Adult-FanFiction.org : Movies

Fallen	By : serendip Category: Star Wars (All) > General Views: 3106 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Star Wars is the property of George Lucas. This story is for entertainment purposes only. No infringement of rights is intended. I do not make any profit from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Fallen
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-the end...
- 11
- 12
- 13
Aala felt like she was on a roller coaster, both literally and figuratively as the air taxi she was in wove through traffic at full speed on the way to her sister's apartment. She was beginning to regret telling the driver to hurry.
The past few days had been as much of a blur as the buildings they were currently passing in a frenzied rush and she'd experienced as many highs and lows as she would on one of those horrible rides. She felt sick.
The only worry she had now, though, was how much lower they could possibly go - because she had a feeling they weren't nearly there - and how much it would hurt when they hit bottom.
She'd been asleep, maybe not soundly, but asleep, when Bail had called her, the urgency in his voice unequivocal. The Jedi Temple was burning. And he'd been shot at, attacked, when he had gone to investigate. The Jedi were in trouble, and he was going to see what he could do to help.
She had rushed to the bedroom window to see for herself, and indeed, smoke rose in a dark, ominous plume from the direction of the Temple and without thinking she had called Padmé. In part, only because she didn't have anyone else to call, but thank the Force she had.
Padmé had sounded all right at first but she seemed to break down at the sound of Aala's concerned voice and then all she could do was sob and say Anakin's name and all Aala could do was promise she would be there as quick as she could.
As she came through the door, came into the room, her eyes were drawn to Padmé even without any effort on her own part. The lighting was dim, but Aala could see her clearly, perched on the edge of her couch, her shoulders tense, her body forming a tight, rigid line.
When Padmé noticed her, she rose to her feet, years of instinct and formality taking over in the absence of presence of mind. As she stood, her nightgown fell about her slim body, flowy and light - but it didn't fall enough... not nearly...
Her distended belly was so obvious, Aala was frozen in shock. How did this... How could she...
Crying again, Padmé didn't seem to notice her sister's reaction, instead she fell into Aala's embrace and Aala shook off her surprise. One problem at a time.
"Anakin said..." Padmé gulped, trying to breathe through the tears, "he said, the Jedi betrayed the Chancellor. They tried to assassinate him, and," she hiccuped," and overthrow the Republic. He said – he said, he's going to end the war. To deal with the Separatists. That I should wait for him."
Aala sat Padmé down on the couch, trying not to let fear overwhelm her with the sheer enormity of what Padmé was telling her. The Jedi had stood, had sacrificed, for peace for thousands of years. They would never – but she couldn't think about that now, she couldn't let it paralyze her. That was out of her hands.
And as she sat with Padmé, trying to comfort her, it became so painfully obvious what had been going on in her sister's life, she couldn't believe she had let herself become so blind to it. Images flew into her mind, one after the other, all so clear now in hindsight – Sola teasing Padmé about her boyfriend and Padmé's knowing, secret smile. The time she and Padmé had bumped into Obi-Wan and Anakin, and Aala had been so relieved to see Obi-Wan, after so long a mission, she'd forgotten herself but her glance at Padmé and Anakin had assured her they hadn't noticed.
Padmé's undeniable concern when he was away, her joy when he succeeded... when she'd been sick... when she had started wearing those heavy robes...
Singularly, they could be written off as nothing, meaningless, but heaped together, it was unmistakable.
A startling memory popped into her head then, how could she have forgotten? It had been so long ago, only a few months after the war had started. That afternoon when Anakin had come in to Padmé's apartment, completely unannounced...

