Disclaimer: I do not own any of Star Wars, the right of ownership of Star Wars belong to Lucasfilm and I guess Disney too. The only thing I own is the characters you do not notice and the plot.
Chapter 13: Missions Starting
Mark has his arms crossed behind his back as he rides the lift up to the floor of the Republica 500 that Padme and Anakin lives on. Stand besides him is his Padawan Rachelle Hunter. This will be the first time that Mark has come face to face with Padme since they got back from the ill-fated mission on Bakura.
The lift stop and the doors parted sideways. The two Jedi steps out of the lift and walks down the hall to a door. They knocked and the door slides open. Anakin was shocked to see Mark. "Where's Padme?" ask Mark.
Anakin moves out of the way and he sees Padme laying on the couch staring at the ceiling. Mark senses that she feels very upset and she has been haunted by various of nightmares of Leia dying or turning to the Dark Side.
Mark sits down at the edge of the couch. Padme rests her back against the other arm so she could be looking at Mark. "I am surprise to see you. Thought you were avoiding me." mumble Padme. Mark barely hears what she was saying. It was true, he have been avoiding her because of his guilt. "It was true, I felt guilty that Leia was kidnapped. I became overconfident in my plan, that I over look the possibility of what had happen." say Mark.
"Do you have any leads?" ask Padme. "I got a hunch, but not much of a lead. I have gone over what I know about the case and about Mas Amedda. We know that him, the Bakuran Prime Minister and General knew of one of the three locations before you have taken office. We know for a fact that you did not have knowledge of the one that Mas Amedda know until the end of the day you were elected, which was after the first attack on the first station. Then I thought about Amedda and how he always wanted to be a Chancellor. Going down that road, I found myself thinking maybe there is a reason behind him being alive while the others are dead." say Mark.
"Those reasons?" ask Padme. "There are few. First, Darth Vader was not only looking for your twins to turn them to the Dark Side due to how powerful they are in the force, but make you look weak, so you will get kick out of office, and who becomes Chancellor to finish off your term. When that happen Mas Amedda could give control to Darth Vader in return to have some control over the ruling government that the Sith want. Second, go on that topic, maybe Mas Amedda is not truly working for the Sith but wants control over the Republic to make you look weak so you get voted out and he will take your term and he told Vader who to talk to and where one of the location is." say Mark as he looks at her.
"How sure are you about that?" ask Padme. "Like I say hunches. You have to think, something is not right if there have been no attempts on him. You know there are greedy, selfish people in the Senate." say Mark.
Padme nods to this. "Remember when he was running to become Supreme Chancellor against you. He tried to dirty your name and all that stuff. There is some pure hatred within him. I sense he was trying to manipulate Palpatine but the roles were reversed. Also, remember every time you suggest an idea to the Senate when he was filling in for the rest of Palpatine's term. He knocked down your idea, but when someone else suggest the same exact idea couple days after he accepts it." say Mark.
"His hatred for me does not mean a thing. When I first became a Senator, most Senators gave me a hard time, he let them give me a chance." say Padme. "You know there is a loop hole in the Vice Chancellor there is no term limits. The Senate selects them. When a Chancellor cannot do his or her duty, who takes over as Chancellor for either the full term or partial? Then if he or she does get voted out or step down from Vice Chancellor, he still could be Chancellor for two terms." say Mark.
"So basically, someone could be Chancellor for more than 10 years?" say Anakin. "10 years? A term is 4 years and can only have 8 years." say Mark. "Is that how it was in your universe? In ours it is 5 years per term." say Padme. "Anyway, as long as they are Vice Chancellor, when they take over another term like Mas Amedda did for Palpatine's term, he was never Supreme Chancellor. Once he has been Supreme Chancellor he cannot be Vice Chancellor. At least that is how in my universe." say Mark.
"Same here. The Vice Chancellor can only be elected by the Senate and be removed by the Senate unless they either retired or become Chancellor." say Padme. "After they became Chancellor, is it possible for them to become Vice Chancellor?" ask Anakin. "No, unless they are a Senator and being voted into being Vice Chancellor." say Padme.
