━━ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

heartbreak  ━━━━━

━━━━━▼━━━━━

. . . ESHAN, INNER RIM

WYNN LIFTED A HAND out of the soapy water and levitated a bubble as high as it could go before it popped. The water smelled of mint and was cool against her skin. Luxury had never felt so easy as this. The anniversary festivities still felt blissfully far off even though their official start was mere hours away.

There was a knock at the door. After a brief pause, Elja's muffled voice asked, "May I enter, your Majesty?"

"You may," Wynn called after she reluctantly stepped out of the bathwater and donned a remarkably soft dressing robe. The door opened a second later to reveal Elja dressed in the outfit that had been fitted for Wynn.

"Where are the ladies maids?" Wynn asked, wringing out her hair. "They were hovering like flies near the door."

"I dismissed them to fetch your gown." Elja fidgeted with the cuff of her rather plain sleeve. A strange vertigo pulled at the sight of her sister masquerading as her. No jewels adorned her, no intricate patterns of weaving decorated her gown. "It will have to be me who does your hair. Yours is far too short to be believed. Sit."

Wynn took a seat on the cushioned stool in front of the vanity. The queen's dressing room was nearly half the size of Wynn's entire guest bedroom in the palace. It was, like the rest of the royal suite, remarkably bare. Not one personal item cluttered the shelves of the dressers. Wynn recalled playing hide and seek once with Elja while their mother was being dressed for a ball in this room.

Now it was only the two of them dancing with hollow ghosts of their shared past.

"I envy you," Elja said suddenly.

Wynn grunted as Elja yanked too hard on her hair. "I cannot imagine why."

"Can't you?" Elja told her quietly. "You walk through this world as if it is the easiest thing. You command an army, you return here and master our customs. You speak with dignity, with confidence. There is nothing you cannot do. I am stuck here in my bitterness. I walk through the world as if it owes me something it will never pay."

Wynn stared at her sister through the mirror. The same silver eyes that had seen lives that were different and still parallel, intersecting time and again. Her shoulders sagged. "What you do not see is that I am a failure amongst Jedi. My nature of bending rules is a dangerous one. I only act with confidence because I am too selfish to accept reality."

Elja just shook her head. "You are too modest."

"I am honest," Wynn insisted. For the first time in her life, she felt as though she were the older sister again. "You have been brave in the way you needed to be, and so have I."

"My people are starving in the streets. My daughter, the heir to the Echani throne, has barely seen the outside of these walls because every day, I fear for her life," Elja hissed, bitter anger lacing her tone. "I have failed them all."

"You are a victim of this war just as much as any ruler," Wynn told her evenly. "I am not quite convinced it is the Bengali that are working against us, either. The Separatist leaders enjoy the long game of trickery and corruption. You are not weak, it is a testament to your strength that you still have more than a fighting chance of fixing things."

Elja finally smiled. It was a soft one; Wynn would have to remind her to smile more while she was pretending to be an unruly Jedi. "You would have made a good queen," her sister told her.

"A good one, perhaps," Wynn mused. "But Eshan did not need another good queen. They need a great one, which is lucky that they have you."

Elja smoothed the side of Wynn's hair, tucking a stray flyaway back into one of the intricate braids that were tied in a bun at the nape of her neck to disguise its true length. Satisfied with her work and unable to accept the compliment, Elja turned her attention to the pocket at her waist.

"You left this behind some years ago," Elja told her, producing a silver dagger. The Hallbera crest was carved in the metal of its handle. "I kept it safe, but I could never bring myself to return it to you. I suppose–" she hesitated "–I suppose I believed that if it were still here, there would always be a reason for you to return to Eshan. Something to bind you to this place, one last remaining tie to your old home. It was a childish comfort, and I believe it is high time you had it back."

Wynn accepted the blade and held it gingerly in her fist. "I thought I had lost it," she laughed a little, "I used it to cut my hair and never saw it again."

Elja let out a bark of honest laughter that echoed all the way to the ceiling. "You used an heirloom blade to cut your hair–how poetic."

"I was prone to theatrics."

"I fear you still are, dear sister. Do not misplace it again," she told her, growing more serious. "You may yet need to use it."

Wynn would be unable to carry her sabers today. They had gone back and forth about whether or not she should be armed at all, but Wynn was not worried. She had her armed guard at her beck and call, and now she had a dagger. "Thank you, Elja. I'm sure it will be nothing more than a decoration."

Elja shot her a look of caution, perhaps even one of worry, but then it subsided. She clasped her hands at her waist, and in the best imitation of Wynn's accent, she said in Basic, "I will send for your ladies maids to dress you. I worry we are running late."

