Hello everyone, and merry Christmas! I finally got some time to write, so I made this! I'm really over excited because its one a.m! Thank you all so much for your amazing comments, they really make my day to read them! It makes writing all the more worth it! Anyway, enough about me. On to the story!
The Jedi's obnoxiously bright presence tethers down the long corridor. Vader hastily follows it, not quite sure what to expect, but certain that the Jedi is up to something he shouldn't. The murmurs of the mingling senators slowly dissipate as he draws further away. What is this blasted Jedi up to? And more importantly, how can he stop him?
"Security checkpoint ahead," Maul grumbles into his ear just as Vader turns a corner to see five lanky battle droids standing guard at its end. He quickly jumps back behind the corner with a muffled gasp.
"You could have told me earlier!" Vader hisses back. He peeps his head around the corner, to see the droids still standing with heir blasters lowered. Good, they didn't see him.
The Jedi's force signature is emanating brightly past the set of ornate doors at the end of the corridor. Vader frowns condescendingly; trust a Jedi to go sneaking about in another man's abode without permission.
Suddenly, a side door opens, and senator Bonteri strides casually out in plain view of the battle droids. She pulls out a slip from the pocket in her gown, and hands it to the approaching droid. Its skinny, beige head leans out as it examines the pass. After a few moments, the droid turns around and babbles to the others, who separate to allow her through.
He frowns in thought; that can't be a coincidence. Maul had said in his briefing that strictly no senators would be allowed to wander while the Republicans are here. So then why had the droids let her past? She must be up to something; perhaps the unwitting senator could lead him to that blasted Jedi.
Unfortunately, unlike the senator, Vader lacks a pass, and can't get past the droids. As much as it pains him to admit it, killing them all isn't a viable option; this is strictly a clandestine mission. No trails can lead back to him, no one can die. He groans inwardly, and then turns around to look for another option.
The corridor leads back to the hall, can't go that way. He looks at the walls and towards the ceiling; no vents to sneak into, just a bunch of overly fancy paintings. Force, what is he to do? He vaguely remembers watching a terrible kids show about Hutt smugglers when he was living on Tatooine. In it, the main characters snuck through a large military base (or was it a prison?) by activating a series of secret tunnels. They would push on slightly off coloured bricks, which in turn, would reveal the hidden passageways. Vader taps his chin. Whelp; it's not like he has any other options.
Mindlessly, he starts tapping the wall at random, hoping that he might stumble across something he shouldn't. To his disappointment, nothing happens. Better try the other wall. He starts to turn, but his foot catches on something. Kriff! His hands fly out for balance as he emits a stifled yelp. His heart jumps out of his chest as he sees a large (extremely fragile looking) vase fall to the ground in slow motion. He desperately catches it with the force in a knee-jerk reaction, before unceremoniously toppling unto the ground himself.
With a bated breath, he prays that no one heard him. As seconds pass into minutes, he finally allows himself to release a relieved breath; if anyone heard anything, they would have come for him by now. He gets up, and growls at the vase. Stupid thing, if only he could break it for causing him to act like such a youngling.
Although…
Suddenly, a fiendishly delightful idea springs to mind, maybe he could? Without a second thought he wraps his arms around the knee-height vase and shimmies it over to the corner, just out of sight of the droids.
He smiles to himself as a rush of deviance flows through him. At his command, the force wraps itself around the vase and he slings it at the far wall. It explodes with a loud clash, and bits of vase reign down unto the floor.
"Hey!" One of the droids yells. He hears the clanking of feet approaching the vase.
The droids crowd around the destruction opposite him. They stare down at the shards of vase on the floor, and argue amongst themselves about what may have happened. He quietly slips past them, and hurriedly makes his way to the door at the end of the corridor. Opening it ever so slightly and slipping inside without anyone the wiser.
The doors lead into a large square room. A deep purple-blue wallpaper darkens it significantly, and judging on how it's completely lacking in any sort of furniture, is accented on all sides by doors, and no lights are on, Vader can guess it's some sort of unused congregation hall. Aside from that, the most lacking thing in the room is the complete absence of either Jedi or senator, who are nowhere to be seen.
