Chapter Seven: Full Reverse

Jedi Temple, Coruscant

42 BBY

"Sabe, the Council has decided that you will not be trained as a Jedi."

Everyone in the Council Chambers was watching for her reaction. But there was none, except that her nervous hands stilled.

Qui-Gon put a hand on her shoulder. "So, young one, I have endeavored to find a good alternative for you."

It was subtle, the way she drew away from his hand, but it was lost on no one. He let his hand fall and faced the council. "I have been in contact with a Headmaster Ranard of the sovereign planet of Naboo. He has expressed interest in admitting Sabe to the Academy in Theed."

"Dealt with Ranard before, we have," Master Yoda remarked.

"Yes," Qui-Gon replied. "A handful of former initiates were recruited into the Academy out of the AgriCorp. They received excellent training and treatment under his tutelage."

Several members of the council nodded appreciatively. Master Windu looked at the girl. "Naboo is a lush and beautiful planet in the mid-rim, and its academy in Theed is the finest in the Republic."

The girl said nothing.

"Do you wish to tell Obi-Wan goodbye before you depart?" Qui-Gon asked.

"No."

The Masters all raised their heads at her reply.

"Obi-Wan and I cannot go with you," Qui-Gon said quietly. "You may not have another chance—"

"No!" She said sharply.

"But have Master Jinn and his apprentice not treated you well?" Master Biloba asked.

"Yes," the girl said with her head bowed.

"Then why—" Master Biloba began, but Master Yoda raised his hand.

"Very well, youngling," Yoda said. "Collect your things. Master Shaak Ti will be along for you shortly."

The little girl gave a stiff bow and left the room. Master Yoda folded his hands on top of his staff, resting his chin on them with a meditative "hmmm."

Master Windu broke the silence. "The girl has become accustomed to being abandoned." He looked at Qui-Gon. "Are you so certain she should be sent outside the Council's supervision with her abilities?"

"She will be cautioned to avoid using her abilities, of course," Qui-Gon said.

"A rule given to them all. And broken by them all, it is," Yoda said sagely.

"Regardless, I think she is at far more danger on Bandomeer than unsupervised," Qui-Gon said. "She is too young and too fragile for such a life. And—"

"Too marked by her past she is, to accept the life of a Jedi," Yoda finished for him.

"Yes," Qui-Gon agreed soberly. "Her fear and anger are great. But I believe she could flourish in a stable environment."

Master Windu steepled his hands. "Very well. I am in agreement. Are there any objections?"

No one moved.

"Then we will proceed as Master Jinn has advised."

Outside the chambers, the girl took gulping breaths, her hand to her heart. It wasn't that she was surprised. She had expected this to happen any day. And now that it had, she never wanted to see Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan again.

Suddenly she heard footsteps down the corridor. She looked up and recognized the lanky form heading in her direction. For a moment she stood frozen, like an animal stunned by a light in the dark. But then she turned and ran in the opposite direction. She did not look back.

Coruscant

42 BBY

She could never forget the way. Once, she had used this path after she had lifted the chrono of a dignitary straight from his belt loop. She left the Senate District at a sprint. Within a few moments she ducked into the flashing lights and confusion of the Urscru Entertainment District.

It was not much changed. It curved closely around the Senate District like a venomous snake coiling around prey. To the unpracticed eye, Urscru was nothing but a neon beehive, a formless smear of color and movement. But this was the real seat of Coruscanti power. Only here did the two extremes meet; the rich to play, the poor to enact a small revenge. Even as she darted through the lines outside theatres, bars, gambling halls, and brothels, she could see the hierarchy. She knew the glassy fear in the eyes of the exotic dancers behind their sinewy undulations and practiced come-hither expressions. Owners counted stacks of republican credits, spending a few moments with the only thing they loved, the thing that was death for them to keep. The Vigos strolled in their designer clothing with their entourages, deep in their facades of power, constantly glancing over their shoulders in case the serfs decided to try and overthrow their feudal lords.

As her eyes adjusted she began to see other beings, forms darting quickly through the lighted areas and then huddling together in the dim corners. These were the members of the lowest caste, those who used the light and the crowd as cover as they worked the streets in near invisibility; Small time crooks, drug dealers, nearly all of them under sixteen.