"Honey, I'm –"
"Home?" Aala raised her eyebrows and cast a look of disbelief at Anakin as he came striding into the room as if he owned the place.
"Uh – Aala." He gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Is Padmé..." he trailed off, glancing around the room.
"She had to take a conference call..."
"Ah. I see. Uh, that was just, it's a joke," he tried to explain, "she told me about an old holovid she liked when she was younger, and I teased her for still watching it..."
"I remember it well," Aala smiled. "When she was 5 she watched it everyday for a month, I think. It drove me crazy."
He laughed, his smile now warm and genuine, and she had no doubt as to why they'd made this one the poster boy or how Padmé could be charmed.
There was an awkward silence for a moment as they looked at each other. "Can I take a message?" Aala asked, not sure what Anakin might want at this time of day, although it crossed her mind that she had intended to be gone by now if her conversation with her sister had not been interrupted by business from Naboo.
"I – actually, I have some urgent matters to discuss with her – Security Committee issues. I don't mind waiting – if that's all right with you?"
"Of course," Aala gestured for him to sit down.
"We were just catching up, though there were a few important things I wanted to discuss with her as well, it can wait. I'm sure she expected we'd be done by now..."
"I wouldn't want to intrude on any sisterly conversations." Anakin grinned.
"They can be quite important sometimes," she said, laughing. Settling back on the couch, Aala regarded him. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" she asked. Obi-Wan had never discussed Anakin much, and Aala had never pried – but she was curious – he was probably the closest person to Obi-Wan and now it seemed clear Padmé was close to him as well.
"Mmm," his gaze rested on her face for a long moment, then he nodded his head. "I have a step brother actually. But I don't know him at all." Anakin leaned back as well, looking off into the distance. "When I was young, I used to beg my mother for a brother or sister," his smile was sad, and Aala remembered Obi-Wan mentioning his mother had died just before the war had started.
"I might've begged my mother to take my little sister back once or twice," Aala admitted with a wry grin," when I was young, of course."
Anakin chuckled.
"Always greener on the other side, hm?" Aala teased.
"Sometimes its hard to simply accept the way things are," he answered, his voice turning thoughtful and Aala was struck by his sudden seriousness. He seemed to be able to change his mood like the flick of a switch.
He was looking at his mechanical hand now, and Aala was about to reply when Padmé came bursting into the room like a particularly bright ray of sunshine.
"Anakin!" she smiled, and Aala saw exactly how happy Padmé was to see him.
"Senator," he replied, amusement dancing in his eyes.
He stood and Padmé's gaze shifted back and forth, between Aala and Anakin. "Sorry about that, Queen Neeyutnee had some Senate business that couldn't wait. Could you stay for dinner, Anakin? We haven't had a chance to talk in so long. Is that alright, Aala?" Padmé asked the questions in succession without waiting for an answer, Anakin's charming smile enough of an affirmative for her on his part, apparently.
"Yes," Aala said, "of course. That would be nice."
Dinner was ready shortly and they spent the time in companionable conversation. Briefly, Aala wondered what Obi-Wan was up to – it almost seemed out of place that he was missing – but he had just been appointed to the council, and was no doubt too busy for dinner parties.
Soon enough the hot topic of security arose and Aala recalled her other reason for visiting, and the fact that it had been Anakin's reason, as well. Likely, the Chancellor had sent him to argue to Padmé the exact opposite point of what Aala was prepared to defend.
She looked at Padmé then, tilting her head. "You never asked Anakin why he came to see you," she said suddenly.
"Oh." Padmé answered , and Aala did not miss the exchange of glances between her and Anakin. "Well, he sent me a message. I saw it as soon as I was done with the Queen."
"Of course," Aala replied. There was no law against messages, or dinner for that matter, and Aala figured it wasn't any of her business anyway.