※ ·❆· ※

THE LANDING strip was filled with all matter of ships. Obi-Wan stood at the head of the staircase, vetting guests as they passed by. Ahsoka was on the other side of the stairs, and Anakin was supposed to be their second set of eyes. Currently, he was busy talking to Padmé, who had just arrived.

"Seen anything yet?" Ahsoka asked through their coms.

"No," he grunted. The Bengali had already gone inside and seemed nothing but cordial. He sensed no malice in them. "And I can't decide if that's a good thing or not."

"Me either," she said back. "We don't have any leads. Any one of these people could be plotting, and we might never know."

The door opened from the inside and Elja appeared. Upon noticing Padmé nearby, she kept a careful distance.

"Elja's ready for you," she told Obi-Wan in a passable imitation of Wynn's accent.

"Wynn?" Padmé asked, beginning to walk up the stairs. "Are you alright? You sound like you caught a cold."

Maybe not so passable.

"I'm fine," she smiled weakly. Elja looked very uncomfortable to be stared at, and though she wore Wynn's lightsabers at her waist, she kept her hands from drifting too close to their hilts.

Padmé frowned, increasingly suspicious.

Discomfort nagged at Obi-Wan. Responsibility had begun to encroach with the dawn, and even as he woke with his arm draped across Wynn, he couldn't help but begin to worry. In a few days time they would return to Coruscant and he would take his seat on the council. For the longest time, he would have rolled his eyes at the false status of a seat. Now, he knew it might be his only chance to have a say in their response to the war as it rolled bloodily into an uncertain future.

His lightsaber tapped lightly against the thin armor as he rounded the corridor. Voices and laughter echoed from the great hall, a sure sign that the party was nearly in motion. All that was missing was the queen.

Obi-Wan knocked once, waiting. A handmaiden opened the door and let him in.

"Ah, Master Jedi," the Queen said without turning. "Is it time?

She stood in front of the mirror at the end of the room with two ladies maids fussing with the hem of her dress. It was an understated cut, but the intricate patterns of silvery blue beadwork were just as mesmerizing as any ballgown.

He adjusted his guard captain's helmet in his arms. "Almost, your Majesty. We're just waiting for the rest of your delegation to arrive."

"Very good." the Queen turned her head to the side, hardly raising her voice. "Leave us."

The ladies maids strode out of the room, glancing once at Obi-Wan and then ducking their heads again. The Echani were devout pious, but he suspected that did nothing to stifle gossip. It was imperative that every servant of the castle be under the impression that there had been no switch at all.

Only when the door shut with an echoic groan did Wynn drop her shoulders. In an instant, she became his Wynn again, the one who was far too quick to laugh to blend as Elja for very long. "I must say, it's not difficult to get used to having people wait on me at all hours of the day."

Her hair was pinned at the nape of her neck in a beautiful braid of thick white hair. A bolt of desire ran through him. He wanted to run his fingers through it, to undo what was so meticulously done.

He shook the thought away. "I came to get you, they're ready," he told her. He let his hand hover briefly on the hilt of his saber. "And I wanted to make sure you weren't having second thoughts."

"Second thoughts? You sound like my sister." She let out a loud laugh as she turned fully to face him, brushing back the beaded silk cape on her shoulders and stepping closer. Her shoes let out a delicate tap with each step. "It's a little late for that."

"It's never too late."

"No? You, the most sworn to his vow, are telling me this now?"

He looked away and scoffed. "Don't look at me like that, Wynn."

Pleased, her lips spread into an easy grin. "Like what?"

It was hard to look away from her. The dress fit her body like a glove, concealing the hard lines of a warrior's muscle and revealing the soft curves of a queen. "Like you're not taking this as seriously as you ought to," he sighed, grasping at nothing.

"Nothing is going to happen, Obi-Wan. We've gone over this so many times, I have it memorized. Verbatim."

Wynn walked to the window and looked out on the vast blue sea beyond the Royal yard, and he could imagine her doing the same thing when she was younger. Always looking out at the future.

"There's a reason your sister will be sitting in safety. A whole planet of warriors, and you can't see why it's troubling that they of all people require a decoy?" He muttered, lips twisted in a frown.

She turned to face him, silver eyes piercing. "This could have been my life. It is still my birthright to wear this crown, and it is still my fault that Elja cannot even bring herself to trust her own leadership. This will fix a tear that I caused years ago," Wynn said, daring to take a step closer to him. "A future that I can mend. Don't you understand what that means to me?"

"Perhaps better than anyone else. But there is danger here, can't you sense it? The Separatists are too cunning, too quick. It could be over before we even realize what has happened."

