A/N: Part three is up. Sorry it took so long, exam stress and related illness delayed me. Hope you like it. Thanks again to all reviewers and lurkers : )

Repetition and Reflection.

Part Three.

Naboo.

Thirteen years ago.

Derrin had approached Sabé and informed her that the abduction was planned for the night following that of the celebration. Sabé agreed, eager to get away from him as quickly as possible. She could not help feeling guilty about how Obi-Wan would feel if he knew.

That evening she got up after the other handmaidens had fallen asleep and dressed in a nightgown identical to the Queen’s. She had dampened and braided her hair so that it curled like Padmé’s when she undid it.

Then she stole through the palace corridors to Obi-Wan and Anakin’s room. Bending over the Jedi Knight she placed a kiss on his forehead and whispered, “I’m so sorry, love.” She knew it was very likely she would never see him again.

She made a quick exit, her mind spinning with a debate between her moral conscience and the knowledge that conning was probably what she would end up doing in life and so she should get used to it.

As the door slid silently shut behind her, Obi-Wan opened his eyes, glad that she hadn’t noticed the fact that he still had his boots on. She was definitely hiding something. She did not give any plans away, but she had been very focussed on this night. Her anxiety radiated off her in waves.

Making her way down the corridor, Sabé was unaware that Obi-Wan had stirred. Task in mind, she hurried to Padmé’s room. Derrin was outside the door on night shift. Another guard was with him. This was where her decoy skills would come into play, for vastly different reasons than before.

As she approached, Derrin bowed and said in a hushed tone, “Your Highness.”

The other guard looked confused. “Forgive me, your Highness, but I don’t remember seeing you leave your chambers.”

“Falling asleep on duty, Commander?” Sabé said in her ‘Amidala voice’. “That won’t do. Go back to your quarters. I’ll just have the one guard this evening.”

“But–”

“That’s an order.”

The Commander bowed and departed.

“You took your time,” Derrin muttered.

“Just shut up,” she snapped. “I just want to get this over with.”

He shot her a glare and handed her a pistol. Silently, they entered Padmé’s room and made their way over to where the young Queen lay peacefully asleep. Sabé took the right side and Derrin the left. Choosing his movements carefully, he leaned in and clapped one hand over Padmé’s mouth, holding his blaster up against her head with the other. Her eyes shot open and widened with shock. She made a muffled cry under his hand. Derrin dragged her out of bed and out of reach of her panic button.

“If you make one wrong move, your Highness, I’ll shoot.”

Sabé raised an eyebrow. She knew he had been instructed to deliver undamaged goods.

“Sabé, you lead. If you see anyone, shoot them.”

Padmé’s eyes settled on her decoy. Sabé could read surprise and disappointment in them. “I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” she said.

“Fine. Just get us up to the roof.”

They met two guards on night patrol out in the corridor who immediately drew their weapons.

“She’s an impostor!” Sabé told them.

It confused the guards long enough for Derrin to take them down. They reached the roof at last, where Derrin had hidden a speeder. Sabé was biting her lip, thinking about how Padmé had become a friend over the weeks and was not really someone who deserved whatever Derrin’s buyers would want her for. As soon as they were outside, Derrin began scolding her for her hesitation in firing at the guards.

“You’re not in charge of me!” she cried.

“But I am in charge of this job and by the Gods, Sabé, I won’t have some useless beginner ruin it for me.”

She moved quickly, bringing her blaster up level with his head. Truth be told, she had wanted to do so for quite some time now. Having Padmé there to observe seemed to give her some degree of confidence.

“Now what will you do?” he asked. “You shoot me. Then what? Skip off into the sunset with your Jedi?”

Eyes darting to meet hers, Padmé gave her a pleading look.

“No,” she said softly. With a quick regretful look at Padmé, Sabé adjusted her aim and shot the Queen in the leg. Not only would it slow Derrin down somewhat, it would also make him appear worse in front of his buyers.

Padmé crumpled to the ground with a cry and Derrin yelled, “No! You fool! She was supposed to be unharmed!”

