Anakin knocked open the door to the ballroom. Why everyone had been congregated to one room was beyond him. If there was a murder out on the loose didn’t it make more sense for everyone to be in lockdown mode? Why was everyone still walking around freely? What was security doing?

  Oh, right. He was technically security and the others would just be pirates. Not even capable pirates, Jabba wouldn’t let any remotely capable be wasted on Grakkus.

  When the large doors were busted open by Anakin he felt the thick stench of the dark side come over him like a wave. Thick and inky Anakin resisted the urge to gag, instead he alongside Dooku marched through running over broken glass. Poor Dooku actually hesitated to follow him in, not so much that he was scared but rather cause he was wearing designer shoes. Anakin rolled his eyes, he was a ruler of a planet he could afford another pair of shoes.

  The two leapt over the bodies of bloodied senators making their way to the centre where the being was beginning to slowly drift it’s way down towards its victims. Worse, it was making its way towards Padme. The poor girl looked like a deer in headlights, bewitched by the horror she was feeling.

  Padme was more connected to The Force than most but not enough to be considered a Jedi candidate. She could feel it couldn’t she? The dark side’s horrific glee. What Padme was going through was basically a contact high of the dark side, the Starweird was such a potent dark side aberration that it was acting as a beacon of everything that was awful in the universe. Fear, anger, hatred, loss, pain, Padme was caught in the torrent of negativity that she had been rendered into a state of near comatose.

  “Get away from her!” Anakin roared not so much through the air but rather through the Force. Something that would actually affect the creature.

  The Starweird took its eyes off Padme, its yellow Sith eyes glaring daggers at Anakin for daring to interrupt its meal. Anakin matched its glare for the first time in this loop letting go completely of the grip he had on his Force presence. Like a magnesium torch, Anakin acted as an epicentre of the light side, illuminating the unseen layer of the Galaxy that only Force-sensitive could feel.

  Unfortunately, his meagre control of the Force right now paled in comparison to both Dooku and the Starweird. The small torch was drowned in a sea of ink that was the dark side, but Anakin was used to facing opponents with such overwhelming power so it didn’t have any real effect on him as it would a normal padawan or as Padme was experiencing a slightly force-sensitive civilian.

  The Starweird pointed one of its long black talons at Anakin, and blue met blue in a shower of sparks and heat as Anakin’s lightsaber ignited clashing with the lightning of the Starweird. The force of the blow sent the chosen one flying back, rolling Anakin through several small shards of glass.

  Dooku, however, continued moving forward using its attack on Anakin to close the distance between the two. Dooku moved swiftly, and despite his age of seventy-eight, long past the prime age of a human, his prowess with force enhancement allowed the Sith to leap up at the Starweird.

  In a display of impressive aerial acrobatics, Dooku sliced off both arms of the creature before eventually landing gracefully back down. The Starweird gave a pained scream, thankfully, it hadn’t been enhanced by The Fear so the scream was just annoying rather than ear-bursting.

  Anakin couldn’t help the small smile that made it to his lips, this was actually going great. Dooku will kill the Starweird, everyone would blame the crazy space monster and he could go back to drinking till this stupid cruise was over. Grakkus would most likely ship him off to some slave colony where he would escape. Where should he go though? The unknown regions? The unknown regions would guarantee him time away from the Jedi and the Sith but the danger was a lot more frequent there, he’d have to train for a few years before he felt comfortable exploring the unknown regions. Maybe it wasn’t worth it, then. This was supposed to be his break.

  He would figure it out after Dooku kills the Starweird, which was taking a weirdly long time. The Sith lord stalked his prey, slowly approaching the ethereal monster slowly but surely making his way.

  What was he doing? No…he couldn’t be.”

  “Dooku kill it!”

  “Not yet.” Dooku brought the heated plasma to the creature’s throat, only inches from killing it. Of course, the one time Anakin wanted a Sith to kill, they wouldn’t. The count tilted his head in confusion unsure about what he was actually looking at, “What are you?”

  The Starweird only gave Dooku a twisted smirk, the Starweirds weren’t like us. They were more Force than flesh and before Dooku could behead the creature, it disappeared through the floor as if it wasn’t even there. The shock and probably quite a bit of embarrassment was present on Dooku’s face as he had left the creature flee, that embarrassment was quickly covered by his usual stone-cold usual sneer.

  “Well, that’s not good but, I didn’t know they could do that, so not my fault.”

