Chapter Text
2 minutes later
The Bridge
‘The Outcast’
“What’s going on?” Anakin demanded as he strode in to the sound of alarms blaring and the clones snapping at each other.
“Fighters and bombers came out of hyperspace and converged on the starboard side General,” Rex reported. “They’ve got the Imperial symbol on them.”
“Any hails?” Anakin snapped out.
“None,” Fives said. “They fired, we’ve fired back, that’s about the length of the conversation. Deploying fighters to counterattack.”
Seconds later a stream of one and two-man fighters soared over the main body of ‘The Outcast’. Anakin tracked them, almost absent-mindedly zeroing in on Luke’s fighter as he spun through space.
“Prepare a jump to hyperspace,” the former General ordered. “And tell the fighters that they’ve got three minutes to be back in the hangers, we’ll cover them. I want to go to hyperspace as soon as possible to avoid any major damage to the ship. Unlike in the Clone Wars, we don’t have any other cruisers for back-up.”
“Yes sir,” came a chorus of clone voices.
Minutes that seemed to last an eternity later they blurred to hyperspace.
“Do a full systems check,” Anakin ordered. “Go over every single aspect of this ship, I want to know how they found us, and if they can track us again. Go to security level 5, and redirect all future shipments to this vessel elsewhere until we are fully secure. All crew members must hand in personal comms and datapads. Any communications from this vessel must be done through authorised encrypted channels.”
“Run background checks on every crew member not part of our family,” Padme added. “Dig as deep as you need to Echo. I want to know everything.”
“Yes ma’am,” Echo replied, already moving to his personal office. The other clones were already starting to move purposefully around the command centre to complete the tasks that they had split up between them with the ease of men who had worked with each other for years.
Padme tilted her head upwards as her husband’s heat settled against her back, his arms twining around her waist. “How could this have happened?” she murmured. “We’re so careful.”
“We went to Byss,” Anakin murmured into her ear. “We put ourselves into Palpatine’s sight again.” Padme shuddered in his arms.
“And he traced you somehow?” she whispered back. He nodded against her head. “How?” A movement as Anakin shrugged.
“The Dark Side of the Force has a lot of power,” he said.
Padme twisted in his arms to cup his face with her hands. “But a single candle can hold darkness back,” she said passionately. “I love you.”
Her husband smiled softly. “As I love you.”
“We have to tell the New Republic,” Padme continued softly. “We have the footage now, we have proof beyond the Palpatine clones to tell them that the remnants of the Empire are stirring.”
“They’ll want us to talk to the Chancellor,” Anakin reminded her. “It can’t be either of us, certainly none of the clones, and I’d be hesitant for Leia or Luke to do it.”
Her brow creased for a moment in thought before it cleared. “Han,” Padme declared. Anakin choked on air for a moment. “Han,” she insisted. “With a comm to feed him his responses, and Leia and I in the room out of the view of the holo.” She huffed at his sceptical look. “Who else are you going to trust with this?”
“Fine.”
2 hours later
Secure communicatons room
‘The Outcast’
“I’m really not sure about this,” Han Solo grumbled, tugging at his jacket as he stood in front of the holo.
“Stop fussing,” Leia snapped back, quickly straightening his collar. “Mum and I will give you the answers to any tricky questions that they ask, for the rest of it, just trust your instincts and remember, say as little as possible.”
“I got it, I got it,” he batted her hands away from him, checked his blaster in its holster and took a deep breath.
“You got this Han!” Luke gave him a thumbs up from his place at the other end of the long table, safely out of view of the holocomm.
“Hey!” Han shrugged to settle his coat on his shoulders again and flashed them all a bright grin. “It’s me!”
Leia and Luke shot him unconvinced looks in tandem as Padme swept in.
“Are we ready?” she demanded.
“All set,” her eldest son replied. “Heavily encrypted of course, and I’ve made sure that they won’t be able to view this side of the room at all, or hear us.”
“Good,” she checked her chrono. “Three minutes. Where is your father?”
“Here,” Anakin strode in.
The same time
The Chancellor’s Office
Coruscant
“Do we know what this is about?” Mace Windu questioned, a frown on his serious face.
“No,” Chancellor Mothma replied. “All we know is that Geworpena Ventures sent an encrypted message where they asked to speak urgently to myself regarding the Imperial Remnant. Thus far their information has all been correct, so we are granting them the opportunity.”
“I wonder if it will be Colonel Kabadi?” Senator Breemu mused from her seat in front of the Chancellor’s desk. “She is who we have dealt with so far.”
“Perhaps,” Mothma said. “Or perhaps we shall finally meet the mysterious founders of Geworpena Ventures.”
The holocomm on the desk began to beep. Mothma straightened herself and answered.
“This is Chancellor Mothma,” she said crisply.
“I am Han Solo,” the man on the other end of the holocomm drawled, a Correllian accent lacing his words. “Pleasure to meet you Chancellor.”
