Again, thank you so much for your kind reviews. Sorry about the long delay in the update. I had a little bit of writer's block trying to figure out in which direction to take some of the characters.

Chapter 8-The Once and Future Sith

Sabe awaited their arrival with contained enthusiasm. She recently heard about an attack on Utapau, and had been relieved to find that General Kenobi had survived. Their fleet had just emerged from hyperspace and was about to dock onto the Chandrilian Flagship, The Protector. She hadn't seen him in years, though it wasn't as if all of her thoughts dwelled upon a celibate Jedi Master who seldom was aware of her even from his peripheral perception. It wasn't love she felt for him, but a fond hope, a crush she for him she held onto from her younger days developing into the last strand of light her she still held onto with the most tenuous of grasps in the darkness and gloom that surrounded. The Empire was closing in on them, but she knew that it would all be better when he arrived.

He was approaching now. She stood by her Senator's side, awaiting his arrival and hoping that he would recognize her. He didn't. He recognized her boss though. Actually, he seemed to blush when caught in the sight of Senator Mothma, his cheeks matching his hair in color. The Senator was all business, explaining how they were already fending off the first waves of the Imperial attack, inquiring about the events of Utapau, and trying to foment a course of action. The mighty Jedi Master followed diligently her every word, acquiescing to every point she made. The only subject matter in which he seemed to show a personal resolve in his discussion was when he discussed Padme's child; he seemed sincerely reluctant to say that he would have to leave with the child if the battle got out of hand. She knew that his reluctance wasn't because of her, an eternal servant to the mighty and powerful. The room all of a sudden seemed very dark and cold to Sabe.

Hyperspace was a dark place for Darth Rache. He had nowhere to turn. He knew that in time even the darkness would reject him, and he did not know whether he still possessed the intrinsic qualities that would allow him to return to the light. Besides, what light was there to return to? His old master was dead; all the light that he knew had been destroyed by Skywalker.

He had been one of the better Padawans of his age group and perhaps only months from advancement to Knighthood. Darth Rache briefly considered in his mind that he was no match against Skywalker alone. He needed to become more powerful, more learned in the Dark Side. That much was certain. But he also needed allies, kindred spirits who shared his hatred of Anakin Skywalker. He had lost his most powerful ally with his failure at Utapau, but surely a man as well known as Skywalker had made enemies in the Galaxy. He could find these enemies and organize an alliance.

And what about an apprentice? In such a large galaxy there has to be someone else who is interested in learning the dark arts. Now in a deep meditation, he visualized he and his apprentice leading an army, overwhelming Skywalker, and becoming more powerful than Darth Sidious himself. Suddenly, Darth Rache was overwhelmed by a vision of bright fire. He was falling into a sun, being consumed by the flames, and yet he felt not heat, but the intense, unbearable coldness of pure ice.

He came to from his meditation just as his ship exited hyperspace. He felt the warmth of space, relative to where he had just been, and was shocked when he felt the coldness of his flesh and the iciness of his blood, which seemed to have ceased flowing altogether. He turned the heat generators on the ship to full power. As he slowly warmed up he felt a strong presence that immediately made him forget his vision. Skywalker! He was here. He felt him as strongly as the day when he lost his arm to a figure with a blue lightsaber and hauntingly yellow irises. If Darth Rache had a mirror, which he did lack, he would have seen that his own eyes were burning in the same color.

Anticipation turned into anxiety as Padme waited for her husband to return. It had been hours since he left for one last "quick meditation" before leaving the planet. Could he be in trouble? Hurt? She had performed repeated scans for lifeforms in the past few hours, and not surprisingly the scans resulted in only her and her husband in the temple. That did not comfort her one bit though, as she imagined what kinds of horrible non-living things could exist on this planet and harm Anakin. She had hesitantly left their ship in an attempt to find him. It was her first time in the Sith Temple, and the only reason she didn't venture further into the place was because she couldn't see a thing in the building. So all she could do was wait. And hope. And watch another ship approach the planet's atmosphere on the radar.

