Obi-Wan

"Obi," her tired voice says as I look out the window of my room, the city illuminating the dark night. "Sweetheart come back to bed."

Another nightmare, another horrid dream that haunts me.

"It's alright darling go back to sleep, I'll be there soon," I tell her but feel her careful hand slip around my waist to hold me. "Don't let me keep you up."

"It's hard to sleep when I know why you're up," she tells me, her voice gentle. "But you don't need to face those nightmares alone, not anymore."

I look back at her and her brown doe eyes are soft, when she looks at me like this I can't help but melt for her knowing the softness in her eyes is reserved for me only. "I love you, you know that right?"

"Well I sure hope so," she says as I take her in my arms, the curls of her hair cascading down her back. "Because I love you too, and that means not having to face the nights alone."

I trace her lips and kiss her slowly, the touch of her burnt into my mind as if its only purpose is to haunt my dreams and I look down at her beautiful face knowing this isn't real.

And yet selfishly I let myself dream for a moment longer as she holds me, melting away the pain and anguish for just a moment as she tells me she loves me.

When I wake that pain comes back even worse.

I thought with time the dreams would fade and yet the more time passes the worse they become. Instead of memories of our time together it's visions of what could have been. Visions of if I fought just a bit harder, if I hid my feelings from her better, if I didn't fail her, if I'd followed Qui-Gon's counsel.

I force myself from bed and make myself a cup of caf, picking up my datapad and flick through the holonews until I stop at the sight of her face, and going against my better judgement I tap on the news coverage, just as I somehow always seem to do regardless of how I try to resist.

That first half a year the coverage of Naboo was everywhere and Rhea was right at the forefront with Padme. Padme does what she can to keep her anonymity, perhaps Rhea decided to step forward for that reason, to give them a face to project so no one became familiar enough with Padme's they'd be able to distinguish her from her handmaidens. Rhea was elected as Princess of Theed not long after the invasion, essentially a mayoral position that left me confused since civil service was never her passion, but it made sense when she began the investigation and since then with the claims regarding the Chancellor her face has again been everywhere.

Back then in those six months, I watched to see that she was alright, happy, to admire her, but also to make sure there were no physical consequences of our night together since my attempts at being safe well... they regrettably disappeared somewhere after midnight along with all other sense.

Perhaps in my moments of doubt and insecurity in those earliest days training Anakin I looked for an out, almost prayed she would come to me to give me a reason to leave, to give Anakin to a master who could train him better than I could. That she would come with the one duty that would be greater than any other, all so I could go back to her, all so I didn't have to confront my own fear of failure. Even now I fear I'm failing Anakin, day by day still having little idea of what I'm doing or if I'm doing it right and I scoff at how I could have ever thought I'd do better by a child of my own.

I know the council doubts my capabilities as well. I know how they expressed disappointed in me when I chased after her when they made the decision to not allow her to return, when they saw what I could not hide well enough. I know in the way they looked at me they saw my Master and believed I'd inherited his disobedience but not his strength. Rhea, she always had the disobedience they hated but the strength to support it, a strength even the council had to admire. That is something I do not have, I never had the strength to go through with my desire to be with her, my disobedience.

And that willingness to disobey, it didn't frighten me enough then in that moment, it would be in the aftermath that it hit me just how truly I'd betrayed my discipline with the parts of myself I'd tried to deny. The anger after my master was struck down, the fear as I watched the sith toy with her and then everything that came afterwards. I was a padawan nobody wanted, not even Master Qui-Gon, and the attributes I hated I thought I'd erased them through sheer discipline and devotion to the force and to code. Oh how I was wrong.

But there she was, telling me my feelings, my fears, everything I'd spent a decade trying to kill were natural, and not only that, she admired them, she saw them and only held me closer. The very moment I allow myself to feel those things, to accept them... again I had to bury them for the code, for Anakin, and still somehow I struggle worse than I ever did before I met her. All because her way of thinking changed mine forever, everything I was raised by the order to believe shattered. It was only then at the very end I finally understood my master, why he resisted the council and went against orders, how he tried so desperately for years to get me to see what Rhea managed to do on that night on Tatooine when we laid under the stars together.

It leaves me torn even now, trying to do what I promised Qui-Gon I would, telling myself she would tell me to do the same, yet I still crave to just hear her say it, to tell me what nobody else will.

And so when I see her face on the holonews I think what more harm can I do to myself by pressing on the article.

