Please be aware that some content in this chapter may be deemed M rated
Thirteen
Meeting with the Chancellor it said.
Seventeen hundred hours.
All of a sudden the reality of her new life presented itself.
She was going to join the ranks of people that for over twenty five thousand years had represented their planets in the Galactic Senate. Dressing accordingly in a demure royal blue gown to show respect to the Chancellor, Gem waited until sixteen forty five where she would be escorted to the Grand Chancellors private quarters.
Commander Fox appeared as on cue, nodding his head and offered a familiar arm to lead the way.
This time they didn't speak.
It was a far cry from the trip to The Bunker a couple of nights before.
The Commander had also noticed that she had only left her quarters once during that period and with Captain Rex – he hadn't seen him arrive but felt sure that he had kept her 'company' during that time.
They waited outside the Chancellor's rooms until she was requested to enter by his Aide. She looked up at Fox and smiled weakly.
"Good luck Ma'am," he offered back with a nod and a quick wink. She liked him, trusted his judgement.
She walked into the red suite to be greeted by a small man, seated at the far end. He seemed older than she remembered and he stood suddenly at her entrance.
'Eremena,' his whispered to himself.
She was the image of the woman who he had meet twenty two years before.
The woman he and his best friend had laughed and debated politics with.
He felt it too, the strength she had passed onto her child. He sensed the power and it fuelled his disappointment and his anger at not being the one she chose.
She should have married him, she should have been his.
This should be his daughter. Imagine the power; a Jedi and a Sith united, harnessed?
All this inner turmoil fed the anguish lurking just below the surface as he moved towards her and held out both his hands with a smile.
"My child, how much like your mother you are," he said with a voice as velvet as the cloak he wore.
###
"I am so sorry for you recently loss Skylar," the Chancellor began. "I hear that you had to endure a dreadful ordeal to finally make it here to Coruscant?"
"Thank you Chancellor, my father always spoke so fondly of his friendship with you. He said that the happiest days of his life were the ones spent on Naboo."
"Your father was a true friend, and like family to me. If ever your require anything, you know you only have to ask."
"Thank you again Sir."
"Please sit, is there anything I can get for you?" He was mesmerized at how much she looked like her mother. The Force was strong in her, but there was something else. . .
"You know, your father contacted me just before you left Oriis, saying he had some information that he wanted me to take a look at. Do you have any idea what this was?"
"I do indeed." Gemma lifted her left arm up and in the hem of her sleeve she reached in and pulled out the small micro chip. She handed it to the man and noticed his thin, wrinkled fingers as he took it from her.
"Father said this would be instrumental in ending the War."
"Did your father mention what he was working on, or what was stored on this?" He lifted the micro chip up and she instantly regretted giving the piece of information away.
'Don't trust anyone Gem,' her father's last words reverberating in her head over and over again.
"No Sir," I made a promise to deliver this to you personally. I have never opened the information stored onto it."
"Thank you Skylar. Here, come sit with me and drink some wine. Please if you would, fill me in on the events that found you on that little moon in the middle of nowhere."
With that, Gemma lifted the red liquid to her mouth and began in detail to tell Chancellor Palpatine all the events that led her up to her arrival on Ground Zero.
He asked questions on where she lived, her relationship with the Jedi Kenobi and her political aspirations for her time as a Representative in the Senate, when another woman entered the room.
"Senator Carr, welcome, please come and join us, I do believe you know one another?"
Gem smiled and looked over at the woman, she was tall like herself, elegant with refined features. She had met her previously on Oriis in preparation for her arrival in the Senate.
"Gem! It is so good to see you here finally!" she exclaimed. "We thought we had lost your forever. I was devastated to hear about your father, he was an amazing scientist." She looked solemn and grabbed the younger woman's hands. "We have a lot to discuss." Gem was happy to see her again.
"We didn't elect another Representative after you disappeared, so you are still to be signed in at the Senate. Until then, we can talk about our political agenda and how Oriis can contribute towards the War."
After formally saying goodbye to the Chancellor they left the room. Commander Fox was still on duty outside, the professional soldier that he was. Gem and Olphina stopped and looked at one another.
"Whatever you need, I am always here, you know that, don't you?" She grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "We are your new family now." She looked over to the tall man in the red armor.
"Good to see you again Commander Fox," she stated matter of fact.
"Senator Carr," he nodded back.
"Ma'am, would you like an escort back to your quarters?" He said, looking at Gem.
"Thank you Commander, Senator." She bowed her head and he lead the way past a myriad of alien personnel back to her new home.
###
Chancellor Palpatine sat at his desk, dwarfed by its size.
He was surprised and anxious at the meeting with the young Representative.
She shouldn't have survived the crash, nobody in fact should have been lifted off that moon. It had been an oversight that he would have to address with the appropriate people when the time was right.
He waited until she was far enough away and entered the chip into the holovid. It sprung to life, and he smiled.
He had worked hard over the past twelve months, Gem's father. His research was well worth the effort and the information would have been instrumental in ending the Clone Wars, had it have been placed in the correct hands.
He looked at the image and smiled. The schematic representation of the moon sized battle station spun on its axis in front of him, and he laughed.
Oh, how he laughed.
###
Gemma waited until twenty two hundred hours and decided to shower and change for bed. It was late. He had said he would get there when he could.
