. Not anymore." She let her husband gently wipe her tears away, and rested her head on his shoulder. "Did I ever tell you the story of King Oeden the Mad?"

"I don't think so."

"He was the King of Naboo, back before the Republic. When he was still the Prince, he got into an argument with his father, the King. He was banished from Theed, but he came back, with an army, and overtook the city." Padme paused for a second, not wanting to finish her story. "He walked into the Royal Palace and killed his mother and father, to take the throne."

"That's a sad story, Padme. Whatever made you think of it?"

"King Oeden went mad shortly afterwards. He was ridden with guilt until he couldn't take it anymore. One night he ran down one of the palace's hallways and threw himself out the window. They say his ghost still roams that hallway sometimes. They say his eyes, are, are so sad, that if you look into them you would cry for weeks. I didn't believe in ghosts when I was young, but sometimes I would wander that hallway late at night, and I would shiver, and tears would come out of my eyes. I never saw anything, but I felt the pain, the sadness, in the air. It was overwhelming. And it's exactly like that here, except it's so much more…intense, and thick."

"I can't tell you that what you feel isn't real, because it is. The past, in this place, it doesn't want to let go. But Padme, the past can't hurt you here, unless you let it get to you. You've fought in battles before, Padme, where your enemies could've easily hurt you, or killed you. But you survived, because you're strong. Just be yourself, and you'll be fine." Anakin searched Padme's feelings, and his words seemed to have a positive effect on her. He felt like a hypocrite, though, for he harbored more fear in his heart beyond what his wife could even possibly dream of.

Tep Grello was the one Palpatine was eyeing. He had been the Padawan of Mace Windu. He had defended the Temple valiantly from the onslaught of clone troopers, had engaged in combat with Vader. Grello was one of the lucky, or rather unlucky, ones that survived the encounter. Skywalker's lightsaber had gone through his left arm, and he fell onto the floor, watching his would-be killer run into the younglings' room, lightsaber still flaming. He'd vowed revenge on the betrayal.

Palpatine had taken him, along with thirty other Padawans who survived. He nursed them back to health, he tortured them, and he'd nurtured their Dark Side. This was different from when he'd first tried to convert Jedi Padawans. These kids had suffered much, were recovering from trauma, and now were waking up to the real nightmare. Darth Sidious's first attempts at conversion more than thirty years ago had been met with a courageous and stoic serenity. This was a much different case. Darth Vader had already planted the seeds of anger in these Jedi, and Sidious only need to water them. Tep Grello especially.

The young Jedi, stared at Palpatine defiantly, hate in his eyes. Much to the Sith Lord's satisfaction. "You hate me, don't you?"

"No." Grello wasn't too convincing.

"Don't deny it. Hate is natural. Hate is human. Feel your hate, acknowledge its existence, let it help you. You have a long journey ahead you, Grello."

"What do you know about my journeys? I doubt you'll even let me out of here, Sith scum." Grello spit out the last two words with animosity.

"I may be a Sith, Jedi, but I am also an Emperor. I have tremendous resources. My will is the law. You will find me a useful ally, Grello. Perhaps I may be able to help you."

"You, help me? How could you possibly help me? You're the one who's responsible for all my troubles, Sith!"

Palpatine chuckled inside. The boy took the bait. "Am I, really? You'll find the two of us have common interests."

"What would that be?" Grello could not help being curious.

"We both want revenge. On the same person. I know him as Darth Vader. You know him as Anakin Skywalker."

"The scum of scum! The traitor." Strangely enough, Grello felt that he could relate with this Sith Lord. He seemed to understand.

"Ah, yes! That he is! He betrayed your Jedi Order, and he betrayed me, too. Now he claims to be neither a Jedi nor a Sith." Darth Sidious's burning irises buried themselves into Tep Grello's eyes. "He's an enemy to BOTH!"

Grello had a bad feeling about where the conversation was headed. He knew the Sith was using him, taking advantage of his dark desires. He had to resist. "Who are you to help me, you're the one who sent him to kill us!"

"Did I? The Jedi were in rebellion against the Republic, that much was true. Empire or Republic though, we are a galaxy of LAWS! I sent my apprentice to arrest the heads of the insurgency. The Jedi were to receive a fair trial, as according to the law. What inner angers drove Vader to commit such a…slaughter…I'll never know." Though Palpatine spoke the last sentence with a tone resembling sincere regret, Grello still had his doubts.

"You lie. You're a Sith. You won't give any Jedi a fair trial. It's all a sh…"

"And what of your Master? Are you going to let the memory of his death, his murder, die in vain?"

"My Master?"

"Master Jedi Mace Windu, specifically. He was an enemy of mine, that much is true. But I respected him. He was a man of reason, of law. He came to arrest me and give me the benefit of what he felt would be a fair trial. Such a different, such a better man, than his assassin." With no warning, Darth Sidious sent the unfortunate Padawan intense images of the final fight between Mace Windu and himself, the encounter at the window, the force lightning, Skywalker running into the room, and slashing his lightsaber at the Jedi Master. Grello saw his Master's arm and lightsaber fall into the pits of Coruscant, and then Mace himself.

"Lies." The word came out as no more of a mumble.

"Search you're feelings! You know it to be true."

And so Tep Grello searched his feelings. He knew he had seen the truth, but there seemed to be something missing. The darkness clouded his feelings though, and he ignored the last piece of the puzzle. "Anakin Skywalker, I will have my revenge!"

"Join me then, Tepoven Grello! You cannot defeat a man as powerful as Skywalker with merely your Jedi abilities. In fact, I don't even think your Code allows for vengeance. Only with the Dark Side will you be powerful enough to fulfill your desires. Be my apprentice, and nothing can stop us!"

"I will join you then."

"Good. Approach me, Darth…Rache. We have a lot of learning to do." And so Darth Sidious found his final apprentice.

Tep Grello did not intend to commit to the Sith. He would use this Sidious to get his revenge on the Skywalker traitor, and then he would bide his time until he had an opportunity. And then he would kill this hideous monster, and rid the galaxy of the Sith.

Palpatine chuckled at the blatantly unshielded thoughts of his new apprentice. And what of yourself, apprentice? Would you rid the galaxy of yourself? Such thoughts from Darth Rache were healthy ones. All the Sith apprentices harbor feelings of hate and fear towards their Masters, and that favor was duly returned. Darth Sidious' master, Darth Plagueis, knew that fact well. That was why he took his own son to be his apprentice. His son would hate him, as a father and as a master, but he would respect him, for they were blood, and he would obey him like a good son should.

Palpatine played the good son for thirty years. Then, one day a speeder bike accident left him on, if not over, the verge of death. Darth Plagueis knew the secrets of life itself, and used his knowledge to bring his son back to life. Having learned the final lesson his master had to offer, Palpatine choked his unsuspecting father to death using the Force, fulfilling a promise he had hidden from the Sith Lord for twenty years.