"Padmé!" Anakin yelled out, his eyes staring blankly at the comm. unit in front of him.
"Master Anakin, what is it? What is going on? Where is Miss Padmé?" C3P0 sputtered behind the young man. R2D2 was moving wearily closer to Anakin. However, Anakin suddenly stood up and ignoring both of the droids started to make his way out of the apartment with a determined look on his face.
"Master Anakin, is there something you would like us to do?" C3P0 asked confusedly at his master's retreating back.
Anakin stopped moving and turned toward the golden droid. He kept his tone even as he spoke, but he could not hide the slight hint of apprehension in his voice. "Stay here and notify me immediately if you see or hear from Padmé or anyone who knows where she is. I am heading to her Senate office to see if I cannot find her or a clue to her whereabouts."
"Oh! Very well." C3P0 stated.
"Boop beep beeeeeeeep boop?" R2 asked as he wheeled closer to Anakin.
"No R2, you cannot come with me, I will do this on my own. I need you to stay here with 3P0 and notify me if Padmé contacts you." Anakin did not even wait for a response from the domed droid before turning to head out of the building. He was so distracted by his own fears and thoughts that he did not hear the response R2D2 gave as the door closed behind him.
"Booop beep boooop-beeeep."
"He did not ask you to call Obi-Wan Kenobi!" C3P0 exclaimed with irritation.
"Boop beep beep." R2 retorted.
"If he had wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi's help he would have asked for it. You my dear little friend do not understand human behavior."
R2D2 beeped indignantly as he turned and returned to the kitchen's comm. system to contact Obi-Wan. Behind him C3P0 was following in an outrage, "Where are you going? Have you no sense at all? I just told you, he did not ask for help! Oh, idiot!"
Anakin ran to a nearby speeder and weaved through the traffic as he made his way to the Senate offices. He almost crashed the speeder three times because he was not paying attention to where he was going. Anakin was too preoccupied with frantically searching the Force for a sign of his wife to pay attention to the traffic in front of him.
After a very distracted trip, Anakin made it to the Senate offices and parked his speeder next to the building. He then sprinted from the speeder to Padmé's office silently praying that his feelings and Force sense was incorrect.
Unfortunately, his suspicions were all but confirmed when he saw Padmé's office door was ajar. A look of horror and dread covered Anakin's determined face as he pushed the door opened and looked at the ravaged site before him. Padmé's desk was overturned with cracked datapads scattered around it. Additionally, several bookshelves were toppled over and there was a thin crack running diagonally across the window in the back of the office overlooking the cityscape. The office's appearance made it obvious that a struggle had taken place, but there were no signs of the participants in that struggle.
Anakin walked towards Padmé's desk while staring blankly at the objects littering the floor. Once he reached the desk, his knees buckled once more and he hit the floor hard. All of this was too much for him to take in. "Padmé." He called out hoarsely hoping that what he saw was not real and he would actually hear her voice.
However, it was not his angel's soft voice that answered his call, but the accented voice of a good friend. "Anakin! What…what happened?" Obi-Wan asked as he walked briskly into Padmé's office. He was stunned by the chaotic appearance of Senator Amidala's office. Anakin did not answer Obi-Wan's question, so the Jedi Master approached the young man who was kneeling on the ground looking rather dejected. "I came as soon as R2 sent me a message. I take it that you have not found Padmé." Obi-Wan stated placing a soothing hand on Anakin's shoulder.
Anakin just shook his head in response. Everything happened so quickly that he was still to stunned to speak or move.
Obi-Wan kneeled down so that he was level with his friend and could look him straight in the eye when he asked, "What happened?"
"I…I don't know." Anakin stated truthfully. "When I came home Padmé was not there yet, so I tried to call her office to find out where she was. When she did not answer I tried to use the Force to locate her. I could feel her Force presence for a moment, but then it suddenly disappeared. I… I then came here." Anakin replied shakily as he absentmindedly picked up a datapad whose wiring was sticking out haphazardly through its broken casing.
A distressed look crossed Obi-Wan's face as he took in this information, "Were you able to figure out who might have taken her or where they took her?"
"No." Anakin replied blankly. "Her presence disappeared before I could figure out where she was."
"Do…do you think that she could be dea…?"
"No!" Anakin yelled as he stood up and began to pace agitatedly across the room. "She can't be dead, I just know she can't be!" Obi-Wan's suggestion had snapped Anakin out of his slightly catatonic stupor and back into action. "She is pregnant with out child."
"She's pregnant?" Obi-Wan asked with surprise.
"Yes." Anakin answered with a sigh.
"You cannot feel the baby's presence either?" Obi-Wan asked reluctantly.
A grimace crossed Anakin's face, as he said, "No." However, for some inexplicable reason, he believed his child was alive and well too.
"But, Force presences do not disappear on their own." Obi-Wan reasoned with the man pacing before him.
"They are not dead! I cannot and will not believe that!"
"I know how you feel Anakin, but…"
"But nothing, I know Force presences do not disappear on their own, but they can't be dead. I just have this feeling, I cannot explain it, but they are not dead. Something else must be blocking their presence from me."
"That is possible." Obi-Wan stated. "However, you must ask yourself if your feeling is true or just based on your own hopes and wishes."
Anakin stopped pacing and exhaled a deep breath before closing his eyes. He called upon the Force once more looking for Padmé. He still could not find her, but something was telling him that she was still alive. He just had to find her, not only for her sake, but for their child's sake as well. "She's alive Obi-Wan, we must find her."
"Very well, but we need to figure out what happened if we are going to find her. Did you suspect anything like this could happen? Have you received any threats?"
Anakin shook his head. "No, but since the fall of the Empire both Padmé and I have enemies.
"True, but it is infeasible to question everybody. We need a short list of suspects. I think we should investigate her office for clues and question people she has come into contact recently."
"Until today, she was with me." Anakin said with frustration creeping into his voice.
"Then we will question who she saw today. Now, why don't you start sifting through the stuff in here, you know Padmé the best, you should know where to begin looking for information."
"Where are you going?" Anakin asked as he saw Obi-Wan move to leave the office.
"I will return shortly to help you. I am going to leave a message for Master Yoda and tell him what has happened. Perhaps he can think of something we have overlooked. She might be your wife, but she is also a Senator of the Galactic Republic, the Jedi will have to look into her disappearance."
Although Anakin was still extremely worried, it pleased him that he would receive some help in his search for his beloved wife. "Thank you, Obi-Wan." He replied as Obi-Wan turned to leave.
"You are welcome, my friend. Now see what you can find I shall return in a moment."
Sidious's Force presence smiled, causing Bail Organa to smile evilly. Sidious could feel Skywalker's fear and anguish at the loss of Padmé and he loved it. In several months when Padmé could be killed, Skywalker would die from the pain and heartache for Sidious would make sure that his former apprentice was fully aware of her death. Until such time he would take delight in tormenting the young man.
With the ysalamiri serum, Padmé and her child were undetectable. Sidious had felt the Jedi searching for him recently, but he tightened his shielding to prevent their intrusion. The Jedi knew he was dead and as far as he could tell, they did not think that his Force presence could be a threat. Sidious was pleased with this because it meant the Jedi would be taken by surprise once he put in his plan to bring the Sith Order back. He smirked at the irony that the child of Skywalker, would be their downfall when they were instrumental in turning Darth Vader towards the light.
Sidious sighed as he relaxed inside his host's body. He knew that the Jedi would come and question Organa about Padmé and he could not wait to give them false sympathy. For who would ever suspect that Supreme Chancellor, Bail Organa of the Galactic Republic and former rebel leader could ever have a hand in the dark deeds that had befallen this day.
