Disclaimer:

I do not own any rights to Star Wars. This is merely fan fiction by a fan and not someone even remotely involved in any Marvel or Lucas Film property. That being said I do hope you enjoy it.

"So we can all agree the murderer is Dooku right?" Anakin said looking over the corpse.

"How could you possibly know that?"

Anakin looked over the dead body of the Senator, the body had no signs of energy weapon or physical weapon harm. His clothes were torn but it looked like they were ripped by the victim if anything as he still had threads of fabric between his nails.

"This looks like Force drain."

"Force drain? That's… technically a name." Anakin noticed Padme's sidewards look, she clearly didn't believe him but she didn't openly laugh at him which wasn't awful of her. Talking about the force to nonsensitives was always a bit trying, they always looked at like you were some religious nutcase.

"It's a dark side ability. It literally rips out someone's life force to either use it for yourself or just to purely remove it from someone. Look, the skin has pruned from a lack of moisture and his skin is deathly white. His nutrients have literally ripped away from him." However, force drain was never Dooku's strong point, Anakin didn't even think Dooku has the ability and if he did he could probably only kill small insects. Dooku always did to prefer to rely on Sith lightning.

Why would he do this? To hide it was his doing? There was no point, Dooku should be the only dark-side user on the ship. Ventress? No, it was too early for her, Ventress only joined Dooku when he was eighteen a year before Genosis. Besides she was never good at Sith techniques like drain or lightning.

"Dark side?"

"It's a way to use the Force. It's not so much of a side of the Force as it is a perversion of it. If the Force is nature, something alive to be guided towards growth then the Dark side is a cancer. An ultimately corrupt use of the Force that can be used to achieve unnatural feats. For example, ripping the life out of someone."

"I've seen you do the same though. I suppose, ripping the life out of someone is unnatural but moving things with your mind isn't?" Padme sarcastically said looking around the torn up room so she could no doubt come to her own conclusions about the case.

"Moving things with your mind can create infrastructure, defend yourself and is just a manipulation of gravity. Life stealing is parasitic, only meant to harm in an extremely painful way. This is not the face of someone who died peacefully."

Anakin looked over at the dead senator's face. He had died screaming, his nails were bloodied as well, he was literally clawing at his chest ripping his clothes apart trying desperately to keep whatever was inside him still there.

"This is one of the Hutt planet senators," Padme observed. Well, not really a senator if it was from a Hutt planet, warlord or pirate king was probably more accurate. "If Dooku really did do this it would be an interplanetary scandal."

"Careful you actually sound excited at this man's death."

"Ah, who cares he's probably a slaver." Padme waved off, she was cute when she disregarded life. "He's better off dead. But if it got out that Dooku did this then the CIS might not associate with him, he and the banking guilds are the two main contributors to the CIS. Without him, some of the independent planets lost might reconsider and join the Republic again and it will all be thanks to me!"

"All thanks to you?" Anakin raised a questioning brow, "Last time I checked all you did was open the door for me."

"And you are so welcome for that." Padme gave a mocking bow to him. Her smirk spread widely across her face. Had he been one of her fellow senators she would have never acted so freely teasing or unprofessional but Anakin just threw a pillow at her head which she narrowly avoided.

"That sounds circumstantial at best."

The Republic senators were all sitting around a table. Many of them looked displeased to be here and they also just happened to be the ones who clearly hastily put on make-up to miserably cover the signs of their late-night escapades.

"Look we all hate Dooku, we can all agree on that." The senator continued receiving nods of agreement at his words. "But, let's not forget. Our accusations carry consequences, If we are wrong that will just allow Dooku to rake us over the coals even more. Can we really put our faith in, and let us speak plainly? A junkie? No offence but we all saw him out of his mind last night and that's not even mentioning this whole accusation is based on 'space magic'."

Padme looked around the table noticing that more and more people were starting to be swayed against her. Sure it wasn't that big of a deal if they didn't accuse Dooku but if they all thought she was crazy or prone to accusation then when this cruise was over rumours would spread throughout the Republic about her being unreliable.

"You are not from the core are you?" Another senator spoke up. "That 'space magic' isn't a joke. I myself have seen it first hand after an assassination attempt, those are no mere rumours. The Jedi are a powerful group capable of things we cannot even understand."