  “That is completely your fault.” Anakin groaned sweeping the glass off his skin. He was covered in red little marks but none of the glass shards had been large enough to deal with anything that would require him to visit the med bay. Well, he didn’t. One sideward glance towards the senators who had been rolling around probably would need a few stitches.

  They didn’t matter though. Anakin casually walked over a prince of a rather wealthy planet from the colonies who was busy screaming in pain from his ruptured eardrums.

  Anakin leaned over examining Padme who was busy coming off what was basically a force high. Her senses had been overstimulated, she and a few other people in the room who were a little more sensitive to the Force looked pale and ready too-

  “Eugh!” Padme retched, her stomach expelled out causing whatever caviar and space lobster she had been eating on this luxury cruise to cover his shoes.

  The girl flinched when she felt the boy’s hand reach down and touch her neck. Though a quick glance up she saw Anakin run his hands up her neck, collecting as much hair as he could while she continued to vomit over the floor.

  “Come on kiddo let’s get you to a bathroom.”

  As he had done a hundred times before, Anakin slowly cupped Padme’s hands, being sure not to overstep. She was sick right now, to have some man she didn’t respect man-handle her would just make the situation worse. When she didn’t flinch at his touch, he continued to slowly move in closer to her wrapping her arm around him as so he could help her walk to her room.

  He felt Padme’s weight crash against him, her legs barely able to carry her own weight. For all his jokes she was remarkably light, her diet probably being something meticulously worked out for her since birth, being part of royalty. Something she would grow out of later in her life once her position as a senator was more secure, but as of now, Anakin was surprised with how much she could throw up with how little the girl ate.

  “Vader.” Anakin didn’t even need to turn around to know it was a certain Hutt who called his name. “What was that?”

  “That.” Anakin turned his head slightly behind him, careful as to not move Padme too suddenly. “Was your murderer, you’re welcome by the way.”

  “Welcome?” Grakkus looked furious. “I have a bunch of injured Senators and a FUCKING GHOST on my ship.”

  “Not my fault, Dooku let it get away. I told him to kill it.”

  “You are my security! My protection, but look around! Does this look safe?” Grakkus roared.

  Anakin’s eyes flicked to Dooku who stood silently watching. His arms were crossed and he had a satisfied smirk on his face. The Sith would be of little help despite Dooku’s interest in him. If anything Grakkus and Anakin fighting would only benefit Dooku. Without the threat of the Hutts looming over the Count, he could really do anything he wanted.

  “It looked a lot worse before I showed up.” Anakin narrowed his eyes. “You act like I’m the only guard on this ship, I didn’t see your pirates do anything besides hide.”

  “You got hit by a lightning bolt, Dooku defeated the creature. Not you.”

  “Ah, but who led Dooku here in the first place?”

  “You put the CIS leader in jeopardy. He is the person who you should be protecting, not the other way around. What do you think would have happened if he had died? I would be blamed for the assassination.” Anakin rolled his eyes, cause that would just be so ‘terrible’. “And, I would have you taxidermied as a gift for Jabba.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Yes ‘Sir’,” Anakin spat. “Won’t happen again.”

  “See to it that it doesn’t.”

  Anakin sneered behind the Hutt’s back, he would have to get Padme to bed first and then he would abandone this ship and let everyone die to the Starweirds. Padme had died thousands of times before she could do it again, the only time Padme didn’t die before he did was when he challenged Palpatine right away.

  Still Anakin gladly took his chance to escape the room filled with senators. Anakin always had felt more comfortable on a battle field rather then a court room. At least their if you didn’t like someone you could end their insistent whining with a swing of your lightsabre.

  Though, it seemd he couldn’t get away from politics no matter how much he tried, as a certain Count from Serreno was standing in the way of the door.

  “You knew? You knew what it was when I told you that I didn’t do the murder. How, not even I knew such a creature existed and I have been studying Sith holocrons?” Dooku said in realisation.

  Anakin wasn’t surprised at his lack of knowledge. It wasn’t so much that Starwerids were some massive secret just that they weren’t well known. They were creatures that hid away in deep space and prayed upon sailors whose ships stranded them.

  The Jedi would never meet them until the near end of the Clone Wars where the front lines expanded all the way out to the rim of the Galaxy. The Sith have met the Starweirds, but they were just a novelty of some of the Sith, any information of them would be buried by Sith force techniques along with Darth Zannah’s sour bread recipe.