He closes his eyes and submerses himself fully in the force. The dark side hisses like an angry beast as he pulls it under his control, but eventually submits. The Jedi's presence is definitely close by, he can feel it burning him like the beacon of a searchlight viewed from too close.
"A terminal activated in the room three door down from your position," Maul hints.
Odd that an apparently abandoned part of the Separatist Senate building would have a single, tender terminal activated. Too odd. He smiles condescendingly; the Jedi won't get away from him that easily.
Vader turns and marches downt o the doo, and is then about to march straight in when he realises that would probably arouse suspicion. With a sigh, he backs away. No witnesses, clandestine mission, blah blah blah. Stupid Maul and his rules.
"I hate this," Vader mutters sulkily as he kneels down to the keyhole. (yes this place is so fancy it has actual wooden doors with actual keyholes)
"Stop complaining and complete the mission," Maul snaps back irritably.
He sighs loud enough for his hidden com unit to hear, fully aware how unreasonably embarrassing this entire exercise is. A real Sith breaks through and slaughters everyone, without a care for the consequences. He doesn't go sneaking around after Jedi wearing a bright purple kriffing senator's robe.
That thought in mind, Vader reluctantly spies through the keyhole. The first thing he realises is that his view of the situation is extremely limited, and he must move his head in order to shift the view in extremely narrow tunnel he has to work with. The second thing he notices is that everything being said inside is muffled by the stupid door.
One positive, however, is that he has found his missing Jedi. How does he know, you may ask? Well, the Jedi's large, white-robed ass is covering up his view of just about everything else in the room.
"Spited again," He grumbles to himself as he shimmies closer to the door in order to hear.
"-be a coincidence" Bonteri's muffled voice says vehemently.
The Jedi shifts unto his left leg, apparently pondering something.
"I agree; it's no secret that the Trade Federation is opposed senator Lawise's proposal down to the last letter. We can't simply accept his death as an accident without an investigation," The Jedi says.
Vader frowns, they came all the way out here to discuss Bec's death? Well… at least Kenobi isn't informing the council about him…
"And how will we do that? Democracy or not, the Raxus authorities will start nothing without consulting Dooku first," Bonteri counters swiftly.
There is a moment of silence as the Jedi shifts back unto his right leg and thinks. Force would he ever just get out of the way?
"We don't need to involve the authorities. Master Kenobi, if this was indeed the Trade Federations doing, then it would be impossible to expect an official investigation from the separatists. If we want to figure this out, we have to do it ourselves," a familiar voice says. Was that who he thought it was?
As if by some miracle, the Jedi finally moves out of his way and towards a circular table in the centre of the room, behind which stands the girl from earlier. Padme.
Instantly Vader's heart drops to his guts; the senator hangs around with Jedi. He scrunches up his nose at the thought. Why would someone so beautiful be conspiring with Jedi?
"I agree, if this is indeed a Trade Federation murder, we will see no fair trial from the authorities, we will have to fight for ourselves" Bonteri says as she places a pile of data-pads on the table. "And I've already gathered some clues to get us going," She says with a smile.
Vader's eyes narrow in on the data-pads, if they actually have any real leads, this mission is going to become a lot more complicated.
"See, master Kenobi, we can always count on Mina's help," Padme expresses with a cheery smile as she picks up a data-pad and starts skimming through it.
"Shipment details, guard rotations, important figures of congress, Mina it will take hours to get through all of this," Padme sighs with a solemn look on her face.
"I can have some of my people look into it, and I'll inform you both if we find anything,"
'My people'? What does that mean? Vader ponders quietly.
"In the meantime, have either of you found or seen anything suspicious you could investigate further?" Mina asks as she looks between Padme and the Jedi.
"Actually, yes, I think we have," The Jedi announces as his eyes move to suddenly look straight through the keyhole, and at Vader. Their eyes look for several seconds before Kenobi looks away. His heart skips a beat, was that on purpose?! With a held breath, his hand instinctively reaches for his lightsaber. How likely would it be for him to look straight down Vader's eyes like that if he didn't know? Were his force shields adequate? Could the blasted Jedi sense him?!
