The Clone Wars: Path of the Force, A Star Wars Story

4

Padme stayed on the balcony for a long time after Anakin left. She watched to make sure there was no additional trouble, but the emergency crews appeared to be efficiently taking care of the fires. She began to wonder what kind of attack this was. The Separatists? Protestors against the war? It seemed unlikely that an explosion this close to the Senate, this close to the Chancellor was some kind of accident.

As the glow of the fires began to die down, she began to feel the cool, night air against her skin. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. She was walking back inside when she heard it. Padme was no force user, but she did have five other senses that she used to the fullest. The footsteps she heard land on the balcony behind her were not Anakin's. They were too heavy to be any jedi's.

She froze, but only for a moment. She continued to walk to the closet where she had intended only seconds before to grab her robes, only she would grab the blaster stored there instead. She was almost to the closet when her commlink turned on.

"Padme, " she could hear the stress in Anakin's voice. Was he running? Was he in trouble or was he trying to warn her of trouble?

Her attacker took advantage of her hesitation. He was closer to her than she had thought. He pulled a cloth around her mouth from behind her, muffling her screams. She reached up trying to pull the cloth away, but he was too strong. He pulled her back against him. She reached behind her trying grab him, scratch him, hit him, anything to make him loosen his grip. He growled at her, pulled the cloth around her mouth even tighter and tied it around her head. The cloth cut and ripped into the corners of Padme's mouth.

She screamed again, this time from the pain, but even less sound came out of her. The cloth was so tight around her head it shoved her tongue into the back of her throat. She reached up again to try and remove the cloth, but her attacker caught her hands and pinned them to her sides. He pushed her against the wall, pulled her hands together in front of her and tied them. The wire he used was also brutally tight, cutting into the skin of her wrists as she struggled against them.

Then the chime went off inside her apartment and someone pounded at the door.

"Padme," she heard Anakin call through the door. Relief washed through Padme. She only needed to keep fighting a little longer.

Her attacker pulled Padme's hair back so her head bent back. He grabbed her neck and whispered in her ear. "Shhh."

She tried to make noise anyway. Tried to push and kick into him, but she could feel her bare heels bruise against his armor. Then out of the corner her eye, she saw the tip of Anakin's blue lightsaber stab through the door of her apartment.

Keep fighting, she told herself. She pulled her knees up and kicked against the wall. She pushed her attacker back enough to turn around and kick.

"Sorry Senator," her attacker growled. "I didn't want it to come to this." He pulled a small capsule from his sleeve and broke it in front of her face.

As soon as she saw the green gas, she tried to hold her breath, but she could already smell and taste the poison. She backed away and tried to cough and spit it out. But it was a quick working poison and she was already losing her balance, falling into the wall behind her. There was something familiar though. She grasped for it, fighting the buzzing in her thoughts and the cloudiness in her eyes. That voice. She knew that voice. Cad Bane, a bounty hunter. She had met him before.

She could bargain with a bounty hunter. She looked up at him. Tried to talk to him. But, she was so confused. She could only hear a muffled version of her voice. Then the blackness came and it consumed her.