They learned first to find a place where no one wanted to catch them enough to go. She wondered where each small shadow's particular alley was, leading to a particular stairwell or turbolift, taking them down to their small corners of the under levels. Sometimes they died in those hideouts. If local law enforcement decided that a section of the under levels was dangerous enough, they would close it up with blast doors to be forgotten. Dozens could suffocate in the blackness, criminal and innocent alike, clawing and fighting one another for air.

She found that she had not the talent for running that she once did. Even here in the place where she had been born, the place that had seemed once to embrace her as its own, she could feel her pursuer gaining on her. The eyes around her were hostile as they noted her dressed hair and finely tailored clothing. She did not belong here. She belonged on the upper levels in the sunshine, among the elite. From the way people and objects blocked her path, it seemed as if the city was trying to spit her back out again.

She increased her speed, making for the alley she knew better than any. She'd been a human compass as a child, memorizing every route through the streets, every hazard in every path. Running through an archway and down a flight of stairs, she still remembered the grate on the right where the tentacles of a mutated Coruscanti beast reached through to grab whatever passed. She navigated the eager throngs around a knife fight with the care born of experience. As her cloak began to become splashed with mud and her hair came down, the locals noticed her less. She rounded a corner and hurried down a second stairwell.

Her steps echoed from damp permacrete walls streaked with green luminescent mold. The air was stale, and she splashed through the runoff of sewers. The crowds had thinned to only one or two walking along slowly, with dark cloaks pulled close about their faces. The only light came from the mold and the strings of sickly yellow bulbs high up on the walls. Occasionally her feet disturbed the piles of refuse on either side and the garbage shifted, revealing a hand, a foot, or even the gleaming, resentful eyes of beings who had buried themselves there for a few moments of undisturbed sleep, maybe hoping to never wake.

Two levels down from the surface. If she could only reach the turbolift she could get to the little nest she'd made amongst the sewer lines. Only a little further and she could get home.

But…this isn't my home anymore.

Her steps slowed, and she saw in the same moment that the turbolift was covered with a barrier. Her hesitation was just long enough for the strong hand to close around her wrist. She struggled, but though the grip was not painful, it was firm. She jerked away and felt the sharp, tearing agony of her partially healed wound opening, preventing any further hope of escape.

Gasping, she collapsed to the pavement, holding her side as she attempted to catch her breath. Cloudy water soaked through the knees of her cloak. Even the city rejects me now, she thought. Now I'm neither civilized nor savage.

"This is in danger of becoming a rather tiresome cliché, is it not?"

Sabe had almost forgotten who she was running from. She all but growled down at the pavement, still too breathless and pained to speak.

"It is you," He looked at her with shuttered grey eyes. "Isn't it?"

Sabe favored him with a droll look.

"Well, obviously you are no Queen."

"Obviously," Sabe muttered. She felt like crying. She was hurting, she was filthy, and there was no escape, no tunnels left to crawl in, no mask to hide behind. Her hood could not shadow her face enough.

"And which one is…" Obi-Wan trailed off, gesturing in the general direction of the Senate building.

Sabe lifted an eyebrow at him. A look of abject horror crossed his face. "That's right," she said. "Master Jinn allowed the Queen of Naboo to accompany him to Mos Espa."

"Force," he murmured. He massaged his forehead with two fingers, and then offered her a hand as she tried to stand. "How have you come here?"

Sabe ignored his hand and struggled to her feet. "I suppose the Council didn't think I'd make much of a farmer."

He winced.

"I'm surprised Qui-Gon did not tell you," she said, unable to disguise the little falter in her voice when she repeated the Master's name.

"They told me nothing," Obi-Wan said. "Only that you were not to be trained."

They stared at one another, both having run out of things to say. A decade stretched between them, a yawning gap nearly impossible to bridge. His eyes flared with subtle power, and she felt the faint brush of his examining consciousness. She rallied her defenses against it, pushing it off like a hand from her shoulder. Obi-Wan's jaw tightened. "Your methods have not changed," he observed.

Sabe's eyes narrowed.

"And you still shield to deceive."

"To protect a Queen," She said defiantly.

