Chapter 96

  Padmé Amidala insists on meeting the real me. I'm not even sure why, as she is at least familiar with my doppelganger ability. She must know that whatever information they collect, I gain. Padme still insists, and to help the conversation along, I help her to my home.

  I whisk through the trees at great speed, jumping from branch to branch, closely behind me is Padme gripping tightly on a simple stone chair as it floats following me. Padme thoughts are tightly wound as her fear at traveling at great speed causes her mind to threnten to snap like a rubber band.

  As we go deeper into the swamp-like forest, I hear Padme swot at her skin trying to defend herself from the biting insects. Padme is still as stubborn as when she was young, she could have just relayed her message and be sure that i would get it but she insists to talk to the real me and suffer the biting, stinging creatures of this world.

  I hear her breathing becoming heavier as she becomes more frustrated. It must have been years since she had been treated this way. I'm carrying her using the force but i don't protect her from getting hit in the face by flying bugs. Every now and again i hear her spitting to get rid of an unlucky fly that has popped into her mouth or crawled up her nose.

  I gave out an audible chuckle that I knew would reach her ears. Instantly the soft choking sounds of bugs invading a throat stopped. Padme had her pride and she didn't want me to see her in such a state, this didn't last long as we reached a clearing to my home. The deep gasp, followed by choking, filled me with delight as Padme looked over my creation.

  My home wasn't some dinky little cottage surrounded by vegetable patches, if it was it would never have recived such a response from Padme.

  No, instead, it was a behemoth of a temple made from granite carved into the side of a mountain. Hundreds of doppelgangers swarmed the place constantly improving it and shaping the stone and carving images. The two massive doors that protected the temple were riddled with images of my battles throughout the years. Two giant statues of fat me rested at the sides of the temple with their heads thrown back in jolly laughter. It was an impressive sight but nothing compared to the inside.

  A vast hallway with pillars of bleached white marble carved into people. Padme looked around with her mouth open, examining all the life-like statues. A small army of various stone humanoids, each one with a copper plate talking about them. They read like a fantasy character, something made up, but as Padme went deeper, she started to recognise the statutes. She paused at a statue as it was her own mirrored image when she was young.

  The plate read:

  "Padmé "Amidala" Naberrie

  Human female, born in 46 BBY during the Age of the Republic to the Naberrie family. Elected ruler of the Royal House of Naboo became a senator who represented the people of Naboo during the final years of the Galactic Republic."

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  Padme continued to read with a tiny bit of her face twisting in disappointment as the plate read her failure and at being controlled by Senator Sheev Palpatine. Padme felt weird looking at all of her achievements written. Padme turned away from the plate when she started to read her time as a pirate lieutenant, she didn't need to read about her discharge from her station from being the left hand of the dread captain.

  The statutes continued, and Padme realised that all of this wasn't just art. It was a story, the life story of Ban Bailo. Padme's thoughts wandered back to one of the starter statutes. She thought it was just a random person created in stone from a long past history, and yet, the date was shocking. If all of this were true, then Bee was thousands of years old.

  Padme was being shown the history of one, if not the greatest influence of the galaxy had ever seen and yet, hardly anyone knew about his true name. Padme looked at the ceiling of the temple, finding floating doppelgangers changing the stone to depict battles and moments of Ban Bailo's life. Padme wanted to stay and read the amazing life and history, a temple dedicated to one person, but it wasn't to be as she had a job to do and a duty to fulfil.

  Padme was led through the temple, past a library filled with giant stone tablets filled with tiny text and pictures, past an inferno like forge where dopplegangers worked metal and glass, all the way up to a small room with a wooden door.

  The doppelganger nodded the way in, and Padme felt nervous for the first time. She knew that all the doppelgangers were connected and that speaking to one was the same as talking to the real one, but she still felt awkward and guilty. The last time she had spoken to Bee resulted in a harsh scolding and then their parting.

  The door shifted open, and Padme could see a soft glow coming from the corner. A homemade lantern dully illuminated the dark corner where I was floating in the air, eating a piece of purple cake.

  "What's up?" I comically called out.

  There wasn't anything to look at in this room apart from me, and even if the room was filled with the most sparkling treasures, I doubt Padme's eyes would be anywhere but around me.

  "Have a seat" The stone walls melded into a chair that Padme refused to take.

  "Would you like some cake?" it floated towards Padme, but she didn't take it.

  Padme's feelings were easy to read: guilt and duty, but a steadily rising amount of anger. A slab of rock slid away from the walls and rested in my hands, where I cut Padme's image into it.

  "Turn your head a little," I say to the rising storm of Padme.

  "Tell me about your life, what have you been up to" I ask Padme with a slice of mirth as crumbs of stone chip gently dropped on my lap.

  Her rage is spilling over, and I can tell she is close to berating me.

  I causal look over the stone bust that is taking shape "Control yourself, I can feel your anger rising, you don't want our meeting to break down because you are unable to control your anger"

  Perhaps it was easy to forget that I was able to sense emotions like the Jedi because I didn't act like them but the puzzled look on Padmes face quickly cooled her emotions.

  "Have some cake, you don't know how hard it is to make when you have to collect the ingredients yourself"

  The floating cake slowly drifted onto Padme's hand, where her cooling mind automatically took it.

  I moulded the rock in my hands like clay and created flowing locks of hair rolling down. "What do you want from me?" I ask suddenly.

  Padme swallows hard and places the cake on the unused chair. She pauses for a few seconds "We need your help with the Yuuzhan Vong"

  I nod and place the finished bust of Padme on the floor "Who is that?"