“I know,” she replied simply.

Derrin held his blaster up to her forehead just as she held hers up to his. That was how Obi-Wan found them.

“Now what, Sabé,” Derrin taunted. “You take me down, I take you down. Is it really worth it?”

Obi-Wan halted, watching, a look of disbelief on his face. Derrin was a little taken aback by Sabé’s unwavering glare and tried goading her again.

“Your Jedi love isn’t being much of a rescuer, is he? It’s sad really, considering the Jedi reputation. Who would’ve thought they’d be so useless in a critical situation?”

Eyes flashing, Sabé brought her knee up into his stomach, ducking simultaneously to avoid his reaction shot. The bolt grazed her shoulder and she gasped. Derrin launched himself at her and a vicious fist fight ensued.

Meanwhile, Obi-Wan hurried to Padmé to check that she was alright before looking for a way to halt the opponents. A blind rage had taken over Sabé and all she could think about was wiping the smug look off Derrin’s face. Before she knew it, she had him backed up against the roof barrier, her blaster still in her hand and aimed at him.

Obi-Wan approached her. “Don’t give in to anger.”

“I’m not bound by your Jedi rules!”

“Sabé…”

“You can’t stop me!”

“I'm not trying to stop you,” he said gently. “I’m trying to get you to stop yourself.”

Sabé’s eyes still narrowed at Derrin. “You don’t know what he’s like. He’s scum.”

“That hurts, Sabé,” Derrin said sarcastically.

“No,” she replied, firing at his arm. “That hurts.”

“Sabé!” Obi-Wan slipped an edge of warning into his voice. “Please.”

She shifted her gaze to look at him. Derrin took the opportunity to snatch the blaster from her hand with his uninjured arm. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger. Like lightning, Obi-Wan activated his lightsabre and reflected the bolt away, bringing the blade down to slash through the pistol.

A desperate man, fuelled by his anger, Derrin made another attempt at attacking Sabé. Her handmaiden training coming back to her, she reacted quickly, turning to flip him over her head and off the roof. His body landed with a sickening crack in the plaza below. She walked over to the edge to look and nodded, satisfied that her tormentor was finally gone.

Obi-Wan turned to her, as close to angry as a Jedi could get. “Why?” he asked. “You didn’t have to kill him.”

“I did,” she whispered. “You don’t know what he was. He would have…he would have always been there, watching me. It was the only way.”

“But why? You were so dear to me, Sabé. I loved you.”

She looked at him, tears shining in her eyes. “I love you, Obi-Wan, I do.”

“How can I trust anything you say?”

On the steps behind them, guards ran into view, led by Captain Panaka. “Sabé Silvestri, you are under arrest for attempted abduction of the Queen of Naboo and murder of a citizen of Theed.”

Sabé turned and walked towards her fate, calm and resigned to it. She paused when she reached Padmé. “This is yours, your Highness,” she said, holding up an object she had retrieved from Derrin’s coat as he had fallen. “I think you’ll find the other is a fake.” Perhaps she hadn’t been that bad at sleight of hand, after all.

Obi-Wan moved over to see what she had left in the Queen’s palm. It was the Jewel of Zenda.

Mustafar.

Present Day.

You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.

You were so dear to me, Sabé. I loved you.

Approaching the sleek Nubian ship, Obi-Wan could still hear the echo of those words. They still hurt now.

He had been amazed by the cool manner in which she had managed to recover the jewel from Derrin’s coat whilst flipping him over the barrier. Then the way she had simply handed it over to Padmé, as if nothing unusual had taken place. It had been the reaction of a true criminal who knew they were caught. He hadn’t really appreciated how much that realisation hurt him.

She had been taken to Theed’s high security prison. He had visited her there the following day and persuaded her to tell him the whole story. He had left Naboo unsure if her affection had been real. In his heart of hearts he knew it had been genuine, but his cynical side kept him from believing it. She had spoken of her love affecting her job. At the time he had assumed she meant her role as handmaiden, but soon realised that she was referring to her work with Derrin. He wasn’t sure what sentence she received for her crimes, but he had a strong feeling that it was life in prison.

