Note: Padmé's age is switched around kind of though she is still older than Vader. And also Padmé gave in because Vader told her it was on the Emperor's orders he take Sola, that's why she joined, she wants to kill him though it was not Vader's plan, but it may be unavoidable. Anyways glad to see the usual reviewers are back!

Chapter 6: Meeting the Enemy

Vader strode into the communications room aboard the Executor after having Padmé sent to his quarters. It was going to take some convincing to get her to go see Sidious as well as keep her mouth shut about Vader's false killing him plan. It wouldn't exactly be the best idea for Sidious to know that. Vader walked up to the blinking control panel and punched in the frequency of his master. He hit the contact switch and walked down onto the durasteel camera pad so Sidious could see him. Seconds after he found his comfortable kneeling position a hideous, enlarged image of Sidious's deformed face appeared above the holo projector pit.

"Greetings Lord Vader." The image said through static and other types of interference.

"Greetings my master."

"Rise, Lord Vader."

"Yes master."

"Have you apprehended the traitor Organa?"

"No, master the queen provided an escape route for him and I was too late. He is on one of the moons of Naboo from what she says and I have left a star destroyer behind to search."

"Double it, I want him found!"

"It will be done master. But there is good news."

"That is?"

"The queen's sister, Padmé Naberrie Amidala is a force sensitive woman. As powerful as I have seen, I have her with me. She may be my new apprentice."

"I am… familiar with Padmé Amidala, we were acquaintances when I was senator of Naboo, though she was hardly older than you were at the time."

"She is older than me?"

"Yes, she was about… well I believe thirteen when you were nine."

"Did you know she was force sensitive?"

"No, it was possible her powers only manifested themselves recently."

"Perhaps."

"You will bring her before me."

"I will."

XxX

Vader arrived in his quarters to see Padmé sitting on a sofa watching some program on the HoloNet and wearing one of his Sith robes.

"Space is cold?" Vader asked. She jumped and looked to him.

"I am sorry Lord Vader!"

"No need, just wear warmer clothes in the future." Vader said. Strangely he felt he could not be cruel to this woman. She was so… beautiful. No, no, he couldn't think like this, she was his apprentice. Nothing more. Still….

He sat down next to her, ready to tell her about the audience with Sidious.

"Padmé."

"Darth Amidala Lord Vader, remember?" She asked jokingly. But there still was that hint of sadness in her brown glassy eyes. Sola, her sister was taken from her. A cruel tool to turn her to the dark side. But he would do it.

"Amidala, the Emperor has requested we meet with him."

"What! I wouldn't talk to that, that bastard if you paid me ten thousand credits and let me slit his hideous neck afterwards."

"I am sorry, but if I am going to train you and we are going to overthrow him he must meet you. He cannot suspect anything. And besides. You knew him when he was senator of Naboo."

"That was nearly twenty years ago! I had no idea who he really was!"

"Even so we have to meet him."

Padmé looked into Vader's blue eyes and found she couldn't say no to him. He was to handsome, wait. What was she thinking? He was her mentor and she didn't even have a chance in hell with him.

"Alright." Padmé reluctantly agreed.

XxX

The Imperial palace was everything Padmé expected. Elegance and evil, you could practically smell the cruelty and hatred rolling off its crystal lined corridor walls. Or perhaps is was just the storm trooper guards, body odor leaking through their suits was always a problem, if they spent as much time sterilizing the inside as they polished the outside it wouldn't be so bad.

Padmé walked five paces behind Vader admiring his strong stride and his blonde hair. She shook her head as if to push these thoughts out of her head, storm troopers eyed her oddly when she did this. Vader sensed her feelings, though he could not quite read her thoughts. It was remarkable how many mental shields she put up, force someone who had never used the Force in their life. He had mixed feelings about her. One on hand she was good looking, very good looking. On the other hand she was his apprentice and he had no doubt Sidious would kill them both if he saw how they felt. He sensed she was feeling somewhat the same way.

Vader stole a glance over his shoulder at her, she didn't see. She looked completely different from when he had found her on Naboo yesterday. Instead of a white flowing gown she wore black silk Sith robes with a hood up. She pulled them off nicel y… wait, why was he thinking that? No, he had to get it out of his head, he had to. Padmé… no Darth Amidala was good looking but she had no effect on Vader whatsoever. He was a Lord of the Sith, vulnerable to lust perhaps, not love. But love was the closest it came to describing how he seemed to feel about Padmé, no Amidala. But he had known her for a day! He had to stop thinking like this.

He was so caught up in his thoughts he nearly smacked into the doors of Sidious's throne room. The two red robed guards on either side of the door snickered as he backed away from it lest it crush him as it opened automatically. Vader's turned yellow and both guards fell to the ground desperately trying to pull off their helmets to get to their necks. As if that would help, the Force was no physical being and impossible to get off your neck if someone was strangling you with it.

"What was that?" Padmé asked. Vader turned to her and jumped at the sight of his yellow eyes which were returning to normal, so they looked more like a sick muddy color.

"Treachery is the way of the Sith." Vader said. "That's your first lesson Amidala. If anyone with lower authority than you steps out of line show them no mercy."

The doors opened all the way with one final bang, and crunch as they squished the choking guards into the wall.

"Well said Lord Vader!" Sidious boomed. Vader looked to Padmé with somewhat of an apologetic look on his face. He knew she despised the Emperor. He knew if her eyes could turn yellow then they would turn black now.

"Next lesson." He whispered. "Control!"

Padmé took the hint and smiled to Sidious on his chair on a raised platform at the far end of the room.

