"What I said was true, you know." Far above them, Obi-Wan and Padmé were inspecting the city's defenses, while Wipper and Paan were busy distributing the weapons to the local guard and any able bodied citizens who had volunteered to fight. Anakin didn't like being left behind, but monitoring the central comps for any sign of an enemy approach was critical, and Padmé always lectured him on the need for patience, on how he couldn't just run off and blast or cut away at his enemies. "I was born a slave on Tatooine. Padmé was the Queen of Naboo, though I didn't know it when we met."

"I think you see too much of your own story in me and Wipper," Kara said, cutting him off. She was remarkably good with the central controls of the city, as she steadily directed the arming efforts of each sector and processed each combatant into the system so they could get a full accounting of their strength. It was much more rewarding work than processing slaves. "I appreciate your caring, but I'm not a Queen, or a Senator. I may be free now, but I've been a slave for longer than you have been alive, Anakin Skywalker. I've been degraded in ways you can never imagine." She emphasized his name to remind him of their earlier duplicity.

"I understand. And if I overstepped my bounds, I apologize."

"You don't need to," Kara replied, feeling awkward. No one had ever felt the need to apologize to a slave, besides other fellow slaves. No freeborns, and certainly not someone so high ranking in the Republic as Anakin.

"He does need you. He's young...he feels passion...that he would not know what to do with, not without direction." He turned his blue eyes towards her, staring at her earnestly. "I understand you're not going to develop romantic feelings for him overnight, having known him for so long. But be his friend. He will be grateful for that, I assure you."

"We've always been friends," Kara asserted. "That will not come to an end now that we are free, and not bound to each other by force."

"He may not know that, and it scares him."

"Tatooine is not far from here," Kara started, clearly seeking to change the subject. "I was sold there once, you know. Many years ago. But the Hutt lord that purchased me died before I could have been shipped off. My master still got his credits, and he kept his slave, so he was happy either way."

"Jabba," Anakin asked. Kara nodded. It was ironic that she was thankful that she was never sold to the late Hutt lord. While she would have suffered the usual humiliation in Jabba's palace, he and Padmé would have been able to free her when they raided the palace, and she could have enjoyed four more years of freedom. "I heard news of his demise as well. Do you know what happened to him?"

"Everyone whispers, but no one knows for sure. It's said...," she hesitated.

"Go on. I've heard some fantastic tales when I visit my family there."

"Demons," she whispered fearfully. "Two demons with hideous yellow eyes, born of the sand and wind and the elements themselves. They come from deep in the desert, their lairs underground, a hundred times deeper than the Sarlaac's cave. They came for Jabba's because his sins were too great, even for them, and they claimed him for themselves."

It never failed to give him a sense of pride when he heard others recount the varying legends of Jabba's death. He remembered the one twi'lek slave they had set free, who had witnessed the slaughter in the palace, who was clearly the one who had spread the tale, and wondered whether she was still alive, and whether she was still free.

"Tatooine is a harsh planet, a land of mysteries. I would not doubt it."

The angelic image of his wife appeared on the holoprojector. "Anakin. We've received visual reports of the governor's guard in the upper canyons."

He squinted his eyes at the control screen. "I see them too. Kara, can you handle it from here? We'll contact you if we need anything."

"Yes," she said boldly, without any doubt in her voice. "This is all of our fight."


They both crouched behind several of the large boulders atop the canyon, on a bluff above the rim. Below ran a small procession of assault vehicles, accompanied by small fighters hovering methodically above them.

"They're taking their damn time, aren't they," Anakin remarked contemptuously.

Padmé shook her head sadly. "They want us. They're in no hurry to save the city. We'll just have to make them."

"Do you sense Ventress?"

"In the rear."

"Coward," Anakin snarled. "I still think we should take care of her now, with Obi-Wan occupied. I don't like having to hold our powers back. It's too risky."

To his surprise, Padmé smiled at him. "Awww. You're being protective of me, your weak, frail, helpless wife. That's cute." She leaned into him to kiss him briefly on his lips. "That's why I love you."

"About time you said that. It's been too long."

