I got another chapter finished! *ironic yippee from PM*

This chapter was SO fun to write, because I'm finally at a stage where I can write scenes with Padme and Vader together! Hope you like this chapter as much as I liked to write it! Thanks for reading!


The broken camera sits idly on her lap, a string of wires hang from its side like guts and trail to the floor. Ahsoka sighs for the what must be the millionth time, and shoves a clump of weird, green looking pieces of technology out of her way as she rummages through the camera.

Why did her master make her try to fix this stupid camera? Didn't he know that she is terrible with fixing things? The camera sparks violently at her, and she drops it with a fright. Force! Ahoska collapses dramatically in her chair. Well... at least she did a good job stealing it from those mindless battle droids.

Its so boring down in the foundations of the building. No one ever comes here, and she's been stuck down in this grimy old place for hours! Not to mention the entire floor smells like old person, and not a single piece of equipment is even from this century.

She presses her boots against the ground, and pushes away to swivel around. The darkened room goes by in a blur. She sinks further into the chair, and looks begrudgingly down at the sparking camera. Whoever the assassin is, they sure did a good job at breaking that camera up.

She sighs and performs a rather sarcastic impression of her master.

"It's an important job apprentice! You'll be keeping an eye on things for me from a distance! I'm going to go and do all the fun stuff now, bye!" She says with mock cheer.

Why can't she be out in the field with Obi-Wan? She's just as good with a lightsaber as him, she even beat him twice while they were sparring! And sure, she might still need to work a bit on her force powers, but she can still handle herself! Bored out of her mind, Ahsoka groans. If only something interesting would happen.

Just as the thought enters her mind, it seems fate decides to answer her call. A deep rumbling sounds from the distance. Causing her to quickly forget her gripes with her master. She sits up in her chair, confused. As she looks around the room, she hears another deep rumbling, but this one is accompanied by muted tremors too.

Ahsoka leaps to her feet, her hands dart for her lightsabers, but she doesn't ignite them. Her senses burst to life with a sudden rush of adrenaline. She jumps to the door, and carefully opens it. The hallway outside, surprisingly, is empty. She cautiously steps into the abandoned corridor, keeping to the walls in case something spots her.

What the hell is happening? A distinct sense of urgency screams through the force, yet her surroundings are as silent and lifeless as a graveyard.

In an instant a devastatingly loud bang pierces her ears. She is knocked off her feet as a gut-wrenching explosion rips through the hallway. The sight of a door at the far end of the hall being blasted off its hinges is the last thing she sees before all of the lights die.

She opens her eyes to silence once more. A weak shiver runs through the walls. Bits of dust fall over her, and she wipes them off her face as she gets up. Breathing heavily, she ignites a lightsaber, she can't sense any intruder with the force, so instead she illuminates her wrist-comm with her green bade and fumbles with the controls.

"Master? Master!" She shouts hoarsely into the comm, but no one replies.

Desperately out of breath and growing in worry, Ahsoka leans against the wall. Where is Obi-Wan? Is he ok? What about Padmé? Who set those explosions? Was it the assassin? She starts to feel light headed. She has to find Obi-Wan!

Ahoska stumbles forward, but is overcome with a coughing fit and is forced to stop. She closes her eyes, and tries to steady her breathing. Her legs are shaking, and a cold sweat runs through her. Focus, she thinks. She calls on the force, and tries to use its steady presence to calm herself, like her master taught her.

Taking one last deep breath, she opens her eyes, and exhales slowly. At the same slow pace, she straightens her back, and raises her lightsaber. She can do this. The lightsaber shines its green light on the damaged walls around her. She walks forward at a steady pace, her hands gripping the wall in case another explosion hits.

"Ahsoka?" The weak voice of her master sounds over the comm.

She jumps upon hearing his voice, and instantly moves her comm to her mouth. Relief floods her senses, he's alive!

"Master! Are you ok? What's happening?!"