“And I you Mister-”
“Captain,” he interrupted.
“Captain Solo,” Mothma gently corrected herself without acknowledging the interruption. Behind her comm a couple of the Jedi Masters exchanged glances. “Are you one of the leaders of Geworpena Ventures?”
“Hardly a diplomat,” Ki-Adi Mundi murmured. Mace Windu inclined his head in silent agreement.
The Corellian on the holo had hurriedly shaken his head at the Chancellor’s question. “Not me, no, I’ve got no liking for that kind of authority,” he answered. “I was just involved in the attack that we’ve got to tell you about.”
“An attack?” Mothma repeated sharply.
“Yep,” he replied laconically. “’The Outcast’ was waiting to go to hyperspace in the Mid Rim when we were attacked by a fleet of ships bearing the Imperial Crest. They were an organised fighting force and they were targeting us. We’re transmitting footage of the attack now.”
A holo flashed up on screen, a view from the cameras of a capital ship as it was attacked by fighters and bombers. The ship launched its own fighters to combat them, but in every one of the brief dogfights that could be viewed through the holo, the enemy was clearly displaying the Imperial symbol.
“This is… disturbing,” Mothma said after a pause.
“We’re aware that the New Republic doesn’t believe that the Imperial Remnant is any great threat,” the Captain continued, while the holo was playing silently in the background. “But that is clearly not true. We respectfully request that your intelligence services look into the Remnant in more detail. It is clear that they are starting to work more coherently, and are becoming more dangerous if they will attack so brazenly.”
“You can think of no reason that they would attack you?” Bail Organa asked.
Captain Solo took a breath before answering. “None.”
“Thank you for the information,” Mothma said after a short silence. “We will, of course, look into the attack, verify your information and proceed as we deem appropriate.”
“Pleasure doing business,” Solo tapped his fingers to his temple in a mockery of a salute and the holo winked out.
“Strange man,” the Chancellor murmured under her breath as she leant back in her chair.
“I’m surprised that he was picked to speak to us,” Bail agreed. “Hardly the most diplomatic of men. There must have been other options.”
“Perhaps,” Senator Breemu shrugged. “Perhaps he is merely blunt.”
“Did you notice the pause before he answered your question Bail?” Master Kenobi asked. “There is something more going on there. I think there might be a reason why the Imperial Remnant attacked ‘The Outcast’, a reason that they are not telling us. That might be something for New Republic Intelligence to look into as well.”
“I agree,” the Chancellor responded. “General Madine, at the same time as looking into the Imperial Remnant, look into their connections to Geworpena Ventures. See if you can find out why they were specifically targeted. And see if we can find out if they are going to be attacked again. And,” she hesitated. “We haven’t done this yet, but with the new developments I think it’s time. See if you can get someone onto ‘The Outcast’.”
“It will be harder now than it ever was before,” Senator Breemu contributed. “I expect they are already taking measures to protect themselves. Colonel Kabadi had a security team with her at the gala, despite the security measures already in place, and every conversation I’ve had with her has been over an encrypted line. I would be surprised if their capital ship isn’t already locked down.”
Comms Room
The Outcast
The same time
The minute the comm went dead Han wrenched the earpiece out of his ear and wriggled out of his jacket.
“Well done,” Padme praised from the other end of the table. “You gave all the right answers Han, and you didn’t give too much away.”
“So now what?” he asked.
“Now we wait and see what the New Republic comes up with,” Anakin said firmly. “And we secure our own borders. Let’s get those new security protocols written.”
“I wonder,” Luke hesitated, and then shook his head.
“No, go on,” his father urged.
“Do you think that there’s a chance that the New Republic might try and infiltrate us?” he asked. “If they’re wondering if there’s a reason that we were attacked in particular, they might try and get onboard to see if they can find out.”
Leia and Han exchanged alarmed looks as Padme frowned. “It’s possible I suppose,” she answered. “We’ll just have to be even more careful than we are already with our background checks, and those of us who are more recognisable will have to be extra careful to conceal our faces when we leave our private quarters.”
“Meaning you, me Ahsoka, and the clones,” Anakin agreed. “Han see if you can get some of those face shields the next time you drop into one of the planets with a thriving black market.”
“Yes sir.”
11 months later
The Chancellor’s Office
Senate Building
Coruscant
“I’m afraid that we haven’t been able to get anyone onto the ‘Outcast’ ma’am,” Madine reported. “If what they’re using now are tightened security protocols, I’d hate to know what their more relaxed ones were. We used to be able to guess what system of the galaxy their capital ship was stationed in, now we’re lucky if we know what quadrant. We think that ‘Outcast’ is moving systems everyday, and that their other big transport ships are being used as a meeting point more often. They’ve also swapped what ships are transporting to the ‘Outcast’. If you’ve been associated with them less than five years they’re not letting you anywhere near the headquarters.”
Mothma frowned, brow furrowed in thought. “Senator Breemu,” she said after a moment.