She headed to her room when she heard the now familiar numbers being pushed at her door, and the sound as it opened and he walked in.
Rex stopped.
In full armour he lifted the helmet off his head and put it silently down on the table.
Like two magnets pulling towards one another they rushed and were caught together by their mouths, frantically kissing and working them over each other's lips and face. Gem, unfamiliar with the feel of the armour felt an undeniable urge to rip it from him, she began pulling at the pauldron, desperately trying to remove his biceps plate when he stifled a laugh and said "hey."
Undaunted in her mission to free him from the responsibilities the armour bestowed upon him she was relentless in continually trying to rip, pull, tear any piece of it away.
"Hey, hey. HEY!" he said, grabbing her arms and holding her away from him.
"What's going on?" his voice low and questioning.
She stood in front of him, she felt small and fragile compared to the large, strong figure he cut in the armour.
"I'm scared."
He moved in towards her, lifting her up into his arms and taking her into the bedroom. Not saying anything, he placed her gently on the end of the bed. He deftly removed each piece of his armour watching her as his hands automatically knew where to unclip and release, placing the pieces on the floor beside the bed. As he was beginning to undress from the black body suit he asked,
"You gonna tell me what's going on?" His chest bare, he leaned over to pull the bottom half free.
"I don't know who to be without you around."
He sighed as the last of his body was free and sat down next to her clad only in the ubiquitous black shorts.
"You're Skylar Gem. Honourable Representative of the Oriian people in the Galactic Senate. You'll be perfect at it, and also," he added kissing her neck, "you're my girl," he whispered into her ear.
The words were what she wanted to hear most in the world.
She did belong somewhere if not on this planet, in this city, but in his heart. He reached down and lifted the silk chemise from her, her arms above her head watching his expression as he smiled seeing her bare torso. He then cheekily pushed her backwards onto the bed.
"I only have a few hours, let's make the most of them."
They began to kiss and she let herself be taken to that other place where only she and Rex existed, no war, no grieving, no tears.
They made love for the first time.
No more uncertainty, no playful experimentation. They knew each other's body intimately now.
He rolled on top of her, kissing her jaw and nibbling at the base of her neck. She closed her eyes, when he spoke.
"Look at me Gem."
She did as he asked, and watched him, as he watched her moving under him.
She then realised what he was doing.
His eyes were sweeping over every part of her face, open even during their most passionate kisses, committing every part of her to his genetically superior memory.
His hands swept lower over her breasts followed quickly by his mouth and she breathed out a long, knowing sigh.
"Open Gem," he requested again as his hands crept lower to a point between her legs. She obliged and was embarrassed when she saw him staring down at her. He began to massage the familiar spot and she flushed red under his gaze.
"Just relax OK?"
He continued on, always watching her face.
She wanted to kiss him, but she was immobile under his touch.
She felt her muscles begin to tighten and she was moving in a rhythm against his fingers. Moaning softly, she desperately wanted to close her eyes to the sensations enveloping her body, when he quickly stopped and moved himself inside her. She felt every inch of him fill the void that his hand had relinquished. They stopped moving and looked at one another until Rex decided to begin anew and moved fully in and out of her deliciously slow. He too had trouble keeping his eyes focussed on hers, the passion welling up in both of them as their breathing, once matched was becoming more and more ragged.
"Open Gemma, I want to watch you come," he growled.
She let him take over her body, she was incapable of doing anything more. Grabbing his head in both hands she focussed on his brown eyes and her climax.
Over and over he continued, until release found them and they both cried out in pleasure.
Still inside her, and holding his head they looked into each other's eyes, tears rolling down the sides of her face as he blinked away the water from his own.
###
After falling into a light sleep, he rose from their bed and headed towards the 'fresher. She heard the shower running and, quickly putting a dressing robe on, made her way to the kitchen to make him some caf.
It was oh four hundred hours.
He would be leaving soon.
Dressed in the cold, white plastoid armour he walked up behind her and placed his arms around her waist. As he kissed the back of her neck hesitantly, she turned and handed him the caf and he took a long drink from it.
"I spoke to the Sergeant in the training gym. He's expecting you, so when you're ready you can head down there and have a go in the tunnel." He smiled, happy to be offering something back to someone who had given him so much in recent days.
"Thank you Rex," she said nervously as she handed him one of the images of them taken on the speeder. "Here, this is for you."
He put his mug on the table beside him and looked at it, and then at her smiling.
"Where did you get this?"
"I have my sources," she smiled, "look at the back."
Rex continued to look at her while he flipped the image over in his hands.
There, in her hand writing were the words,
Stay safe, come home, I'll be waiting...
He smiled again and tucked it neatly into the inside of his left gauntlet.
"Thank you." He nodded, tapping the back of his glove and reached for his helmet.
"Where are they sending you this time?" she asked.
"I'm sorry Gem, I can't tell you," was all he replied.
Was this how it was always going to be?
Him leaving her behind, not knowing if it would be the last time she would see him.
They walked arm in arm to the door and he slowly turned and kissed her softly on the lips. She nodded in recognition of the unspoken; there were no more words to say. His head down, the apartment door hissed open and he reluctantly took a step through.
Putting his helmet on she immediately saw him straighten, he was now lost to her and back in the role he was bred to perform.
And she knew he would be alright.
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