Padmé was used to weird things happening in her life. She was a senator. She had served as a queen. She was married to a Jedi. She wouldn't have been able to do any of that if she couldn't adjust to weird situations. Somehow though, this felt weirder than anything.
She had been in her apartment all day. There had been no sign of a break-in, and her alarms were still on and active. And yet when she went into her closet to set aside what she would be wearing for a diplomatic meeting tomorrow, the first thing she saw was a boy, who somehow seemed more confused about what he was doing there than she was.
Padmé was cautious about this boy, but she wasn't afraid. She'd kept her blaster aimed at him, but when the boy's eyes started darting around anxiously and he pushed himself against the wall of her closet, she couldn't help but worry about him. Taking a closer look at the intruder, she could see that he was sweating and his face looked flushed. He looked exhausted, weak, and unfocused.
Padmé slowly put her blaster away. She knelt on the floor to be at a closer level to the boy. "What's your name?"
He stared past her for a long moment before his gaze eventually focused on her. He blinked in confusion a few times, as though he didn't understand what she had said. Eventually he answered. "Luke."
"Are you hurt, Luke?" Padmé asked. "Are you in trouble?" She lived in a neighborhood on Coruscant, but she knew that the lower levels could be dangerous, and sometimes desperate youth would somehow make their way to the upper levels to hide out. It wasn't unheard of for people to return home to find squatters in their apartment. Padmé still didn't understand how Luke could have gotten here, but she didn't think it had been with malicious intent. He probably just needed a safe place to hide.
Luke was quiet for a long time. He looked around, though Padmé didn't know what he could be looking for in her closet. He brought his hands to his ears, and with every passing second he looked more and more overwhelmed.
"It's so loud." Luke whimpered, even though the only source of noise in this apartment was coming from them. They couldn't even hear the traffic outside. "It feels so loud. And dark. And bright." He looked at her with wide eyes. "Why is the darkness so bright?"
She didn't understand what he was saying at all, and it was frightening. Padmé slowly leaned closer to him and put a hand against his forehead. It was clammy and warm to the touch.
"You're burning up." Padmé said. She gently grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet. He didn't resist her. "Let's get you somewhere more comfortable." She still needed to get answers from him, but he was clearly in no state to talk right now.
Luke shuffled his feet as he followed her. He stopped in his tracks when they passed the window, where they could see the morning traffic rushing past. Luke stared numbly at the sight, looking incredibly lost.
"This isn't the Jundland Wastes." Luke muttered to himself. He forced his gaze from the window and looked at Padmé. "Where are we?"
"My apartment." Padmé reminded him gently. Luke shook his head.
"No, I mean where are we?" Luke asked. "What planet?"
He must be more ill than she thought. "Coruscant." Padmé said. Luke stared blankly at her before he turned back towards the view out the window.
"Coruscant." Luke said quietly. "There's…there's so much." His eyes started to glaze over and his face grew pale. "So many people. It's so loud. It's too…too…" Luke's legs started to shake. Padmé, seeing what was about to happen, was able to catch Luke before he collapsed to the ground.
Padmé had been concerned about Luke, but at that moment she felt drawn to help him. It almost physically hurt to see him in pain, and she wanted to help him. Padmé adjusted her grip on Luke and pulled her to her bed. She laid him down and tried to make him as comfortable as possible.
He had mentioned how bright it was, and the view outside clearly upset him, so once he was situated on the bed she closed the blinds and dimmed the lights. She went to get some water for him, and then returned to Luke's side. He was conscious, but hazy and unfocused.
"Can you sit up for me?" Padmé asked. Luke whined, but he shifted himself into a sitting position. She sat at the edge of the bed and handed him the cup. "Sip this slowly." Luke handled the cup of water more carefully than she had thought. It was almost with respect, which was odd to see.
Luke drank slowly. By the time the cup was empty, his breathing had evened out and some color had returned to his cheeks. "Are you feeling any better?" Padmé took the cup back. Luke just frowned in confusion.
"I don't know." He said quietly. "The sand fever will go away, but the bright shadows…" The fear was still in his eyes. He looked like a cornered animal, or someone with claustrophobia. "They've never been this loud. Why are they so loud?"
Padmé sighed. "I don't know." She wished she did. She didn't like being in the dark, and she didn't like feeling helpless. Maybe he was just really sensitive to noise, and needed absolute silence and some rest. "I can give you some space." She moved to get off the bed, but Luke reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
"Please, don't go." Luke said desperately. "Don't leave me with them."
"Luke, nothing and nobody's here." Padmé said gently, though she didn't get off the bed.
"But I feel them." Luke said. "There's so many. They're everywhere."
"What is?" Padmé asked. Luke paused.
"I don't know." He admitted. "But I feel them. I've felt it a little before, but it's so much stronger now." He whimpered and laid back down. He pulled her blanket up over his head. "Just want it to stop."
"I'm sorry." Padmé sat next to him. "Is there anything I can do?"