"So we just go to Mas Amedda office and make him tell us where the Sith are." say Anakin tightens his right cybernetic hand into a fist. Mark holds his right hand up to stop Anakin from talking. Anakin looks at him. "Anakin I work so hard to make sure the Jedi Order does not get destroy. You do something like that, threatening member of the Senate that high up, will make people frown upon the Jedi Order. I wish we could do that, but it is somewhat illegal." say Mark.
"We could say we were there on official business." say Anakin. "95 percent of the time if Jedi are involve with politics that high up it is usually with the Supreme Chancellor. Which is your wife." say Mark.
"If what you say is true, Mark. How are we going to get him to help us?" ask Padme. "Two ways, you either talk to him or get him to slip some information, or we could go the Republic Security Force have them investigate this case we are working on. Everyone knows the case with the stations is not over. The part we went to Bakura for is over, but we have to solve the whole thing." say Mark.
"On what grounds, for them to investigate?" ask Anakin. Padme looks up at Anakin. "I know you Jedi are not too fond of politicians, but at least Mark have a better understanding than you, and you are marry to a politician. On any level of conspiracy against the Republic any Senator, Chancellors and those that guard them an investigation could go on just on those grounds. A conspiracy on that level could mean some big trouble for the Republic." say Padme.
"Couldn't you guys do what you did with Palpatine?" ask Anakin. "That was when I was dead sure he was a Sith. Oh we know is that maybe the reason why Mas Amedda is still alive is because he is having someone with a blaster at the back of his head to help him support the Sith. He might be innocent but force to do something." say Mark.
"Also along those lines, with someone so high up in the Republic's government, the Sith can gain a lot of information to form a counter strike against anything we do." say Padme.
Mark nods to this. That can also be a trouble. He also fears that with Darth Vader out there lurking in the shadows of space on whatever planet, there might be a war with the Galactic Republic. Unlike the Clone Wars that ended 4 years ago, this will be a war. There would be no one pulling the strings on both sides. The Clone Wars was a game to give more power to Chancellor Palpatine so he could form his Galactic Empire that will be run by the Sith.
With Darth Vader this will be a full out war between the Republic and his attempts of taking over the Republic. Mark figures he will not have a good advantage until he get some more planets on his side, which Mark figures might happen since there are some tension with planets thinking bad about the Republic.
"Any word from Bakura scouting trips to find the location of where the Sith might be?" ask Mark looking at Padme. He knows that she have been in contact with Amelia who is behind the search for Leia. She is checking the Outer Rim planets and space. Since Bakura used to be consider a part of the Wild Space because of it location, Amelia have people search in that area for any signs.
"No, Amelia is having scouts sends to various planets within the region." say Padme as she looks like she was about to cry after Mark had ask that. Somehow, they must find out their location. Either they have to wait for Darth Vader makes a mistake or have luck in finding her.
Darth Vader paces the hall to the cell of Leia Skywalker. She had been torture everyday now by the torture droid. The clothes on her are ripped and there was some blood. Darth Vader presses a button on the wall and the force field sizzles out.
Leia look up at him with utmost fear in her eyes. As he moves closer to her, she pushes her sore back into the cold hard wall behind her. "You want the pain to stop, don't you?" say Darth Vader standing in the middle of the cell.
Leia was so scared that she could not take her eyes off the person she views as a monster. Her mother always told her there were no such thing as monsters, but for the past week she have been sensing that Darth Vader and his Empire have murder a lot of people without a care in the galaxy.
Darth does not need the Force to know that the little girl in front of is very scared. If her fear was a colored gas, the whole room would be coated in it so thickly that Darth Vader would not be able see a foot ahead of him. That fear he senses made his scared face beneath the facemask split into a smile.
"No!" mumble Leia. Darth Vader was glad for the facemask hiding his surprised faced. After all that torture the little girl went through, she still is defying him. She is so stubborn in her ways. Darth Vader anger flared out as he raises his hand and slams Leia down on the ground hard with the Force.