"The Lady Rhea Amidala has finished her term as Princess of Theed and will today face the senate as they deliberate on her investigation into the Invasion of Naboo and accusations against the chancellor."

Her face is shown, a recent holopicture of her addressing a crowd on Naboo, her hair in the same simple braid down her back, smiling, dignified, by all appearances happy, fulfilled and yet there is an emptiness in her eyes.

"Following the invasion she was elected by a landslide vote to serve a two year term as Princess of Theed and despite calls for her to succeed her sister as the second Queen Amidala she has instead taken up the newly formed mantel of General, leading the controversial militarisation of Naboo despite resistance from politicians."

I smile to myself, able to imagine how hard she must have fought for it. I can hear her now staring down a room of old politicians, cursing each of them out as she did with the council and giving them no possible space to refuse her. While I was surprised to hear she did not run to succeed Padme despite how many wanted her to it made sense to me, she's always been a protector, never the protected. 

She knows she can do more as a maverick general than she ever could as a queen bound by the rules and opinions of a council she is meant to listen to, much like Qui-Gon, and suddenly I understood why he never joined the council. If Rhea ever became queen I dare say it would be the closest thing to authoritarian rule they've had knowing her tendency to take charge instead of deliberating.

It's then live holonews is suddenly projected and reporters are filming her disembarking her ship and it's only then I realise that she is here, just across the city from me.

She's here.

There's a knock at the door and I drop my holopad in a haste to bury the evidence of what I was watching as if it was some forbidden holovid, but thankfully it's only Anakin who enters.

"Master, I was told to come and find you."

I look at my barely touched cup of caf before sighing "What for Anakin?"

"I don't know, but the council wants to see you."

Oh no, not good.

"Alright, you go and make sure you eat your breakfast and I'll find you after."

"Yes Master," he says, happy his only order at hand is to go and stuff his face full of food and I ready myself to face the council.

It can't be a coincidence they are asking to see me the moment she arrives, surely it wouldn't be a warning against seeing her. I know they suspected me of having an attachment to her, well more than suspected, but I have not acted on it since that day. Just as with Satine, they knew my feelings but I gained their trust as I did my duty and to their knowledge did not act on them. A year of longing and one night with her before we parted and years more of loving her from afar.

Then came Rhea.

Qui-Gon had taunted me not long before we went to Naboo about 'kickstarting unlikely romances with the local nobility' and then again when we'd reached Coruscant after he'd caught us out onboard the Queen's ship but when he sensed a vergence in the force his taunting quickly seized and realised my lack of self control when it came to Rhea was different to what it had been with Satine. 

I had made peace with loving Satine from afar, knowing our duties took precedence over our feelings, and even now I struggle with the guilt of having loved another.

At the time the feelings I had for Rhea shocked me and left me senseless, the intensity of them was unlike anything else I've ever felt. A burning passion and need rather than quiet and gentle devotion. At first I wanted to believe what she did, that I was seeing Satine in her, two remarkable and difficult women, even now I've tried to tell myself that is all it was.

But that would be a lie.

Every moment with her is engrained in my mind, fighting together and then each other and then together again. Satine and I, it always felt as if we were from completely different worlds, polar opposites with a shared understanding of what our duty was.

Rhea destroyed everything I believed in, from love to the force itself, laying there together under the stars and then watching the sun rise I found an understanding with her I'd never had before.

I felt as if I'd met my match with her, and since then it feels as if I've been missing a part of me. For just a moment that night together we were one in a way I never knew could be possible, as if for the first time I was truly feeling the entirety of the force through her, with her.

And there's been an ache left in its place ever since.

~

When I arrive at the council chambers, my suspicions are indeed confirmed.

"You asked to see me masters?"

"Rhea Amidala has arrived here and is due to face the senate later this afternoon," Master Windu begins and it's all I can do not to let myself reveal anything her name evokes, and especially not the fact I was already aware of this. "We hold concerns that there may be unrest due to the nature of her visit, we ask that you go to the senate and keep an eye on things."

The request certainly catches me off guard. "Are you asking me to follow her?"

"We are asking you to watch the proceedings and report to us what your intuition tells you," Master Windu elaborates and I notice how Master Billaba's eyes fall as he says "You had a close and deep understanding of Rhea Amidala and we must know if there is a risk of a plot against the Chancellor due to the serious nature of her allegations towards him."

"My intuition tells me these accusations are not false," I tell them, having been there when she saw he'd become Chancellor. I've always distrusted politicians and from the start of this scandalous investigation I'd always supported Rhea's accusations, having even debated at several times sending her a letter of support but deeming it a poor idea. "It is her duty to investigate the invasion and her investigation has clearly led her to suspect his involvement."