"You were warned never to consciously use your abilities," Obi Wan said. " Unguided you are extremely vulnerable."

"If the Council was so concerned," Sabe said acidly. "Why was I sent away at all?"

Obi-Wan's face flickered with something like understanding. Sabe blinked back tears of rage. Ten years had made no difference at all. Impatiently she rubbed at her eyes with the heels of both hands.

"It isn't only for her that you fear," he said quietly.

"I fear nothing," Sabe hissed.

He raised his head. "Then why run?"

Sabe tried to move past him, but he sidestepped, barring her way. "Sabe," he said, sounding as if he were testing the word to see if it fit. "Why have you run here to escape me? Why lose yourself in this hell again?"

"This is who I am," She bit out. "This is all I ever can be. Isn't that what the council thought? What all of you thought?"

"No, Sabe," He said softly. "You are the only one who ever thought that."

She pushed past him, her shoulder connecting with his, her wound pulling.

"You cannot continue to wander the lower levels alone," he said, reaching for her.

Sabe remembered the Tusken raiders, watching their alien ship invade their territory. Suddenly she knew exactly how they must have felt. "You know I know the way back."

She just caught his quiet reply as she walked away. "No, I don't."

It was a long way back to the senate district, but she reached 500 Republica at last, and endured the confused looks of the staff and residents as she made her way up to the correct floor with muddy robes and disheveled hair. She released a breath she hadn't remembered holding when she saw the door to Amidala's quarters. Now, at last, she could crawl into the cool dark quiet away from her flight, away from everything. She could clean herself up and be alone for just a little while. Eventually she would remember who she was and that she didn't have to hide out in the under levels anymore. Hopefully that would be before the others returned.

She was so intent on her purpose that she nearly walked into the boy sitting on the floor just beside the door.

"Anakin!" She exclaimed, just managing not to fall on him.

He glanced up, and his face brightened. But then he looked more closely and looked morose again. "Who are you?"

"Forgive me….Padme has told me so much about you that I'd forgotten we hadn't been properly introduced." She'd grown so accustomed to spinning illusions that the lies came easily now, even to children. Fighting her thoughts, she extended a hand. "I am Sabe, another of the Queen's handmaidens."

Anakin shook her hand solemnly. "I thought you were Padme. You look an awful lot like her."

"You'd be surprised how often I'm mistaken for her," Sabe murmured. She studied the boy thoughtfully. Perhaps it was only that Padme had described his living conditions in Tatooine so vividly. Or maybe it was just her mood. But his face was familiar, with the starkness of a child who had lived life in adherence to necessity rather than whimsy. "Why are you sitting out here all by yourself?"

"I was waiting for Padme," the boy said mournfully. "I thought if I just waited long enough, she would come back."

Sabe nodded and knelt beside him, tucking her cloak around her. It was too bad Padme felt she could not reveal herself to him. But where he was headed, it would not help him to have such an attachment. "I'm sorry you missed her. I will see to it that she knows you were here."

"I will never see her again," Anakin said softly.

"That may not be true," Sabe said. "No one knows what paths have been laid before them."

Anakin peered at her curiously. "You sound like Master Qui-Gon."

Sabe swallowed, her heart twisting in her chest. "I suppose I…shall have to take that as a complement."

Anakin nodded. "He is a nice man. But Obi-Wan is very grumpy."

Sabe sighed, leaning her head back against the wall behind her. She absorbed the pure, guieless energy emanating from the small boy. His power was unrestrained and unorganized like an erratic pulse, but it was immense. She felt herself calming. "Obi-Wan is a different kind of man. They balance one another, he and Qui-Gon."

Anakin thought for a moment. "Are you friends with them?"

"I…" she had made two slips of the tongue in five minutes. "I am familiar with them by acquaintance and reputation."

She needed to extricate herself from this conversation. She stood up, and realized she needed anesthetic and bacta, too. "Well, I must see to my duties. It was very nice to meet you, Anakin."

"It was nice meeting you," He too got to his feet and began to shuffle away with slow steps. But then he hesitated and looked back. "Sabe?"

"Yes?"

"Why were you not on the ship I came over on?"

Sabe's throat went dry. Padme had warned her of Anakin's acuity, and she should have expected it from someone so powerful. "I had other duties at that time." Perhaps if she was careful not to lie overtly, he would not sense the deception.

