The pain stopped, but when she opened her eyes to the sight of the two Siths, still glaring at her with their unnaturally yellow eyes, Asajj wished she was dead.

"Had enough?"

"Stand," Anakin ordered, and though she was too weak to support herself, she felt her body tugged up by the Force and propped up like an Alderaanian puppet, her limp arms hanging lamely by her side. Asajj watched as her own comm floated up to her eye level. "Your command codes."

Asajj barely was able to whisper out the words haphazardly, and after the boy had dialed in the link, was too worn to care about how she looked to the thousands of troops who were still waiting and watching her for their next orders. Though she didn't know what the senator wanted her to do, she began to speak and realized that her defenses were so weak, somehow the senator (the Sith!) had infiltrated her own mind and was dictating her every action now.

"Commander Ohnaka betrayed our cause and has been punished for his insolence. I am abdicating my command effective immediately, and Mayor Thothlis as the ranking authority present will now dictate your next moves."

Padmé took the dark lady's comm, deactivated it, and handed it over to the still horrified mayor. "You understand that the truth of Anakin and I must never be revealed? Especially to the Jedi."

"You saved us all," Kara said, stepping boldly forward. "I don't care about what you are, only what you did. We are all forever indebted to you."

"Your secret is safe with me," Paan said nervously, but Padmé sensed the sincerity of his words, accompanied by pure fear and subservience.

"Good." She turned to Anakin, who was still holding Ventress up with the Force. "Ani," she said sweetly, "would you like to do the honors?"

"With pleasure." Ventress's lightsaber flew into the young man's hands.

"Please...," she muttered, but her own weapon pierced her heart before she could say another word.

Padmé turned to the two twi'leks. "Now we can finish the job."


As he ushered the escaped captives along the dark side of the city walls, his attention drifted towards a small fighter ship in the sky. He felt its pilot probing the area, searching, and reached his own consciousness out into the Force like a beacon. Soon enough, the fighter came to a stop next to him, and out jumped a kiffar male about his age.

"Vos. You're late."

"I had my own business to tend to on Geonosis," Quinlan grumbled. "It was tough enough extricating myself period, much less according to your own needy timetables." He paused, studying the utility belt of his fellow Jedi. "Where's your lightsaber?"

Obi-Wan sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time this mission. "Back there," he pointed at the rebel HQ transport he had just escaped from. "Long story...don't ask. Just help me get these fugitives onboard safely."

"Yes sir," Quinlan answered, a mischievous twinkle still in his eye. "You know I'll find out one way or another, don't you Kenobi? I have my ways."

"Only because you never stop reminding me."

The ground they were standing in was rocked by a massive explosion from the rebel control ship, debris and smoke spewed in every direction. Obi-Wan shook his head and but his hand around his eyes.

"Nine years. Nine years I've had that weapon. Nine years of hard work, dedication, memories...all gone."

Quinlan regarded his friend with confusion. "Aren't you concerned about the Senator and her husband?"

Obi-Wan shook his head again. He could still feel the supernova that was the boy's presence in the Force, along with the weaker aura of Amidala. "Oh, I'm sure they're the only ones doing well in this whole mess."


She draped her arm over his back as he sat hunched over, face buried in his hands. Padmé's husband was not a crier, she had not seen him bawl full out since he was eleven, after a Sith lightning lesson gone wrong. He wasn't crying now either, but his eyes, hidden behind his fingers, were red. She let him release his emotions and thought about the first time she had comforted him on the Nubian so many years ago. It was a tough time for her as well, hearing that her people was suffering, dying by the thousands due to her master's lies and yet, she could not ignore then the Force swirling around the boy, as if it cried out in agony with him while Anakin worried for his mother. And somehow the two Jedi were oblivious to it all. She hadn't been.

"I remember, back on the ship, when you gave me the japor snippet," she said softly to him, and Anakin lifted his head to look shyly at her. "It was then I decided that I could not let you go to the Jedi. You were too precious, you cared too much, and they would have persecuted everything that made you wonderful until they broke you or you broke them. It would have been such a waste.

"I hate the Jedi," Anakin muttered. They sat in the sleeping quarters in one of the rooms of the mayor's mansion, finally entitled to a few hours of rest. "They hold our powers back. It's Obi-Wan's fault Wipper was killed. It's Obi-Wan's fault you were hurt."