"Regardless, tensions are high and we need someone to be there and if needed to de-escalate the situation," Windu says and I realise the true concern behind it and the own accusation in his voice.

"You believe she is a threat?" I gape and look at her former master.

"Possibly, as much as we believe that there could be a threat to her," she answers, not liking this situation as much as I do. "If anything were to occur it was my suggestion you be the one to intervene as she holds you in her highest respects, certainly more than any member of the council."

I stand there uncomfortable at the insinuation and Master Windu says "Unless absolutely necessary we recommend you to not speak with her."

And that defiance creeps back into me as I ask "And why would that be?"

"Know well you do why," Yoda remarks, and I keep my mouth shut. "Report back to us you will."

"Yes Master," I say and leave knowing that for the first time since she kissed me goodbye I'm going to set eyes on her.

The council has given me this assignment not just because I know her, but as a test that I will not let the attachment they sensed interfere with my orders.

And I know that this is a test I may not pass.

~

Rhea

In the grand scheme of things, this is a terrible terrible idea that took a flask of whatever I had left in my ship to get me here and yet here I am standing outside the Jedi Temple.

The last time I ever saw him was as I kissed him goodbye and tore myself away before I could put either of us in anymore pain than we already were and here I am against every better judgement I have.

But I need him to tell me this is the right thing, that if the order won't take me back I should not think twice about accepting Dooku's offer no matter how treasonous the council may deem it.

With my hood drawn well over my head I climb the stairs, aiming to remain unrecognised. People from outside the order visit often to access the archives, scholars, historians, scientists even, so nobody questions me as I walk through the great hall.

The man who trained Qui-Gon is asking me to be his apprentice, and the only person I can trust with this is here in this temple. I need guidance, and there is no one else who can give it.

Hell I just need him.

Except first I have to actually find him and so I approach a young unexpecting padawan, a Togruta girl of about seven no doubt on her way to lessons.

"Hello," I smile. "Have you seen Obi-Wan Kenobi?" She doesn't recognise the name and I ask "Or Anakin Skywalker?" She nods and points to one of the doors leading out into the gardens. "Thank you."

Quickly I move on before anyone looks too closely and walk out into the gardens, it's early enough in the morning many are doing morning meditations or other lessons inside and cautiously I make my way around, staying close to the temple.

I hide behind a corner at the sound of saber training nearby.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sound of his voice after all this time.

"Do not focus on predicting and let yourself feel," I hear Obi-Wan advising Anakin and my heart stops in my chest, and suddenly I'm shaking. "The moment you let go of the worries in your mind and feel the force flow through you it will come easier."

"Master, we've been doing this for an hour," Anakin complains. "Can we do something else?"

"No," Obi-Wan sighs in frustration and I smile to myself. "Tomorrow we will, but for today this is your training."

"Is this what Master Qui-Gon did with you?" Anakin asks being smart and the offence is clear in Obi-Wan's voice.

"I did whatever my master told me to do," Obi-Wan answers, and I can't bring myself to look, just listening to him is agony enough. "And he would be telling you to do the same."

But then the boys voice quietens "Sometimes I miss Master Qui-Gon."

It's then I dare to peek and see Obi-Wan with his back to me, putting a hand on Anakin's shoulder. His figure is unmistakeable although his hair is longer, showing an auburn colour I'd never noticed when it was so short. 

"So do I Anakin, but we must not get upset."

"Why not?" he asks him, becoming defensive. "I remember you were upset when we left Naboo after the funeral."

My stomach sinks at those words and Obi-Wan struggles for an answer "Well... you have a good memory Anakin."

"I miss Padme too," he tells Obi-Wan almost defiantly, the kid still in love with my sister. "I see her on the holonews sometimes when we're in the city and I just want to watch her, to know that she's okay."

"Well Anakin," Obi-Wan sighs and he sits down beside his apprentice, their backs still to me and I'm glad because I think if I saw his face I'd break down. "It is okay to miss people, and to wonder if they're happy and safe, but we must not dwell on those thoughts."

Anakin looks at him and asks "Do you miss her sister?"

The panic in Obi-Wan's voice answers every question I've had "Why would you ask that?"

"Because I remember how happy you were when you said she'd be coming home with us, and then she didn't," he says and asks "Do you watch her on the holonews too to see if she's happy?"

I'm frozen in place, suddenly questioning what moment of madness led me to sneak into the temple and put myself here and his answer only makes it worse.

