Categories > Movies > Star Wars > Staring Down the Sun
It had been an exhausting day, all the more so because now the population of Coruscant, though whatever means people always did, had caught wind of something important going on, probably in the Outer Rim, and possibly involving the deposed Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the war hero and Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker, or both. It was known that Anakin's padawan, a young girl called Mara Jade, had been seen alone more often than a padawan should. Padme Amidala had refused to answer any questions about either, or about the rumors. Besides the Jedi Council's strong discouragement from informing the public, she really didn't want to talk about it.
Not to mention she couldn't even answer all the questions, because she didn't even know everything. She knew only what Obi-Wan and the Council had told her. The Council had told her that Anakin had been sent off on his own, and he would kill Palpatine, or Palpatine would kill him, or they would kill each other. Or Anakin would turn. Obi-Wan had told her that he had secretly agreed to follow Anakin as soon as he could do so without the Council finding out until they couldn't stop him, and that Anakin had made him make a promise of what to do should he turn. "He wants me to be the one to do it," Obi-Wan had said to her, and Padme hadn't had to ask what it was he would have to do.
She knew Obi-Wan was gone when she saw Luke waiting for her on the veranda. She dismissed her entourage almost as soon as they were docked, and beckoning to Luke, she walked inside.
"He's gone, mother," Luke said when they emerged into her bedroom. "He sent me to tell you."
Padme wondered how long her son had known. "Well, I can pass on wishes for a happy nameday for both you and Leia from Senator Neldonin." Neldonin, who had replaced her in the Senate, and enjoyed referring to Padme's "nephew and niece" in knowing tones. The last of her and Anakin's secrets was getting out.
"Give him our thanks for it, then."
They sat down; there was an awkward pause. "Luke," Padme started, "I was planning to be alone tonight..."
"But haven't you always eaten dinner with father tonight? Every year since we were born? Except the year he was on Ryloth?"
"Well yes, but that's part of the reason-"
"So why don't you eat with me tonight?"
"Luke!" She exclaimed, shocked.
"Please, mother? Leia and Master Bant are off planet, Mara isn't talking to or seeing anyone right now, and I don't want to be alone tonight."
She couldn't refuse her son's sad tone. "All right, then. I'll see what we have."
It was a good thing she wasn't entertaining anyone else that night. All she could find in the pantry was leftover flatbread, a few slices of a processed meat, a bowl of mixed nuts, a QuickSnack, a tiny stick of Bantha butter, a bottle of wine from Kashyyk aged 17 years, and a half-empty bottle of blue milk. By the time she had finished her inventory, Luke had joined her in the kitchen. "I'm afraid tonight's dinner will be a disgrace to all dinners hosted by a Supreme Chancellor," she said, trying for some levity.
To her relief Luke smiled at her. "It's okay," he told her. "I'm a Jedi. We can eat anything."
They brought the food and the milk out to the table, and Luke made his mother laugh as he tried and fumbled with the Force-tricks his father had performed effortlessly. She finally got up and served them both their portions of buttered flatbread and meat by hand, and Luke settled for pushing the bowl of nuts and the milk back and forth, which he could do.
By the time they were digging in, it had come home to Padme that she'd hardly spoken a word to either her children their entire lives, and the boy whose broad smile was suddenly fading, the thought of his father and his Master intruding, was a stranger to her. Well, she said to herself, clearly I have a duty tonight to change that, and to keep this boy cheerful. Yet memories of her own were intruding, of the past four years, and the past three dinners, once torments, now pleasant intimate evenings in which two people who lived to serve the Republic took a few hours for themselves.
"I see him a lot, you know," said Luke, and Padme knew he was talking about Anakin, "he and Master are always seeing each other and working together. I wish we saw Leia more. Either we're running off, or she and Master Bant are running off. Though our Masters try to see each other too. Though I think they regret it, because when Leia and I get together, we drive them crazy!" He grinned wickedly.
Padme grinned back. "How do you do that?"
"Well, it seems Master Bant think we talk too fast. Leia talks faster than me, though, I wonder how she puts up with it. And as for my Master, well, all he can talk about is how I'm too much like my father."