As the seconds tick by and it becomes clear to Padme and Bonteri that Kenboi doesn't intend to elaborate, Bonteri nods and picks up her data pads.
"Thank-you both for meeting with me here, if you wish to speak privately again contact this number ," Bonteri slides a dataslip across the table, the Jedi picks it up and quickly hides it in his robes, "Stay safe," She bows deeply and then turns for the door, Padme walks beside her.
"No Bonteri, thank-you, without your help I don't think either master Kenobi or I would have anywhere to turn," her radiant smile distracts him just long enough for them to reach the door and start turning the knob.
It's the noise of the ancient door creaking that finally draws his attention. They're leaving through the door he is spying behind. He has to hide, right now! Vader desperately jumps behind the door as it opens, and begs whoever is listening that Bonteri won't try to open it out fully. Thankfully, she doesn't. Seemingly not used to having to open doors manually, the senator simply opens it enough for everyone to comfortable exit and abandons it.
He hears their footsteps wander towards the way he came, and waits until he hears the door close shut behind them to breathe. The Jedi mustn't have know he was there, right? Otherwise he would have done something. He takes another calming breath and refocuses on his surroundings. The dark hall now contains a long streak of light, which is emanating from the small room the Republican's had been speaking in. Vader peaks around the door, and looks for any cameras in the room. Suitably satisfied that he can't see any, he makes his way inside.
"The Jedi has become a threat," Maul's gravelly voice states.
"How did you figure that one out?" Vader asks sarcastically as he runs his fingers along the table. A small, baby-blue piece of cloth sits at the opposite end, sparking Vader's interest. He moves over to take a better look at it. It's no bigger than his hand, yet the small crinkles along its surface suggest something is hiding beneath its surface.
"I will deal with the data-pads, you ensure the Jedi and the senator find no incriminating evidence while continuing with your mission," Maul orders in his ear, though Vader isn't really listening to him.
He pinches a corner of the cloth with his fingers, and slowly lifts it. Underneath he spots a small pendant; a Japor snippet. Oddly enough, nobody has bothered to engrave it with any emblems, as is traditional. Even stranger though, is the appearance of a piece of wood only found on Tatooine, a piece of wood that people like to keep to ward off evil spirits or emotions, and entice good ones. What is it doing here? Vader picks it up and examines its smooth surface. He has never engraved a Japor snippet himself, but he often saw his mother doing it.
He had forgotten that she used to wear little Japor snippets around her neck, did she still? He frowns as he stares into the milky white surface of the pendant.
"Oh!" A voice exclaims. Vader jumps and darts his eyes up in surprise. Padme is standing at the doorway, staring at him. Her hand grips her heart and an expression of surprise paints her features. He grips the Snippet a little tighter.
"…..You're Senator Skywalker?" She asks slowly, unsure of herself.
"I- yes." He mumbles, suddenly feeling very exposed.
Neither seems to know what to say, because neither should be here, yet here they both are. Vader grinds his teeth together as he stares at the Snippet in his hand. He should kill the senator for finding him here; she could tell the Jedi and then he would be under investigation. It's the logical thing to do.
"Is this yours?" He asks grimly.
"Yes, it is. I lost it just after I landed on Raxxus, and have been looking everywhere for it," She says in a very composed voice. Perhaps it might have fooled him if he hadn't been here to see just what 'looking everywhere for it' meant.
"May I have it back, senator?" She continues in her dignified 'senator' voice. He snorts at her; two faced liar.
"How do I know you're not lying? You're not from Tatooine, why would you carry one of these?" he growls defensively.
Her mask drops ever so slightly as she looks to the Snippet in his hand, and back at him. Slowly, Padme rounds the table towards him, she stares thoughtfully at ground as she does so. Palpatine always reminds him to never trust anyone who works with Jedi, he can't start now just because of a pretty face. He wraps his hand in a protective fist around the snippet.