It had been all too easy at the time to brush it off as innocent flirting, friendship, maybe even a relationship like her own with Obi-Wan, but that was naive. She knew Padmé was nothing like her, and Anakin nothing like Obi-Wan. Not in this matter.
It wasn't until much, much later, when Obi-Wan had hinted that he was concerned for Anakin, that Aala had realized it might possibly become a problem. If Anakin's feelings were too strong, beginning to border on attachment... Aala didn't fully understand, but she couldn't deny the look on Obi-Wan's face. She could set it aside, though. They were in the middle of a war. Who had time for a relationship, anyway?
Pulling her back to the present, Padmé grasped her hands tightly, so tight her knuckles turned white, as pale as her face. "Aala, I'm scared," she murmured.
Aala held her breath. "Let's go, then. Let's go away. You and me. I'll take you and we won't tell anyone. We'll be safe and no one will know."
"No," Padmé said. Her voice hardened and there was no room for debate. "You don't – Aala, have you ever been in love?"
"I – " She was just short of stunned with no inkling of how to answer that. What answer could Padmé possibly be trying to get at?
"Tell me the truth, Aala." She pulled Aala's hands into her own lap, tugging on her, holding her attention. "Obi-Wan... Do you love Obi-Wan?"
"I – " Did she love Obi-Wan? She wasn't sure, now. She wasn't sure she even believed in love. It hadn't seemed to do her sister any favors. Her eyes must have glazed over because Padmé was tugging on her hands again, like a child pestering her mother for an answer to some undefinable question.
"You just know, when you know, Aala. It's not something you have to think about. Do the stars align? Does time stop when he looks at you? Can you see your future with him?"
Aala swallowed then frowned at her sister's silly romantic sentiments. "Padmé. They're Jedi." Her eyes flicked down to her rounded belly. "They can't have... this future." A cold sort of anxiety began to seep into Aala. Padmé was so determined, so... disillusioned, and she was beginning to see there was no way this could end well.
"I love him, Aala. I didn't choose this, I love him. You don't understand what that means. You can't understand."
And Aala felt the tears rolling down her own cheeks now, hot and wet, though she didn't know if she was crying for herself or Padmé or the devastation of their lives that now lay in ruins around them.
She didn't even know if Obi-Wan was still alive, though if she closed her eyes and shut everything else out she swore she could feel him.
But Padmé's tears had long stopped, the expression on her face fierce. "I'm not scared for myself, Aala. I'm scared for him."
And Aala saw now, it was so blatant, the two halves of her sister, the lover and the fighter. Something she should've realized a long time ago. She'd been so turned off to love – she refused to see it anywhere, or even admit its existence. And it had cost her her relationship with her sister, her chance to understand her. Maybe her chance to help her.

As the bright Coruscant sun made its descent to the horizon, Aala sat alone in her apartment, in a chair by the window. The late afternoon sunlight washed across her living room, just about to dip below the tallest buildings of the city skyline. The weather had been a bit erratic since the battle above the planet had destroyed some of the orbital mirrors but today had been the exception – a bright, clear, sunny day – if only a bit warmer than usual – and it was looking to fade into a beautiful evening. A direct contrast to the turmoil of the lives in the city below, belying the darkness that was already encroaching.
Aala held a cup of caf in her hands, but she hadn't taken a drink, she'd hardly even moved. The sunlight that streamed in through the windows warmed her face but she didn't notice.
She had sat there for almost half an hour before she had made the decision to call Obi-Wan, though she knew she had no time to waste. He had said he would come as soon as he could. And since then, while she'd been waiting, she'd almost called him twice, to tell him not to risk it and she'd almost left once, wanting nothing more than to escape from it all.
As she watched the blue sky turn to pink and gold, the sun reflecting as it fell, she felt like days had passed, though true sunset was still at least an hour away. Suddenly, Obi-Wan sat down on the couch across from her, seeming to appear out of thin air.
Aala blinked once, her gaze meeting his, his eyes expressing his concern, his exhaustion, his determination and it was almost too much.
She looked away, unable to voice what she had called him here to tell him. One thing she had always known about Obi-Wan was his nearly unfaltering patience, and even despite everything, he didn't disappoint her now.
She thought of her sister, her tear stained face an image now burned into her memory; and what she had told her just that afternoon. Obi-Wan had been to see her, and Aala knew Padmé was scared and she knew how much she wanted to fix it – to speak to Anakin and set things right – but Obi-Wan... he would never mislead Padmé... he wouldn't have said what he had told her unless he was certain, 100 percent... and that meant Anakin was...
Her breath caught in her throat and she looked at his face and it was then she knew it was all true. Dread filled her in a way it never had before. This was it then.
She thought of Palpatine, everything he had purported, what she had heard from Bail's office where she had watched the convocation on the HoloNet. The war over... Jedi Rebellion... Galactic Empire...
It was everything they had feared they couldn't imagine.
And her sister was headed straight to the monster's lair.
The muscles in her shoulders shivered, and she closed her eyes, trying to draw strength from somewhere deep inside. "Mustafar." It was only a whisper. Her eyes shifted to the coffee table, unable to meet Obi-Wan's unflinching stare.
He didn't say anything, but sat there for a moment waiting, watching her and then she sensed he was going to leave.
"Please, Obi-Wan," she lurched forward, caf sloshing over the edges of her cup and she looked at him, pleading, hoping there was something he could do, for Padmé. For her baby.
"Please."