"Oh please. Don't get me wrong the Jedi are definitely well-trained soldiers, I'll give them that. But that's all they are, If you were trained since birth to swing around a laser sword I bet you could run fast or dodge a couple of blaster bolts. None of you really believe the garbage about how they can leap over skyscrapers or carry things without even their hands."

"You haven't met a Jedi. If the boy, a drunk he may be, says it's the Force then it's the Force. How many poisons do you know that leave a body a soulless husk?"

"There are plenty of poisons that act as a dehydrator or prevent enzymes from breaking down nutrients. You worship those monks too much old man."

The older senator, the one who was actually on Padme's side looked furious. Not so much at the other man giving good points, which admittedly he was, but rather that his idolisation of the Jedi was being mocked.

"It doesn't hurt to have both plans in the back pocket." A female senator stood up trying to be a peacekeeper. "I myself visited the temple on Coruscant and the rumours of the Jedi's capabilities are no lie."

The senator who was sceptical of the Jedi scoffed along with quite a few others. Padme couldn't blame them though, had it not been for Vader or the two Jedi that escorted her a few years ago she two would not have believed in space mag- the Force. To anyone who personally hadn't met the Jedi or seen them in action then just believing they were a bunch of battle-trained monks with some exaggerated stories just made sense. Certainly more sense then some of the rumours that she heard.

Not only that but admitting the Jedi did have magic powers meant that you admit their God, The Force. Was real. Vader certainly didn't seem to worship the Force as some religious zealots would but to other religions admitting that it was the Force rather then their own God would be blasphemy.

"If the ex-Jedi says it's magic then it could be, it could also just be poison. Let's get a medical droid to check for any foul play and if the results come up unsatisfactory then I see why we couldn't pursue the thought that Dooku did it." The woman continued.

As much as it did irritate Padme it wasn't a bad idea. Truthfully Vader could be wrong, he seemed remarkably hung over when she met him. But when Padme looked at the woman closer she noticed how her pupils were dilated and how glossy her eyes looked. The woman looked like she had been up all night. The woman was coming off a high. This woman was no better than the other two, the only difference was her answers were far more centralist, more afraid to choose sides. She really was a senator.

"Republic swine." A voice called out from far away, the group of Republic senators all turned towards to see a large group of a varying amount of aliens approach them.

"What's a swine?" One of her fellow Republic senators whispered to her, he was a Mon Calamari.

While there was a large difference in races compared to the Republic senators who were mostly human Padme did notice one thing that the approaching group had in common. They were all from the CIS. With the leader that called them out being a Skakoan clearly demonstrated by the atompshic pressure suit.

"What do you want Wat Tambor?" One of the Republic senators sneered. Tambor? They were the heads of the Techno Union, responsible for making starships and had their own droid army. Technically they were still part of the Republic but considering he was surrounded by CIS senators Padme could make a pretty strong assumption that wouldn't last.

"Grakkus is holding a court. Turns out the senator who died was incharge of all the spice farms on Ylesia."

"All of them?"

"All of them." Wat confirmed. "Some Hutt clan head is furious and is taking it out on Grakkus who now in turn is going to take it out on us. I hope whatever reason you imbeciles thought that this would be a good time for an assassination was worth it cause now we are all screwed."

"I must admit… I didn't expect you to be so good at holo chess."

"Obi-Wan taught me, told me it would make me a better general and leader but truthfully it was just because he liked winning. That is until I started to win."

"Obi-Wan." The name brought a smile to Dooku's face. "I never really met the boy too much, Qui-Gon was always so eager to show off his little Padawan to me but at the time I was a bit busy betraying the Order. Clearly, some of Qui-Gon may have rubbed off on the boy. I myself was the one who taught Qui-Gon to play."

"Chess is just a game, in a real war, the opponent doesn't wait for you to move. The pieces also don't torture each other or strap civilians to buildings in order to prevent bombing runs. Just a heads up for the future, the Republic doesn't care."

"No, I suppose they don't." Dooku agreed, both to the chess not being the same as real war and that the Republic doesn't care. "But please such topics are unbefiting of a child such as yourself, lets talk about something a bit lighter, please how is my grand-padawan Obi-Wan?"