He was like Anakin, Padme thought. But more like the Anakin of nine than the Anakin of nineteen, and the years after that. She wondered if his father had kept his youthful exuberance as long as Luke had. And would five more years see him as moody and as arrogant? Padme hoped not.
Even if he was as reckless a pilot, at least according to his Master. By the time they were finishing off their flatbread, he was regaling her with an adventure involving half the structures on Veck III, where, as he carefully explained, his piloting skills saved the mission, not that his Master had been grateful. Padme made a mental note to have a word with Obi-Wan.
They retreated to the kitchen, left the dishes in the sink, and ate the rest of the nuts while sitting on the kitchen floor, Padme's robes getting so crumpled she knew Motee just might throw a fit.
"You probably should be getting back to the Temple and to bed," Padme noted. "It must be close to midnight."
"I don't think I'll get much sleep," Luke answered. "I've been having bad dreams this past week. Too vivid. Far too vivid."
"You think they might be real?" asked a concerned Padme.
"I hope not! They're all about Leia being tortured, and father...father..." He was clearly terrified that they were real.
Very deep weaknesses that Palpatine can play on. Padme felt cold. "I'm not hungry anymore."
"Me neither." Luke took the bowl and put it away.
Hand in hand, they walked back to the veranda. It was now very late at night; most of the buildings were darkened, and the nonstop traffic of the planet had thinned as much as it ever did.
"Can we just sit here awhile, mother?" Padme voiced a soft assent, and they sat down together and stared out into the night, leaning into each other. There was still so much Padme wanted to ask, but now was not the time.
But they had only sat for a few minutes when a taxi broke out of the line of passing ships and came towards them. Luke pulled his calling rod out of his pocket in confusion, then looked up, and saw Mara Jade was in the taxi, and she looked very relieved to see him.
She handed the driver his fare and leapt on the veranda without him even bothering to dock. "Luke! Our Masters are back! They've got Leia with them; Darth Sidious killed Master Bant and captured and tortured her." She was activating her communicator. "Paging Master Skywalker. Master, are you there? I've found him. He's with the Chancellor. What? Are you sure you're up to it, Master? Are you sure Leia's up to it? Shouldn't she be in bacta? I see. Very well, I'll tell her." She turned the device off, and said to Padme, "I apologize for the intrusion upon your hospitality so late at night, Chancellor Amidala, but you will have three more guests after me tonight."
"What happened?" Padme and Luke demanded together.
"I don't know, really. All I know is your Master left earlier this evening and came back with your father and sister, and both of them have been spending most of their energy healing her."
The three of them arrived in almost no time. Physically Leia was completely unmarked, which made her empty expression all the more frightening, but she was leaning on both of the men for support.
"Luke...mother...Mara..." she murmured. Very gently Luke took her into his arms and helped her down onto the seat. "It's fine, Luke," she protested weakly. Padme found herself frozen between husband and children. "What..."
"He tried to use her to make me fall," answered Anakin. He sounded more tired than he had ever been. "And he very nearly succeeded. If he hadn't tried taking us to Coruscant...if Obi-Wan hadn't found us...if he hadn't been there...I think I'll be all right now."
"So...it's over now?"
Obi-Wan answered. "Yes. You can inform the Senate tomorrow that Palpatine is dead. It's over."
"I..." She was getting choked up. When Anakin took her into her arms and nearly squeezed the life out of her, she finally cried the way she'd wanted to cry the entire day.
"Hey," everyone turned their attention to Mara, who, unnoticed, had slipped into Padme's apartment, and was holding the bottle of wine in one hand, and a glass in the other. "Kashyyk wine. There's no drink more soothing."
Padme laughed through her tears. "I bought that months ago. I was saving it for tonight. It's at its best age right now."
"Are you sure Leia's old enough?" Obi-Wan asked nervously.
"On Naboo she would be," replied Padme. "In fact, she would be just today. Happy fourteenth, Leia." And taking bottle and glass, she knelt before her daughter and helped her drink. She looked from her mother to her brother to her father, and Padme thought she saw just a bit of spark return to her eyes. She almost started crying again.
