Star Wars : Tanya the Evil

"Everyone, defend the doors!" Panaka yelled. He looked to the Queen, and Padme felt a chill run down her spine at the emptiness in his eyes. All hope gone, with only spite left to give him purpose. "Well? Go!" He waved his hand at her. "We'll hold out as long as we can."

...

His back turned away was the last Padme knew she would ever see of him, and she shivered. It was one thing to read about what war could do to good men, and another to see it for herself. Captain Panaka, the cynical but practical man she knew was gone, unneeded at this moment. In his place a more helpful monster now stood, ready to sell his life dearly.

All she had wanted for her people was peace, and somehow she had led them all to this.

This isn't what she wanted.

"This isn't what I wanted." Padme said aloud.

"It's okay, it's over now." Kenobi answered.

"This wasn't meant to happen!"

"You're safe now. Come on, get up."

"No, everyone, please stop!"

"Queen Amidala, wake up!"

Padme's eyes opened slowly, and she blinked in surprise as she stared up at the unfamiliar roof. Her mind returned to a time not even a year ago, before the assassins, before the weeks spent hiding in a swamp living off insects and reptiles with a sick and weakening Jedi Master, before the journey through the Planet's Core, or the Siege, or Coruscant and her own senator's betrayal, even before the time on Tatooine or the blockade started. It seemed a lifetime ago, but it wasn't even half a year.

She sat up, looking over at Minla, her only surviving handmaiden. She'd been captured alive by the Trade Federation in the final assault on the Palace, and pressed for information. Her face was still marked by bruises, and she'd yet to find a suitable set of dentures to replace her newly missing teeth. Minla was once beautiful, now her body was a mesh of scars, and her missing fingernails were only just starting to grow back. Apparently the Trade Federation had brought in a 'consultant' to talk with her, an infamous mercenary named Aurra Sing, and the second assassin sent after Padme.

Minla insisted she didn't tell them anything, but Padme didn't care if she did or not. She was only glad that her handmaiden was alive, and the monstrous torturer was dead, beheaded by Padawan Kenobi.

"You were having a nightmare, Your Majesty."

"...Thank you, Minla."

Her palace was in wreckage after being pounded by the Federations artillery and stormed by droids. In the meantime, Padme was given the place of honor at the Royal Theed Hotel. It was a luxurious room, with silky white sheets and soft cushions. It was even air conditioned, a relief in the hot Naboo summer.

Breakfast was small, a pair of boiled eggs with salt and pepper, and a cup of herbal tea to wash it down. The meager fair almost made her miss the wild game Obi-Wan had hunted while they hid in the swamps.

The city still had food shortages, though not as bad as they once were. Every day more and more merchant freighters arrived to charge exorbitant prices for meager provisions, hurrying to sell while demand was high. Padme had seen families bartering precious aurodium rings and necklaces for a sack of unidentifiable tubers from who knows where. Still, food being sold at high prices was better than no food being sold at all.

It wouldn't be until regular shipments resumed that food prices would stabilize, though in the meantime Count Dooku seems to have been generous enough to arrange for large shipments to start making their way here from Serenno. The first few cargo haulers were due to arrive today, after which the Count planned on leaving.

Padme wasn't sure what to make of him. When he first arrived, she'd been relieved that the blockade was finally gone and this nightmare was at an end. Then the Count dispatched a small ship to collect her and Obi-Wan from the swamps they were hiding, and he didn't even speak to her! He had a private meeting with Obi-Wan to get the full story of what happened to Qui-Gon Jinn, then dropped them both off in Theed. Apparently, Qui-Gon was his former Padawan, and afterward Obi-Wan had told her the only reason at all he'd come to Naboo's rescue was he learned his old student was in harm's way!

Padme was almost flabbergasted by that.

In the end it wasn't the Republic, or the Jedi, or any of the institutions her people relied on to keep them safe which finally freed them, but Dooku's apparently very inappropriate attachment to Master Qui-Gon Jinn. Padme didn't even know what to think.

Of course there was the fear that the man would turn out to be another conquering invader, but instead he just seemed to want to leave now that his mission had failed. Padme wasn't sure why he was in such a rush, but he had informed her they would be having a meeting before he left, and she was really in no position to refuse.

