Fulfillment: Star Wars

Part Five

"Oh, Mistress Padmé! Where are you off to so early this morning?" C-3PO called out to Padmé, waddling in with his worried tone always in check.

"Threepio, stop worrying! It is only o-ten hundred, besides I have an... urgent meeting with the Chancellor this morning." Padmé explained as she grabbed her comlink by her apartment door.

"As you wish Mistress, however, should I be concerned that Master Anakin did not return last night?" C-3PO asked. Padmé looked over her shoulder and gave C-3PO the once over.

"No, Threepio, you don't have to worry." She said and walked out of the apartment.

"But I do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ship ride was relatively uneventful to the Senate Building. Covering herself with her thick robes and hood, Padmé kept a low profile travelling on the public ships. With her anxiety levels the way they were at the moment, she didn't trust herself to fly her Naboo starship with the grace she normally did. Or fly it properly at all. The only thing she could muster to keep her mind off what was to come was to gaze out the window at the busy Coruscanti sky line. Nameless people going about their day as if the Republic was not teetering on the toothpicks. How much knowledge did the public actually have?

"If they only knew..."

Padmé's hands were shaking- and the young Nubian senator was never scared. She had faced Sith Lords before. She was brought before Count Dooku on Geonosis, and Padmé wasn't the least bit fearful then. She had faced death threats and the possibility of death so many times before. Why was this so different? Maybe it was because she was willingly waltzing into the most powerful Sith Lord known to man's office and divulge into every detail she knew. Or maybe it was because she knew that if she messed this up, Anakin could be lost forever. Her hands unconsciously found her abdomen as she closed her eyes, wishing this would be all over soon.

The only thing that shook Padmé out of her stupor was someone yelling at her to get of the ship minutes later. She hadn't realized that this she was the last passenger and that this was the last stop; the Senate Building. She looked up at the grumbling drive from under her hood and stood up carefully.

"Dobra kouzago-ake." Padmé muttered softly, apologizing in huttese. The driver said some more colorful words under his breath as she exited the ship.

Padmé couldn't help clutching her blaster as she walked up to the Senate building to the lift that would take her directly to the Chancellor's Office. She knew that a blaster would be nothing against a Sith Lord but she figured it was better than nothing.

Stepping into the lift, the young Senator was hoping she wasn't getting herself into deeper trouble than she was already in. She recalled that when she requested a private meeting with the Chancellor, he reluctantly agreed. However, he said that he was to have his new attendant with him during the meeting. Padmé approved but she prayed that the Chancellor didn't think she was going to try anything foolish, or that he would make a foolish move.

The bell signaling that the lift had reached its destination rung and Padmé stepped out to see the familiar, lush red carpet in the Chancellor's chamber. An escort droid was waiting there and lit up when Padmé approached it.

"Senator Amidala! A pleasure to have us with you! Right this way." It said excitedly. Padmé humbly bowed her head as an acknowledgement and followed the droid down the chamber to the Chancellor's door. Oddly, instead of going straight in like she normally would with the escort droid, they abruptly stopped at the front of the door.

"One moment please, Senator. If you would wait out here."

"Of course." Padmé said softly, but not without an eyebrow raise. The droid cracked open the door and shuffled in, quickly closing it behind itself.