  “Get out of the way Dooku.”

  “The Jedi destroy or hide any knowledge of the darkside, too afraid to learn for fear of falling to it. So why did you know?”

  Dooku never got his answer as Anakin pushed past the Sith with Padme in hand, if Dooku wanted to interrogate him, he could do it like he had before. Torture. But unless Dooku was willing to do that in front of all these people he could wait till later.

  Padme felt as if her skin was on fire and smothered in ice at the same time. She knelt over the toilet as Vader held her hair back despite she didn’t think she had anything left to give. At this point, she was just spitting out a mix of stomach acid and spit.

  How long had she spent kneeling against the tiles, her knees hurt but her body hurt so much more. The thought of moving was unbearable.

  “We have to get out there.” Padme groaned.

  “Grakkus has the whole ship on lockdown, there is nowhere for you to go. Besides ‘I’, will deal with it. ‘You’ will stay here and recover.”

  “You don’t understand,” Padme groaned. Vader didn’t understand what she felt, what that thing was. It was wrong, it shouldn’t exist. It was horrid, even death existed for a reason. Whatever that was… It wanted nothing more than to hurt for the sake of hurting.

  “I am one of the very few people who do. Not even many Jedi alive now have experienced the dark side in such concentrated amounts.”

  “That was the dark side? I thought you said it was supposed to feel like a drug, that just felt like injecting ice and lava into my veins.”

  “It’s a drug when you’re on it, you were on the receiving end of a mental attack. Considering you have zero training against the Force it was like bringing a stick to fight a tank. A little humorous to me, but you might need some therapy.”

  Padme was about to retort that she was fine before another wave of vomit came out of her mouth. She had nothing left to give, but she wished her body knew that. It was trying to expel something that wasn’t even in her anymore.

  “We have to find it and kill it, something… something like that can’t exist. It will just slaughter more and more people.”

  Padme noticed Vader’s eyes dart to the side as if he found particular interest in the wall plain white of the wall. Why was he trying to avoid her eyes? Something had happened, it had been hours since the incident. Something Vader didn't want her knowing.

  “No.” She said, realisation hitting her like a wave.

  “Some people thought it would be a good idea to try escape pods. It wasn’t, just made it easier for the Starweirds to hunt them down. Locking yourself in a small metal shell kind of doesn’t work against something that can phase through solid material.”

  “Starweirds? Plural?”

  Vader nodded to the window. Padme stood up from the bathroom floor, her legs threatening to buckle under her weight, but before she fell, Vader pointed a finger at her. Suddenly, the weight she felt disappeared like magic. Like millions of invisible tiny hands kept her upright.

  It certainly wasn’t quick but with Vader she managed to walk over towards one of the windows that looked out into space. She almost wished she didn't. There they were, dozens of them. Those strange ghost-like creatures justing sitting there out in the open space hanging around the ship. Waiting.

  “There are so many of them.”

  “They are hunting prey that they are hesitant to attack. They won’t attack till every Starweird in the surrounding systems has arrived.”

  “Prey, they are hunting you?”

  “No, they don’t need this many to kill me.” It took a few moments for Padme to run through all the possible people that it could be.

  “I thought Dooku used the Dark Side. Why would they hunt him down?”

  “The Darkside is self-destructive by nature. The only thing these creatures hate more than normal life is force-sensitives. Sith, Jedi, light or dark it doesn’t matter.”

  “We can kill them right?”

  “Eh.” Vader gave a so so gesture with his hand. “Blasters don’t really work on them, it would take plenty of concentrated fire, and they can phase through physical objects easily so it’s not like we can use prehistoric weapons instead. They are susceptible to energy shields and lightsabers though, that and the Force but… well.”

  Only two people on this ship were capable of using the Force in offensive ways. One of which being Vader and the other Dooku. Neither were two people Padme would put her trust in, Vader was too fickle. If these creatures offered Vader a bottle of rum she was unsure if he would actually step in and save anyone. Dooku on the other hand, she struggled to understand the Count.

  He seemed like such a gentleman. A kind caring old man that would hand out sweets to young children. Though when she accused him and the Jedi of child abuse she had see him angry, rightfully mad but still. Dooku hated the Republic and if she asked for the man’s help, she wasn’t sure if he would save her.

  “So we are just waiting to die then?”

  “Potentially.”

  “How are you so nonchalant right now?! You should be the most worried of all of us.”

