Chapter 52 – The Demolition
Author's Note: Yes, this chapter is a week late, but I was too busy finishing an Obi-Wan series fix-it to finish this on time. I'm not sorry. Lol.
Also... the characters are kinda running off with the script again. Enjoy the new faces who are/will be making appearances. :)
~ Amina Gila
Padme is still stressing over Anakin when Sabe awakens again. "Take it easy," Padme soothes, giving her a few sips of water. "How –"
"Don't," Sabe interrupts, lips quirking into a smile. Her voice is still a little weak and strained, but her tone makes her point clear enough. "Don't ask me that again, Padme."
"Sorry," she says a bit sheepishly. Maybe she has been being a little annoying, asking Sabe how she feels every time the latter wakes up. Which is… several times a day at this point. She can try to tone it down a little, but she's worried. And more than that, she feels restless. She has nothing more pressing to attend to, which is strange for her in and of itself.
"It's okay," Sabe assures her. The brown eyes, so similar to her own, study her. "How are you? You seem… troubled," she notes.
So much for trying to hide it. "I think it's probably nothing," she answers at last, "But I have a bad feeling… like something is wrong with Anakin."
"If it's bothering you so much, maybe you should talk to his mother about it," she suggests.
"Yes, that's a good idea," Padme decides. She still has Shmi's comm frequency, so she pulls out her comm and enters it. It rings, but there's no answer. So, she tries again. And again. The result is the same, and that makes her feel even more unnerved. Something is wrong; she just doesn't know what.
"It might be nothing," she says aloud, though she doesn't really believe that. At all. "It's – it probably is nothing. She's probably busy, or maybe –"
Sabe holds up a hand to stop her. "You're rambling, Padme," she points out with a faintly amused smile that soon falls away. "If it's bothering you this much, you should go check it out. Don't go alone. Take someone with you. Rabe was here earlier; is she still around?"
"I – yes, she is," Padme replies, hesitantly. "I don't want to leave you alone, though."
"You won't," she assures her. "You won't be gone long anyways, and I'll probably be resting the whole time. If you think something is wrong, follow your instincts. Go."
She almost wants to protest, but thinks better of it, since she doesn't want to strain Sabe any further and talking still isn't easy for her. So instead, she simply concedes. "Okay." Padme reaches out, brushing a hair back from her best friend's forehead before leaving the hospital room. Rabe is still at the hospital; she said that she would be staying nearby for a day or two, at least until she was assured that Sabe is alright.
Rabe isn't hard to find, thankfully, and she readily agrees to fly Padme to the Palpatine residence, even if the trip will take several hours both ways. Padme doesn't want to leave in the least, but Sabe is right. If she doesn't do this, then she'll never be able to let it rest, especially not with the feeling of foreboding in her gut.
They don't talk much, at least not anything meaningful, during their flight, though Rabe does ask Padme what she plans to do now that she's no longer a Senator. And honestly? Padme has no idea. She plans to help Sabe though, at least initially. After everything that her best friend has done for her, it's Padme's turn to help her, and she refuses to shirk that duty. But after that? Padme doesn't know. Perhaps she could try and find Anakin. She wants to see him again, especially if something really did happen to him.
Whatever it was, was probably something bad, and Padme wants to help him. She's always wanted to help him, and she wants to understand. There's a part of her that might harbor some resentment against him for the secrets he's kept, for what he's done, but at the same time… she can't stop remembering what happened on Raxus. Anakin saved her. He was hurt because he didn't want to kill her. She can't forget how she learned that Anakin has been being broken and forced into submission. He might not have shattered yet, but he's close.
But she doesn't think that's what this was. It was… something, but not that.
Padme sees the haze of smoke in the air before they even arrive, and something within her clenches, a mixture of both fear and dread. It gets worse when they approach, and the devastation becomes clearer. All she can do is stare with a numb sort of horror at the ruins of what was once Palpatine's mansion.
