Chapter 9: Lurking Danger
Ahh, meditation it seemed so simple when you're trying to clear your mind from all the distractions, yet it was so difficult to concentrate when we were about to head right into dangerous territory.
Or a trap even.
I tried to think about the Icylians and thinking maybe they weren't cannibalistic maniacs and maybe they were just some cute, fuzzy Ewoks who liked to scare people and make them think that they were man-eaters. Okay, maybe that was a little too far fetched, but it was funny to think about to clear the mind.
The Mother Confessor walked into the small living room that was only furnished with two couches and a small table in the middle. The walls were a boring gray color with durasteel everywhere so it wasn't a very exciting environment. She sat down across from me patiently waiting until I acknowledged her presence and sighed loudly. I could hear her rub her eyes from lack of sleep from hearing me screaming last night and comforting me during the early hours of the morning.
Finally I decided to break the silence, "Something the matter Mother Confessor?"
Her emerald green eyes finally found my chocolate brown ones and we locked gazes for about a minute, waiting to see if she would say something.
"Padme I wanted to talk to you about your dreams," and right about then my face turned a terrible shade of white and I couldn't breath dreading where this was going.
"I know you've been plagued by dreams of your past, but you must realize that you must put it behind you," the Mother Confessor explained gently.
I looked away hoping that I wouldn't start to cry, as this was a very touchy subject for me. I didn't want to have this conversation with anyone much less the Mother Confessor. No one really knew what happened all those years ago to my mother except for the Mother Confessor, my grandparents, and I. As for my father everyone knew what happened to the Great Sith Slayer.
He had been famous for killing Darth Maul with the help of Obi-Wan and Anakin before I was even born. I can fancy seeing those three taking on the Sith Apprentice with all their might. Today those three are known to be the best in the Jedi Order on par with Masters Yoda and Windu. I sometimes find it hard to believe that Anakin at the age of five had helped to defeat a Sith, but Obi-Wan had vouched for him as usual. My papa was famous for that and everyone saw him as one of the greatest Jedi.
But against their better judgment, they overlooked the fact that their precious Sith Slayer was doing 'other things'.
He had broken the most sacred rule of the Code.
He had fallen in love and gotten married.
Perhaps if my mother had known the amount of heartache and pain she would have to endure as a result of my father's constant absence from home and ultimate death then she might of never fallen in love with him.
Then again who said love can be avoided.
Then I wouldn't be alive either.
They say love is the most powerful force in the galaxy and that it can even ignite the stars.
But I beg to differ.
In the end, love only brings pain and makes you weak.
In the end, my father lost his life to Count Dooku in a fierce lightsaber duel that he should've won. I'll never forget the look of pain and shock that filled my mother's face when the Mother Confessor had told her of what had happened. I was too young, only five, when he died and the loss didn't affect me until many years later.
But my father's death affected my mother more than anything imaginable.
I can still remember…
"Padme? Padme? Are you listening?" I was suddenly interrupted during my daydreaming by the Mother Confessor's worried voice.
"Yeah…I was…just…never mind," I grumbled not knowing what to say.
"Perhaps it would help if we could talk about it, you know it might help to ease the pain. You've been acting strange since this morning, and I want to talk about it," the Mother Confessor pleadingly asked me.
The truth was that I didn't want to talk about. It was just too painful to think about and that was something that I couldn't deal with. Too many horrible things had happened to me in my young life and I wasn't ready to face that terrible truth yet. My mother's death was too much of a shock to me and sometimes I felt that it wasn't real, that she hadn't really died, that someday she'd walk into the Confessors' Palace healthy and alive again back into my life where she belonged. But, that wasn't the case and she didn't deserve to die the way she did. It was a chapter in my life that I had closed, permanently.
The monitor started to beep, and I got up walking away from the Mother Confessor and didn't catch the look of worry on her face to the cockpit checking all systems making sure that my trusty sidekick R2 didn't do anything to mess up our course.
I saw the planet from above and realized that we were finally here on Icylian and I gulped fearing the worst for some reason. I had a bad feeling that something terrible was going to happen and that I wouldn't be able to stop it. The nagging feeling stayed there and I told my subconscious to calm down that we were on a standard procedure to see what was going on and then we would leave as soon as possible. Hopefully.