"I visited Tatooine once" Padme says softly, it seems her mask has dissolved away to reveal soft brown eyes underneath. "Naboo was being blockaded, my people were at the mercy of an unscrupulous enemy, I had to leave. I didn't want to; it was unfair that I could flee when so many couldn't. But I had to, for the good of my people. I had to reach Coruscant and inform the senate, with the Republics help; Naboo stood a chance against the Federation,"
Vader frowned, she better not be trying to convince him to give her the snippet back with some sob story. Force knows Sith laugh at such things.
"What does that have to do with a Japor snippit?" He asks condescendingly.
His tone doesn't phase Padme however, and she powers on with her story.
"Our ship was damaged by the Trade Federation when we made our escape, and were forced to land Tatooine. My friends and I landed in Mos Espa, and we eventually managed to find a small repair shop,"
Vaders heart quickened at the mention of his home town, which is idiotic. Darth Vader has no connections to Mos Espa. The name means nothing to him.
"Inside, I met a woman. She looked tired, and sad, but she had kind eyes. She took us to her home, and let us stay the night to avoid the harsh sandstorm raging outside. She didn't have much, but what she had, she shared with us. We had to stay longer than we would have liked because the owner of the junk shop was demanding a ridiculous amount of money to give us the parts we needed for our hyper drive,"
Vader suddenly found himself listening very intently to her story, his breath catching on every word.
"I stayed with her while a Jedi named Master Jinn and his Padawan devised a way to get the parts. They said it was too dangerous for me, and of course I disagreed but after a long argument, I ended up staying with the woman in her house until they returned. I told her about Naboo, and the blockade and how scared I was. She gave me that piece of Japor, and told me that people on Tatooine believe they bring good omens. She said that when I encountered a moment of good fortune, when I felt joy beyond all else, I should carve symbols of health and defence into it; she said they would help me to defend Naboo in the future. She even drew out the symbols for me before I left,"
Padme smiles as she speaks, her eyes lighting up in a way he had never seen before.
"I ended up carrying the Jappor snippet everywhere with me, because it reminds me that good can be found in even the most desolate places,"
Astonished, Vader finds himself hanging on her every word. Her story has awakened feeling within him he hasn't felt in years. Feelings void of hate.
"What was her name?" He asks softly.
Padme's eyes capture his in their endless chocolate reach. They twinkle like a Sith's never do.
"Schmi," she replies with equal softness.
His heart constricts at the name. Schmi, his mother's name. Suddenly, a tsunami of hate erupts from inside. It's so powerful he nearly falls to the floor. Padme notices the change in his demeanour without him having to whisper a word. He snarls at her empathy, and slams the Jappor snippet on the table.
"Senator?" Padme asks with obvious concern lacing her words.
It's all too much. She's singing in his ears. She's singing those damned nursery rhymes in his ears and they burn like acid! He is a Sith! A Sith! He shoves the girl out of his way, she yelps as he knocks her over the table. He doesn't even hear her. Without a word he barges out.
Every muscle tightens so much so that they sting with every step. He can feel her arms lifting him up into the air. He can feel the rush of his stomach as he fly's in her arms. Make her stop, make her stop singing! He is out of the dark hall now. Battle droids screech in his ears. He thunders past them.
The dark side groans around him, screeching like the engine of a giant machine. The droids shoot at him, but nothing can hurt him, nothing. With a feral growl he lifts his hand into the air, his fingers skewed into an inhuman claw. The droids rise with his hand, and with a single, violent thrust, they explode against the far wall. Not looking back even once he continues his march down the halls, past the pathetic senators and their frolicking and outside.
Maul is screaming in his ear. He rips out the hidden com and crushes it with his boot. A Sith takes orders from no one. A Sith feels nothing but hate. And he hates this! He runs to the edge of the landing platform, stopping just before he flies off the edge.
"Senator?" Padme calls after him.
His fists clench, as do his eyes as he looks out onto the horizon. That name is meaningless.
All you know is hate. All you know is Serenno.
He hears her stop behind him, but he doesn't bother to face her. Instead, he focuses on the wind blowing against his face.
"I'm sorry," she admits softly.
Sorry? She's sorry?! How can she be?! She can't know what he has done! How can she be sorry for him when she doesn't even know him?
"So am I," He finally replies.