He pulled his attention back to the present. Greeting the ever-faithful C-3P0 at the ramp, Obi-Wan entered the ship to take care of a friend that was linked to both his loved ones; Sabé’s queen, Anakin’s wife, the injured Padmé Amidala.

Tantive IV.

One week later.

In the days following Padmé’s death and Yoda’s exile to Dagobah, Obi-Wan once more found his mind turning to Sabé, wondering what she would say to know her one-time employer was dead. He hoped that she would care.

Tantive was sent all the documents relevant for a Senator of the new Empire’s usage. Bail Organa of Alderaan dutifully read through them, expressing his irritation at some of the self-appointed Emperor’s decisions. Obi-Wan too read it and was appalled to see that the Emperor planned to hunt down and kill any remaining Jedi Knights.

“He’s planning to murder hundreds of people,” Bail said in disgust, offering the data pad for Obi-Wan to see.

“In order to make room in establishments, prisoners with long-term sentences will be sent to work in mines on Corellia, Hapes, Circarpous V and Bandomeer,” the Jedi read out.

“The average life expectancy for a miner on Circarpous V is 3.5 years after their arrival there,” Bail told him. “The others aren’t much better.”

“As a solution to increasing population, prisoners serving sentences for murder and manslaughter will be executed,” Obi-Wan read, the inevitable creeping into his mind. He lowered the data pad, brow creased in thought. Faced with a sudden decision, his mind finally allowed him to acknowledge what he knew to be true.

He stood up. Bail looked up at him expectantly and he said in a decided tone, “I need to go with you when you take Padmé’s body back to Naboo.”

Naboo.

Three days later.

Sabé Silvestri was worried. Since the news of the birth of the Empire had reached Theed, her fellow prisoners had been disappearing. Several members of her father’s gang had been taken out and shot.

Following the events on the palace roof thirteen years ago and the death of Derrin, Seb, Jon and Marius had disowned her. It had saddened her at first, especially coupled with her regrets about getting involved in the first place. She still heard news about them now and then. Seb had recently died, she’d heard, a victim of a clone trooper’s blaster. Sabé felt very little remorse. Jon was in hiding somewhere with his three girlfriends and their children. Marius was probably with him.

Sabé had seen Marius four years ago when he had been imprisoned for six months for attempting to steal an artefact from Theed Museum. He hadn’t said much to her.

She continually thought back to Obi-Wan, wondering what he was doing and if he forgave her. She heard stories during the Clone Wars about the Jedi team of Kenobi and Skywalker. They had made her smile. She instinctively knew that he would have survived what Palpatine was calling the Jedi Purge. She lived in hope anyway. But now that the prisoners’ disappearances were making her fret, she longed to see him more than ever. Just once more before she died, as she was convinced that some day soon the firing squad would come for her.

An acquaintance in the next cell had given her a tip-off that morning and in light of it she was preparing for this afternoon to be her last. She had more regrets than she ever wished for, not apologising to Obi-Wan being the one that was bothering her most. But her hours were numbered. The last thing she ever expected was a visitor.

“Silvestri,” the guard barked, “someone to see you. Make it quick.”

Sabé approached the bars of her cell to see a hooded and cloaked figure making its way towards her. “Jon? Marius?” she asked cautiously, knowing it was neither.

The figure stood close to the bars and she moved closer. He looked up at her and she saw a pair of vivid blue eyes. “Obi-Wan!” she whispered. “Thank Gods you’re alive! What are you doing here? You must leave, it’s not safe for you.”

He smiled as her selfless words confirmed the truth of her affection. “I've come to break you out.”

She stared, thinking he had lost his mind. “What?”

“Your life is in danger.”

“I know. They’re coming for me soon. Does this mean you forgive me?”

He met her eyes. “I forgave you a long time ago, it just took me a while to realise it.”

She gripped his hand. “And you believe that I was telling you the truth?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

She smiled and was about to say something else, but he silenced her. “There isn’t much time. They were preparing when I came in.”