"It couldn't have been more than fifteen standard hours ago," thinking back to the last time they had been alone, on their way back to Bruk'ira. They hadn't had a chance to regroup and replan since then.

"I know. Too long."

He was so sweet, so endearing, that she couldn't help but lean in and kiss him again, for longer this time. "I know you worry. You're growing up. You're leaving boyhood...way too fast for me honestly, and it's your role as a husband and a man to worry for your wife." She smiled at him, the soft look in his eyes reminding him of her vulnerability, of exactly why he feared for her. "But I'm Sith master, I can handle myself. The people of Rajar can't, and that's why we need to act now."

"I understand," Anakin said. "We must do our duty. For the people of Rajar. Especially when the Jedi refuse to."

Without another word, the two of them leaped down into the chasm below, each grabbing hold of a ship. The fighter rocked upon impact as Anakin held on to one wing. As it was going at a fairly tepid pace, Anakin regained his balance immediately and propelled himself towards the covered cockput. One one punch, he broke through the transparisteel covering, shocking the young twi'lek pilot.

"Sorry guy, not your day today." One a subtle shove through the Force, he knocked the pilot out. He looked over to his left, where he saw to his satisfaction that Padmé had taken control of a fighter in similar fashion. Grabbing the unconscious pilot's headset, he spoke, "think you can keep up with me, old maid?"

"Try me, Skywalker." Without a moment's hesitation, both ships fired their propellers and rocketed away from the rest of the fleet.

"Red 95, 17," an angry female voice rang through their communications. "What's gotten into you?"

"That would be Angel-1 now, Lady Ventress," Anakin retorted. "And Wizard-7."

"You insolent brats!"

"Catch us if you can," Anakin dared, before crushing the comm with the Force. Charging his fighter up and over the canyon, he swung south around the city, Padmé following closely behind him. She may be his teacher and superior in most ways, but he was still by far the better pilot. Behind them, entire squadrons geared up in pursuit, though he could tell they were shooting at them carefully enough to try to disable, not destroy them. Either way, they were both able to avoid being hit and soon, their navcoms warned loudly that they were venturing close into enemy territory.

"General...is it General Ventress," Padmé asked, scolding Anakin mentally for the short sighted act of destroying his communication with someone they still needed to cooperate with to a certain degree. "We're approaching rebel airspace, and they're going to try to shoot all of us down. I suggest you instruct your pilots to actually engage your enemies for once...especially if you want to capture us alive."

There was no response, but they both noticed that their pursuers were now firing at the surprised rebel pilots, who had not been expecting a response from the governor's army, interesting information that Padmé filed away for later. She swooped down towards the planet surface, Anakin following her now, and began strafing the cannons and vehicles, spinning as she dodged the enemy fire. Somewhere down there was Obi-Wan, who had taken up the task of trying to negotiate a ceasefire with the rebels, only to be undermined by her and Anakin for what would be the umpteenth time in less than two standard days. While the Sith part of her told her to disregard his life, she still hoped that their actions would not result in the poor man's death. He was a Jedi, she told herself, and should be capable of taking care of himself, and she preferred him alive just so that they could further aggravate him with their own special brand of sith torture, albeit much milder than what Sidious would have in mind. Even though their mission, as Sith, not as representatives of the Republic, would be much easier without the supervision of their guardian.

"Fucking Sith hells," she swore as the impact of a blast from one of the cannon's below rocked her fighter, careening her down towards the surface. Above her, Anakin flew nearly out of her sight, dodging and weaving the enemy fire as now Ventress's fighters provided enough distraction and firepower to start stacking the numbers in their favor. She pushed her fighter upwards, willing it to regain the elevation lost, but the right wing sputtered, clearly damaged. With no other choice, she diverted her course down towards a small cove behind the rebel positions, hoping to glide her ship to as gentle of a landing as possible.

Angel! What's going on? Anakin's voice shot through her head, frantic, yet weak as their physical distance and distractions made their communication more difficult.