Her eyes cut to the crown that still sat on the vanity table. "I've already been killed once. Half of me is already dead. What makes you think someone would be brave enough to try again?"

"Wynn," he admonished.

"Obi-Wan," she parrotted.

"You talk about death so lightly."

"It waits for us all." Her old refrain. When he couldn't hide his distress, she began to frown. "What is it?"

He had sworn he would never say anything. He would not complain or lament. It could not be helped now. "I saw you on Mortis. The version of you that is the keeper of the World Between Worlds."

Wynn looked away, remarkably apathetic. "I see."

"I don't think you do," he said fiercely. "I had to watch you die, Wynn, and now I relive the feeling every day."

"Trust me," she said with an icy stare. "I know what I've done. I have to make peace with knowing that my whole life has already been given in the service of a future I won't live to see. I can only hope that with time I'll become less bitter, but I feel as if the world has already left me behind."

Obi-Wan gripped a frustrated hand to his chin, raking his fingers through his beard. "It hasn't left you behind."

She let out a sardonic laugh. "It might as well have. Everyone was right to warn me, and I never listened."

"Then listen to me now when I say that this is too dangerous. We can't guarantee anything in relation to your safety. If you were to be killed, there are no second chances. You would be lost."

He was rambling. Now, their faces were hardly a hands length away. He could barely meet her eyes, but when he did, everything stopped. Time, the future, the Force, it had all opened up a small chasm where they were standing, leaving them both a few spare seconds of precious time to themselves. They were running late now and an entire planet was waiting for them.

"That's what I am to you, aren't I?" she said with sudden realization. "I've always been some kind of liability. I wonder if you love the danger of it more than you've ever loved me," she accused.

He looked at her, taking in her appearance like he had for years. Then the words of Elja filtered through his mind. Only those who know them in love can tell siblings apart. It might have been another Echani myth, but it felt real. Standing in front of Wynn, it felt so very real.

"I am in love with you. And I'm not feeling this because it's dangerous. You are the only thing in my life that has ever been constant."

"And the code?" Wynn asked heartlessly. Tears had begun to well in her eyes. "Your position on the Council?"

"You cannot ask me to give up the things I've built my life around."

"Then you cannot ask me to forgive you for them."

The words pierced through flesh. He was a negotiator without peer, and yet it was now that he paid the price. No response came to him now.

Anger and frustration ran rampant. "What am I supposed to do, Wynn? What are either of us supposed to do about this?" He grit his teeth, heart racing.

"I don't know!" she yelled. "I loved you before I even knew what love was. I have visions of the future. I have the power of the gods and still, I cannot for the life of me find a way that we make it out of this."

In the wake of her admission, they just stared at each other. A queen and her guard, a Jedi and his closest friend, everything they had ever been. When he was younger he would have run away with her. But now he was older, and responsibility had driven a stake between them. Born out of dedication and loyalty. Neither of them was brave enough or foolish enough to make the hard choice. The easy choice.

Moving over to the table, he picked up the iron crown that still sat on its gilded stand. It was heavier than he assumed it would be. "It isn't enough, I know," he told her. "But I wish I could promise you a future." Gently, he placed the crown on her head. The last piece of their plan in place.

She gently grabbed his arm before he had lowered it fully. "If you knew how this was all going to end would you take it back?"

He remembered when they were fifteen and had snuck out of the Temple. They had walked side-by-side through the Undercity and for the first time he had thought about what he might risk to be close to her. And then all of those years waiting for her to return, relishing the sight of her when she did. It was all too brief.

"It would be easier that way, wouldn't it," he sighed, running a hand along her arm.

"What kind of answer is that?" she demanded.

He only smiled sadly. "I think you know I would never change anything. If I could go back, I would tell whatever fate or power that brought us together to do it again."

※ ·❆· ※

WYNN stared into the mirror. Her reflection felt foreign and though her tears had dried, the emptiness in her chest remained. It might have been a good thing; it made it far easier to drain her mind and play this part.

She had been a fool to think that there could be any permanence.  Love was not enough.  It would not get them past the council, it would not even tie them together after they left this planet.  It made her sick.  It brought her near rage.

"Your Highness, is something troubling you?" Isak Blaer asked.

Wynn shot him a look, assuming Elja would have snapped at him for even suggesting something of the sort. "Of course not. Tell the herald I am ready."

He nodded and turned, raising a hand to signal to the guards at the doorway. Everyone else stepped back, leaving only Wynn to stand in front of the double doors. The words being announced on the other side of the door were muffled, but she still heard them. "Her Highness Queen Elja Tora of House Hallbera."