"Oh," He said nonchalantly. Then he waved and moved off down the hall. Sabe exhaled.

"Mesa wonder, why da guds invent pain?"

Sabe raised her eyes. She could see nothing of the Queen except a silhouette against the window. Her back was to Sabe, and the Coruscanti skyline made a corona around her, almost swallowing her up. She hadn't bothered to turn on the room lights when she'd finally returned from the senate hearing. Sabe could sense her thoughts as black as the dress she wore.

"To motivate us, I imagine," Amidala finally answered the Gungun.

"Yousa tinken yousa people ganna die?" Jar Jar asked.

"I don't know," Amidala said.

"Gunguns ganna get pasted too, eh?"

"I hope not," Amidala replied. It was times like these, with her face obscured and her voice monotone that Sabe could almost read her mind. Eirtae believes we are entirely different, but we are not, are we Padme? The fingers of one of Sabe's hands reached reflexively in Amidala's direction. When she was so completely consumed by the persona of the Queen, like right now, it seemed Padme would never make it out again.

Suddenly Jar Jar squared his shoulders with a pride Sabe hadn't thought him capable of. "Gunguns don die without a fight. Wesa warriors. Wesa gotta grand army." He looked curiously at the Queen. " Dat why you no liken us, metinks."

Knowing Padme's mind almost as well as her own, Sabe could almost see the wheels beginning to turn. You wretched Gungun, she thought uncharitably, foreseeing where this was headed.

The door opened, and Captain Panaka walked into the room with his cap in his hand. Amidala turned at the sound. He seemed quite pleased. "Your highness, Senator Palpatine has been nominated to succeed Valorum as Supreme Chancellor."

The Queen's gaze jerked to Palpatine, who was close behind him. His face was wreathed with smiles. "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one."

Surprise, indeed, Sabe thought viciously.She saw the same thought forming on Amidala's face as the Queen listened to the Senator with eyes like two chips of black ice. "Who else was nominated?"

"Bail Antilles of Alderaan and Ainlee Teem of Malastare," Captain Panaka said.

"I feel confident our situation will create a strong sympathy vote for us." Palpatine said, and his voice seemed to become almost hungry. "I will be Chancellor, I promise you."

"I fear by the time you have control of the bureaucrats, Senator, there will be nothing left of our cities, our people, our way of life." Amidala said abruptly.

"I understand your concern, your majesty. Unfortunately the Federation has possession of our planet. The law is in their favor."

Amidala turned back toward the window, and to Jar Jar. Again she was but a stark black outline against the lights of the city. "Senator," she said in a low tone. "This is your arena. I feel I must return to mine."

Sabe's heart sank, and she could not suppress the tiny groan that escaped her. Captain Panaka looked at her, and she saw her own dismay mirrored on his face.

The Queen turned on her heel and brushed past Palpatine. "I have decided to go back to Naboo."

"Go back! But your majesty, be realistic! They will force you to sign the treaty!"

Amidala might have brought all the Neimoidians trembling to their knees with the look she gave Senator Palpatine. "I will sign no treaty, Senator. My fate will be no different from that of our people. Captain!"

Captain Panaka jumped to attention. "Yes, your highness?"

"Ready my ship."

There was no chance to argue with her, only time to hurry to catch up as she swept from the room.

A/N : I like to subtitle this chapter, "In Which Sabe becomes a little histrionic." I really struggled with this one, trying to figure out how a kid with a past like hers would react when it suddenly came roaring back. And I was listening to the darkest music I could find while I worked on it, including such greats as Tool's "Aenima". I hope it isn't too over the top as a result ;-).

Emerald Tiara : Well, there is your confrontation. Hope it met your expectations :-)

Calixa Inflixa : I really appreciate that. Your reviews always make me blush :-). But seriously, I like to think that even in a time when flight is an everyday thing, people can still see the wonder of it.

Sweet Christabel : How cool that you are reading and commenting! I've been following "Fair Maiden, Shining Knight" for a while now. Glad you like :-)

Greenteandhoney : Thanks for reading. I've still got a few plot bunnies hopping around that will get their day on the page ;-)