Chapter 130: Ceremony

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Chapter 130: Ceremony

– Evocar (Formerly Nal Hutta) – 22.4 BBY –

Aayla was amused by Izuku’s grumbling as he was fitted by a tailor droid for formal wear. Somehow, and she still wasn’t sure how, Izuku had managed to dodge having ‘official wardrobe’ made for the ‘Sovereign.’ Given that he technically owned Tythe, she understood how he’d kept anyone from pressing him when he’d been only the ‘Master’ of that Star System. The vast majority of his people weren’t native to that world, after all. Which meant none of them would have had the same standard for formal wear anyway. Nor were the type of people they’d sought to attract the types to be formal by nature in the first place.

She privately admitted it had been a much more impressive feat that he’d managed to keep out of the grubby hands of the PR people after becoming the Sovereign of the League, though. She personally suspected he’d only pulled it off by leaning on the fact that he did have an official dress uniform for the Leage military. Something he’d specifically ordered to be made actually comfortable, rather than miserable. For which she suspected every military man and woman half-worshiped him.

Unfortunately for him, the Crusade was over, and the PR people were insistent that a new wardrobe was required for the Sovereign before the Address of the People that would announce that fact formally. When they’d convinced him it was required, he’d tried to sell them on something called a ‘kimono,’ only to be shot down as it being ‘too similar’ to the robes that the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic wore. He, in turn, had shot down several ridiculously elaborate styles that would have put Padmé’s hated formal regalia from her time as Queen to shame.

Eventually, thoroughly amused but knowing they needed to properly get somewhere, Aayla and Shaak Ti had stepped in. While Jedi weren’t exactly the height of fashion expertise, they both were well traveled, and had spent a great deal of time dealing with VIPs form thousands of worlds. The result was that, between them, they’d seen a vast array of different formal wear styles, and were able to pick pieces of a few that they knew would look good on their lover. Without the result being horribly impractical. Given some barebones guidelines, the experts had begrudgingly accepted and eventually admitted that the end result did look fantastic on their Sovereign.

The end result was a black longcoat and pants combination paired with a green and black vest. The longcoat was embroidered with a green that matched the vest, and aurodium buttons added just a splash of aristocratic wealth, without being completely tasteless. The end result, pared with Izuku’s naturally dark green hair and features that had sharpened a bit as he lost the last of his youthful babyface in his twenties, was striking. He looked suitable sharp and authoritative, without coming across as authoritarian. It even had a decent enough range of motion to fight properly in.

Which hadn’t stopped him from complaining about the process of getting a wardrobe of copies, along with several variants. Even if it was comfortable compared to most formal wear, it was still considerably less so than his usual casual wear, or even his armor which had been explicitly designed by Mei for comfortable all-day usage. Admittedly, Aayla understood that, having grown rather attached to her own armor after Mei created the ‘Jedi Bunny Variant Mk III, now with less Bunny!’ Her previous, more full-coverage armor had never been entirely comfortable to her, but Mei’s more agility-focused version for the female Force users in Izuku’s life was quite pleasant. Both to wear and to look at.

Of course, she wouldn’t be allowed to wear anything so militant herself for the upcoming ceremony. The whole point was to usher in Peace and Prosperity now that the Hutts were finished for good. Doing so while wearing the armor of war wouldn’t send the ‘right sort of message.’ Nor was she getting off as easily as Shaak Ti, who had a particularly fancy set of Jedi Robes to use. Aayla still very purposefully hadn’t reclaimed her position as a Jedi, not even for the expedition to Tython.

Given that she was publicly known at this point to be Izuku’s romantic partner, it was better to leave that complication aside. Without being properly part of the Jedi Order, they couldn’t protest much. Other Jedi had left the order for love and marriage in the past, after all. More to the point, the distance helped prevent the entire League from looking like a Jedi ploy to the galaxy at large, merely using Izuku as a patsy. Which, given Count Dooku’s leadership of the CIS, was very important. Thankfully, Aayla had never been as in the spotlight as Dooku was, and Izuku was too charismatic, if unintentionally so, for that possibility to sink in for most.