Aala couldn't shake the thoughts of her sister, of what had happened, of what she could've, should have done differently.
The past few days replayed in her mind over and over. The battle, the confusion, the devastation. Obi-Wan's and Anakin's miraculous rescue and crash landing. Obi-Wan going after Grievous. The Temple burning. Her fear. Padmé's admissions and overwhelming grief. Aala's heart wrenching relief when Bail let her know he had found Obi-Wan. Palpatine's speech and the conversation Bail had told her he'd had with Padmé about keeping his head down, waiting it out...
The same person that had been sobbing in her arms had calmly told Bail she didn't think she'd be around long enough to follow any of her own advice.
The thought shook her to her core. The Senator and Anakin's wife. The mother of his child. Two different people, but still her sister. She should've known her well enough to know... And the wife could not help but go to him, she had to, unable to make the rational decision – but the Senator had told Aala, hedged her bets, perhaps. And Aala had only done what she thought she had to.
Darkness filled her small apartment and she couldn't sit at this window anymore, the place where she'd betrayed one half of her sister. She went to the bedroom and tried to lay down, but she couldn't stand it, doing nothing, when the people she cared for most in the galaxy were hurtling through space toward inevitable disaster...
So she went to her office at SBI. And she cleared it out. She deleted her logs, she erased herself from the system. With all the chaos, Dyne was the only one who would ever notice she had left anytime soon, and he was... she was sure he was dead. He'd been so close, but to what she had no idea. If only she hadn't been called away...
Who was she kidding, if she hadn't been called away, she'd be dead, too. She incinerated anything tangible she'd ever touched there and she slipped out unnoticed, heading for Bail's office, intending to do the same. She'd destroy any evidence that they had ever considered opposing Palpatine on any matter.
Lost in a daze, she went about eliminating the past three years of their work, and she could only hope Obi-Wan was able to do something, anything to keep Padmé and the baby safe.

As Aala and Obi-Wan were preparing to leave Vorzyd V, their transport had been delayed and they'd found themselves let loose, as it were, on the gaming and entertainment planet, with nowhere to go and nothing to do.
Where he'd gotten the idea, or why, she couldn't figure out, but somehow, and she wasn't entirely convinced he hadn't used some sort of suggestion, they had ended up at one of the many popular amusement parks and Obi-Wan had convinced her it would be fun to ride the 'Kessel Run,' a giant roller coaster.
She'd never been on one before, but as the tiny steel car climbed the lift hill, an unfathomable peak for such an unstable looking vehicle, she was pretty sure she hated roller coasters. And by the end of it all she knew she hated roller coasters. She didn't speak to him for hours afterward, though it was less because she was angry and more because she was afraid of what would happen if she opened her mouth.
When they had reached the top of that dreadful ascent, with her heart pounding and her breath trapped in her chest, terrified, she'd blindly groped for Obi-Wan's hand. Gripping it tightly, her palms sweaty, she could do nothing else but hope and pray he wouldn't let go of her. And it had been all downhill from there.

AN: Thanks for reading! Please rate and review, it would mean the world to me! If you enjoyed, please check out Dozen for more of the adult content and romance!
- 11
- 12
- 13
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Fallen