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 18: Disturbing Find
Mark decides that he will join Obi-wan as he searches the Vice Chancellor's apartment. Apparently, he has two apartments. One of them is in the 500 Republica and another one in the Senate Apartment Complex. Obi-wan along with Maria were starting at the 500 Republica when Mark showed up.
They just got done finishing the one in the Senate Apartment Complex and found nothing. Mark walks into the room with Maria as Obi-wan lead the way. On the coffee table, they seem some porn magazine. "Oh great that shit, Seem like our Vice Chancellor have been a dirty boy in ways we did not expect." say Maria.
"Well that is bad and disturbing but not the type of bad nor the disturbing we are looking for." say Mark used the Force to flip the green cloth over the magazines to cover them from sight.
Maria looks around the living room as Mark went into the kitchen. Obi-wan had the misfortunate of drawing the metaphorically short straw and got the bedroom and bathrooms. Mark open drawers and use the Force to move stuff out of them and put them back in place.
He turns the kitchen upside-down 3 times and could not find anything Mark look through the freezer and the fridge, which smells bad. "You would image with all the money a Vice Chancellor gets, if he cannot clean, he would pay for a maid." say Mark as he slams the door close and use the Force to open a window that was above the sink so there could be some fresh air.
Then he got on his knees and checks the tile flooring for any secret hidden compartments. He crawls around the floor one his hands and knees so he can feel for any secret compartments that the room might have along the floor. Mark notices the floor is covered in dirt and dust that have been moved around a lot.
In the living room, Maria is looking at the walls, shelves, tables, and cabinets to find anything. Nothing she found that disturb her was what she need to find. So far she found out that the Vice Chancellor have a strange thing for porn. There were holovideos of porn in cases to be put on holovision. Just seeing them reminds her how she have been treated when she was Jabba's Slave.
It makes her sick to think women were willing to do stuff like that. She understands why Twi'leks do it because there life on Ryloth is not so great and some of them think being a slave or doing stuff like this is luxury then what they have on Ryloth.
Seriously, when someone takes office to be the head of a government they should check on stuff like that. What a horror is it to be in a government that is run with someone like that? She would not have a problem if it was one or two magazines, but videos are a completely different game. She gets up and dusts her knees off as she looks around the room for any more places to check.
She grabs a stool and checks the walls high up. She has found some storage space, but nothing. It was not until Obi-wan yelled that she fall down. At the same time in the kitchen, Mark who was underneath the table heard Obi-wan yelled for them and he bang his head hard underneath the table.
"Ouch!" say Mark as he stands up and walk out of the kitchen rubbing the top of his head. Maria was down on the ground. Apparently, she was fall from the stole she was on. "I thought Anakin was the loudmouth one." say Maria. "You are forgotten those two are brothers in everything but blood." say Mark as he helps her up.
Mark knows how close Anakin and Obi-wan is with each other; even through they argue and bicker sometimes. He remembers how hurt Obi-wan, in his universe, were when he told Mark how he found of Anakin turn. He felt bad that Anakin did not come and talk to him about his troubles. He felt bad for hurting him on Mustafar. Mark knew he begged Yoda to let him go after the Emperor, but Yoda did not let him since Obi-wan does not have the skills or the power to take on the Emperor.
He can see the same connection between them in this universe. It also seems that Obi-wan are also close to the Skywalker Twins as much as he is, but he does not always seem to be around them as Mark was over the years. He also noted the closeness that Luke has with Obi-wan too.
Mark and Maria walks down the hall to the bedroom. Maria truly does not want to go in there base upon her foundlings in the living room. She is scare of what she might find in such a personal place of the perverted Vice Chancellor.
Just like Padme, the Vice Chancellor has two offices. It is the one within the Presidential Palace and in the Senate Office Building. Padme's second office is in the Senate Rotunda under where the Chancellor Pod raises through the floor.
Padme and Rachelle walks through the Presidential Palace towards the Vice Chancellor's office. Padme touch a pad next to the door and it opens up. The Vice Chancellor Office is slightly smaller than Padme's office but still has a personal bathroom and sleep chambers like her does.
The office is a mess, like usual. "Force, you would think such a high ranking official in the Republic Senate that he would be a lot more organized." say Rachelle notice the disorganized.
"I will search his computer, you look around the office." say Padme as she sit down behind the desk and activates the computer. It asks for a password. She types an override password. Being the Chancellor of the Republic, she has an override password to the Vice Chancellor offices' computer just in case if she needs to gather information to run the government or the Senate.
Rachelle looks through the office as she closed the door. Rachelle looks under the seats, through the personal areas and the drawers as Padme looks through the computer. She has found nothing of importance in there. Without finding anything, Rachelle begins to think this is a lost cause. She looks at the computer screen and Padme still looking through files.
"There has to be something in here." say Padme desperate as she start to get discourage at finding nothing. "Padme, there might not be anything on there." say Rachelle.
Padme spins the chair around look at her. "There just has to be something!" say Padme. "There might not be, oh we know we might be chasing dead leads, we have been searching this office for hours on end, and have found nothing remotely related to him and Vader. So maybe we should called it done and wait for to see if Master, Master Kenobi and Maria find anything." say Rachelle.