"I-I'm not sure. Ashoka listen to me, we have to regroup immediately, come to floor 86, I'm trapped. Don't use the elevators, and be careful, I think someone is trying to disrupt the peace talks and I think they're a-"

Another explosion sounds close by, causing her comm to fizzle out. The ground shakes dangerously under her feet. She clings desperately to the wall, and manages to stay upright.

"Master?" Ashoka yells helplessly into the comm.

He's trapped? Is he injured? Why would someone want to disrupt the peace talks? Ashoka shakes her head as a barrage of stray thoughts crash against her. She's a Jedi, she has to focus. She calls on the force once more, and tries to clear her mind.

Focus. Focus. Obi-Wan is injured, and he needs her help. She needs to find a way to get to floor 86, and she cant use the elevators. OK, that's not so hard. She can do this. She starts walking again, and makes it to the end of the hallway. She steps over the blasted door and into the room beyond.

The inside is completely black, splintered wood is littered all over the floor, and the ceiling has caved in. She looks up into the darkness above, unfortunately the light of her lightsaber doesn't make it that far. She squints through the darkness, but in the end its hopeless to see what's above. A small part of her is wary of charging head-first into the unknown above.

She furrows her brow in determination; her master needs her. Shrugging off the last of her hesitation, she crouches, and blindly force-jumps up a level, then lands awkwardly unto the unsteady floor above. She gets up quickly and swings her lightsaber around in case there's any enemies lurking in the shadows. The shimmering green blade cuts at nothing but air. She slowly stands, the place seems to be clear.

Ahsoka sighs in relief, and starts walking again. She appears to be in another hallway, one whose lights have also died in the explosion. Well, at least that's one floor down, only 85 more to go, she thinks as she wanders around.

She looks at her comm again, and tries to contact Padmé.

"Hello? Padmé?" She calls, but receives no reply.

She takes another deep breath, and pushes any absent worries away, deciding instead to focus on getting to Obi-Wan. He'll know what to do.


Finally, he's found something he can plug his communicator into. Vader crouches beside the large control panel and unhinges the side, revealing a plethora of ports and dials inside. He rummages around for his communicator in his robes, and pulls it out.

"Why can't we just use my comm?" Padmé asks as she pulls out a small circular comm unit from her pocket.

Upon seeing her press the activator, he jumps up and quickly encloses his hand around the device. She gives him a bemused, distrusting look.

"Don't," he says hastily, "We don't know who's listening,"

At that, he drops back down to the exposed ports, pulls the disjointed red wire out of his communicator and plugs it in. To his immense relief, the comm buzzes to life, it seems it only needed a little extra power.

"Won't they be able to listen into... that too?" She asks as she examines his bent device. "How old is that thing?"

"It's encrypted, and can't be traced. The channel is completely secure. I made sure, and it will break through any comm dampeners anyone might be using,"

Padmé raises an eyebrow at him as he presses the activator.

"Encrypted code received, securing connection," B2's monotone voice says over the comm.

"Who's that?" Padmé asks warily.

"Someone is setting off explosions in the building. What's happening?" Vader asks, ignoring Padmé's question.

"Error! Insufficient information available. Unknown cause or motive," B2 drones.

"Then find out! And power up the ship,"

"Roger roger, powering up the ship. Warning, threat level red. Building stability is minimal,"

"I know, where can you land?"

"Scanning building. Closest landing platform to targets location: disabled. Scanning. Second-closest landing platform to targets location: disabled. Scanning..."

Vader stands up, figuring it could take a while for his robot to find a suitable get-away location for them. Its then that he notices Padmé glaring at him.

"When can I contact my friends?" she asks.

He sighs, and looks down at the comm.

"Fifth-closest landing platform to targets location: Disabled. Scanning..."

"Whenever B2 is finished," Vader replies dryly. He crosses his arms over his chest, and hopes his communicator doesn't break.