"We are Sith. It's our nature to hate the Jedi...but don't hate Obi-Wan for the wrong reasons. He is ignorant, but this mission, this trial, is the one we chose." She thought again to Sidious, who would have encouraged Anakin to indulge mindlessly in the hate. Padmé's philosophy, however, was that hate and other channels to the dark side must be controlled, channeled properly to be effectively directed against the right targets.

"I failed it," Anakin continued to grumble.

"You slipped, but you succeeded afterwards. You held back when the pirates beat me, and you kept a level head even after that. I know how much concentration and effort that took out of you." She kissed him softly on his right cheek, as if to emphasize her approval, thinking sardonically again how this was not how Plagueis or Sidious would have rewarded success. Well...maybe Plagueis. She had heard that the Muun secretly enjoyed dressing up in female attire, though who knows whether that was yet another one of Sidious's many lies.

"I don't want anymore of these trials...not if it means you have to suffer."

"But you must, Ani..."

"I don't care about passing these trials, Padmé. I don't want to become a master."

She looked at her husband in shock. "Ani. I don't understand."

Sniffling, Anakin wiped his eyes continued. "I love you, Padmé. You've been everything to me since freeing me from the Jedi...you've been my mentor, my guide, my soul. I like that. I don't want that to change.

"But you're growing up, Ani. You will change, things will change. One day, you will surpass me completely...that is the way of not just the sith, but the galaxy."

"Don't you see," Anakin said furiously, his voice rising. "I don't want to surpass you, Padmé. I won't have direction. I'd be lost."

"I'd still be here, Anakin. Remember what I said? Partners. Equals. No one says you have to do it alone as a master."

Anakin sighed. "I know. I just...I don't think I'm ready for that. Not yet. I like things the way they are, Padmé. Having you...is a comfort. Maybe it's a crutch. But I've never been an equal before..."

"Anakin." Padmé felt her heart break all over again. Had she not recognized how deep the scars of slavery still ran in her husband's soul? She had done everything she had thought she could to help him break through those chains. Though she had never been a slave by law, the years under Sidious had been close, and everything she did with Anakin over the years had stemmed through her urge to never repeat Palpatine's manipulation and yet, that hadn't been enough for him. Padmé had been born free, so she took her freedom for granted, the years under Palpatine unnatural enough that she took the first opportunity she could to free herself. Anakin was different.

It wasn't that he did not want to be free...Padmé imagined that if he trained under the Jedi, or Sidious, he would have strained against their authority, fighting to break away. Because they would be harsh to him, he would chafe. But the fact that he clearly worshiped her meant that he had unconsciously in his mind willingly placed upon her the mantle of a new master, despite her initial proclamation that she would not have him see her in that manner. And everything she did for him out of kindness, out of love, would have only made him feel more beholden to her. There was the sex too, how she plucked him at such an early age, using him not just for her own pleasure, but incorporating it as part of his training even. The fact that they both enjoyed it immensely did not mean that the young man's psyche had not been affected by it, and Padmé didn't want to think about those implications.

"You've always been my equal, my partner. Since that day you pledged yourself to the Sith...not to me. We changed the direction of the Sith together. We gave this order a new mission, a new meaning. We killed, we freed, together. But," she reached out with her eyes into his, through the Force and into his aura and soul, "if you don't think you're ready, then I won't force you. We are partners, and that means we will complement each other. Your weaknesses will be my strengths, and my weaknesses will be your strengths. Just tell me where you are here," she pointed a finger at his head, "and talk to me. I will listen. Whatever you need me to be, I will be for you, and when you are ready to take the next step, I will do whatever I can to help you achieve your birthright."

"I guess," Anakin said, though he did not look entirely convinced.

"I love you Anakin. Love doesn't mean subservience...they are not the same thing."

"I know. It's just..."

"What is it?" There was something he was not telling her, something that lay at the root of this unease, and unwillingness to achieve his full potential. "We swore to be completely open to each other, remember? No secrets."

"No secrets," Anakin repeated too quickly. He looked away, afraid to meet her eyes. "Your vision. I know you believe it to be Palpatine's lies, but what if you're wrong? What if I am the one who kills you, with the powers you taught me yourself? I can't..."

"Oh Ani." She took his head and hugged it to her chest, feeling an awful pit in her stomach. Had she been blind to his agony? Had she been truly unaware of what the poor boy was struggling with for the last year? Padmé wanted to tell him that even if he did turn on her, she would be grateful for all the happiness he had given her, but she knew that such words would only further drive him to despair. So she said nothing, letting only her touch and the silence comfort him.

