The Loyalty of the Dark

Chapter 10

"So, let me get this straight," Padmé began, "Eclipse is actually a Sith apprentice, knows about our marriage and to keep it a secret, and claims to have been sent here to protect me."

"In a nutshell," Anakin affirmed. The Jedi had arrived home....an hour ago now, didn't feel like it, and had told his wife all that had occurred at the Temple. "She also claims you are carrying twins."

"....You're joking."

"I wish."

"And the Council went with this?"

"They want me to monitor her every move, and if you accept her offer of services, you are to give a report on her behavior to me every day," Anakin stated, his eyes glancing over the datapad in his hand that had Eclipse's beacon flashing on it—she hadn't stopped moving since she'd left the Temple and was now somewhere in the Underlevels. "Yoda seemed amident on trusting her and somehow the other masters went with it."

"You said you trusted her."

"Yeah, before I knew she was a Sith!"

"Anakin, this just doesn't seem...." Padmé dropped off, shaking her head. "What was her master's name again?"

"Vader—Darth Vader if he's a full on Sith," Anakin stated.

"I don't recognize the name."

"Neither does anyone else. She claims they want nothing to do with Jedi or the war and have therefore stayed anonymous until this point."

"And how did she end up on the Invisible Hand?"

"Her story is that Vader was after a second apprentice and his master wasn't too keen on the idea of him having two apprentices, so the guy tried to get rid of Eclipse. Vader disagreed and somehow transported her away with the Force. Eclipse didn't seem to have a concrete answer of how it worked herself, and she said that she won't be seeing Vader for a long while because of it."

"Well, at least that means he isn't coming here," Padmé pointed out.

"I suppose..... But it's just weird. If Vader decided on a whim to give her a mission while she was here instead of purposefully sending her, why wouldn't he come and join her? She doesn't want to be near the Jedi and made it clear that she and Vader see us as a danger. If he cared about her enough to protect her from his master, you'd think Vader wouldn't be too keen on leaving Eclipse to see if she could deal with the entire Order herself. It just doesn't seem right."

"A lot of this doesn't seem right," Padmé muttered, shaking her head. "Did she say anything about how I...."

"Supposedly Jedi had a hand in it based on her master's vision, but even she thinks there's something else involved," Anakin responded, pulling his wife close to his chest. "Force, I don't like it. You won't agree to it, right?"

"....I don't know, Anakin," she said slowly, pressing a finger to his lips just as he was about to respond. "You said you felt as though you could trust her before you knew what she was. Yoda seems to trust her. And hasn't Obi-Wan worked with Ventress before?"

"Padmé—"

"I will meet her before I decide, Anakin. I won't be biased about this. You said she'd visit in the morning?"

"....Yes. I'll be there too, if you don't mind."

"Of course not," she responded, pressing a kiss to his lips.