As he landed he felt another living being on the planet other than Skywalker. Whoever it was he knew for a fact wasn't strong in the Force. A smirk crept onto his face as he realized that he could perhaps take advantage of this situation. He approached the main entrance of the ship, which seemed to be a fairly large one of the Nubian make. How could Skywalker have anything to do with Naboo? It didn't matter though. He was so close his vengeance, and the person inside the ship just could give him leverage against his enemy.

Darth Rache found the door to be unlocked as he charged unevenly into the ship. He was perplexed when he was greeted by a droid instead of the sentient being he was expecting.

"Greetings. Allow me to introduce myself. I am C-3PO, human-cyborg…"

"Where's your master?" Could this be the person he sensed? It didn't make sense… Darth Rache didn't get a chance to see the small woman sneaking up behind him and he didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts as he felt the muzzle of a blaster against his neck.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Padme's voice betrayed no emotion.

"Do you really think that a blaster could hurt me?" Darth Rache sneered. This should be no problem. He focused on the Force and the blaster suddenly flew out of Padme's hand. He turned around to face the woman but only caught a glimpse of her before the hilt of a chair smashed into his face, followed by the rest of the piece of furniture.

Her preparation had paid off, but this was not the situation she had hoped for, to be facing a Force-user. She looked for her blaster but found to chagrin that it had slammed against the wall and was broken. She then looked at her attacker's belt and found what she expected, a lightsaber. He woke up from a brief period of unconsciousness just after she had grabbed the weapon and ignited it.

"Now, you will answer me. Who are you?" she asked as she pointed the weapon at her would-be attacker's face, holding onto the grip with all her strength. She was vaguely competent with a lightsaber as Anakin had jokingly tried to teach her some techniques in the days after their marriage.

She was a Senator, although Darth Rache could not recall her name or planet. Probably Naboo, that would explain the ship. "I'm here to see Anakin Skywalker. Do you happen to know where he is?" he hissed in the most threatening tone possible.

"That depends. What do you want with my husband?" The lightsaber stayed resolutely still.

Husband? This was something he did not know about Skywalker. And if anyone could marry him, she had to be as deserving of his hate than he was.

"I'm here to kill both of you."

Before Padme had a chance to react, he reached into the dark side and Force pushed the Senator across the room.

The attack caught her by surprise as she felt air as strong as a wall slam into her before her back crashed against a real wall. Ignoring the pain she threw the lightsaber as far as she could into an adjourning room before it could fall out of her grip.

The furious Sith got up and charged towards her. She tried escape but his fingers reached her neck first, lifting her small frame up and squeezing her against the wall. Not again, she thought as she was losing oxygen. Damn. This little twerp isn't even skilled enough to choke me remotely. She attempted to squirm away but his grip was firm, so Senator Amidala had to resort to dirtier guerrilla tactics.

He was just beginning to enjoy the suffering of his helpless victim when he felt a sharp burning pain in his groin, the result of Padme's knee. His hands instinctively left Padme's neck as he crouched in agony. Taking advantage of his current disposition she delivered as hard as she could a kick to his stomach, the blow enough to make him fall onto the floor.

"I think you underestimate me," she spat to the groaning figure below her and marveled at how easily she had beaten him. "Don't feel too bad, though. I'm a veteran. Have you ever heard of the Trade Federation Blockade or the Battle of Genoesis?"

She got an angry groan for a reply. Still, the man could use the Force and it would be dangerous for her to stay and gloat. "C-3PO! Turn the emergency alarm to top volume!" Hopefully her husband would hear that.

She didn't give the droid a chance to reply as she ran into the dining area, where the intruder's lightsaber had rolled to. Padme picked it up and ran into her sleeping room, locking the door as she entered. She called to Anakin as hard as she could through her thoughts and hoped that he could hear her through their bond, as well as the alarm. Until he arrived though, she would have to hope that the lock and a lightsaber would be enough protection.