The two of the listen to B2's stream of thoughts as the minutes tick by. No matter how hard he tires, his eyes keep wandering back over to the mysterious senator, only to have him realise what he's doing and pull them away again. She's leaning against one of the control units, her hands resting idly against its pristine surface. Every time he sneaks a peak, he finds something new in her appearal.

The first time he looks over, he sees a single freckle on her cheek. It's a deep brow colour, and for reasons he can't place, it adds a certain unique appeal to her face. A spark of anxiety runs through his chest, and he quickly looks away again.

He looks to the opposite wall, his fingers drumming against his forearm. The droning of B2's voice lulls him into a state of docile pondering. Though the shifting of the senator inevitably draws his eyes back to her once more.

This time he notices the soft rose colour of her lipstick. The colour is so light one wouldn't even be able to tell that she's wearing any if they didn't look closely. Her lips are a pleasant shape; full and rounded neatly, a sneaking part of him wondered what it would be like to touch those lips. Vader's eyes widen at the thought, what is he thinking?! He snaps his eyes away to glare at the ground as if it were guilty of some foul crime.

But just as the sun rises every morning, so too does Vader's bored mind find its way back to Padme. He tightens his fingers. She is not worth thinking about; she's only a senator. That force forsaken feeling is back again! The same on he felt by the balcony. What is this feeling and why has he never learnt of it before?! Both frustrated and angry, he resorts to alleviate the increasing pressure within him to look at her by taking a single, quick glance.

He takes the risk to peak, but as he looks over to see her eyes catch his. A rush of heat explodes in his face, his eyes dart down to his boots. Time seems to slow to a halt as he awaits her answer.

"You know, you saved my life, but I don't even know your first name," She says evenly.

"It's ah-" He is about to say Darth Vader, but manages to catch himself in time, "Anakin," he replies sheepishly, feeling very uncomfortable using a name he has been forced to forget all these years.

Silence protrudes them once more. He wants to say something, not for any practical reason, because there isn't anything productive to discuss. Yet still, The urge to say something to her bears heavily on his chest.

"Scanning. Nineteenth-closest landing pad to targets location: Active" He perks up at the droids statement. Both heads turn to the communicator at his feet. "Evaluating threats: minimal. Ideal location acquired. Evaluating flight trajectory. Route established."

"Where do we need to go?" Vader asks B2 over the comm.

"Processing. Ideal route acquired. Uploading details,"

Vader bends down and looks to the screen of his communicator. A clear route from the abandoned control room to the landing pad B2 has found is displayed. Vader frowns at the distance between them and their location.

"Have we got our way out?" She asks as she looks over his shoulder at the communicator.

"Yes," he replies simply as he memorizes the route, not trusting his finicky communicator to live the journey to the landing pad.

"Be ready to pick pick us up the minute we arrive," Vader says before deactivating the device.

"Wait, I need to contact my friends, remember?" Padmé chimes over his shoulder.

He growls to himself, and silently reactivates the communicator. If Dooku saw him now, bowing to the whims of a senator he should have killed hours ago, he would be disowned for sure.

"Thank you," Padmé says sincerely as she takes the communicator from him and starts to put in her friends code. Vader gets to his feet and crosses his arms, then watches the senators every move intently.

"Hello? Obi-Wan?"

The comm's dead fizzling is the only reply she receives. She tries again, determination streaked over her features. Vader dares to hope that the Jedi's dead. Maybe then she would come to her senses and realize that the Jedi order is a sham. She might even join the separatists, how cool would that be?

"Obi-Wan," She asks again, her voice wavering.

A thin smile cuts like a dagger across his face. If the Jedi's not dead then he's in trouble. Meaning he'll be easy pickings for Vader if they encounter him. Padmé spins around to face him, clear worry set in her eyes.

"We have to go back up there, People will die if we don't do anything."

The smile falls from Vader's face, to be replaced with a grimace.