Leia's sore back flare into intense pain as she screams out in pain. Darth Vader is using the Force to make her feel so much pain in her little body without experiencing any physical pain. "It is so unwise to defy me." say Darth Vader lowly as he increases the amount of Force.
Leia screams echoes through the hall and the room as if there were 20 bass drums being hit as hard as possible at the same time. Leia's body begins to twitch a lot. It was only Leia's deep connection with the Force that she did not die of the intense pain she is feeling. If it were any other human child with lesser connection with the Force or no connection with the Force, they would have been dead within 5 seconds from just the pain alone.
A droid came in with a tray of food. Darth Vader slams the droid into the wall and destroys it. Darth Vader walks out of the room to leave the heavy breathing little girl in pain. The Force Field ignites back into place after Darth Vader steps out of the cell. Darth Vader wonders how long it will take that idiotic girl to submit to him.
Mark is once more at the Jedi Temple. He leans against the wall as he watches Luke and Mara sitting at a table in the cafeteria. Since getting back to the Coruscant from Bakura, he has notice that Luke and Mara Jade been getting along. Mark crosses his arms as he watches them talk and eat. Halfway through the meal, Mace Windu walks up to Mark.
"Mark I know that you are already on a personal mission, but the Council wants you and Rachelle go on a mission." say Mace standing by Mark. Mark look out at Mace. "What mission?" ask Mark.
"You are to head to Raxus Prime. Ever heard of the planet?" ask Mace looking at Mark. Right away Mark had visions flashed by with him on the planet when Order 66 was activated. He only lived through because of Captain Kia in that universe saved him. He also had vision of him seeing visions of what had happen during Order 66.
Mark shakes his head to rid himself of those images. "Yeah, I heard about it. What is going on there?" ask Mark. "Raxus Prime was the founding planet of the Separatist, according to Dooku. When we received news that there were ships being made from the junk on that planet, I went to talk to Dooku. He told me that the planet was used to make bunch of droids, weapons and small ships for the Separatist. To keep supplies of weapon for the Separatist they keep a group of people there to work the factories which are built underneath the ground." say Mace.
Mark eyes widen, he through there was something missing when he was trying to take down Palpatine. He has forgotten all about the secret base that was building stuff for the Separatist on Raxus Prime. Most likely, he did not remember it, because during that time, he was being haunted by visions of his past in the other universe and he does not want to remember it at the time.
"What is there to do?" ask Mark. "We have a feeling that these people will try to bring the Separatist back and start a whole new war with us. I think some of planets that rejoin the Republic after the Clone Wars might go back and the last thing we need is two enemies out there. Try to stop them peacefully." say Mace.
"If I can't do it peacefully?" ask Mark. "Just end it. Make it stop. You know as well as I do that planet has a lot of junk there. Always watch your step, who knows what kind of scum use the planet." say Mace.
"Exactly how did we find this out?" ask Mark. "One of the scouts that Senator Zane sent out to look for Leia Skywalker went to the planet and they detected some factory underground and building. I figure it is something you could do." say Mace.
Mark sighs as he shakes his head. He really wants to focus on finding Leia. That seems a lot more important to him right now. There are two things on he thinks is important right now is to stop Darth Vader and find Leia.
Mark uses the Force to sense where Rachelle is. He figures he matter as well as get ready to head to the planet. He figure most likely the only problem they will be facing is droids, something two Jedi can handle if there is any trouble.
So now it is up to Padme to talk to the Republic Security Force about investigating Vice Chancellor Mas Amedda and it is up to him to head to Raxus Prime, a planet he haven't been two in 4 to 5 years now. Hopefully Padme could get them to help. Once they uncover some evidence, the Jedi might be able to get involved. Only time will tell.
First of all, sorry for not posting yesterday, had a little bit of a hard time coming up with an idea for this chapter and keep losing ideas when I gain them. Yes, I did extend the amount of years for Chancellor term by one year in this story. I know some people might be thinking why do that. If Padme serves two terms I want it be close to 0BBY/ABY. Just a simple change that I wanted to make. After all this is Fanfiction.
Till next time, enjoy.