Got clipped. Going to make a landing. Finish your run, she ordered, envying Anakin's piloting skills. She was not bad herself, but her natural connection with the Force was simply not as strong as Anakin's, and as a politician, she had not devoted most of her free time to flying. Sidious had not been much of a pilot either, and she hated to admit that they were more similar than not. While her old master was lethal with his saber and the sheer darkness of his power, as Siths in the political realm, their true strengths had been planning, guile, deception, and their ability to cloak and hide their true intentions from the most perceptive minds in the galaxy, whether it be the Jedi or their fellow politicians. Plus, Padmé had been the better planner in the end, had she not? After all, Sidious had died by her doing, in a way that he never could have foreseen.

I'm coming back for you, angel.

Padmé heard several explosions in the distance as Anakin and his former pursuers continued to wreck the rebel army. More and more of Ventress's forces were moving in, and she sensed in the distance finally the approach of her armored vehicles. Though the rebels had them outnumbered slightly, the surprise attack they brought upon them had evened the odds, and as she crashed onto the dusty surface, fighter careening to a stop just before it slammed straight into a cliff, she felt the panic and fear emanating around her. Death too, their armor were pounded like sitting ducks on the ground. To her left, she saw an array of rebel ships fly into battle, their arrival too late to break the hold Ventress's pilots already had over the skies.

I'm in the rear positions. Obi-Wan is nearby too, I sense him. Where he is is where the rebel headquarters are. Best way you can protect me is to take out all the units around me. Drawing on the dark energies around her, she honed her focus until she could map the entirety of the surrounding battle in her mind. Again she cursed Antilles for saddling her with a Jedi bodyguard. Without his presence, she could be practicing the new battle meditation methods she was studying, manipulating the chaos around her with the Force to her own ends. With Obi-Wan so nearby however, she could do little but the most subtle manipulations, guiding Ventress's bombers to their targets with better accuracy.

Jumping out the ship, she spotted a small squadron of commandos approaching, likely looking to investigate the crashed enemy ship. She crouched behind a small dirt bluff, and pushed through the Force, rather than threw, two thermal detonators at the advancing soldiers. The ensuing explosions rocked the desert floor, and taking advantage of the resulting chaos as well as the fact that she could feel through the Force the positions of the survivors through the smoke and rubble, she pulled out a blaster in each hand to finish off the survivors.

Heading into a small gully for cover, she ran towards where she sensed the Jedi was, in a mobile HQ vehicle stationed in the safely of a small, cliffed off cove. So he had started his negotiations after all. Glad that Obi-Wan was still willing to follow some of her direction after all they had done to him, she wondered how she would handle him now. He was likely already a hostage of the rebels, as they would now suspect that Obi-Wan's efforts with diplomacy were a distraction while Ventress's army ambushed them. Leaving him here captive would make the rest of her plans easier, but rumors of the rebel leadership were unreliable, to say the least, and she could not afford to end up with a dead Jedi this early into their plans, which would invite upon them more suspicion than everything else they've already done on planet.

She's close, she heard Anakin scream through their bond the same time Padmé felt the arrival of Ventress herself. Spying a larger than usual fighter shoot its way to through the rebel lines, Padmé calculated the distance she still had to reach the Jedi. The quickest way would be through an open clearing, which would expose her to heavy fire, and likely slowing her down more than the terrain would. She could slowly continue her current course, ambling up and down over rocky boulders towards structure, but as Ventress's ship swooped down into the clearing ahead of her, it was obvious that she was cutting her off from her destination.

"I surrender," Padmé declared, walking into the clearing and throwing her two blasters onto the ground. She had shielded herself well enough so that there was no way the uncouth rogue Force user could have detected her, but Ventress obviously had a trace on her ship as well as Anakin's, and somehow she had been able to guess as to her destination as well. Was it Obi-Wan? She could tell his shielding was perfect as well, the Jedi having raised his guards the moment they encountered Ventress on the planet.

The woman slithered out of her ship, hatred in her eyes. "Traitor," she snarled.

"I understand our actions today were unconventional," Padmé said in her best diplomatic voice, "but surely you cannot be mad at me for helping you win a battle."

"You know nothing of what you've gotten yourself into, Senator."