"I do, and like you miss Padme I miss Rhea but their place is on Naboo and ours is here. While we miss them we must not let ourselves remain attached," he councils, sounding every bit the perfect Jedi. "When you wonder how she is you must tell yourself she is happy, even if you are not with her, even if you miss her, know that she is happy. You see Padme on the holonews, she is doing her duty to her people just as we must do ours to the order."

"But do you ever wish you'd chosen differently?" he asks and confides in Obi-Wan. "Sometimes I wish I was still with my mom, sometimes I... sometimes I think of leaving."

I swear I can feel Obi-Wan's heart stop at those words and his voice is uneven "Anakin... I understand what it is to want to leave."

"You do?" Anakin exclaims, no doubt shocked his perfect master isn't so perfect by Jedi standards.

"Yes," he sighs and I can feel it now through the force, the pain, the regret. "I know what it is to have regrets, but I have seen both sides of it, have longed to leave and yet seen what has happened to those who did, such as Padme's sister and have felt the regrets she had."

Regrets that I was too stubborn to admit to him, but he knew.

"Why didn't she come back then?" Anakin asks as if it was that simple.

"Because the council would not allow it," he tells Anakin sadly. "But I trust that she has continued her training now she has been allowed to keep her saber, I hope that she has and that she is at peace with the force." His next words are all I need to hear "I only wish I could have had enough time to help her find that path, but I trust that she's no doubt found it herself."

With those words I force myself to move back towards the temple, abandoning whatever horribly thought out plan I had to meet him and tell him I need his counsel, that he's the only one I trust to help me with a decision as great as this. I need to do this myself. He has done his part, he has devoted himself to duty and I cannot be selfish enough to screw that up for him because I'm panicking, because I can't stop missing him.

Because I love him.

I need to make this decision myself, I can't throw myself back into his life no matter how badly I just want to hear him tell me I'm doing the right thing, that Qui-Gon would have told me to accept this. He hopes I've found the path that finally I've rediscovered and I know I may never get another chance to walk it.

Even yet as I run from the temple I know deep down that isn't the reason I brought myself here, no it was far more selfish. That it was not just his counsel I truly wanted but to hear that he's missed me as badly as I've missed him and that he too realised too late that we were in love.

I can't do that to him, I can't tear him from his duty when Anakin himself is having doubts. He couldn't bring me back, but he can do right by Anakin, and that is more important than what we feel.

Despite the pain he's made peace with the impossibility of us, and now I must as well.

I have to.

~

Obi-Wan

The halls of the senate building are busy, no one looks at me twice as I make my way through, wanting to be close enough to keep an eye on her in case there is indeed a threat to her. She is one of the most controversial figures in the galaxy with this investigation and the claims Palpatine was behind the invasion.

It only stands to reason someone would seek to silence her and if she isn't armed it could end badly. But something tells me if someone attacked her while she was armed it would end far worse for them and that by all probability she is most certainly going to be illegally armed.

Which is why I'm worried, and I'm finally beginning to understand why the council sent me here.

"Master Kenobi," a voice says and I look to see Bail Organa, an ally of Naboo's and a senator I've become half acquainted with, one of the few politicians I don't mind. "It is a surprise to see a Jedi in the senate."

"Yes well I am on assignment," I say and ask "Would you be able to point me towards the seat for Naboo?"

He quickly realises I am here out of safety concerns "Yes, I certainly can. Two floors above us Lady Amidala should be preparing for the senate to convene."

"Thank you senator."

I move to the lift and find myself anxious as I ascend to the floor, cautiously I step out of the elevator intending to stay hidden, and I'm caught unaware when suddenly a woman marches out from the other lift clad in robes of red, commanding attention and burning with an intensity only my Rhea can.

"My lady I must advise you to simply accept that the investigation will not reach the conclusion you would like," Naboo's senator advises her and it's clear she has received bad news.

"My investigation reached the conclusion that is the truth," she argues with him and the sound of her voice after so long kills me. "I am sorry you and the senate do not like the truth but you'll just have to get over it."

And there she is, as fierce as ever. Dressed in elaborate Naboo royal fashion, indicative of the new status she has forged for herself since the invasion, looking more like Queen Amidala than the girl I found wandering the streets of Theed dressed for combat. 

"Still, take your dignity with you and leave with grace."

"That has never worked in my favour," she tells him and I know that is what she did in leaving me, taking her dignity and grace with her. But now I wonder if she truly felt as composed as she tried to convince me of. By the bitterness in her words I now know the truth. "What is dignity and grace compared to the insufferable weight and regret of having not spoken the truth?"