"I never believed I was going to live a long life," she finally said, kissing the top of his head as she did so, trying to calm him so he would hear her through. "That's why even as a child I was driven to do so much...something told me that I had to make a difference, while I still could. I had the dream, but I dreamed that only once, Anakin, I promise you. From then on, there was no room for anyone else in my nightmares instead of Sidious. I was convinced that I was not worthy of him, that I could never become what he wanted me to become, and that he would kill me for it. That the moment he approached me in the palace, I was as good as dead, no matter what answer I gave him. I felt as if my life was just his plaything, and I almost yearned for the day he would put an end to my misery."

She had his attention now, his blue eyes now meekly, barely willing to meet hers.

"That all changed when I met you, Anakin. Remember? When you took my hand on that dusty street in Mos Espa? When you opened your heart and your home to a complete stranger? Because you believed." She smiled herself at that memory. "That was when I believed too. I felt the Force shift in the galaxy, shift and change around me. I realized that I had to protect you from Sidious, and by saving you, I would save myself too. You're not going to kill me, Anakin. You saved me. You opened my eyes and gave me the will, the reason, to defy my master. Do you believe me, Anakin?"

"I believe you," he finally said.

"I trust you, Anakin. I can feel your essence. Maybe Sidious could have twisted you against me if he got to you early enough, but he's dead. Don't fear yourself. Your strength is my strength."

"I understand," he said with much more conviction than before. He rested his head on Padmé's shoulder, and she embraced him once more. Through their bond, she reached her presence into his mind, his soul, opening her mind for him to do the same. "I won't fail you next time."

"You've never failed me, Ani. You give me purpose."

"It's crazy to think about," Anakin replied, his voice and demeanor seemingly more peaceful now, "the entire course of the galaxy changed in some dingy shop out on some Force forsaken dust ball."

Padmé placed her hand on his chest, feeling the beat of his heart. "Wherever you were, the Force would have brought us together. I think...the Force wants us to always remember how precarious it is, this wonderful thing we have together, and never take it for granted."

She heard a knock on their door, and waved it open with one hand. It was Kara.

"How are you doing," Padmé asked. They had succeeded in every aspect of their mission thus far, yet no one felt victorious.

"I miss him," Kara said absently. "He was the only friend I had, and I..." For a moment, Padmé thought the woman was about to collapse in sorrow, but she quickly pulled herself together. "What's done is done. Nothing I say or do now can bring him back."

Anakin recognized the near fatalistic way she viewed the world. As a slave, there was little room for recrimination for what could have been. The only way forward through tragedy to move on with meek acceptance, and Anakin wondered that life could have ever wore him down to that point. No, he decided...he would always have struggled and chafed against his boundaries. Probably to his own death had fate not intervened.

"We will honor him with our deeds," Padmé said, rising and placing her hand on the woman's shoulder. "Wipper's sacrifice will not have been in vain."


"I told you Senator, I cannot fight a war here."

"No one is asking you to," Padmé said as she scrolled through the mayor's datapad, nodding with satisfaction the latest developments on the planet. Artoo had sliced Ventress's records and found evidence of collaboration between the clans and the rebels at the highest levels, apparently both sides wishing to prolong it indefinitely so that they could use the conflict as a cover to further collect slaves for their coffers. News of the treachery had already spread all across Ryloth, and sector after sector came word of whole battalions laying down their arms or turning on their commanders entirely.

"I don't think there will be much of a battle anyway," Paan said, ready to board his transport. "Bruk'ira is practically undefended by now, and I should be able to take it with ease. I've made contact with Cham Syndulla, who is rallying his forces to take the old capitol of Lessu."

"Syndulla is known as a radical," Obi-Wan explained to Quinlan. "The ruling clans have long had a bounty on his head."

"And he has sat out this conflict," Paan continued, "having rightfully observed the corruption on both sides."

"This was and still is an internal conflict, masters Jedi," Padmé stated. Beside Obi-Wan, the newcomer Vos also frowned his disapproval at her, but Padmé didn't care. "Just as the civil war waged between the clans and the rebels was an internal conflict, the assertion of Paan Thothlis to his clan's birthright is as well. This war began with collusion by those the people trusted to lead them. It will end by the people of Ryloth taking back their planet from its true traitors."