Rabe reaches out and squeezes her hand, though she doesn't actually say anything as she lands the small shuttle on the landing platform. They disembark together, and Padme slowly begins to walk around, surveying everything. Somehow, she already knows that Shmi is dead. What else could have explained that sudden feeling? What else could have happened to her, given what transpired here? For that matter, what did happen here?
She ventures further, Rabe following closely, stopping in her tracks when she sees the dried blood stains all over the ground. Her heart plummets somewhere near her feet, and she thinks she can almost feel the… pain, the death. Someone died here.
"Do you think –?" Rabe begins slowly.
"I don't know," Padme replies, shaking her head. Or maybe it's that she doesn't want to accept it. It doesn't even seem possible, and she needs to find Anakin. If – if his mother is really dead –
They both jump when they hear a sudden noise in the rubble, turning towards it in unison. Padme feels that she can hardly breathe as something crashes down, sending up a plume of ash and smoke; it's clearly been hours since whatever destroyed this place transpired, since the fire is already out, though the debris is still settling.
"What could have happened?" Padme asks, daring to break the silence.
Another crash interrupts Rabe before she can answer, and Padme could swear that she hears something, or someone, moving around. She moves closer, uncertainly, freezing in place when she sees a hand moving around near some of the debris. A child's hand.
"Is that –?" Rabe begins, sounding horrified.
"– a child?" Padme finishes. "I think so." She scrambles closer, pushing some of the debris aside and reaching for the hand, helping the child free from the ruins.
For a moment, she and the boy stare at each other, and she can't help but think that he looks familiar somehow, though she can't place why. "Who are you?" he asks. He sounds like – he almost sounds like a clone.
"My name is Padme," she tells him kindly, "What is your name?"
"Boba," he answers shortly, warily.
"Oh my, I do believe I'm stuck!" exclaims a mechanical, droid voice, and Padme turns to see a golden limb waving near the whole. Rabe rushes forwards, pulling the protocol droid free, and Padme's heart clenches when she sees it. Threepio.
"Mistress Padme!" cries the droid. "Thank the maker you're here. We would never have gotten out if not for you."
"What happened here?" Padme asks, gesturing.
"The Jedi came, unexpectedly, while Master Anakin was visiting Mistress Shmi, with his two friends," Threepio relates. "Mistress Shmi was killed, and the mansion was destroyed from what I do believe were concealed explosives."
"… The Jedi killed Shmi?" Padme asks in disbelief. That doesn't seem right.
"They might as well have," Boba mutters, expression distressed. "They shouldn't've come. They don't belong here! They did enough damage! And now…" He looks away, but not before Padme sees the pain on his face.
She reaches out, touching his shoulder. "I don't understand what's happening here," she admits. "I might be Anakin's fiancée, but he never told me all his secrets." She exchanges a helpless look with Rabe, unsure how to even go about getting answers.
Boba sighs, a little dramatically. "Count Dooku had me brought me here after the Jedi killed my father," he answers, "Since Anakin and Dad were friends. He's like my brother. Mom – Shmi – she took care of me. And – and then, Anakin came with Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. They were gonna do something to Mom, and we were gonna leave so we'd be safe. And… the Jedi came. It blew up. Literally."
His dark brown eyes go distant and haunted, and Padme desperately doesn't want to know what exactly he saw to put that look in his eyes. "Who was your father, Boba?" Rabe queries gently. "Was it Jango Fett?"
Boba looks up at her, seeming caught off guard, before he nods hesitantly.
"I'm sorry for your loss." To her credit, Rabe actually sounds sincere. "We can take you somewhere from here until we figure out what's going on. Is that alright?"
He wavers, uncertain, looking back at the mansion behind him. "I guess so."
"We can talk on the way back," Rabe says to Padme, before reaching out to take Boba's hand. "Come with us then," she encourages, "And can you tell us what happened to the mansion? And Sh- your mother?"