There is an ache in her that confirms what I suspect her great regret is and I wonder now if she was as utterly distraught as I was, if she wanted to ask the same question I waited for.

If she wanted to ask me to leave with her.

And perhaps it is a mercy she left with grace instead of asking me to leave with her because I know what my heart would have answered even if my mind was torn between the thought of being with her and my duty to Anakin.

Perhaps she knew too, and that is why she never asked it of me.

"Your truth you mean."

With those words she turns back to look at him and finally I see her face, structured and adorned with makeup similar to her sisters but not as heavy, letting the golden hues of her skin shine through and even now she burns as brightly as ever. Her hair no longer in a long braid down her back as I remember it always being but in a crown around her head, a red line down her lips with red dots on her cheeks. It's only now I'm seeing her as nobility, royalty, and not just as a Jedi.

"You are here to advise me through the senatorial proceedings, not to question the results of a years long investigation," she scolds and I suddenly find myself shrinking back to where I am certainly unseen. She is indeed as hot tempered as I remember, and I certainly remember what it's like to be in the firing line of an ideological argument with her. "These are your last weeks in office, do use them to speak the truth instead of shirking from it or concealing it as your predecessor did."

I'm as proud as I am afraid of her, and maker knows I want to kiss her as much as I want to hide, but know I cannot compromise her composure in such an important moment. As if that's the only reason I shouldn't be thinking the thoughts I am.

"Or will you remove me from my position as you had my son removed?" he asks her and she looks strangely satisfied and it makes sense when he says "You struck him and broke his hand!"

"And he'll remember that next time he wishes to patronise a woman and lay hand on her," she says proudly. "And really Horace? You're trying to find your arrogant prick of a son a wife and you make the mistake of sending him my way?"

Well I suppose that answers my question of if she's found anyone else, it shouldn't surprise me she's purposefully scaring off anyone that looks at her in a way she doesn't like.

"A mistake indeed," he says and I watch as she happily marches off, her dress flowing behind her as she enters the senate chamber and I hear him sigh "God help the next senator."

I find myself in agreement there and move to the viewing gallery to keep an eye on proceedings from above since I cannot get a clear view anywhere else.

But from the moment proceedings start, it's clear she isn't going to get the justice she seeks.

"The senate has a split vote on the motion to consider the findings of the investigation," the moderator says and I watch her shake her head. "It will be referred to the Chancellor for the final vote."

But she speaks up and asks "How can the Chancellor be the deciding vote on an investigation on which he is the subject?" There are murmurs from around the room and I watch in concern as she continues. "How is that democratic? That the man at the centre of an investigation can decide to dismiss it!"

There are calls for order and the chancellor finally speaks.

"It should be known to the senate that Lady Amidala is a troubled woman," Palpatine begins and I watch her eyes burn. "She was expelled from the Jedi Order at the mere age of fourteen for the crime of murder."

With those words her reputation should be destroyed but I watch her fake horror at those words, as if she had been prepared for them "That is a very serious allegation to make Chancellor and one that truly wounds me. I am just a young woman trying to help my people and you accuse me of being a cold blooded murderer?" 

She even manages to inflict pain in her voice and one thing is for certain, she's become self aware of the power she can have when she dresses a certain way and abuses the fact she is a beautiful young woman, feigning innocence better than she could otherwise. I know that killing the slave owner wasn't an act of cold blooded murder, but she is far from innocent and she's never pretended otherwise. At least not to me but this is the senate after all.

"I only speak the truth," the Chancellor says but the senate has taken pity on her and he knows it. "I advise you to do the same."

She puts a hand on her chest as she says "I was expelled for the crime of having too much love in my heart to adhere to their code." I stand there surprised at the show she puts on. "For loving my family who were imprisoned during the invasion, for loving my dear sister the Queen who was put in an impossible position to save our people when the senate decided to deliberate on the matter of a would be genocide!" Is this the public image she's curated? Behind closed doors she is very much still herself but in public she is every bit graceful and generous, I've seen glimpses of it in footage of her public appearances but never like this. Never caring what anyone thought of her. "Innocent people were tortured and killed on the Trade Federations orders whilst you ran your campaign for office! So please Chancellor, stand here now and address the atrocity that occurred instead of fueling such cruel rumour and do your duty to our people who have suffered tremendously in condemning the Trade Federation and admitting your part in it."