Luke was quiet for a moment. "Can you just talk? Having something else to focus on helps." If I'm not thinking about the brightness, it doesn't seem as bad."
Padmé had lived a stressful life. She knew a thing or two about distraction, both providing it, and being on the receiving end. "I can do that." She made herself comfortable on the bed. It was a little odd and uncomfortable to be in her bed with a boy she didn't know, but she truly didn't think he was a threat, and something in her mind told her that he was safe. That he was just a boy who needed help.
Padmé had gotten into politics in the first place because she wanted to help people. Most of her work involved focusing on whole populations, and she rarely got the chance to work with the citizens. She wouldn't change her chosen career for anything, but she did like the chance to feel like she was impacting somebody's life directly.
Padmé wasn't nervous around this boy, but she knew she couldn't just let herself be immediately open with him. She didn't think she could talk to him about herself more than she already had, at least not until she knew more about him. Luke was in no state to be interrogated.
She was still cautious, but she wanted to provide the comfort that he was so desperate for. She found herself telling the Nabooian fairy tales that her mother used to tell her when she was a small child. She couldn't remember some important details, and Luke was visibly confused when she mentioned a lake, like he couldn't even imagine what that might look like.
Still, the simple story did its job. Luke slowly grew more relaxed and less anxious. He asked questions about the story, and he smiled at the more remarkable bits. Midway through Padmé's third story Luke began to doze, and soon he was asleep. She hoped that a good night's rest was all he needed to push past this sickness and unease.
When he was asleep Padmé got up. She was glad he was resting, but there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered. She found a datapad and began to go through different databases and resources. She looked for any sign of Luke. Immigration papers. A missing child report. An arrest warrant. Nothing stood out.
Padmé tried the census next, which was vast and severely underreported, but it was something. There were many light haired human youths, but she was able to narrow it down. She suspected that Luke was from Tatooine. He hadn't said as much directly, but she could figure things out.
He'd mentioned the Jundland Wastes, which she hadn't noticed at the time, but recognized now. It was a part of the Tatooine desserts. He'd also mentioned something called sand fever. When she'd gone to Tatooine with Anakin she remembered the Lars' mentioning such a sickness.
Perhaps it was a longshot, but Padmé didn't have any other leads. She felt good about her theory on Luke's planet of origin, so she was disappointed and a little confused to find that there wasn't a single match.
Coruscant got a lot of immigrants, but not from Tatooine. People lived in such poverty on that planet that according to Anakin, people were lucky if they could get off planet at all, let alone to a core world. If there was anybody that remotely resembled Luke that had come from Tatooine, or even had ancestors that had, her searches would have shown it.
Padmé frowned and looked at the empty results. Perhaps Luke wasn't from Tatooine after all. Any desert world could call overheating sand fever, and Luke had been mumbling when he had mentioned the Jundland Wastes. It could barely count as evidence, but Padmé felt so sure that she was right about this. She didn't know why.
Maybe it was just because he reminded her so much of Ani. Not her husband, though there was a decent amount of resemblance between them. However, the one that Luke really reminded him of was that little slave boy that she had met all those years ago. The resemblance was uncanny. If Padmé didn't know that the boy had grown to be Anakin, she would think that he would grow to be just like this boy.
The light hair. The toughened skin. The unbelievable brightness in his eyes. Even though Luke was sick, Padmé could see the innocence in his gaze that Anakin had lost after all these years. Maybe she was just projecting, but when she looked at Luke she saw the young man that Anakin had never had the chance to be.
Padmé started wondering if she could call Anakin. He might not have answers, but maybe he would notice something about Luke that she was missing. She was pulling out her communicator when she felt a chill go down her spine. It made her feel hopeless and sick to her stomach. A moment later she heard a horrified and heartbreaking scream.
She dropped the datapad and returned to Luke's side. He was crying, curled in on himself. He clutched at his hair, pulling on it. He looked like he had just lived through unimaginable torture.
"Luke, Luke, it's okay." She reached out to offer him comfort, but he flinched harshly away from her touch, screaming like he was in pain. She pulled back. "You're okay. It's just a nightmare."
He was looking around rapidly, not really focusing completely on anything. He was shaking. "No, no, it's real. It was all real. It won't stop. I can't get it to stop." He looked more exhausted now than he had when he'd first gone to sleep.
"Have you had this nightmare before?" Padmé asked. Maybe he was reliving a trauma that he'd gone through. She had her fair experience with that kind of thing.
"Every night." Luke said in a tortured voice. He took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his eyes. He was already looking a little bit calmer, but she didn't think it was because he felt better. He probably just had experience pushing past the torment in his mind.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Padmé asked. Luke was quiet for a long moment.
"I-I don't know how." Luke said. He may just need more time to figure things out, and the help of somebody who actually knew what they were doing.
"I'm sorry." Padmé said. She offered her hand for comfort again, and this time Luke took it without a moment of hesitation. She brushed her hand across his forehead. "You don't feel so warm. I think the sickness has passed."