He hesitates again before taking her hand and letting her lead him from the ruins. Padme follows, taking the time to actually study him. He's covered with ash and soot, and scratched in a few places, but somehow, he's still alive, and she doesn't know how. He was inside the building, but he survived. How? And if the Jedi were here, does that mean Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka were captured? Or did they escape? She has no idea, but it's probably time to give Siri a call.
Boba doesn't loosen up or relax until after they've already left the ruins. It's only then that he begins to open up. "I was in the control room," he explains, "When it happened. Ahsoka had gone to warn Anakin, and then… everything detonated. It was sudden and unexpected, but the walls in the control room shielded me. I managed to get to a shelter which protected me and Threepio while everything was destroyed. It was… designed for that purpose, for hiding out while the building and everyone inside appeared to be demolished."
Padme and Rabe exchange uncertain looks. Something isn't adding up. At all. Why would the Chancellor's private mansion be designed in such a way? "How did your mother die then?" Padme asks again. She can tell how hard it is for Boba to talk about, but she needs answers.
Boba's eyes go distant and blank again when she asks, and she winces internally, resting a hand on his shoulder to try and keep him grounded, to keep him from reliving the past. "She blew up."
… Padme does not want to know what that means.
"If I may," Threepio interjects, "It is possible that what happened to Mistress Shmi was the result of the slave chip implant located inside her body."
"What?" Padme doesn't know who sounds more horrified: her or Rabe.
"Surely you must remember that Mistress Shmi was a slave on Tatooine," Threepio elaborates, misinterpreting Padme's horror. "It was a very common practice out there to have chips implanted in a slave's body to prevent their escape."
"Why would it not have been removed?" she clarifies, "Or deactivated?" There's a sinking feeling inside of her as pieces of the puzzle begin to click into place. She doesn't want to accept it though, so she holds off on the possible truth, on thinking, until she gets answers.
"Oh, well," the protocol droid begins, somehow sounding both alarmed and worried at once, "I am not to speak of such matters.
"Threepio, listen to me," Padme beseeches, "Shmi died. I need answers. I need to know who was responsible for this. I need to help Anakin, but I can't do that if I don't know what's happening. Can you help me? You won't be deactivated; I promise."
"I… helping people is in my protocol," the droid replies, a little uncertainly. "It was Chancellor Palpatine. He desired to keep Mistress Shmi's slave chip in her body so as to keep Master Anakin under control."
"My – my master uses those I care about to manipulate me."
Padme had wondered how it was possible that Palpatine knew nothing about Anakin being trained as a Sith by Dooku. She had wondered about the way that Dooku treated him; she saw that the Count cared for him, and she knew, because of that, that it was not him who was mistreating Anakin. So, she had questions.
But now? Now? It all makes so much sense.
"Palpatine is Sidious," she breathes out, staring blankly ahead of her. "Palpatine is the Sith Lord who started this entire war." And she'd trusted him. She'd trusted him, and he'd manipulated her, too. And he's been trying to break Anakin. He's been trying to destroy him.
"I am afraid that is the truth," Threepio worries. "Whatever will you do now?"
"… I don't know." And really, what can she do, even? She isn't in the Senate anymore. She doesn't have a way of obtaining information on Palpatine which can be used to take him down. She can probably get into contact with Bail or some of her old colleagues though, but she'll have to be careful that Palpatine doesn't suspect anything. And she should also call Siri again. The two of them really need to talk, even if the Jedi Master probably already has learned this information; Siri doesn't have the political expertise that Padme herself does, so maybe they can work together on this.
"Whatever you're planning, Padme, just be careful," Rabe cautions. "I'll help you, of course; we all will. But just be careful. Don't do anything rash."
"I'll be careful," she promises solemnly, knowing that not only does her own life depend on it, but so does the lives of all of those close to her. She can easily see someone as cold-hearted and manipulative as Palpatine apparently is being spiteful enough to hurt the family and friends of someone who is close to unmasking him. She cannot afford to slip it. It's time to manipulate the manipulator, not an easy task to be sure.
