From The Ashes//anidala

19

FROM THE ASHES

Chapter 19

Padme walked in her shame and grief into yet another bank, her blaster held out in front of her. She saw large numbers of customers in line. "Look, it's Senator Amidala, she has indeed gone mad, the reports are true!" Someone yelled. She lowered her face in humiliation. She hated doing this! She loved the people of Naboo, and they had loved and supported her as Queen and as Senator. Gerapaline had hurt them all, and when she tried to stop him, he killed her parents, kidnapped her babies and used them to make her commit these acts.

"I won't do it. Not anymore, not this time." She mumbled into a wired comlink in which Gerapaline gave his instructions.

"You owe me. You are going to rob banks until I get back the fortune I lost because of you and your meddling. You must do it or..."

She heard the babies crying. "Okay! Don't hurt them!" She went ahead and joined in the robbery with the other cronies. As she was leaving, she came face to face with a family, parents, children and an elderly person. Gerapaline, who was monitoring on a vidscreen through a camera in another henchman's hat, saw it.

"Kill them." He ordered.

"NO!" She cried. In the comlink wired to her ear, a blaster clicked, and her babies cried.

"I'll do it, Queenie, you know I will. It is the only way you can save your own babies. Kill them!" For a second, she thought of calling his bluff. Perhaps he wouldn't really kill them. She loved her children very much, but were their lives more valuable than this innocent family? From behind, she heard guards coming. Her accomplices urged her to run. "Shoot your way out!" Gerapaline ordered through her comlink."Kill them or your babies DIE!" Trapped between the crowd and the surging guards, Padme was desparate. She feared for the lives of her babies. Something came over her, and she shot her way out of the bank. She saw several bodies fall in front of her. She didn't even look to see who it was she had killed. Running out of the bank to the getaway speeder, she screamed in Gerapaline's ear. "I hate you!"

By the time Anakin and Obiwan made it to Naboo, she was away from the scene, back at Gerapaline's compound. "Can you sense anything yet?" Obiwan asked. "I'm not getting them."

Anakin closed his eyes and reached out into the force. "I can feel something, but, it's not that strong." He opened his eyes again and looked down at the ground below. "I sense they are alive, but separated. I'm afraid of what that means."

Obiwan searched his feelings. "I think you're right. They must not all be in the same place, but it is still the same general area." They followed their feelings toward the strongest point. Leaving the ship in a safe place and leaving R2 to watch it, they headed toward the compound on foot.

"This looks like the place in the survelience video that Jar Jar sent us." Anakin said. "And I sense a force presence in there. It must be my babies."

"I feel it, too. Let's be careful. I'm sure we will not go in unopposed." Obiwan glanced over at Anakin, steadfastly approaching the building through tall weeds, his lightsaber drawn but not ignited. The look on his face said it all. Anakin was back in action, and just in time. The fear of what was really happening had overcome the fears in his memory. He hoped this would help Anakin's psyche, though if this adventure ended badly, he'd surely become worse.

Padme came to the call of Gerapaline, who was watching a recording of her latest escapade and laughing. "Good job, well done!" He turned to her, still chuckling.

She was unable to force a smile. "Where are my babies!"

"Babies?" He said. "Did you say, babies?" He snapped his fingers and his mother brought Luke to her. "Here he is!" Padme took Luke in her arms, but fear overtook her entire body.