"Being hailed as a hero, the first Jedi in a thousand years to kill a Sith is quite the accomplishment. There was even talk about making him a Master though that was just padawan rumours." Obi-Wan only ever became a Master after Anakin became a knight. Now that Anakin had fled the Order Obi-Wan would probably train Asohka.

Every loop was different but more things were common than others, for example, Asohka usually ended up as either Plo Koon or Obi-Wan's padawan if Anakin ever left the order.

"Maul." Anakin felt the dark side rise from Dooku as the Sith lord sat in thought, Dooku spat the name like it was poison. The dark side had a distinct feel to it, every Sith was different but they were all awful. Maul felt like fire, Sidious felt like ice but Dooku never really felt anything, he was better trained and could keep his power on a leash usually. But, at the thought of the Dathomirian Anakin felt Dooku's grasp slip.

"Maul is hardly a Sith, a unhinged mutt that got lucky." Dooku and Maul never really got along in the loops. There was a few rare ones where they worked together to kill Palpatine, Anakin even joined in for some attempts but usually, the death of Qui-Gon meant those two were always at eachother's throats. Dooku hated the Jedi but he had loved Qui-Gon.

Whilst in his thoughts of hatred Anakin shrugged and moved his final piece capturing the king, was it a poor idea to win while Dooku was currently channeling the dark side? Maybe but Anakin was sick of losing to Sith. "Checkmate."

"My, you are quite a good player. Did you ever play Windu? Him and his shatterpoint was just unfair, he claimed to never use it to cheat but for all his rules and he never liked to lose. You know people actually believed he was the chosen one. Are you familiar with the story of the chosen one?"

Great, Anakin rolled his eyes. Here comes the pitch, the 'you may be the chosen one but only I can teach you. Join me and together we will protect/rule the galaxy'.

"Yes, I am quite personally familar." Anakin sighed.

"So you are aware that you are a possible candidate for the prophecy? That's good saves me time explaining it."

"Look, Dooku, I came here because I know you keep headache mediation on you, not because I want to hear your sales pitch about how totally 'not evil' you are."

"The Jedi are-"

"Awful. Yes, I know. They pride themselves on outdated and honestly rather elitist traditions yet ignore their most important one. That the Jedi do not show bias. Yet for all my displeasure about the Jedi at least they try to make the universe better, they fail but they try at the very least. I would rather have the Jedi then the Sith rule the galaxy."

"You don't understand the dark side they have hidden what it means. It's not something to be feared."

"I do not fear the dark side." Anakin sneered, "I pity it. I pity you, you're just an addict who won't realise who he will hurt while chasing his high."

"You're one to talk about being an addict."

"I inject chemicals into my body, the difference is I'll see hallusactions in my bed while you watch planets burn from a throne."

"I am trying to save the Galaxy, you are a powerful force user who sits in self-pity. You claim I am selfish for using the dark side, then what do you call what you are doing with the light?" Dooku stood up from his seat clearing the holo-chess board.

"If you ever want to actually use your power for the good of the universe my offer still stands. Despite your foul additude I actually do believe you are capable of great things, Qui-Gon sees it and so do I. All you have to do is take my hand."

Dooku extended his hand and Anakin felt a strong urge to reach out and take it. He was making sense after all, and maybe this time would be different. Anakin had joined Dooku multiple times, sometimes Anakin became a Sith along side Dooku others he returned Dooku to the light. This time could be different, the CIS afterall right now were the morally good side. Until they start commiting war crimes but that hadn't happened yet, under Anakin's rule he could change them. Save the galaxy.

Anakin quickly slapped Dooku's hand away.

"You try lacing your words with the dark side again and I'll show you just how much I am the chosen one."

"It was worth a try." Dooku shrugged as if he didn't just try to do the Force equivalent of drugging someone. "Can't blame a Sith for trying. Honestly, I wasn't expecting you to be this difficult. You didn't seriously come talk to me just to argue philosophy and play chess right?"

"I came for aspirin." Anakin crossed his arms. "And I guess so Grakkus doesn't get on my back, technically I also came to 'question' you about the guy you killed."

"The guy I killed?"

"Come on Dooku it's me. I don't care, it's fine. Murder all the senators you like, they mean nothing to me, but come on. You know you killed him, I know you killed him. Why lie when neither of us cares?"

"I haven't killed anyone since getting on this ship, not that my patience hasn't been tested." Dooku narrowed his eyes.