The doors opened and Wynn's heart caught in her throat at the sight below her. All of the lamps had been light and the ballroom was decorated in simple taste. The floors shone like glass, though not much of it was visible beneath the hundreds of pairs of feet. In seconds, she had spotted Elja, who stood next to Ahsoka. Her sister gave her a brief nod of approval as Wynn crossed to the railing at the top of the stairs where she would give her address.

"Welcome esteemed guests and friends," Wynn began. She could see the words of her script in her mind. "Today marks the eleventh year since our joining of the Galactic Republic Senate. This day holds profound significance, as eleven is a sacred number, a representation of the pillars of our strength and unity, inspired by the divine. As we gather in celebration, let us honor our journey and look forward to a future guided by wisdom and valor. May the gods bless this joyous occasion and our continued alliance within the Republic."

Applause rang out through the hall and the music began to play again. Dozens of eyes turned to her as she descended the stairs, waiting for a chance to speak with her. Much to her disappointment, Padmé Amidala was first in line. She looked resplendent in a gown of deep blue that glimmered like stars.

"Your Majesty." She dipped into a curtsy. "Thank you for inviting us. It's been so long since I've seen you."

Wynn didn't smile. Elja had told her that Padmé had been a great help during their transition to full membership in the senate. It was startling to find out that her sister could almost be considered a friend to Padmé. "Too long, indeed."

It was terrifyingly unclear if Padmé had figured out the ruse yet. She only smiled as if she was simply glad to be there with a glass of champagne in her hand. "I won't keep you. I'm sure there are many people here who require your attention."

"Indeed, Senator," Dagny said, swooping in to steer the Queen off to mingle with the rest of their guests.

And mingle she did. She spoke to three Echani tradesmen, a ship-building magnate, the representative from Fashni, one of her councilwomen from Nayli, and finally the Bengali ambassador. The blue-skinned man was aloof, but there was no hostility in his tone. In fact, he spoke glowingly about the new trade routes that connected the Six Sisters to the rest of the Outer Rim.

"You are leading us to victory, no matter where we find ourselves in this war," he told her as he stepped away.  He bowed in reverence, leaving Wynn to wonder why Elja had ever been concerned with the Bengali at all.

She saw Obi-Wan briefly, but he, Anakin, and Ahsoka were busy circulating through the crowd, doing their job as she did hers. Elja stuck close to Dagny, saying very little and looking very nervous. It was a good thing that no one at the party had been acquainted with Wynnetka Adairi before. They must have assumed the long-lost Jedi sister was a terrible bore indeed.

By the time she saw Isaak Blaer again, three hours had elapsed. Her feet ached, she wanted the ball to be over, and everytime she glimpsed Obi-Wan her heart broke over itself. There was still a whole second day of festivities ahead.

But now it was time for her to dance.

Isaak led as the music played. Wynn had barely had time to admire the opulence of the room and the rich, seductive sound of the string instruments.

"How are you finding the delegates?" he asked, adjusting his hand on her waist.

Her heavy dress was supposed to be armor, but it felt rather like a burden. "Very well. Exceedingly well, actually. I am surprised by the optimism the Bengali have expressed. It is nothing like we anticipated."

"Nothing is ever what it seems, is it?" he remarked, still smiling. He looked almost robotic with that unchanging expression.

Wynn frowned. "I suppose not." She glanced over her shoulder. Dagny stood off to the side, watching alone. Where had Elja gone? "Have you seen my sister anywhere? I worry she isn't enjoying herself."

"Do not concern yourself, Your Majesty," he said, spinning her once. "I am sure she is just fine."

They danced a minute longer. When the song ended, she moved to step away, but Isaak's grip on her hand tightened.

"Another dance?" he offered. The music began to play again, and guests were beginning to dance around them.

"There are other guests I must speak to." Wynn tried to pull away, but he didn't let her move.

"You have done enough already." When he looked at her now, her skin crawled. She could sense clearly that Isaak had not been fooled by their ruse. Or perhaps, he had known all along.

Her heart stopped. She could no longer find Obi-Wan in the crowd. For that matter, Anakin and Ahsoka weren't in sight. Dagny too was nowhere to be seen.

"What is this?" she hissed.

A shout echoed down the hallway and the music came to an abrupt end.

Isaak Blaer smiled gruesomely. "I fear you are already too late, my Queen."

━━━━━▲━━━━━

a/n obi-wan is francesca by hozier coded confirmed.

so the Echani dagger that wynn has actually used to have a lot more significance but then I was searching and searching and realized I actually cut the scene where she uses it to cut her hair for the first time, it's so symbolic blah blah blah. Just a reminder that killing your darlings only works if you write down what exactly you killed lol

the next chapter is gonna be insane.  I would love to know if you have any predictions or thoughts at all!!!