Her respite lasted only a few minutes. Darth Rache was up again, furious and furthermore, utterly humiliated as he just had his ass handed to him by a woman, a politician no less! He raced after her and growled loudly when he found that the door was locked. Kitchen tables and chairs flew wildly around the room as his uncontrollable rage made him lash out randomly into the Force. Reason set in finally and he began to think about alternative methods of opening the door.

He was missing his saber and suspected the woman had taken, so he couldn't cut through the door. There was another way though. He concentrated with all his will and a weak and unsteady stream of electricity flowed out of the fingers of his right hand. His aim was off, and it was on his fourth attempt when the Force lightning finally found its way to the door's electronic lock and short-circuited it.

Padme saw sparks fly from the power grid of the door and made her way beside it. As her assailant banged the door down she ignited her weapon and struck. Darth Rache was caught by surprise when his own red lightsaber cut through his left arm. Padme saw the appendage fall to the floor and to her horror realized that it was a synthetic one. She moved to cut him again but before she could do so a current of electricity struck her and she fell to the floor in shock and pain.

She couldn't move as more waves of electricity hit her. Her assailant gloated above her. "I think you underestimate the power of the dark side, Senator Skywalker."

"You're only lucky I struck the wrong arm, Sith scum!"

"The same one your husband cut off. I believe he is the one responsible for your demise then." Darth Rache saw that Padme had dropped his lightsaber and it flew from the floor into his hand.

The two of them heard the door of the ship slam open and close at the same time. Anakin was back! Within seconds he was in the room, surveying the situation with growing anger. Darth Rache felt fear, to his own surprise, as he remembered just how powerful the mere presence of Anakin Skywalker was.

"Grello? What have done to my wife?" Anakin had felt his wife's pain and tried to make it through the dark mazes of the Sith temple as fast as humanly possible. He hoped he wasn't too late. Whatever balance or knowledge he had gained in his encounter in the Temple would be gone if he ever lost Padme.

"Not nearly as much as what she's done to me," he replied accusingly, his arm still missing and his head, stomach and groin still stabbing him with pain. Wait, that's not something to be proud of, he thought. Before he could shield his mind those thoughts had already reached Anakin, who despite the situation had to stifle a giggle.

"Not even a match for a Nubian Senator, Grello? I'm not surprised. Guess you're still the twenty-seven year old Padawan, or as Obi-Wan calls you, 'Windu's Shame'."

"You don't deserve to mention my Master's name! And don't call me Grello! It's Darth Rache to you!"

Anakin snorted with laughter. He had wanted to chop Padme's attacker slowly into pieces, but this foe was too pathetic to be taken seriously. "This is the poor excuse that Palpatine takes for an apprentice now? Makes me wonder how this same judgment made him Emperor."

Rache had been delaying for time as he was still hesitant to actually engage Skywalker in real combat again, but his latest taunts were too much for his ego to handle. Hissing, he ignited his lightsaber, but nothing happened. His Force-lightning attacks at Padme had short-circuited his own weapon.

Anakin was now torn with indecision. He needed to kill Darth Rache, but despite the fact that he was a Sith and had tried to kill his wife, there was something unsatisfying to killing such a helpless opponent. Killing this bumbling idiot would be like killing Jar-Jar, he thought as he watched the one-armed 'Sith Lord' frustratingly trying to turn on his lightsaber. Instead he focused on Padme.

"Angel, are you alright? How bad are you hurt?" he asked, totally ignoring Darth Rache, who threw his lightsaber stub at him. Anakin deflected in the air almost as an afterthought.

"It's not that bad."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine. I've received worse shocks trying to fix C-3PO."

Wounded by another insult, Darth Rache again shot lightning out of his hand, this time aiming for Anakin, who easily reached out with his palm and absorbed it with no effort. At that moment C-3PO sauntered awkwardly into the room.

"Did you call me, my lady…Oh my!"

"No," Padme admonished the droid, as she crawled to her bed and lifted herself up. She was getting a headache from the sound of the alarm. "But for God's sake, C-3PO, turn off that damn alarm!"

