Chapter 11: Finding Her

Falling.

The puffy, white clouds did nothing to stop me from my falling descent and it seemed as if the monster-like river would devour me whole as I fell.

I desperately tried to grope my hands to grab something. Anything.

I didn't need for this to happen. I couldn't have let this happen. I was so stupid for not paying attention and if I wasn't in la-la land I could've heard the Mother Confessor yelling my name to stop. Finally, my hand grabbed a branch that stuck out at an odd angle from the side of the cliff and managed to get my bearings to try to climb back up.

I had to get up there fast. The Mother Confessor was in trouble. Whoever that was that was chasing us would love to kill the Mother Confessor. I felt a new fear reach my head when I realized that my utter stupidity might cost the Mother Confessor her life.

I shook that thought out of my head, knowing full well that the Mother Confessor was more then capable of handling herself. But what if?

I realized that my nagging feeling that I had was in high gear with the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up, my palms had become sweaty, and arms were filled with goose bumps and that was never a good sign. I climbed up, slowly finding any crevice that I could place my hands or feet in to keep my balance and to keep myself from falling to my death in the river. I knew I should've listened to myself. Then none of this would have ever happened.

Another nagging feeling hit me when I thought about that bounty hunter. I know I saw him somewhere before, but where? That blue and silver armor with that flat helmet was so familiar. I tried hard to think of where I saw it before and couldn't come up with a reason except that perhaps I had seen it as a child when I still lived on Naboo.

When I almost made it to the top I called the Force to help me push myself up and muttered, "Great! Why do I always have to be the one doing all the stupid stuff like falling off cliffs and why does the Mother Confessor never show up to totally rescue me."

I looked around the forest and saw that it was too quiet, again. There weren't even any birds that were chirping and I couldn't see any other animals roaming around. I started to walk into the forest stepping over the large branches growing out of the ground, looking for the Mother Confessor, but there was no sign of her.

It was almost as if she was never here.

That's when I realized that was the nagging feeling that had hit me at the edge of the cliff.

The Mother Confessor was gone.

I walked back to the ship hoping that maybe the Mother Confessor had gone back to the ship after getting rid of the bounty hunter, but she wasn't there.

I walked towards the ramp of the ship, looking at the horizon and saw that the sun was at the midday mark leaving me only hours to find the Mother Confessor.

I pushed the ramp button down to lower it and as it lowered I jumped up onto it running into Artoo who started to beep madly.

"No, sorry old buddy. The Mother Confessor isn't here right now. I gotta go contact the High Council to debrief them on the situation. So get the transmission ready and insert the High Council encryption key to activate the hologram."

Artoo went towards the console getting the transmitter ready to contact someone from the High Council and the transmitter light turned green, signaling that it was able to contact someone.

I waited impatiently for the person on the other line to pick up when I was greeted with the face of Obi-Wan.

I loudly spoke, "Obi-Wan its good to see you."

Obi-Wan replied back a bit surprised, "Padme, its good to see you too. How's the mission going? Did the Mother Confessor and you find the local tribe yet?"

I swallowed hard and said, "No, umm, we didn't."

"Well, what's wrong then? Is everything alright there Padme? Are you hurt?" Obi-Wan questioned with concern lacing his voice.

"Obi-Wan I'm fine…but it's the Mother Confessor. I…I…think she's been kidnapped."

Right at that moment Anakin had to come on the hologram and asked me urgently, "Padme did you just say the Mother Confessor's been kidnapped?"

I nodded my head slowly wondering where did he come from.

"Its just as I feared. Master Yoda had warned about something happening on Icylian," Anakin replied wearily making me nervous about what he and Master Yoda had talked about.

"Well, I was calling to ask that I was going to go find the Mother Confessor and wanted to let you know just in case something happens."

Anakin quickly retorted, "NO! Padme stay right there! Don't go looking for the Mother Confessor. I'm sure she's fine, but you don't need to get kidnapped either. Uhh, Obi-Wan and I will come to Icylian and come get you both. So don't do anything, yet."

I sat there numb wondering I couldn't just sit around while Force knows where the Mother Confessor is. She could be hurt, she could be off this planet by now and taken elsewhere, or even dead…"No don't think that Padme. Everything's gonna be alright, you'll see. The Mother Confessor isn't the leader of the Confessors for nothing."

Obi-Wan and Anakin looked at me through the hologram waiting for my answer and I finally came to my decision, "Okay you two. I'll stay right here and not even move an inch."

I could see the sighs of relief of both of them since they both knew well that I was capable of doing incredibly unpredicted things when it came to life and death situations, much like my father.

Anakin spoke one last time, "Alright Padme, Obi-Wan and I are going to check in with the High Council and then we'll leave as soon as possible. We should be there in a few hours. Remember don't do anything rash until we get there, promise me Padme?"