She has learned from being in the public eye long enough now that an angry woman does not have the same affect as an angry man, and so she appeals to their hearts instead of arguing how she no doubt wishes she could. Palpatine wants to paint her as a troubled and hysterical woman to stir doubt, and she has foiled his plan brilliantly. She has always been brilliant I've just never seen her use her mind to fool an entire senate. 

She might have the politicians of Naboo terrified but she has certainly learned from Padme how to forge herself in the public eye, even if the person she is playing is a disguise in itself. Dressed royally, playing the part of the Princess of Theed, a beautiful and tragic woman who just wants to help her people. Not a warrior who wants justice and would single handedly berate every last person who stands against her if given the opportunity.

"Very well," the Chancellor says and I can feel the displeasure in his voice at having someone out-manipulate the senate. "As Chancellor I have read the findings of your investigation, and have found many of your accusations to be utterly baseless conspiracy. I will accept that the Trade Federation made an error, but there is simply no further action to be taken and I have dismissed this investigation."

"An error?" she repeats, her facade slipping. "How is invasion and mass imprisonment of innocent men, women and children a mere error? How is the torture of the Queen's staff for information an error?" It's then she addresses the senate and I realise what she's doing, she knows the investigation will be dismissed, but she wants to stir as much discourse amongst the senators as she can. "Children were being grouped into camps by battle droids and the senate responds with mild sanctions that have already lost their effect. I demand true consequence for the Trade Federation!"  She raises a copy of the report high for them all to see "In this report is all the evidence needed to substantiate the claims that have been made, it would be a miscarriage of justice for the Chancellor to not pass the motion to have them seen and considered by the senate!"

It's as voices begin to raise alongside others in the senate I realise just why I was sent here and have a hand over my saber. It's then her facade of the noble and calm tempered Princess is utterly shattered and there is the Rhea I know.

"And yet the Chancellor who claims to have had no part in this defends them and refuses to even have the evidence in these findings publically heard!" She looks at the Chancellor as the senate goes into an uproar and I can see it in her eyes, a victory. "This is a disgrace to democracy, how can a man dismiss an investigation in which he has been found liable! I dare say this is a representation of the fragile state of what the Republics democracy has become and the Chancellor should be dismissed from office!"

My eyes widen at that statement, she's always been an idealist ideologically but to stand before the senate and claim the republic has failed democratically... I can finally see the sheer anger in her she's fought to conceal. She's always been an extremist in her beliefs regarding the order, I just didn't know the extended to the Republic as a whole.

"Order!" the moderator orders as the senate erupts into what can at best be called heated debate and at worst a riot and there is almost a smile on her face as she becomes an agent of true chaos. "The Lady Amidala is dismissed from the senate chamber!"

The senator for Naboo is absolutely horrified as she returns their pod to the dock and marches out of the senate, it's then without a second thought I begin pushing through the viewing gallery to get to the levels below to catch her before she disappears. There is not a thought in my head, only the need to see her but by the time I make it to the level she was on she isn't there and the senate is still in chaos. I'm running out the side door of the senate building and find an equally chaotic crowd at its doors, having been watching the broadcast.

The senate may be cursing her, but the crowd- the crowd is the one screaming prophanities at the senate. She knew what she was doing, and it worked.

I'm searching the crowd and my eyes find the hanger outside the senate chambers where security guards are holding the crowd back, and I'm pushing through when I spot her red figure heading for her ship under the escort of armed Naboo security guards.

"Rhea!" I call out from in the crowd and she looks back but her eyes fail to find mine before she is pulled on board the ship and the ramp raises.

And again I stand there in defeat as I watch her leave.

No less painful than the last. 

And somehow I feel in that moment as if I've failed her.

~

Rhea

Perhaps hearing his voice was an omen, but it did little to stop me as I made my way to Serenno, having seen the senate in its worst form. I played the part of the noble princess, appealing for their sympathies when I knew my anger would be used against me. 

If there is a victory in this it's that Palpatine could not humiliate me.

Dooku is in his office waiting for me, my decision having been made the moment Palpatine tried to ruin me. Obi-Wan said himself he hopes I've found my path as a Jedi, this is the right choice.

It has to be.

"Your show was most impressive," Dooku tells me. "I believe you have more than demonstrated your potential to play a key role in what is to come."

"What is to come?" I repeat, but somehow I already knew.

"All will come to be revealed in time," he assures me. "I trust you've made your decision."

"I have," I declare, and yet couldn't deny the sinking feeling in my stomach. "Master."