Back on the point of formal wear, though. Aayla was lucky that she could lean into the fact she was a Twi’lek. Even if the reasons might be a bit dubious, the fact of the matter was the high-fashion for Twi’lek females ran in the direction of skin-revealing, flowing gowns, which emphasized their beauty. She was quite pleased with the purple-and white shimmersilk outfit she’d been fitted with. The fact that Izuku’s eyes had nearly popped out of his head when he’d seen her in it had been especially gratifying. Doubly so when it had needed thorough cleaning and a few minor repairs from his ‘enthusiasm’ afterward…

It was slightly possible they were still riding a bit of a high from being reunited again. If anyone had a problem with that, though, they could sit on a cactus and spin, as far as Aayla was concerned.

… … …

– Evocar: Freedom Plaza – 22.4 BBY –

Freedom Plaza was overflowing with standing-room-only crowds, and only careful management of those crowds was keeping things from getting fractious. Not because anyone was upset, of course, but instead because the crowds were excited. Today was an important one of the citizens of the League, and most of those in the plaza qualified. Though there was a carefully sectioned off area for foreign dignitaries. It was, in fact, from that very section that Padmé and Sabé were observing the crowd and events with interest and anticipation. For that matter, even the Plaza itself was a statement, and not one that any of the politically savvy souls in this particular section had missed.

Like the reverting of the name ‘Nal Hutta’ back to ‘Evocar,’ the ancient name for the planet given by its original species, the shield-domed and terraformed city of Elysium hadn’t existed a year ago. The League, at Izuku’s direction, had spent a small fortune tracking down examples of the original flora of Evocar. Given how thorough the Hutts had been in converting the world to their tastes, that had not been an easy task. Yet, enough examples existed in far flung botanical gardens on various worlds to at least make an attempt. Contained within the new dome were lush plains and forests that were created by mixing cloned plants from the original biome and others carefully chosen by experts to mix with them. The terraformed reversion, to something resembling what the original world had been like? It was a stark contrast to the swamps of the rest of the planet, and made for a very pointed, silent statement.

The League intended to undo as much of the harm the Hutts had done as was physically possible.

Doing so had included finding those few Evocii that still existed in the lower levels of Nar Shaddaa and granting them the best land in this and several other similarly terraformed cities. While their numbers were few, too few to try taking back their world in full, the League was determined that they would have a place on Evocar and some level of voice in the world’s future. Efforts were even being made to reverse some of the genetic damage done from so long living in horrible conditions, and with small enough populations to run into inbreeding issues.

Personally, Padmé suspected the Evocii would never truly recover, not after so long and with so few of them left. Yet the fact that the League was making the effort at all, at considerable expense, both spoke well of them…and made a firm statement to the rest of the galaxy. Privately, with insider knowledge she wasn’t really supposed to have, she also knew that the amount of credits being spent on the effort was trifling compared to the staggering fortunes recovered from the Hutt clans. Frankly, she was glad Izuku had the good sense to conceal just how wealthy the League now was. The last thing the galaxy needed was an economic crisis on top of everything else.

A flare of music sounded out from the floating speaker-drones above the crowd, drawing attention as the ceremony itself began. Padmé settled in, focusing her mind as she took in the start of the first speech. She knew from Izuku that this ceremony had been managed, at his insistence, to include only those speeches which originated from people genuinely affected by the League and Hutts both. The speeches were carefully chosen to weave a timeline and story of the League’s march through Hutt space and the changes they brought with them. There would be no pandering or false words here. Only a genuine narrative, driven by the emotions of those who had been personally affected. Capped in a final speech from Izuku himself.

It was a detail that would likely be missed by many of the more arrogant observers from the Republic, but she was intent on getting a feel for the overall message the people he’d chosen would send…

… … …

Izuku stepped forward to the podium, tactfully ignoring the three different snipers he could feel his Guards quietly eliminating. Not that it would honestly have done the snipers any good if they’d gotten a chance to shoot, given that the belt of his formal outfit had the latest version of Mei’s personal shield built into it. More than strong enough to turn away any single shot from anything man portable. Well, short of a rocket launcher maybe, and he’d have felt anything like that coming through the Force anyway.