Sabé looked down at her hands. “No, I should face up to this. Now that I know you forgive me I can go with a lighter heart.”

The old woman in the opposite cell had been keenly listening in to the conversation and took the opportunity to intervene. “Sabé, child, what you did was nothing compared to the rest of us in here. Take me, for example, I deserve to be here, I've killed more people than I can count, including some that got in the way when I worked for your father. You’ve served your time and I daresay you’ve repented. It’s too late for me to do that, not to mention pointless. I never regretted a thing, so I’m paying for it now and I don’t care a jot. It’s my time anyway. Now, as a friend and a superior, I’m ordering you to stop being noble and listen to this young gentleman here.”

Several nearby occupants concurred and Sabé was once again struck by their loyalty and bizarre sense of justice. She nodded and turned to Obi-Wan. “What must I do?”

He closed his eyes and placed a palm over the keypad at her door. Sensing the right code he quickly punched the numbers in. The bars slid aside and Sabé stepped out. She hurried over to thank the old woman before returning to Obi-Wan.

He slipped a pair of wrist binders over her hands. “Follow my lead.”

Without another word, he marched her through the corridors. Whenever they met a guard, Obi-Wan would use some Jedi mind trick to fool them into thinking it was a prisoner transfer. As they walked through the main doors, Sabé tried to hide her joy at being outside again, but she couldn’t help the delighted smile that graced her features.

As soon as they were out of sight of the prison they began running, as they both knew that Sabé’s escape would not remain undiscovered for long. Obi-Wan led Sabé through the trees that lined Theed’s outskirts, eventually stopping at a clearing in which there sat a small two-seater fighter.

“A parting gift from Bail Organa,” Obi-Wan said.

“Bail Organa?” Sabé repeated. “The senator? Why?”

Obi-Wan turned to look at her, tugging down his hood and moving to unclasp the binders. Sabé took in the changes to his appearance. His hair was longer and he had grown a beard, but she decided she liked it. The only thing she didn’t like was the haunted look in his once-bright eyes.

“I have a lot to tell you,” Obi-Wan remarked. “Luckily, where we’re going provides us with a fairly long journey.”

“Where are we going?” Sabé asked, still studying the noble and handsome man that the Padawan she had once known had become.

“Tatooine,” he replied, watching her. She was paler than she had been thirteen years ago and thinner. Her regulation prison outfit of grey wasn’t flattering and her hair had been hacked short. But she was still beautiful and, he knew it now, still the same girl…woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago.

“Tatooine? Tourist attraction Tatooine?”

He smiled, remembering that conversation. “The same.” His tone grew more serious and he met her gaze. “I’m a wanted man now. All Jedi are enemies of state. Most are dead. I must go into exile on Tatooine.” He took her hand. “And so must you. The Emperor passed a law declaring all prisoners serving life for murder are to be executed. Knowing the circumstances as I do, I couldn’t let that happen to you. I thought it would be better if you came with me instead. I know I’ve made the decision for you, but–”

“Of course I’ll come with you,” she said smiling, eyes shining with happy tears at the unexpected second chance she had been given. “If you’ll have me.”

“It’s better than being on the run,” he retorted, returning her smile.

“Being on the run with you wouldn’t be too bad.”

They stood for a moment, gazing at each other, learning each other all over again. Then Sabé broke into a little run towards him, throwing her arms around his neck. He laughed and held her. She pulled back to smile at him. He reached a hand up to smooth her cheek and leaned in to meet her lips. His hand moved to trail through her shortened locks and she returned his kiss. When they broke apart, Obi-Wan kissed the end of her nose and she smiled.

Footsteps crashing through the undergrowth caused the two to spring into action. Together, they ran to the ship, making a hasty retreat away from Naboo.

Two fugitives heading for exile on tourist-friendly Tatooine that now did not seem so bad. Words spoken in pain in the past were replaced by sweeter words of the present. And a repeated phrase was at last lifted out of the past tense.

I loved you.

I loved you.

I love you.