With a violent jerk of her arms, Padmé found herself lifted into the chair, her breathing constricted. Ventress pulled her roughly through the Force towards her until she gripped her neck with her hand as tightly as she did with the Force choke.

"Keeping talking, Senator, but I'm afraid there's no one left to listen to you." With her free hand, she slapped the younger woman struggling in her grip, her sharp nails drawing blood against her face. "You'll a fetch a good price, no doubt, a pretty little thing like you. I hear the hutts especially like their slaves highborn. Or Prince Xizor...he has several former queens and princesses in his harem."

They both heard the rumbling of another ship. Afraid to fire directly on them for fear of hurting Padmé, he instead landed his ship recklessly next to them and jumped out of his fighter with all the speed he could muster.

"LET! HER! GO!" He screamed, and it felt like the Force itself thundered with his words.

Recognizing the rage and the terror in her husband's eyes and knowing he had heard Ventress's last sentence, Padmé strained herself to scream out despite her foe's vice grip over her neck.

"Anakin! Noooo!" But it was too late, they both felt a burst of fierce energy their way, and this time, it was Ventress herself who was choking. Abruptly dropping her grip of Padmé, she let the Senator fall while she clutched her own neck in vain, slowly collapsing onto the ground. Anakin was there in no time, and for a moment she caught the sheer force of his glowing yellow eyes and knew this was the last sight she would ever see.

"Anakin," Padmé rasped, her voice recovering slightly, "let her go." He turned his eyes onto her in confusion, the internal struggle evident between carrying out what his instincts told him to do, and what Padmé was telling, nay, commanding him.

"Obi-Wan," she said with as much force as she could muster without projecting her voice, and Anakin's eyes widened in recognition. Immediately Ventress began gasping for breath, and Anakin turned to see the Jedi walking towards him, accompanied by a dozen rebel commandos. His hands were bound behind him, his eyes neutral as several of the rebels ran ahead towards their small group, blasters pointed. Half in shock at what he had already done, Anakin helplessly dropped his blaster onto the ground, raising his hands in submission, Padmé doing the same.

"What happened here," one of the leaders yelled out, a Weequay, his scaly skin glistening in the eerie glow of the desert's eternal dawn.

Ventress shot up angrily, shaking the dust out of her vest. "You're late Hondo." She studied the wary eyes of the Senator, and then at her young husband, examining him with a blend of curiosity and fear as if he was some kind of exotic specimen found in a dangerous jungle. Turning her eyes then at the Jedi, she waited until he was close enough to hear. "I was fine. Bitch kicked me when I wasn't paying attention."

Obi-Wan stared almost sadly at her. "You are truly lost, Asajj."

She spat on the ground at him. "You know nothing, Jedi."

Padmé breathed a sigh of relief. It had worked. Anticipating the outburst that was about to come from her husband, she had tried her best to contain it. His dark rage had been too powerful for her to shield completely from the Jedi, but she had been able to dilute it with enough of the rage coming from Ventress to direct Obi-Wan's suspicions towards the more obvious suspect. That Obi-Wan did not see Anakin's hands gripped together was sheer luck.

"Don't underestimate these prisoners, pirate." Her steely eyes never left the young man as she apparently issued the orders to the rebel commander. "They are dangerous indeed."

One of Hondo's hunchmen, another pirate, wrenched Anakin's arms behind his back and slapped a pair of binders roughly onto his wrists. The head pirate himself did the same to Padmé, but not before sidling up way too close behind her and letting his hands linger way too long on her hips.

"There's no loyalty amongst scoundrels, is there," Padmé asked contemptuously.

"We'll take care of them," Hondo said back gruffly, ignoring her comment. "They took out a whole squadron of our scouts, so we're fully aware of the threat."

"Are you now," Ventress said slowly, moving her eyes away from the pirate/rebel and onto their captive Jedi. "The battle is won for me and lost for you," she declared. "I will personally accompany you to the transfer, just in case."


Nightshade's sydneylover150: Only the eternal glory and success of the Sith order, of course! Only here, that involves freeing slaves and saving innocent lives as well.