"Seriously?" Anakin glared, Dooku lying to him wasn't so much coy as it was just down-right annoying. "Who else can use Force drain on this ship? So unless you've snuck an apprentice I haven't ever met It has to be you."

"Like I said I haven't killed anyone." Dooku's narrowed eyes matched Anakin's glare.

Anakin reached out into the Force, while a Jedi can't so much know if someone is lying to them they could read the emotions of someone. It wasn't a perfect system as people can train themselves to feel certain ways while lying but usually most people who lie feel anxiety. Dooku had no anxiety, all he felt was insulted that his emotions were being read and the moment Dooku felt Anakin, which was almost instantly, he ripped his emotions away.

"You really didn't, did you?"

"Yes."

Anakin and Dooku's eyes widened at the same time because If Dooku truly wasn't the murderer then that meant there was another dark-side user on the ship. One that Dooku didn't know existed and one that was probably stronger than Anakin could stop.

Anakin quickly grabbed his communicator from his pocket, he needed to call Grakkus now or else this new loop would restart sooner than expected but unsurprisingly he didn't pick up. Seriously? Was Grakkus so petty that he wouldn't pick up his calls just cause he wouldn't pick up his? Yes, of course, the miserable Hutt would.

"There shouldn't be another dark side on the ship." Dooku brought a hand up to his chin deep in thought. Palpatine was currently on Coruscant trying to push the Republic to war with the CIS, Maul was assumed dead and night brothers/sisters shouldn't be active yet. He was probably wondering if his master had other apprentices besides him that Palpatine hadn't told him about.

"Oh you idiot, it's not a user it is the dark side." Anakin scowled putting away his communicator. That stupid Hutt making Anakin actually do his job, if it wasn't for the fact he was going to die along with the bastard he wouldn't be putting this much effort into thing.

"What?!"

"Tell me? Do you consider yourself much of an ambitious woman miss Amidala?"

"This is stupid."

"Answer the question Amidala." Grakkus sighed rubbing his temples.

The ballroom had all the tables rearranged with all the seats facing towards the centre were there was a large seat for Grakkus and another smaller seat for anyone unforunately to be caught in the rediculuousness that was this sham of a courtroom.

"Yes, I do."

"Wonderful. And tell me Amidala ever since you were elected senator you run a strong anti-drug campaign?" The CIS senator continued.

Since there were no lawyers aboard what had happened was a random senator would be called in front of everyone while some other random person started attacking them for two hours only for it to go nowhere since the only evidence we had was other people as Grakkus had rushed this so much that no proof had been collected.

"Yes. Spice trade is illegal in the Republic and since Naboo has an alternative hyperspace line from Naboo into the core it's not uncommon to have Spice smugglers to try sneak in from Tattooine into the core through this hyperspace lane as the Coreillian Run is too well patrolled for smugglers to sneak in."

"You must have hated to see such a prominent figure in the spice trade on board."

"Didn't even know he was on here."

"But when you did!"

"He was already dead."

"You went into a rage! A bloodthirsty fury, that couldn't be quenched till you finally saw him bleed red."

"Bleed? He wasn't even stabbed to death."

"So you know how he died. How convenient."

Padme gave an annoyed look towards Grakkus whose head was firmly in his hands. Padme would have felt bad for the Hutt, she certainly knew how awful it felt to have superiors be angry at her and be worried for her job. Then again it was Grakkus' fault she was here in the first place so he could go die for all she cared.

"Can I go now?"

"Just," Grakkus wiped his eyes before taking a deep breath. "Sure whatever, I don't care. There are so many fucking people on this ship, I'm so screwed."

"But I'm not done with my interrogation!" The CIS senator whined like a child.

"You get one more question." Grakkus waved off.

"Fine," Padme growled.

"Where were you on the night of the murder."

Padme gave another annoyed look to Grakkus who shrugged. "It's a fair question."

"I was at the party, like everyone else on this stupid ship."

"Watch it." Grakkus huffed

"'Wonderful' ship." She 'corrected' with a roll of her eyes.

"And after?"

"Come on this is ridiculous."

"Answer it Padme. Your hesitance while not an admission of guilt certainly doesn't look good."