With that sideshow excitement ignored, it was time to do the whole speech thing. Which he still didn’t exactly enjoy doing, but understood the importance of.

“Gentlebeings of the League, and guests from the Republic! It is on this day that I, with great pleasure, officially announce the complete destruction of the Hutt Empire. Long has the galaxy suffered their tyranny, and many are the voices that now rejoice at their fall!”

A cheer surged out of the crowd, and Izuku let them have their moment, patiently waiting for the initial burst to die off, before signaling for calm and sending a gentle wave of such out with the Force to encourage it. As the crowd quieted, mostly at least, he spoke again.

“Yes! It is a fantastic day, for long-overdue news! Yet, while this is a joyous day of peace, it is also a day to acknowledge how much farther we have yet to go. Removing the Hutts themselves was but one, albeit perhaps the largest and most important, step in undoing the evil they have wrought on the galaxy. Even as I speak, on dozens of worlds, labors to repair the damage they did and uplift those they repressed are ongoing. Great strides and successes have already been made, as you can see merely by looking around at the city of Elysium in which you stand!”

More cheers, the chanting of several worlds’ names, as representatives from some of the worlds they’d been most successful in uplifting so far shouted their success. A well deserved spark of pride fueled those chants, as some of those worlds had doubled or tripled their GDP with help of League expertise and investment. New shipyards and industrial complexes, local refinement of ores for new manufactures, greater and more varied destinations for their production.

The economies of the League worlds were booming, and programs to provide practical education were already having a serious effect on worlds captured early on in the Crusade. The Hutts had squandered most of the potential of their worlds, too busy oppressing the population to keep them from rebelling to really use what they had properly.

Despite what most people seemed to think, slave labor was actually shit for an economy. It can make a few people rich in the short term, but it tends to cause a massive negative impact in the long-run. Something the Hutts should have realized, with how long-lived they were, but which they’d never considered due to their ‘cultural bias.’ Of course, wage slavery caused the exact same issues in Core Worlds, and the politicians there were equally too stupid to realize their shit policies were what caused the need to drain the Outer Rim to support themselves.

“On this day, I declare not only that the Hutt Empire has collapsed for good, but that the League of Free Stars has pledged to erase their works and failures. To prove once and for all that their ways were weak and ineffectual. That the people were always meant to be FREE and that our success will prove it! For Freedom!”

The crowd took up the cheer, even as two bombs meant to cause havoc were defused by Jedi that had stuck around to see the end of things. Well, despite the number of people trying to kill him and disrupt his efforts to make the galaxy better, at least this time he’d only needed to give a short speech. Any longer and someone might have tried to crash a freighter into the plaza or something. Not that such would have been easy with the shield dome. It might mostly be for terraforming purposes, but he’d made sure it had the power to act as a secondary defense too. Smiling and waving to the crowd, he stepped away from the podium as the planned drone display, a replacement for fireworks that would have been foolish to use in a domed city, began…

… … …

– The Miruko: Orbit of Evocar –

“Padmé, Sabé! It’s great to see you two again!”

Aayla was on the pair instantly, the very moment the door to their private suite aboard the Miruko closed. The pair hadn’t been the first delegation to meet with Izuku and Aayla, to better dispel any rumors that might chase them. For that matter, it technically wasn’t the first time they’d seen each other since Padmé arrived for the ceremony. Each other occasion had been somewhat public, however, forcing them to act friendly-but-professional, instead of the intimate hug Aayla was pulling them into now.

With the pair entertaining a series of influential guests in their ‘private’ dining for the last few days, no one was going to suspect anything but a similar arrangement was going on between them now. They might even get the mistaken notion that Izuku had snubbed them a bit by not having the Ambassador to the League be their very first guests. Which was just fine with all of them, given that it helped hide the truth that this was intended to be a more intimate gathering, instead of a political showpiece.