Padme eyes widen in anger at her words. "You do not even understand half of what I am going through. You do not know how it feels to lose someone so close to you. I know for a fact that you do not know how it feel to lose your own children and be haunted by nightmares that she might become a Sith or be dead! So do not tell me what to do! I will search till the end of time and the universe to find her!" say Padme as she spins around and looks at the computer screen.
Rachelle was shocked to hear how harsh Padme snapped at her. "For your information I know how it feels to lose someone you love. I was very close to Master Aluna." say Rachelle. She has not called her mentor by her name for so long because she is still hurt over the lost of her first mentor. She bet even Mark does not know her first mentor name.
Padme looks over her shoulder. "She was a good Jedi. She saved me a couple times from assassination attempts. She will be more than proud at your achievements and how much you grown." say Padme facing the computer again. Now she feels guilty for snapping at Rachelle.
Back in the Vice Chancellor's apartment in the 500 Republica, Mark and Maria walks into the lavish bedroom. The bedroom look like it belongs to those of royalty. The highly expensive bed was turn on the side to review a set of stairs.
Mark looks at Obi-wan with a raise eyebrow. "Go ahead." say Mark. "Oh no, I have seen stuff in here that I wish I never seen. No, one of your two go down there first." say Obi-wan crossing his arms. Mark sighs as he approaches the steps and walks down and find bunch of computers and Holopictures of Padme through the years.
"Okay, what hellhole did we just voluntarily walk into." ask Obi-wan looking around to the bunch of holograms of Padme. Maria followed into the room. "Apparently our Chagrian Vice Chancellor had a crush on Chancellor Skywalker." say Mark as he turns on the computer.
What awaits him on the desktop was bunch of pictures of Padme. He looks into some files on the computer. "If he has such crush on her, then why try to get her killed?" ask Obi-wan. "Simple, I have been on murder cases like this with CorSec. He loves her so much that he cannot stand seeing her with anyone else. It either he has her or no one can." say Maria as she crosses her arms as she watches Mark work.
"Apparent the assassination attempts on her life since 19 BBY were mainly caused by him. He contacts people through this computer." say Mark scanning over. "How many attempts on her life?" ask Maria. "If I remember correctly since 19 BBY there were 20 the last one was last year." say Mark.
"So this put a monkey wrench into your ideas." say Obi-wan. "Not really, don't you wonder why he put this information down here instead of the computer upstairs. He did not want anyone to know of his romantic feelings for the Padme nor that he pay for those assassination attempts. That why this area is hidden underneath the bed. So no one can find it." say Mark.
Obi-wan looks at the screen that his friend is looking at. "Are all those on the screen for Padme?" ask Maria looking at the screen closer. "Nah, some of them are in there for the twins and Anakin. Apparently he wanted just Padme alone." say Mark.
"Look here there is a Holorecording of communications with Darth Vader." say Mark click on something and the Holographic project next to him flashes to show Mas Amedda talking to Darth Vader. They listen to it.
"Wait he told Darth Vader that the twins were leaving for Bakura along with Padme." say Obi-wan shocked as he hears this. "Make sense in his attempts to get Padme. Vader get the twins, which means he thought Anakin would try to save his twins while Padme stays on the planet upset and he will swoop in and comfort her." say Mark.
"Yeah right like that would work. I may know Padme the shortest out of all of us here, but you can tell that Padme is a madly in love with Anakin. She would die before ever thought of cheating on him or anything like that. I am also a good profiler. I do not even need to be around people to find out how they will act. I just needs put things together to find them out." say Maria.
"Is there anything you cannot do?" ask Obi-wan. "Unlike my daughter, I am not Force Sensitive." say Maria with a slight smile. They watch as Mark does something to the computer. Mark grabs a Datapad from a pocket in his belt and hooks it up to the computer. He is downloading all the files so he can read more about. As the files download, they flash across the screen of the computer.
There was a small beep after two minutes and on the computer screen and the Datapad, it told Mark that the download was complete. Mark unplugs the Datapad and put it back in his belt. He hears Maria gasps as she see a photo on the wall to the right of Mark.
Mark looked at them and notice Obi-wan was looking downwards. Mark looks at Maria and notices that the photo was a photo of Padme laying in her bed in her former apartment in Senate Apartment Complex. She was naked and looking at the door as if she was waiting for someone, most likely Anakin.
Mark shakes his head; he does not need that image in his head. He pulls Maria and Obi-wan out of the room. "It one thing to have a simple crush, but to be having pictures taken, how in the world did he manage to get a holopicture of her naked?" ask Maria. "Base upon the photo, I think she was waiting for Anakin and I do not have to divulge what that may mean. I figure most likely, he had a droid take a picture from the window in the bedroom. She seems to be unaware." say Mark.
"You remember all that in a glance for only a second?" ask Obi-wan. "I have, sometimes it is a misfortune, ability to remember stuff in clear detail no matter how short of a time I see it." say Mark. "Like photographic memory." say Maria.