Little did I know that the nagging feeling I had wasn't going away anytime soon.
Anakin walked through the halls of the Jedi Temple, passing by the various statues of previous Jedi that had died valiantly during the Great Sith War almost 800 years ago. He walked up the stairs towards one of the meditation chambers where he was meeting Obi-Wan, Master Windu and Master Yoda.
"I wonder why Master Yoda called on us?" Anakin thought to himself fearing the worse about the loss of one of the Republic bases in the Outer Rim that Obi-Wan and he had spent five months defending.
Anakin speeded up his walking, walking in long strides with his black cloak flowing behind him and his lightsaber hitting against his hip. Finally he came to the meditation hall and felt through the Force in which one the three Jedi were waiting for him.
He felt that it was the third one down the left and quickly ran into the chamber, immediately closing the door. He saw the room's shades had been drawn up allowing the sunlight to pour through and realized that it was probably a discussion about something casual and nothing about meditating through the Force.
Obi-Wan turned around sensing Anakin's presence and saw his concerned face, and smiled hoping that would put Anakin at ease. Masters Yoda and Windu motioned for both Jedi Masters to join them on the vacant cushions.
After both had relaxed on the soft cushions Master Windu spoke, "Master Yoda and I have come to the conclusion that the Dark Side has shifted considerably."
Both Obi-Wan and Anakin looked at each other curiously wondering where this development came from.
Master Yoda continued, "Sense much danger the Mother Confessor and young Jinn are in."
Anakin looked up alarmed and questioned, "Master how is this possible? Is something supposed to happen on Icylian that we can't see?"
"When sensing the future, the Dark Side clouds everything Anakin. Only know that much danger there is for Mother Confessor and Padme," the green Jedi Master wearily replied.
Obi-Wan stroked his beard deep in contemplation and wondered how in the name of the Force the Dark Side was following the two Confessors. He wondered was this a way for Sidious to lure the leader of the Confessors out to strike out at her. After all, Mother Confessor and Padme had both caused considerable damage to the Separatist base on Mon Calamari almost six months ago. But that was six months ago, so what was the Sith Master planning?
Master Windu then glanced at Anakin who was in deep meditation and asked, "Anakin why don't you search out Padme through the Force since you're bond to her is strong. Perhaps we can keep a check on them that way to make sure nothing terrible happens."
"I've been trying that Master, but I can't seem to get through to Padme, as she is blocking me and her mind shields are at maximum," Anakin replied worriedly.
"Hmm, blocking us she is. Still a Caharin she is and not allowed Padme is," Master Yoda retorted surprised that Padme was able to do such a thing for a Caharin. But then again she was Qui-Gon's daughter and the Living Force flowed through her very strongly like her father. He had to admit the girl had much potential and that was dangerous since she was so tuned into the Living Force making her extremely vulnerable to the Sith. It didn't help that she had had emotional attachments to her parents and wasn't able to fully let them go upon initiation into the Confessor Order. Her emotions were her weakness and she relied on them more then her Force instincts, which wasn't becoming for a Confessor.
Master Yoda thought to himself, "Not good this is for Padme. In grave danger she is."
R2 beeped that he had found an abandoned landing pad, and I quickly grabbed the controls to carefully lower the ship down.
The Mother Confessor sat next to me in the co-pilot's chair activating the cloaking device as to not warn any of the locals that we were there. As soon as the ship landed the Mother Confessor led the way to the ramp and we walked out to Icylian to see our environemt.
Icylian wasn't a beautiful planet, but where we had landed there was lush vegetation everywhere and fields of grassy meadows everywhere. "Well, it could be worse, like the time the Mother Confessor and I were on Hoth and it was subzero out there. At least it's perfect weather and not blasting cold."
I looked around and felt through the Force to see if there were any stragglers wandering around and saw that it was quiet.
Too quiet for my liking.
"Well, Padme lets take a look around and see if we can find any clues to the whereabouts of these cannibals," the Mother Confessor spoke after a period of surveillance.
I replied back cautiously, "Okay lets do that."
We started to walk down towards the meadow passing the forested area in hopes of catching a local tribe or something in the open.
For some reason that nagging feeling came back and I couldn't help but feel that something was about to happen.
And it was going to be bad. Real bad.