"Promise, Skywalker. Just please hurry," I said making myself look desperate but secretly I was crossing my fingers behind my back.

After the transmission ended, Artoo gave me his opinion also, "Boop, beep, beep, boop-beep!"

"Geez, calm down Artoo. I was only lying to them, do you really think I'm gonna just sit here and wait for those two, the Negotiator and the Hero With No Fear to save our sorry butts again?" I asked Artoo earning me a good set of beeps instead of angry ones before.

"Besides I intend to keep my promise. I'm not going to go do anything rash, just go rescue the Mother Confessor, which technically isn't rash, but smart," I stated proud that I would be able to work around Anakin's promise.

I climbed down the ramp once again with Artoo following me and turned around telling him, "Artoo go back, I need you to stay here with the ship and wait for orders," tossing him my extra commlink.

I took a deep breath of air and submerged myself into the Force, searching for the Mother Confessor's Force signature. I met many life forms Force signatures, but I couldn't find hers.

I opened my eyes frustrated and couldn't but help to wonder where was she? I couldn't feel her Force signature that made me nervous thinking of only two possibilities: either she's dead or she used her Confessor's power.

I concluded that she probably used her power to try to stop her attacker, but still managed to get caught anyways. I snorted to myself, "Well, that's our damsel in distress alright."

As I was deeply concentrating to again find the Mother Confessor's Force signature, I felt my senses kick into high gear alerting me of the danger coming towards my way.

I barely managed to duck to the right as an arrow zipped past my head smacking into the tree behind me making a thumping noise. At that very second I held my breath frantically searching to see who tried to shoot me. Finally, I saw who was attacking me.

It was the Icylians.

About a dozen of them jumped down from the trees and locked their eyes with mine holding their spears and arrows ready to shoot me if I did anything stupid.

I stood tall and determined and tried to do some diplomacy and said, "Fellow Icylians, I come in peace and wish you no harm if you don't try to kill me like you did a minute ago."

One of the Icylians spat at my boots and gestured with his spear to follow him with his other cronies. I thought to myself, "Well isn't this just a nice welcoming party."

I decided that I needed to find the Mother Confessor not follow these maniac cannibals to Force knows where. There was no way in all that was good of the Force was I going to listen to these crazy people. So I decided to go with the only option besides my lightsaber and blaster option, as I didn't want this to be a messy affair…yet.

I nodded my head no towards the Icylian letting him know that he was gonna have to beat the living daylights outta me before I was going anywhere with them. I tried to distract them by screaming and pointing towards the meadow, which made them all turn around to see what the heck I was screaming about and I made a run for it.

I ran towards the open meadow running through the tall grass pushing the offending brown stacks aside to see ahead. I could hear the Icylians behind me shouting orders at each other, in what seemed like, to try to cut me off at the end and take me down. Well, as I said before I wasn't going down without a fight.

I felt myself running short of breath to keep ahead as the Icylians were fast runners and I had been cursed being short thanks to my mother. "Why couldn't I be tall like my father?"

I saw the edge of the meadow coming up and noticed that half of the cronies were already there waiting for me so I decided to turn around and wait for those behind me to come and get me.

As I turned around, I tuned myself deeply into the Force searching for the center of my power. I calmed my breathing down and focused all my attention at focusing my power to come out of my hands. I saw them coming shouting towards me thinking it had been an easy victory.

But they were sadly mistaken.

Time had slowed down at that moment and come almost to a standstill as the closest Icylian, the one who had spat at me before, running towards me with a wild gleam in his eyes.

I slowly breathed out as he came closer and closer and reached out my head to stop him dead in his tracks.

I could feel my power at my fingertips ready to come out to use against this creature.

Right when he came into contact with my hand I released my power seeing the look of shock on his face knowing full well what he was dealing with.

None of his little friends could stop me. He was mine. By the time they all would come to rescue him, he would be under my power.

My power moved faster then a thought and came out like a bolt of lightening would out of sky only there was no lightening and consumed his body.

The Icylian slowly fell to the ground and groveled at my feet looking up at me with innocent eyes letting his Mistress know that he was at her command. There was nothing no one could do to reverse the power that had been put upon him. Once a Confessor touched a person, they would forever remain under her command until she died or she commanded that person to die. They would only obey the Confessor who touched them with her power and would serve her without question only there to please their Mistress.

I wasn't about to command him to die. He was mine and would my bidding.

I was about to command him when I felt something hard hit me in the back of my head and the last thing I saw was that Icylian I took with my power looking up in fear at his fellow partner at what he had done.

Then I felt myself slipping into that dark place no one ever wants to go.