  “I’m not though, funny how things work out.” Vader shrugged, instead taking the opportunity to look into her fridge, most likely for any alcohol she had in her room. He could see his frown when he realised that there wasn’t a drop anywhere to be found in this room.

  “We can’t just let everyone on board die!” Vader didn’t seem to be listening to her, taking the opportunity to instead lie down on the bed.

  She could have sworn she heard him whisper to himself that ‘this was no longer fun’ and ‘maybe he should just restart early’. Not only was he an arse he also was talking nonsense to himself, woderful.

  “If you won’t help me I’ll find someone who will!”

  “Goodluck with that.”

  “I would love to help.”

  “Really, thank you Count. I know we’ve had some… arguments. But, you truly are a wonderful man."

  “If Naboo is willing to join the CIS or at the very least prioritise CIS over Republic planets in regard to trading plasma, both in quality and quantity.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Naboo is a planet rich in plasma. I would like it, it’s quite simple really.”

  “I can’t prioritise a CIS planets, Naboo is already in enough trouble as it is after being seen as the reason all the banking clans left. If I give preferential treatment to the CIS then I’ll be lucky to keep my senator position."

  “I think I am being remarkably fair, Naboo borders the southern CIS space anyway. Shipping plasma to the CIS will be cheaper than shipping it all the way to The Core. Economically, this deal would benefit Naboo.”

  “But it would ruin us politically. What will the Republic think of us?”

  Dooku rubbed his chin in fake thought, he was enjoying her being at his mercy.

  “I suppose that is quite the dilemma, this could all be avoided if you just join the CIS. Join your neighbours Enarc with the separatists. It’s a good path for mid-rim planets to reach the Hydian Way and the Corellian Run, it’s one of the Trade Federation’s regional headquarters and allied with Naboo could bolster trade.”

  “Enarc was the whole reason Naboo got blockaded!”

  “Enemies to lovers, I suppose.” Dooku shrugged clearly not caring much. Admittedly, it was a little concerning how much he knew about Naboo’s situation.

  All his points were infuriatingly well-made and made plenty of sense. As painfully as it would be to admit, it made more sense to join the CIS ‘rebellion’ as some core planets were saying. Naboo was such a far planet from the core that it was much closer to the southern CIS space than it was to The Core Republican space.

  “I can’t turn my back on the Republic.”

  “I suppose that’s admirable, loyalty is a trait I do find myself surrounded by less and less.” Padme wanted to say that’s because he is disloyal, someone who left the Jedi and the Republic for his own benefit, but, she held her tongue. A testament to her patience, really.

  “No matter, please though Padme, I do urge you to reconsider. I find that good intentions make for a rather defence against blaster fire.”

  “You say that like you expect a war between the CIS and Republic.”

  “Do you not?”

  “No! We can live in peace, not everything has to be a competition. We can just coexist.”

  “A noble intention, but not one that is reasonable." One that would never be while people like him ruled. "Do you know why people share?”

  “Yes, but I have a feeling you are going to tell me anyway.”

  “Because eons ago, the weak who didn’t share were eaten by something larger. Sharing is not something that came from the good of people’s hearts. It came out of a necessity to survive a common opponent. Sharing, treating others with kindness and even love is nothing more than a defence mechanism as the weak are only capable of competing with the strong if the quantity can outnumber the quality.”

  “Are you getting to a point?”

  “Of course I am,” Dooku sneered. “The Republic won’t share its space, it won’t open trade deals and it certainly won’t let the CIS exist because it has no reason to. The closest thing to a threat the Republic has is the Hutt Empire, which isn’t so much of a threat as it is a war the Republic doesn’t want to waste time on being so far away from The Core. The Republic is the strongest faction in the Galaxy and it has no intention of weakening itself for the sake of kindness. The only way to exist in this Galaxy with such a looming threat like the Republic is for the CIS to be its own threat.”

  “You just want war.”

  “I want the Republic replaced. It’s failed its duty to its people time and time again.”

  “Then have Serreno join the Republic, inspire change and hope. We need more planets further away from the core, planets that want what’s best for the people and not just those in charge. What you are doing now, it won’t help. You’re just being a fear-mongering dictator.”

  “You can’t put out a fire from inside the house Miss Amidala. If you truly think that the Republic is in any way capable of being saved then I wish you the best, however, I will not be wasting my time. Planets cannot change by kind words, they are changed by killing the old and bringing in the new.”

  The killing of the Republic... he was going to let them all die.