"I was in my room recovering. I admittedly had been drinking a bit much and had to retire to my room." She blushed embarrassed. Thankfully enough people had seen her last night in her inebriated state, was she being truthfully about retiring to her room? No, but she wasn't the murder and who she spent the night with was none of their business.

"What about the boy you were with? The Jedi."

"He's not a Jedi." Padme's nails dug against her skin. What did this scumbag want now, especially with Vader.

"The cause of the death is unknown and the Jedi are rumored to have mystical abilities. What if he cursed the senator with a magic spell at your request? The two of you seemed real close last night."

"He didn't."

"How would you know? You retired to your room. While you were making yourself an alibi he could have used his spell book to cast a murder curse whilst we were all sleeping."

"Spell book? You don't know anything about the Jedi or their powers."

"Do you? Does anyone here? Who actually knows what the Jedi are capable of? They keep to their temples and hide behind their secrets from the Galaxy. I've heard the rumours as I'm sure many of you, with just a wave of their hand objects move. Is it so far fetched that this ex-Jedi could kill using his cursed abilities."

"Yes! Yes it is," she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Worse people were actually nodding in the crowd. They didn't actually believe Vader did it, they just wanted someone to blame. How can you disprove space magic, you can't. In a guilty till proven innocent cause there was no defence against using magic cause it couldn't be disproven isproven.

"Grakkus, you must realise this is insanity." Padme begged. "You hired him for security."

"Mmm yes. A Jedi…" Grakkus stroked his chin. "A Jedi, who, perhaps pretended to leave the Order as a way to infiltrate Hutt space as to not cause a scandal between the Hutts and the Republic. In doing so he was able to use his Jedi magic to get himself hired into security and assassinate the head of the Ylesia spice farms. If that was the case then all the blame would fall onto the Jedi and I would get my very own lightsabre, after the execution of course."

What was he doing? He was dooming Vader, why was he-

"Oh you bloody coward." Padme's eyes flared with anger.

Grakkus was fully prepared to throw Vader under he bus in order for the Hutts not to be angry at him. He was okay with letting an actual murderer go if it meant he wasn't going to get in trouble for letting some drug dealer die. A murderer on board is a lack of security but a Jedi? That was no ones fault, they can't be stopped. Especially since the Hutts, while they don't despise the Jedi they still certainly don't like them.

"It wasn't Vader, and you know it!"

"Ah, but the Jedi are a crafty bunch. We can't rule out the possibility just cause we don't understand their mystical abilities."

Padme looked over to her fellow Republic senators who just sat in silence even the one who was previously worshipping the Jedi. None spoke up, and why would they? This didn't concern them, especially since the Republic senators were currently being scrutinised by the CIS and Hutt senators. If a murderer got caught it would mean they are no longer under investigation.

"I know it wasn't Vader."

"Oh really? How could you possibly know?" The CIS senator asked. This one last question was becoming a lot worse then she thought it would.

"B-because… um,"

"See, she has no idea!"

"Because he accompanied me that night!" She screamed, her face was bright red and her eyes were heated. She must have looked like a schoolgirl confessing her crush but this was just too embarrassing for her. Vader the arsehole better treat her like a goddess the rest of this stupid trip, for this. Saving him defitinely wouldn't be worth it.

"Not for sex!" Padme quickly added. "We were just both drunk and collapsed in the room together."

It was too late. Through her fingers, she could see whispers go around. Even though most of the people here slept with many of Grakkus' escorts they at least never admitted to it, never screamed it out loud surrounded by everyone else.

Her ears burned and she could hear the words they whispered around. 'Whore', 'slut', and many more in languages she didn't understand but she definitely they were all some different way of insulting her.

"Well… um," The CIS senator was at a loss of words. "I suppose we can't rule anything out."

No one listened to him, instead they were too busy spreading rumours of what Vader did to her last night or what she commanded Vader to do to her. Some painted Vader as some sort of unspeakable monster who intentionally got her drunk while others depicted her as the disgusting person who threatened Vader with her political power to do what she wanted or she would get him fired.

None of it was true but in what was only a minute, hundreds of stories were spread. None of which was positive or painted her in a good light.

Oh god, she wanted to die. She should have just let Vader take the blame, this would definitely be used against her in the future. To whatever divine being is out there, just strike her down now. Her life was over anyway.