"But by joining the capitol's siege," Quinlan said, "we would be signalling the support of the Republic and the Jedi to one specific faction."

"You don't have to come, masters Jedi," Padmé said courteously. "Anakin and I do not plan to be active participants either. We are there to observe the events so that we can make a full report to the Senate."

"Not your usual politician," Quinlan remarked after the mayor's new army left Rajar, leaving just the two young Jedi knights behind.

"I don't know if that's a good or bad thing," Obi-Wan said. He regarded his old friend carefully, unsure of how much he should confide in him. "She's dangerous, don't you think?"

"She's a zealot," Quinlan finally replied after some thought. "A crusader. Inherently unstable, uncontrollable. Like this Syndulla you speak of, if she is as much of an extremist as her actions have demonstrated on this planet, the senator is capable both of great good...and great evil."

"She's changed. The girl queen was rash, but still reasonable to an extent." He saw skepticism in Quinlan's cynical eyes.

"But think, Obi-Wan. For a young girl and a Queen barely a few months in power to be so rash, what do you think years of power has done for her mind since then?"

Obi-Wan closed his eyes, not wanting to finish his line of thought. But if there was anyone he trusted, it was Quinlan. "Amidala has the boy completely wrapped around her finger...such power...and I do not believe her ignorant of it. Qui-Gon was not known for his subtlety, and I'm pretty sure she picked up on what he believed young Skywalker was. If not, there's no doubt Anakin has long confided in her about everything."

"Do you think she would seek out an alliance with the Sith?" Quinlan's hands went unconsciously to his lightsaber.

"They both believe fervently in this cause of theirs. If the Sith master ever becomes aware of the boy's power, he would do all he can to twist both their good intents for his own purposes."

"He...or she," Quinlan pointed out.

"Ah, good point," Obi-Wan said thoughtfully. "I suppose my perception of the sith is affected by the only one I've met in person."

"Do you think the other sith's still out there? It has been nine years, after all, and there's been no signs of a resurfacing."

"They waited a thousand years the first time," Obi-Wan said, feeling naked without his blade as well. "The Sith have proven their patience, if nothing else."


As predicted, the occupation of Bruk'ira was met with little opposition as the remaining forces of both Ventress and Hondo, already uneasy at the collaboration between their masters, swore loyalty to the mayor and stormed the capital in an orderly fashion. Command found Paan to be a good partner as the young man took grasp of his new army and immediately ordered them to take the critical intersections of the city. Helped by the 'insight' of his senatorial adviser, the three of them surveyed their new holdings in a small shuttle.

"As predicted," Paan said after reading a transmission, "the palace is deserted. Only a few servants remain."

"They are cowards," Padmé said, still in a light trance as she came out of her meditation, feeling the waves and motions of the entire city and army around her. "It is expected."

Anakin stirred restlessly at the shuttle's controls. "You don't think they could have escaped the blockade, do you?"

The soon to be new ruler of Ryloth shook his head. "I suspect they retreated to the emergency bunkers in the lower levels of the city. There are enough rations there to last several standard weeks."

"Give me the coordinates," Anakin said confidently, a grin forming on his face. "Their sanctuary will be short lived."

Minutes later they found themselves by the entrance of a hidden alcove in the cliffs of the lower city. Paan tried several codes in the control panel, swearing in frustration.

"They must have changed them just now."

"No need," he heard the senator say. An eerie chorus of hums rang through the air, and Paan saw that both of his companions had now activated two lightsabers each. Jedi weapons, he realized. But not really. A small gesture with her head, and Anakin stepped forward, cutting through the durasteel door.

"Would you like us to make it quick for your father?"

Paan shook his head. "His crimes are great, and he made his choices with open eyes."

There was a ruthlessness to the man that Padmé was seeing now for the first time, and she liked what she saw. "Very well," she said approvingly. A circular chunk of the door plopped inward to the ground, and Anakin took two steps in before looking back, waiting for his lover. "Make sure these bodies never see the light of day."

She smelled the fear ahead of them and cackled. Easy prey was still prey. Following her husband through the passages, Darth Mirayya felt her body shudder in anticipation. They were going to enjoy this. Both of them. Together.


Nightshade's sydneylover150: One day they will have to slip...or they will choose to reveal themselves, or both!

spirouFR: Thanks for reading!