"The Jedi have Anakin in custody," Boba blurts out. "I don't know what they'll do to him… or to Obi-Wan or Ahsoka, but they have them."
"I'm friends with a Jedi," Padme tells him. "I'll contact her and see what we can figure out. I'm sure Anakin will be alright." She doesn't know if she really believes that though. She can hope, at least, because she can't bear the thought of something happening to her finance.
More than anything, she wants to spend time with him; she wants to see the man he really is, not the mask he wore in front of her. She wants to get to know him as him, and maybe her being removed as Senator is actually a blessing in disguise, because it's what led her to this truth. If not for the attack and everything that followed, she would not be here on Naboo. She would not have been here to find Boba and Threepio. She would not have learned the truth about Palpatine. Maybe the Force does have a way of guiding people, and Padme thinks that it's guiding her now, even if she isn't sensitive to its whispers.
And Padme thinks that the Force wills her to be the one to unmask Palpatine, to help Anakin. She'll do it. She'll do it even if it's the last thing she does. She owes it both to the man she loves and the galaxy she lives in to give her all to protect them.
She is Padme Amidala Naberrie – soon to be Skywalker, she hopes – and she has never backed down from a fight.
She will not start now.
"We need to find information on Palpatine," Padme decides, looking to Boba. "We can all work together. If we can take him down, we can end this war. We can save the galaxy." And then, holding Boba's eyes, she adds, "We can get Anakin back."
He smiles, slightly, at her, and some of the melancholic depression lifts. "I can help you," he declares firmly. "Mom – she made me learn a lot. I can help."
"Good," Padme answers, nodding, turning toward the protocol droid. "Threepio, I'll need your help. I need you to upload everything you know and have witnessed while in Palpatine's mansion to a datapad. We need to go through that information. It might not be much, but it will give us something to start with. Rabe, I still have Artoo, though he's been turned off. Once we return to the medcenter, can you go to my parents' house to pick him up. He can help us start splicing through files and seeing what all we can uncover."
"Absolutely, M'Lady." Rabe's voice betrays a hint of enthusiasm, and Padme feels a wave of gratitude at the loyalty of her former handmaiden. If not for her, for all of them, Padme knows that she would never have gotten as far as she has.
She will do this. She will take Palpatine down. She will avenge Dorme and Corde and Verse. She has never forgotten the names and faces of the friends who died for her, and their deaths are on Palpatine's hands. She will make him pay.
"I will also need a secure, untraceable comm which I can use to contact Siri," Padme continues, mind racing as she tries to figure out what she'll need for her mission of necessity.
She'll need to question Boba, too, but she'll have to do so gently and only once he's begun to recover from his traumatic experience. Force, he doesn't look like he's older than ten, but she can't simply give him to someone else, not if he really is like Anakin's brother. She owes it to her finance to watch over Boba, even if she has no idea how to handle children. Maybe she should contact Yane or Sache, especially the former, given that the duo have adopted many children of their own. They can at least give her some advice, and they might even be able to help her figure out what to do next.
"Yane and Sache can help with Boba," she adds aloud, thoughtfully, "And maybe with other aspects too, since Sache is into politics."
"Maybe it's time for us to get everyone back together," Rabe smirks. "I think you could use the help. Just say the word, and we'll all be there."
Oh, she knows that, which is why she's never done it. Her former handmaids would drop everything to help her if she asked them to, and these are desperate times. Maybe she does need to call upon the bonds and people from her past to help her bring down Palpatine. It's not something that she can do alone, after all.
"I'll call them," she decides, hoping that she won't regret it, hoping that she won't drag them into a mess that will get them killed. The galaxy itself is at stake, and Padme cannot think of anything more crucial than this. She, whether she likes it or not, needs their help.
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