"I don't know if you've noticed, M'lady, but out journey is long enough as it is without pointless detours," He hisses impatiently.

Padmé crosses her arms over her chest in perfect mimicry of him. Her face set with the same frustration marring his own.

"So you intend to just leave the countless number of people in need of our help here to die? Because you're too lazy to go help them, is that it?" She growls.

"I'm being practical. We need to leave before this entire building comes down on our heads," he marches for the door, determined not to be pushed around by some stupid senator.

"Oh, so you're just a coward them"

He stops instantly in his tracks, every muscle tensing at the accusation.

"What did you say?" He threatens.

Padme takes several steps forward, he can feel her looking at him.

"Well, it seems to me that your too scared to put you life on the line for the people who need our help,"

A deep grumble erupts from his throat. He can't believe what he is hearing.

"I am not a coward," he growls slowly between gritted teeth.

"If you're not a coward, you'll stay," She replies abruptly. She's using him, he can tell she's just saying this to use him and damn her for trying! Revolted and enraged, he jumps around and fired an accusing finger her way.

"Your pathetic, warped existence of reality holds no baring on me. Perhaps it is you who is the coward, if you can't accept the fact the your Jedi friend is going to die and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Padme's eyes widen at the harshness of her words. Good, now she knows how he feels. Who is this tiny lady to threaten the sincerity of his courage?!

"Look, I'm sorry Anakin, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just afraid for the people still trapped in here. And even if you don't want to help them then surely you want to find out what's happening, are you not curious about why the senate was bombed during the meetings?"

He can't tell if she's still trying to trick him. Nothing she is saying could be genuine, humans are nothing but greed and anger and those who aren't outrightly so are just better at hiding it. His eyes flick between hers thoughtfully. Though she is right in the fact that he wants to find out who is behind this, because they just made him fail his mission. How can he find a weakness within the Republican's if they're all dead? Maybe if he returned to his masters with the perpetrator in hands they might be more lenient?

Furthermore, one Republican is still very much alive, and standing right in front of him, so he may still be able to gleam some valuable information from her. Not to mention she might unwittingly lead him to those data pads senator Bonteri had earlier...

"Fine," he concedes with a harsh bark, "Lets go,"


Padmé watches the tall figure disappear behind the sliding blast doors. The immediacy of his mood swings shocking her to her core. This was the second time now that she had unintentionally caused him to experience some sort of blind rage and charge from her presence.

The sight of his distorted features fixed in a position of clear hatred felt as though they had been burned into her retinas. His ice blue eyes felt so cold, like frostbite biting at her toes. Like a dangerous storm sweeping across the land. The thought disturbs her. She finds herself releasing a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

Something feels innately wrong about the mysterious Skywalker, but she can't figure out why. One second he is sheepishly looking at her out of the corner of his eye, the next, he's roaring at her like a full blown killer. It doesn't make any sense.

Padmé sighs, and shakes her head of him. Obi-Wan needs her help, as does Ashoka and whoever else is trapped in this building. It's her duty to try her best to save as many people as possible.

Looking down, she notices that in his rage, Anakin forgot his communicator. She bends down and grasps the flimsy red wire connecting the device to the control panel. With a sharp tug, she manages to free the stubborn wire from its port. Standing, she looks the communicator over again. Perhaps this could help her understand who this Anakin Skywalker truly is. He shares the same surname as Schmi, who had told her her son's name was Anakin. She also mentioned that he had been taken from her a long time ago.

Could this be the same Anakin Skywalker? His face certainly bares a resemblance to Schmi's. She clutches the pendant hanging from her neck, she would have to find out, for Schmi's sake. With that in mind, she hides the communicator within her purse and enters the hall. Anakin has already cleared about half of its length, and seems in no way inclined to slow down and wait for her.

She picks up her dress at the waist and trots quickly after him. If one thing about this whole ordeal is certain, Anakin Skywalker is certainly no ordinary politician, or else he would have shown the common courtesy to wait for her.