In the end, all six of them together drained the bottle. They didn't bother returning to the Temple, deciding the Council could wait, since the rest of the galaxy was going to wait even longer, until the Senate met relatively late the next day. The bed went to Leia, of course, with Luke humorously collapsing against its side, while the rest collapsed on the furniture. Padme woke the next morning curled up on the couch in her husband's arms.
Not to mention she couldn't even answer all the questions, because she didn't even know everything. She knew only what Obi-Wan and the Council had told her. The Council had told her that Anakin had been sent off on his own, and he would kill Palpatine, or Palpatine would kill him, or they would kill each other. Or Anakin would turn. Obi-Wan had told her that he had secretly agreed to follow Anakin as soon as he could do so without the Council finding out until they couldn't stop him, and that Anakin had made him make a promise of what to do should he turn. "He wants me to be the one to do it," Obi-Wan had said to her, and Padme hadn't had to ask what it was he would have to do.
She knew Obi-Wan was gone when she saw Luke waiting for her on the veranda. She dismissed her entourage almost as soon as they were docked, and beckoning to Luke, she walked inside.
"He's gone, mother," Luke said when they emerged into her bedroom. "He sent me to tell you."
Padme wondered how long her son had known. "Well, I can pass on wishes for a happy nameday for both you and Leia from Senator Neldonin." Neldonin, who had replaced her in the Senate, and enjoyed referring to Padme's "nephew and niece" in knowing tones. The last of her and Anakin's secrets was getting out.
"Give him our thanks for it, then."
They sat down; there was an awkward pause. "Luke," Padme started, "I was planning to be alone tonight..."
"But haven't you always eaten dinner with father tonight? Every year since we were born? Except the year he was on Ryloth?"
"Well yes, but that's part of the reason-"
"So why don't you eat with me tonight?"
"Luke!" She exclaimed, shocked.
"Please, mother? Leia and Master Bant are off planet, Mara isn't talking to or seeing anyone right now, and I don't want to be alone tonight."
She couldn't refuse her son's sad tone. "All right, then. I'll see what we have."
It was a good thing she wasn't entertaining anyone else that night. All she could find in the pantry was leftover flatbread, a few slices of a processed meat, a bowl of mixed nuts, a QuickSnack, a tiny stick of Bantha butter, a bottle of wine from Kashyyk aged 17 years, and a half-empty bottle of blue milk. By the time she had finished her inventory, Luke had joined her in the kitchen. "I'm afraid tonight's dinner will be a disgrace to all dinners hosted by a Supreme Chancellor," she said, trying for some levity.
To her relief Luke smiled at her. "It's okay," he told her. "I'm a Jedi. We can eat anything."
They brought the food and the milk out to the table, and Luke made his mother laugh as he tried and fumbled with the Force-tricks his father had performed effortlessly. She finally got up and served them both their portions of buttered flatbread and meat by hand, and Luke settled for pushing the bowl of nuts and the milk back and forth, which he could do.
By the time they were digging in, it had come home to Padme that she'd hardly spoken a word to either her children their entire lives, and the boy whose broad smile was suddenly fading, the thought of his father and his Master intruding, was a stranger to her. Well, she said to herself, clearly I have a duty tonight to change that, and to keep this boy cheerful. Yet memories of her own were intruding, of the past four years, and the past three dinners, once torments, now pleasant intimate evenings in which two people who lived to serve the Republic took a few hours for themselves.
"I see him a lot, you know," said Luke, and Padme knew he was talking about Anakin, "he and Master are always seeing each other and working together. I wish we saw Leia more. Either we're running off, or she and Master Bant are running off. Though our Masters try to see each other too. Though I think they regret it, because when Leia and I get together, we drive them crazy!" He grinned wickedly.
Padme grinned back. "How do you do that?"
"Well, it seems Master Bant think we talk too fast. Leia talks faster than me, though, I wonder how she puts up with it. And as for my Master, well, all he can talk about is how I'm too much like my father."
He was like Anakin, Padme thought. But more like the Anakin of nine than the Anakin of nineteen, and the years after that. She wondered if his father had kept his youthful exuberance as long as Luke had. And would five more years see him as moody and as arrogant? Padme hoped not.
