WHAT IS REAL

XX

Padme woke to find her bed empty. In the four days since she woke to find that Vader had rescued her from Palpatine, he had never left her side. He stayed with her while she slept and if he had to leave the room, he did it while she was awake. She was still so very weak and so she did not get up very often and hardly ever without help, but now she felt the need to go and explore to find out why Vader was not around.

She tested her legs to see if they were strong enough to hold her without anyone beside her. She stood and she felt a little wobbly, but she reached for her silk robe that Vader had given to her. She was surprised at how quickly something like that had showed up at the castle but then she remembered that Vader could get anything he wanted as quickly as he wanted. Sometimes that sort of thing can come in handy she thought. She slowly made her way to the door and left the only room she had seen in this place that Vader taken her.

She looked to the left and discovered that the hallway ended in just twenty feet. So she went to the right and slowly, ever so slowly, she made her way down to the next door. She opened that door and found another bedroom. This one was smaller than the one she was staying though only by about two feet. This one was decorated in rich purples and blues. She admired this room but since the object of her search was not in there she soon left it. She turned to the next room and this one was a hunter green color scheme, but again she hardly stay long enough to really admire it. The stairs were next veering off to her right but the hall kept going so she went down the hall instead of going down the stairs. The hall was shorter and at the end was a door. She opened this door and she stepped into an exercise room. Weights and weight machines were on one side of the room while a treadmill, bike, skier and other varieties of equipment filled the other. She saw a door to a sauna on her right and she went to see if Vader was in there. She called for him but there was no answer so she left the room.

She returned to the hall and this time she took the stairs down to the first level. Half way down she started to feel dizzy, so she closed her eyes as both hands clutched the rail for support. She did not want to fall down the stairs. Jennifer, the girl Vader hired to be Padme's personal assistant, came from one of the rooms and dropped her pile of papers when she saw Padme on the stairs. She raced up the stairs and placed a supporting arm around Padme.

"Oh my Lady, you should not be up. You are not well enough to be up and about."

Padme looked at Jennifer and did not recognize her at first. "Who are you?" she asked in a confused tone.

"Jennifer, my lady, I am your personal assistant. I brought lunch to you and Master Vader yesterday, remember?"

"Oh yes, Jennifer, Now could you help me down the stairs?"

"No my lady, Lord Vader would kill me if he found that you were out of your room. You need your rest."

"I am tired of rest right now and I am searching for Vader right now. So you help me down these stairs and then you may leave. If you do this I won't tell Vader a thing about our meeting."

"Yes my lady."