Of course, that didn’t mean they were jumping straight into bed together. No, this was as much a date as it was anything more, as shown by Aayla excitedly leading them past the formal dining area and into a comfortable lounge. One that had been equipped with the sort of full-color holo system that was so common on Tythe and was now spreading to the rest of the League. Naboo, as well, as it happened. Their own home planet benefiting from being a long-time trade parter of Tythe. Now, said holo was displaying a paused scene that, if not for Aayla being captured in the frame, might have looked like an action movie.

As it was, Padmé only spared a bare thought for that, as she caught sight of not just Izuku, but Shaak Ti as well. Her breath hitched slightly at the possible implications of that, particularly given that the Torgutan Jedi was wearing a short, silky negligee instead of her usual Jedi Robes. The woman was exotically gorgeous, and certain things Sabé had been cheerfully subjecting her to since before they even arrived certainly made that fact jump to the forefront of Padmé’s mind. Trying not to blush at those thoughts, she was grateful when a beaming Izuku swept her and Sabé up in a hug nearly as energetic as the one Aayla have given them. She breathed in his scent with heady delight, having missed it since her last, short mission six months ago, to attend a major session of the League’s Council of Free Worlds.

“It’s fantastic to see you both. We thought we’d do a less formal dinner, watching some interesting highlights from Aayla and Shaak Ti’s trips in the last year as we munch on a bunch of different foods. Nothing serious, that sort of thing can wait for another time. Just some fun or interesting moments. Or, if you don’t want to do that, we can put on a holodrama instead.”

Padmé very reluctantly left his arms, so that he could see her smiling hugely.

“No! Seeing what everyone has been up to is much better! And some of the food smells like the delightfully casual fare no one ever lets me eat.”

Izuku grinned back.

“Oh, it is. Tons of unhealthy foods and lots of calories…to burn off later, of course.”

Padmé blushed at the husky promise in his tone, but didn’t have a chance to sputter a reply as he spun her towards the master bedroom.

“First, Aayla can help you get something more comfortable to wear! Then you can come back for the food and show!”

A moment later, she and Sabé found themselves at Aayla mercy, already instinctively knowing whatever they ended up wearing would be just as sexy as it was comfortable…

… … …

-Lemon Starts Here-

Padmé whined as Aayla traced her pussy lips with the back of a single fingernail, coming away glistening with natural lube despite the briefness of the contact. She squirmed, mostly helpless with her arms tied above her head, reclined in one of the loungers they’d been watching the holo from. Her negligee was long gone, though she was technically still wearing a pair of panties. Of course, that didn’t exactly matter since, true to form, Aayla had provided only the sexiest of options. Specifically, she’d provided Padmé and Sabé only with crotchless panties, after flipping up her own half-transparent babydoll sleepwear to show off a nearly-identical pair of her own.

Nearly identical, as Aayla’s had possessed a set of pearls that pressed between her lower lips, constantly digging into them a bit with every movement. The grinning temptress had informed them without remorse that Shaak Ti was wearing a pair like Aayla’s, so ‘surely the two of you can handle the merely crotchless sets.’ Somehow, the blue devil always knew exactly how to push and how much, though Sabé certainly hadn’t helped by whining about not getting the pearl version herself!

“Hmm, just what have you been doing to poor Padmé, Sabé? She’s leaking like a faucet after barely being touched!”

Padmé blushed all the way down to her exposed nipples, even as Sabé giggled from where she was sitting in Izuku’s lap, moaning a second later as he pinched her own exposed nipples with his fingers.

“Oh, I used those delightful implants Zavra gave both of last time! I numbed her clit and pussy for the last week, since the day we set off to see you. I’ve been trying to train her to cum from just anal and her nipples, but she’s not quite there yet! So, every night I’ve been edging her while we work on it. I only undid the command after we left for your suite~!”

Aayla blinked, then barked a short laugh, before returning her finger to tease Padme’s aching slit again.

“Oh, that’s evil. Perhaps we need to punish you~?”

Sabé voice was breathy, with little moans between words, as she protested.