Almost hearing her prayers one of the large lights exploded outwards in a display of shattered glass. Senators screamed as tiny bits of glass fell upon them but their screams were soon drowned out by the sound of another life exploding, then another. One by one everyone was screaming as each light was individually exploding covering the whole room in pieces of glass while some people complained that they had been cut, most people were in shock as the whole room was soon swallowed by darkness.

"Okay, divine being. Maybe turn it down a bit." Padme whispered to herself.

"Everyone relax. No one move, there is glass everywhere. Clearly, the lights are a bit too old, but everything will be fi-" Grakkus never could finish his sentence as the emergency lights blared covering the room in a red glow and sirens began to scream causing the senators, Padme included, to cover their ears from the blaring noise.

What was going on? A few shattered light bulbs shouldn't cause this.

The loud alarm noise didn't last long at the very least as with a pained scratch like someone dragging their nails across a chalkboard the sirens died with one last final scream.

"I-Is it finally over?" Someone dared ask now that they were finally in silence. Everyone was still covered in little bits of glass and the room still had it's red glow but without the alarm scaring everyone even more than they had to be soon everyone started to compose themselves.

People looked around trying to figure out if there was one person responsible or if this was all just an awful accident. Padme herself couldn't help but wonder if this was just a demonstration of poor engineering. Had the whole ship short-circuited? She had always been bad with technology, instead, she was better at manipulating people than TV remote. However, that made sense right? It should explain why all the tech was being weird.

Padme let out the deep breath she had been holding shocked to realise that she could actually see her breath. The temperature had dropped substantially, during the panic. Whatever had caused all the technology to act up had also messed up the thermometer.

She brought her fingers to her mouth using her own breathing to warm her fingers. She wasn't dressed for this temperature, It had to be below freezing now. She tried to look around for the thermometer controls but when her eyes scanned the room a shadow darted past her vision.

"What the?" She murmured looking around for whatever could be flying around. Just a trick of the light? They certainly hadn't been working as they should.

It wasn't though as Padme once again saw a quick shadow dart through the red light that illuminated the room. She wasn't the only one as the shadow flew around the room drawing more and more attention from everyone.

Round and round it went till everyone was following the shadow around. Eventually whatever it was found itself settling in the middle of the room. Not the middle of the floor but the actual middle of the room being suspended halfway in the air.

"We are fucked."

Padme couldn't help but agree with whoever said that. She didn't know what it was or what it might do but what she did know was that this thing, it prided itself on murder. On a deep instinctual level, something in Padme was screaming at her to run but her legs were frozen solid in fear.

There in the middle of the room, floating was a tall skeleton-like creature wearing almost completely transparent cloth. Despite it looking like a skeleton Padme noted it had long flowing white hair that danced in the air as if the artificial gravity didn't affect it. What was truly frighting though was the long sharp black talons and it's disgusting sicky yellow eyes that for some reason reminded her of that time Dooku's eyes flashed yellow.

The thing opened its jaw wide exposing its toothful grin with teeth jutting out in random ways and in varying sizes as if someone had thrown nails randomly into its jaw. Its chest expanded and it smiled as it took a deep agonising breath in.

If it wasn't for Padme noticing Grakkus quickly covered his ears she never would have done it herself too caught in her own fear. Her hands slapped into the side of her head with no real care for herself, she just needed to protect her ears before-

It screamed.

It screamed so loud that glasses shattered and while she couldn't hear them she saw the senators who weren't quick enough to cover their ears with something howl in pain, blood dripping from their ears. The pain that they must have felt from having their ears directly exposed to the scream must have been so bad they ignored the fact they were rolling around in shards of glass.

The monster didn't care though, no, that was wrong. Padme could see it did care that people were hurt. It cared a lot, it had a large smile on its face like it was savouring every bit of pain it could be observed. It was enjoying their suffering like it was an exquisite wine, something Padme was quite envious of.

She could really use a drink right now.

A/N:

This Chapter was not supposed to be this long at all. I just felt that this whole Senators on a ship thing was getting nowhere and while my plan was to always introduce the Star Weird, there was no point in dragging it out so long. Especially since this little arc is meant for Anakin and Padme to be introduced. I don't need 12 chapters of pointless conversation when there are better things to be doing with the plot. TO THE PLOT.

When is my hot boyfriend Obi-Wan getting added to the story?