"It wasn't serious." Luke said. "I was just careless. I-I've been having a hard time sleeping."
"Because of your nightmares?" Padmé asked. He nodded. "Well, I don't know how to fix that, but I can get you some food and help you figure out where to go from here. And I have some questions for you, if you'd be willing to answer them."
Luke gave her a sheepish smile. "I have questions too."
"Then maybe we can help each other figure this out." Padmé said. She brought Luke into the kitchen. She gave him more water immediately, and found some fresh fruit. It wouldn't be the most filling of breakfasts, but if he was recovering from a sickness than something simple might be just what he needed.
They ate for a few minutes as they both tried to gather their thoughts about where to start their questions. Suddenly Luke jolted so sharply that he dropped his glass of juice. The cup shattered on the ground, but the shattered glass was the last thing Padmé was worried about. Luke's eyes were wide and blank, and it looked like he had stopped breathing.
"Luke?" She touched his arm. He didn't react at all. "Luke, what's wrong?"
"Dark." Luke said breathlessly. "Cold. So cold." He looked sharply towards the front door. "Something's coming."
Padmé wanted to ask him more, but she was interrupted by a knock on the door. She gave Luke a concerned look and went to answer the door. She intended to tell whoever it was that she was busy, and now really wasn't a good time. Any excuse escaped from her throat when she saw Chancellor Palpatine standing in front of her.
"Chancellor." She could barely keep the shock out of her voice. He didn't often come out into the city. He stayed in his offices and the senate building. If he had work he needed to do in the city, he would usually send a representative or a messenger. For him to come in person, it had to be important. "What brings you here?"
"I was thinking of you, and thought I would stop in for a visit." Chancellor Palpatine said. It didn't sound quite right to Padmé, but who was she to argue with him? He let himself in, and Padmé didn't know what she could do but step out of his way.
"Well, who is this?" Palpatine stepped into the kitchen.
"My guest." Padmé stepped around him and joined Luke. He was pale and he was looking at Palpatine with fear. Padmé couldn't imagine what he was afraid of, but that didn't make his feelings less real.
"Is something wrong?" Palpatine asked in concern. "He looks rather ill."
"He's getting over a sickness." Padmé said. It was the truth, but it was far from everything
"It looks rather serious." Palpatine said. "I know some very gifted doctors. Perhaps your friend could benefit from seeing them." He reached out to Luke, and the boy's eyes widened in panic.
"No!" Luke screamed and threw his hands up. Padmé felt something strong push her away from him. She staggered back. Palpatine was practically thrown into the air. He was knocked into the wall. Padmé thought she should be concerned about him, but she was far more concerned about what she had just seen.
She was familiar with this feeling. That was a Force push. Luke had used the Force, and he looked even more confused about it than she was.
"What…what happened?" Luke was looking really faint. Padmé didn't know if it was because he had overexerted himself, or if this was just because of his confusion. She supposed it didn't really matter because she now knew where she could go for answers.
"Chancellor, I'm sorry about what just happened." Padmé spared Palpatine a glance, just to make sure he was recovering from the push. When she saw he was okay she turned her attention back to Luke. She missed the dark, almost hungry look in Palpatine's eyes.
Padmé went to Luke's side, supporting him. "I appreciate the offer, Chancellor, but I'm afraid we're going to have to decline." Even the most talented of doctors probably couldn't help Luke in the way that he needed.
He'd used the Force, and he'd done so without meaning to. This darkness that he felt like was surrounding him, that could be the presence of the Force as well. And it would explain the nightmares that were plaguing him. Force visions.
Padmé didn't know a lot about the Force. Most of it was things she had just picked up from Anakin. However, she knew just where to find people who would know better.
"I think we should get you to the Jedi temple." Padmé said. She didn't know if he was a padawan, or an outsider who had the Force. Either way, she thought that the Jedi wouldn't just know what to do, but they would know how to deal with it.
"The Jedi are busy." Palpatine said. "Do you truly think bringing them a street urchin would be the best use of their time?"
Padmé stiffened her jaw and tightened her grip around Luke, encouraging him to lean on her. "Yes, I do." She nodded at the Chancellor. She didn't always agree with him, but a big part of her job was that she needed to respect him. "If you'll excuse us."
Palpatine briefly looked like he wanted to argue more, but then he nodded and his posture relaxed. "Of course, my dear. Please, at least allow me to offer you a ride to the temple."
Luke shuddered and shook his head, but Padmé didn't dismiss the idea. The temple wasn't too far away, but they certainly couldn't walk there, even if Luke was in any condition to. Padmé could call an attendant to drive them, but that would take time. Palpatine had a speeder and driver waiting for him. It was the quickest option, and the wisest if she wanted to avoid offending the Chancellor more than she already had.
"Your offer is most gracious, Chancellor." Padmé said. She supported Luke as they followed Palpatine outside and to his personal speeder. Luke wasn't happy about this, and he resisted, but he was too weak and nervous to fight. Soon she got him settled, and then they were on their way to the temple, and hopefully some answers.