To meet him formally, Padme and her handmaiden did their best to properly dress her up in her royal regalia. It was hard to do the work of half a dozen hands with only a single pair, but Minla persisted for hours. Padme's hair was straightened out, and curled up in elaborate rolls and buns, and her face was painted white with straight lines trailing from her eyes. Unfortunately, not much was available of her official royal regalia, no doubt plundered by a neimoidian, and possibly lost to deep space when the fleet was destroyed. The owner of the hotel and his wife had been kind enough to provide Padme with an elegant set of purple formal robes, and tasteful aurodium jewelry inset with real gems, rubies and amethysts.

The hotel owner was even kind enough to clear the hotel's conference hall for her and the Count's meeting. It wasn't like he was having much business these days, but she appreciated the effort he and his bellboy went to, dragging into the room a massive, high backed, decorative wooden chair carved with sea monsters for her to use as a throne. She had no idea where he got it, but Padme was so grateful she didn't mention the obvious furroughs it left in the red carpets, giving away how hasty the preparations for the meeting really were.

Then she waited, with Minla as the only surviving member of her retinue, face hidden by a vale and silken gloves to hide her hands. Such incredible loyalty, especially from Minla, but also from the hotel owner and his staff, left Padme feeling completely unworthy.

The Count arrived, pushing apart the double doors with a wave of his hand. He strode into the conference room, cape billowing behind him and looking every bit like the Jedi Lord his detractors accused him of being. He was a member of the Outer Rim nobility, who openly wore a lightsaber and now commanded a fleet. Even his heir was being trained as a Jedi! Technically his titles of Jedi Master and Count were unrelated, but by every practical reality he was a living breathing Jedi Lord walking straight out of the pages of history.

"Count Dooku, We are grateful that our liberator found time for us." Padme greeted him from her improvised throne, slipping in a slight sarcastic sting, though he hardly seemed to react. In fact, his gaze wasn't even on her, but seemed to be somewhere in the distance. "Or perhaps you'll need to find another time for us?"

"No offense was intended, Your Majesty." Dooku replied, his eyes finally resting on her. "I just sensed someone approaching who I intended to avoid."

"Grand Master Yoda?" Padme asked. At Dooku's surprised look she explained. "Padawan Kenobi said he was coming. Why do you wish to avoid him?"

"My intervention to save your planet was not legal by any standard, unless of course we have a pre-existing defense arrangement."

"Which we do not have."

"But which we can claim to have. The recent civil war left my world's record keeping in an awful state, and I'm sure the destruction of the Palace has done all kinds of damage to your own archives. Unfortunately, things being as they are, only copies of the original documents can be provided."

"You want us to lie for you, Count."

"I want you to help your liberator in the coming court battles he likely faces." Dooku smiled. "And in exchange, I can tell you who's been trying to have you assassinated."

Padme's eyes widened at that, and her mind reeled. How could he know that? Unless he was in league with them? At first she had thought it was Nute Gunray, but then the second assassin had come even after he died, and he wanted her to sign his treaty anyway. Someone else was sending assassins, deadly force using ones at that.

Was it Dooku? Was he now threatening her?

"I assure you, Your Majesty, I knew nothing of the assassins until Obi-Wan told me of them."

"But now you claim to know who sent them?"

Dooku nodded.

Padme stared at him for a long moment, not trusting him at all, but in the end he had been the one that saved her people from the Trade Federation. Whatever his involvement in the assassination, agreeing to his request now came at almost no cost to her, and any information he offered at all could be useful.

"We agree." She said, after a long pause.

"The man you call Chancellor Palpatine actually sent the assassins, and he's in league with an extremely powerful hidden sect on Coruscant."

The claim was so ridiculous that Padme almost scoffed. Obviously Palpatine was ambitious, and more than willing to use this whole situation to his own advantage. It was when he explained to her just how long it would take for him to finally be elected and then bring the Senate to heel, that she realized the extent of his disloyalty.

What would he even gain from killing her? He used her to convince the senate to start a vote of no confidence against Chancellor Valorum.

...

Don't forget to throw some power stones ;)

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