"Ah, it is something like that, but there are times I do not remember a thing. I usually consider the term photographic memory as someone who can remember everything they see with perfect detail. I remember some things in perfect detail. By the way the correct term is Eidetic memory, ironically I know that base upon something I glance upon I was reading when I was younger." say Mark as he walks away from them.
"I still think he has Eidetic or photographic memories." say Maria. Obi-wan laugh as he nods at this. "I highly agree. He can remember events from the Clone Wars well. I remember Luke overheard him and Anakin talking about that duel between Mark and Palpatine. Mark told the story with exact perfect as if he had just experience it just seconds before." say Obi-wan.
"By the way, do not forget to put the bed back Obi-wan and Maria do please put that stool away that you fall from. The last thing I want is for the Vice Chancellor expects something is up." say Mark before walking out of the apartment.
"You do not happen to be Force Sensitive a little bit. I highly do not want to go back in that room." say Obi-wan looking at Maria. Maria shakes her head. Obi-wan sigh as he turns around and uses the Force to settle the bed back where it was before he moved it.
"Isn't there anything that Master Zane cannot do?" ask Maria after Obi-wan got back from the bedroom. "No out he preaches it a lot about how good it is, I do not think he can understand when he is in love or when someone is in love with him." say Obi-wan remembering how he felt the connection between Mark and Rachelle. He also felt that Mark loves Rachelle but he is unaware of it and unaware that Rachelle loves him more then a friend or a sister.
Obi-wan had to admit that at first he thought their relationship was much like his and Anakin. Near close to the Clone Wars he was in a lift and he remembers how he felt Rachelle's love for Mark. Through the Force, he can tell that they are perfect for each other. From what she knows of Rachelle Hunter is that she wants to have a family, because she have no memories of her family and the Jedi Order, even through it has been reform to allow love and families, does not want to tell her that her family was nothing but bunch of criminals that tried to sell her into slavery as a debt.
Matter of fact, Rachelle's family only had a few good people came out of it, and neither of her parents was good. The reason she never find out about them even on her trips to Corellia is because that her mother, father and older brother all perished into the Corell, the sun of the Corellian System.
Her eldest sister was one of the few good people of her family, who tried to turn her parents into CorSec. Her parents and their siblings were known for robbing and murdering bunch of people on the planets within the Core Region of space. Soon they were forgotten.
The Jedi Order had found her injured on the streets of Corellia. Apparently, when she was found the people that her parents were trying to sell her too, did not want her and a blaster fight issued between the two parties and Rachelle was hurt. It was thanks to her older sister that the Jedi Order has founded her.
Her eldest sister was closed to her and, she was in tears to have to see her baby sister be taken away from her, but both of them decided it was best for Rachelle to go with the Jedi. The Jedi thought it was good to train and offer home. Rachelle's eldest sister thought it would be better to get her off the planet before her parents could try to get her again.
Obi-wan was a Padawan when his mentor and him was sent to Corellia to settle the problem with the Hunter family and their murders and theft. The Corellia government got so desperate that they wanted to bomb the house that young Rachelle, her older brother and parents. That was going to happen the night that they found her laying on the streets. Obi-wan remembers Rachelle's eldest sister wrap her in a pink blanket and kisses her forehead before handing her baby sister over to the Jedi.
Obi-wan remember that night well. His mentor, Qui-Gon Jinn, had him hold her until they got back to Coruscant. Before they was heading back they convince the Corellia government not to bomb the Hunter's Resident because Qui-Gon sensed that it would cause bunch of pain to those in the area. So, Rachelle spent one more night with her eldest sister. It was also that night that her parents died because they were being chased off the planet. When someone shoots their ship, the ship lost control and it falls into the gravity of the sun.
Obi-wan and Maria walks to where Mark is leaning against a Speeder. "About time, I really need to find something to try to help me forget that picture on that wall we saw of Padme. Makes me sick." mumble Mark as he climbs into the driver seat of the Speeder. "Maybe you should use that Jedi mind trick on him." say Maria remember listening to Master Yoda explain some Force abilities. "That only works on the weak minded and does Mark look like he is weak minded?" ask Obi-wan as he got into the seat next to Mark. Maria climbs into the back seat.
"No, he seems to be far from being weak minded." say Maria as she looks at Mark as he drives the Speeder into the Coruscant traffic. After a long day of searching through some pervert apartment, all people within the Speeder just want a relaxing evening. Maria cannot wait to spend time with her daughter. She misses their daily lunch date that they have at the temple because of her helping Obi-wan and Mark.
A lot of information to take into this chapter. So to recap we have Found out that the Vice Chancellor have a type of crush on Padme so bad that he will not let her live if he cannot have her and is one of the major reasons why Luke and Leia was kidnapped in the first place. We also found out he have a little bit of nasty side.
If that was enough I decide to throw in Rachelle's past which involves Obi-wan and his former mentor Qui-Gon Jinn. I figure that you hear stories of someone good and their family or bad or vice-verse a good family with a bad member. Also I also gave hints to who Rachelle's first mentor is if you haven't found who she is. She is one of the last original character of mine that I have created in that story.
Till next time, enjoy.