Even if he was as reckless a pilot, at least according to his Master. By the time they were finishing off their flatbread, he was regaling her with an adventure involving half the structures on Veck III, where, as he carefully explained, his piloting skills saved the mission, not that his Master had been grateful. Padme made a mental note to have a word with Obi-Wan.
They retreated to the kitchen, left the dishes in the sink, and ate the rest of the nuts while sitting on the kitchen floor, Padme's robes getting so crumpled she knew Motee just might throw a fit.
"You probably should be getting back to the Temple and to bed," Padme noted. "It must be close to midnight."
"I don't think I'll get much sleep," Luke answered. "I've been having bad dreams this past week. Too vivid. Far too vivid."
"You think they might be real?" asked a concerned Padme.
"I hope not! They're all about Leia being tortured, and father...father..." He was clearly terrified that they were real.
Very deep weaknesses that Palpatine can play on. Padme felt cold. "I'm not hungry anymore."
"Me neither." Luke took the bowl and put it away.
Hand in hand, they walked back to the veranda. It was now very late at night; most of the buildings were darkened, and the nonstop traffic of the planet had thinned as much as it ever did.
"Can we just sit here awhile, mother?" Padme voiced a soft assent, and they sat down together and stared out into the night, leaning into each other. There was still so much Padme wanted to ask, but now was not the time.
But they had only sat for a few minutes when a taxi broke out of the line of passing ships and came towards them. Luke pulled his calling rod out of his pocket in confusion, then looked up, and saw Mara Jade was in the taxi, and she looked very relieved to see him.
She handed the driver his fare and leapt on the veranda without him even bothering to dock. "Luke! Our Masters are back! They've got Leia with them; Darth Sidious killed Master Bant and captured and tortured her." She was activating her communicator. "Paging Master Skywalker. Master, are you there? I've found him. He's with the Chancellor. What? Are you sure you're up to it, Master? Are you sure Leia's up to it? Shouldn't she be in bacta? I see. Very well, I'll tell her." She turned the device off, and said to Padme, "I apologize for the intrusion upon your hospitality so late at night, Chancellor Amidala, but you will have three more guests after me tonight."
"What happened?" Padme and Luke demanded together.
"I don't know, really. All I know is your Master left earlier this evening and came back with your father and sister, and both of them have been spending most of their energy healing her."
The three of them arrived in almost no time. Physically Leia was completely unmarked, which made her empty expression all the more frightening, but she was leaning on both of the men for support.
"Luke...mother...Mara..." she murmured. Very gently Luke took her into his arms and helped her down onto the seat. "It's fine, Luke," she protested weakly. Padme found herself frozen between husband and children. "What..."
"He tried to use her to make me fall," answered Anakin. He sounded more tired than he had ever been. "And he very nearly succeeded. If he hadn't tried taking us to Coruscant...if Obi-Wan hadn't found us...if he hadn't been there...I think I'll be all right now."
"So...it's over now?"
Obi-Wan answered. "Yes. You can inform the Senate tomorrow that Palpatine is dead. It's over."
"I..." She was getting choked up. When Anakin took her into her arms and nearly squeezed the life out of her, she finally cried the way she'd wanted to cry the entire day.
"Hey," everyone turned their attention to Mara, who, unnoticed, had slipped into Padme's apartment, and was holding the bottle of wine in one hand, and a glass in the other. "Kashyyk wine. There's no drink more soothing."
Padme laughed through her tears. "I bought that months ago. I was saving it for tonight. It's at its best age right now."
"Are you sure Leia's old enough?" Obi-Wan asked nervously.
"On Naboo she would be," replied Padme. "In fact, she would be just today. Happy fourteenth, Leia." And taking bottle and glass, she knelt before her daughter and helped her drink. She looked from her mother to her brother to her father, and Padme thought she saw just a bit of spark return to her eyes. She almost started crying again.
In the end, all six of them together drained the bottle. They didn't bother returning to the Temple, deciding the Council could wait, since the rest of the galaxy was going to wait even longer, until the Senate met relatively late the next day. The bed went to Leia, of course, with Luke humorously collapsing against its side, while the rest collapsed on the furniture. Padme woke the next morning curled up on the couch in her husband's arms.
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