"Thank you master." Vader replied. They took a step in. Padmé stared in awe at the place. It was huge, the size of the entire crew bunk room on the Executor but much more elegant. The floor was literally black marble with small white streaks. The walls were identical and had hand carved pillars sticking to them. The ceiling was so high Padmé could not see it but a red crystal chandelier hung down on what appeared to be a diamond encrusted chain. It provided some light over a stone situation table in the middle of the room. At the far end of the room was a raised durasteel black platform with marble steps leading up to it.

Atop it was a chair on which sat Sidious, in front of the chair a very nice desk. And behind the chair a circular window with a bars inside of the glass forming the Imperial insignia. Above the window hung a huge golden carving, depicting a grand battle of Sith and Jedi. And finally to each side of the chair on the walls was a door leading defiantly to a huge suite or something.

"Do you like my throne room, my dear lady?" Sidious asked smiling.

"Yes." Padmé said which was the truth.

"It used to be the chancellor's office, my office. But no one would ever recognize it now, would they? Completely remodeled. The only thing left of the old one is the carving over my window, I hid my lightsaber within it when I was Supreme Chancellor of the Old Republic."

"Fascinating." Padmé lied. Vader led the way up the stairs and both stood before Sidious's desk.

"So sorry." Sidious said. "I am being rude. Please, sit!"

Two identical red cushioned chairs flew off the ceiling and pushed themselves under Padmé and Vader forcing them to sit.

"I'm sure you remember these chairs Lord Vader, do you not?"

"Chairs from the Jedi council room." Vader muttered.

"Precisely." Sidious smiled. "Now, this is your new apprentice?"

"Yes."

"Her title is?"

"Darth Amidala."

"You used her name?"

"Well, I couldn't think of a better one that fit her." Vader said.

"No matter. When will her training begin?"

"Soon, tomorrow if you like."

"Good, good. I have an apprentice too Lord Vader."

"Excuse me?"

"Another one."

"Master, three Sith goes against our tradition, but four?"

"Silence Lord Vader. Sadly Sith are needed to run this Empire."

"So where is he?"

"She, Lord Vader. May I present my new apprentice. Mara Jade."

Right on cue the door to Padmé's left opened and out stepped a tall woman. She had long dark red hair and piercing green eyes. She wore black trousers and a skin tight shirt. Over her shoulders flowed an armorweave Sith robe and she topped it all off with a belt similar to Vader's which had a lightsaber hooked to it and black leather assassin boots. She bowed to Sidious and Vader.

"Greetings masters."

"Greetings Jade." Sidious said absently. "As you can see she is an assassin who can use a lightsaber and I have trained her to use the Force. She calls herself the Emperor's right hand."

Vader stood up. "Care to demonstrate your skills miss Jade?"

"Try me blondie!"

"A little respect miss Jade."

"I'll respect you later Vader."

"Very well then. If you would." Vader pointed down the stairs. Mara stepped beside the table and started down them. On the second step Vader spun for a roundhouse kick to her back. Before it made contact she spun on heel and caught his booted leg. She smiled slightly and pulled hard. Vader was flying in the air and headed to the ground. Faintly he heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber being activated. He summoned the Force and landed on his feet right in front of the situation table, turning just in time to see Mara (saber raised) sprinting down the stairs.

"Very good miss Jade." He said activating his own blade.

"You haven't seen the best part Lord Vader."

She angled her saber at him down low in a Makashi stance. Vader sighed, this would be easy. If he remembered correctly Count Dooku, whom he had killed while rescuing Palpatine (even though it was all planned by Sidious) was a Makashi stylist. Vader was a Djem So artist and the best of his kind. Makashi could not stand up to it. While Makashi stood more for deadly grace, Djem So stood for brute force and a lot of kicks and punches. Dirty fencing he liked to call it, while Makashi was straight up Corellian Ale fencing.

She pulled a low stab at Vader how dodged and returned with an uppercut. She raised her saber and guided the blow away one handed and blew a strand of hair from her face. This was going to get interesting. Though Vader wanted it to be short and he had a trick that always worked. He feigned a blow to the head, she raised her blade to parry but the two never met and Vader crouched down to the floor extended his leg and spun. A sweep kick he called it. Surprisingly Mara seemed ready and jumped. Vader stood back up and she began to launch a series of thrusts and cuts at his abdomen all of which he parried and guided away one handed.

Finally it started to get intense. Overhead whirling and striking. Deflecting and parrying. Mara was good. In fact to good, Vader found himself not able to get on the offensive. That is when he realized he was duped. Mara Jade began launching a series of well cut aerial attacks all of which Vader parried. She was defiantly not the graceful fencing Makashi stylist, but a graceful aerial acrobatic Autaru style, and she flipped about as much as Yoda. But that flipping was the strength and weakness of Autaru itself. The good part; it was nearly impossible for Vader's saber to even come in close to her when she was flipping around. The bad part, for her; she relied far to heavily on the force to guide her jumps, leaps and flips. She didn't actually have the time to use it offensively.

Vader knew this from dueling practice with Qui-gon who had also been an Autaru stylist. If you use Force attacks when they are leaping in the air they haven't the time to block. A fatal flaw. And that is why she used Autaru, which was what the Emperor trained her to. In case she were to betray him, his own fighting technique relied to heavily on Force attacks. Vader smiled as she attempted to do a front flip over him. Right at the top of her leap he extended his hand and wrapped the Force around her. Then he heaved her like a sack onto the ground and she hit her back, knocking the air out of her. Vader angled his blade down at her.

"Impressive miss Jade. But not good enough."

She scowled stood up and deactivated her lightsaber. Sidious applauded.

"Excellent Lord Vader. You found her weakness, you will make and excellent teacher your apprentice!" Sidious boomed and pulled a crate from under his desk. "This box if full of saber crystals and parts. When the time comes for your apprentice to build her own."

"Thank you master." Vader said.

Well there's an action sequence for you. And this is about the longest chapter I have ever typed.