"Oh, certainly, milady." C-3PO was still staring with horror at the conflict between Darth Rache and his maker. "Master Anakin, do you require any assistance," he asked with all the courage he could summon. "Perhaps I could…"

"Go, C-3PO! Padme's wish is your command," Anakin yelled with annoyance as he realized that there were two pathetic lifeforms bugging him now. Well, technically C-3PO was a droid.

"I'll be more than glad to, Master." C-3PO quickly scampered back to the cockpit.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Darth Rache ceased his lightning and levitated a dresser. He hurled it at Padme, but Anakin caught it in midair and for the second time that day Rache was struck full force by a piece of furniture. Both he and the dresser flew through the wall and fell into the kitchen, with all of Padme's clothing landing in various places in the room.

Anakin finally lit his lightsaber. "I will do what I must, Darth Rache. Even though this is gonna be the most embarrassing kill I'm ever going to have." His thoughts sobered as he remembered the last time he had engaged Grello in combat, the Padawans he killed before that engagement, and the younglings he killed afterwards. He wished that he could take his last statement back.

Rache was in a complete panic now. Skywalker was coming, albeit very slowly, to kill him. Brushing the fruit-scented nightgown off his face, he pushed the dresser off his legs and ran as fast as he could off of the ship.

Padme saw the sad display and even she laughed as she approached her husband, who, with his lightsaber still on, was more concerned with the mess in the kitchen than the fleeing Sith Lord. "Are you going to go after him?"

He shook his head and deactivated his weapon. "I can't believe Palpatine is dumb enough to send him after me." He picked up his wife and examined her. To his relief there didn't appear to be any burns on her. He kissed her softly on the cheek and laid her down gently onto their bed. "Are you sure you're alright though?"

"Absolutely sure. My back's a little sore but that's it. I'm serious about the electricity too. It hurt a little, kinda, but I was more stunned than anything else."

Anakin still held her closely though. She was safe, but it was still a close call. He couldn't help but be proud of the way she had stood up to her attacker. "My wife, the Sith Slayer."

"He was nothing. You were such a better Sith than he was."

"I was a better Jedi too," Anakin said with sincere humbleness.

"He was a Jedi?"

"Yes."

"What was his problem? He seemed to really hate you."

"It's a long story. When I first arrived at the Temple he was a big bully. He thought he was great cause his Master was on the Council. I stood up to him, and he challenged me to a duel. I was only ten, and he was fourteen, but I still beat him within minutes. He's hated me ever since." He paused again. "And then I kind of tried to kill him during my…uh…rampage through the Temple. I guess I'm responsible for what he is."

"Anakin, no. Don't think about the past. It's not you're fault he's a Sith. You can't let your guilt haunt you forever."

"I know, Padme. I promise, I won't. I had a cathartic experience in the Sith Temple just today. I'll tell you about it one of these days."

"No wonder you took so long." She sat upright. "We better get out of here. Palpatine must know where we are now. I wonder if Darth what's his face was just a trap."

Anakin furrowed his eyebrows for a second. "No, I don't think so. I can't sense Sidious anywhere. In fact, I don't even think he had anything to do with our friend's intrusion here. You're right though. We can't take any chances. Let's get off this God-forsaken planet for good."

Padme beamed with joy. "You mean you've found…it?"

"I think so. I'm pretty sure I know how to handle Sidious."

"Then forget that little runt. Let's get the hell out of here!"

Darth Sidious emerged out of hyperspace and switched on his ship's cloaking device. He flew to a vantage-point where he could observe the ongoing Battle of Chandrila in its entirety and waited for his opportunity.

Tep Grello cowered by himself in a dark corner of the Sith Temple. His hatred for Skywalker, no The Skywalkers was more intense than ever, but even an acklay in the building wouldn't have been motivation enough for him to face them again. He just sat and eventually fell into a meditation, allowing the darkness around him to restore some of his strength and pride. The terrifying uncertainty of the future remained.

Somewhere in the farthest reaches of the Galaxy, the maiden of ice began her long journey to Coruscant.