“Hey! I activated mine too, just to be fair. Just because she hasn’t teased me as much is hardly m-myyy fault.”

That got a deep, rumbling chuckle from Shaak Ti of all people, who’d shed her clothing entirely and was playing with her own pussy openly on the lounger directly across from Padmé’s. The more exotic view was warring with the sight of Sabé’s own drooling pussy resting against Izuku’s rock-hard erection, and Aayla’s newly pierced nipples hovering near Padmé’s head as she watched the same views. The Togrutan woman’s voice was husky as she spoke up after her chuckle.

“I believe that’s an unfair comparison. I was given to believe you’re the more dominant between the two of you, yes? Perhaps we should use the implants to numb your pussy again and see if you can cum from Izuku’s attentions elsewhere?”

Sabé squirmed, moaning more heavily at the combination of that thought and the tiny amounts of friction her efforts got from grinding on Izuku with those moves. For all that she was ‘more dominant,’ Sabé was at best a switch, leaving her fighting between how hot that sounded to her and the desire to cum. She hadn’t mastered managing to do so with the implants tuned like that either, which meant a week of horniness had built up as she’d played with Padmé. Just not quite to the same degree. Aayla cut in with her own idea, mischief in her voice.

“I think I have a better idea. They can earn their chance to cum with a little competition~. One of them can eat each of us out, with Padmé getting the advantage of familiarity by working on me, since she’s the injured party. Whichever of them gets one of us off first, gets the first round with Master~. Is that alright with you, Master~?”

Padmé was fascinated to see Izuku’s cock twitch each time the word ‘Master’ rolled off Aayla’s tongue. She made a note of it, even if she didn’t think she quite had the courage to try it herself just yet…

“Hmmm, I think that’s fair. As you say, she’ll have the advantage of familiarity…but you also cum a little too easily. I think we’ll have to make sure you’re distracted by servicing me at the same time. You wouldn’t want me to get lonely, would you?”

Aayla’s smirk was all the reply he needed, as Izuku picked up Sabé with the Force and moved her over to Shaak Ti, dropping her between the Togrutan woman’s legs, before taking a moment to even the playing field fully by tying her hands behind her back. Aayla took that as her cue to tip the lounger back even farther, leaving Padmé nearly flat on her back as Aayla crawled up her body. Soon, a familiar blue pussy, freshly stripped of pearl panties, hovered over Padmé’s lips. As she could already hear Shaak Ti’s throaty moans, Sabé ruthlessly getting the jump on her, Padmé dove in without hesitation…

-Lemon Ends Here-

A/N 1: I considered making the renaming of Nal Hutta to Evocar a big part of the Ceremony, but ultimately decided it didn't quite work. Instead, I figure they did it as part of the formal invitations, then drove the point home by holding the Ceremony in a terraformed city with as many Evocii around as they could find.

A/N 2: Just for clarity sake, Padmé and Sabé don't have Zavra's full range of 'fun' implants, as many of them aren't yet suitable for humans. They have a very basic set intended to let them have certain kinds of fun without the same risks of exposure/reputation damage as wearing the belts they went off with the first time. They enjoyed the play, but couldn't justify the continuing risks, so Zavra offered an alternative. It hasn't come up yet, but they ALSO got a set of human-adjusted Bone Lace/Muscle Lace/Skin Weave. Which will come as a nasty surprise when someone inevitably tries to assassinate Padmé again...

A/N 3: Once per release, I mention that I have a P-atreon! My fanfiction content is never permanently paywalled, but I do maintain Early Access chapters for each fic. In the case of Displaced Hero, chapters 131-135, amounting to a bit over another 17,000 words, are currently in Early Access. As it happens, the current Early Access chapters finally get the fic into the Clone Wars opening! That said, while support is deeply appreciated, the chapters will be put up here, as well as on Questionable Questing and Fanfiction.net, with the next update in a month. So you can always just be patient ;-). For those that do wish to support me, you can find a link to my P-atreon in my profile, or simply search the web for 'Novus's Fanfiction Works.'