“Chancellor?”
“You have a relationship with that Colonel, the one who led the initial negotiations, do you not?” she asked.
“Yes, I do,” the Senator confirmed. “I’ll contact the headquarters and ask to speak to her. Maybe see if we can get an in-person meeting to discuss any intel with her. One that the Jedi could come to?”
“We would certainly be willing,” Windu confirmed from where he had been standing silently in the corner of the room.
“Do that,” Mon nodded.
2 weeks later
Senator Breemu’s office
Senate Building
Coruscant
“Colonel Kabadi I’m so pleased you could make the time to speak to me!” Breemu greeted brightly.
The young human on the other end of the call raised an eyebrow before responding. “Your office was very persistent Senator,” she said dryly. “I might almost think that the New Republic did not understand what it meant to be put off.”
“Your deflection was impressive,” the Senator agreed. “And at any other time I might have left it be and tried again. But with the situation with the Imperial Remnant developing, I’m afraid that I needed to speak with you.”
“A development?” the Colonel quirked an eyebrow. “Our intelligence has not revealed any development and, forgive me Senator, our intelligence in the Outer Rim I believe to be a fair sight better than the New Republic’s. In some ways you have learnt from the lessons of the Old Republic, but,” she shook her head. “In many ways you have not.”
“We can discuss that at another time,” Banu replied.
Colonel Kabadi twisted her lips in obvious disagreement at the Senator’s assertion but nodded nonetheless. “Very well. What is that you wished to discuss?”
“We’d prefer not to do it over encryption,” the older woman demurred.
“A meeting in person?”
“Yes, the two of us, any security that we both might wish, and a couple of Jedi Masters.”
Kabadi stilled but then went back to tapping on the datapad in front of her. “We will pick the meeting point,” she said flatly after a moment. “Two weeks from now? I’ll send you a location over encryption.”
“I think my security might have an objection to an unknown location,” Breemu started to protest before Kabadi cut her off again.
“It’s my location or nothing,” she said definitively. “I’ll be there for two hours only. Don’t be late.”
The comm hung up a moment later.
The agreement from the hierarchy of the New Republic was grudging, but it was agreement nonetheless after Senator Breemu pointed out that if they didn’t agree, they would get nothing.
Two weeks later
Mos Eisley Spaceport
Tatooine
“Tatooine? Really?” Breemu said incredulously as they landed in a nondescript ship on the outskirts of the port.
“Mos Eisley no less,” Obi-Wan Kenobi agreed. “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”
“She wants to meet here? In this place, in a cantina?” Captain Antilles of the security team agreed.
“It’s obviously a place where she feels able to control the sitaution,” Jedi Knight Caleb Dume contributed. “A planet where we have little to no jurisdiction and cannot put forces on the ground ahead of ourselves. Not to mention that it’s in the outskirts of the galaxy with little to no Republic support nearby.”
“Everyone has their disguises?” Kenobi confirmed. All of the security team nodded, securing their weapons onto their belts and their wrappings adjusted correctly to shield them from the sun. Caleb adjusted the poncho that he was wearing to conceal his lightsaber and nodded as well. “Let’s go then.”
A nerve-wracking journey through the streets later and they arrived at the cantina. It was a small place, dark and grimy, entirely at the odds with the upbeat music being played as they entered. Breemu gazed around as they entered, trying to spot Kabadi. There was no sign of the diminutive woman anywhere.
“Not exactly your normal hangout,” a Corellian voice drawled from next to them and the whole group whirled to see the same man who had called the New Republic months earlier standing next to them. He wore the same Corellian-striped trousers that he had worn before, but now a white shirt open to partway down his chest and a short-sleeved black vest over the top. A belt was slung low around his waist, and his hand rested comfortably on the blaster in its holster. Dark brown waves of hair were tossed carelessly away from his face. He locked eyes with Breemu and then turned and walked away.
“Follow him,” the Senator ordered quietly.
“The rest of you spread out,” the two Jedi flanked her as they issued their orders.
The man ahead of them walked with accustomed ease and swagger, winding his way through the bar’s patrons until he reached a small booth towards the back. A helmeted man with a voice modulator slipped out from the seats as they arrived and disappeared into the crowd.
“One of mine,” was the only answer, as the Corellian gestured them into the seats. He took up a post leaning casually on the wall, one foot propped back, but his eyes were still scanning the entire environment, and a hand always on the blaster.
Kenobi ushered the Senator into the booth, took a spot beside her and left Knight Dume in a similar posture to the Corellian man. They waited a couple of minutes in silence before the Senator dared to address the man.
“Is she coming?”
“You were early,” he replied insouciantly. “Lora told you two hours only. She’ll be here on time.”
They waited in silence, and then a swish of movement and Lora Kabadi slid into the seat opposite the Senator with a flash of her dark brown coat. The young woman was dressed completely differently from how Senator Breemu had seen her before. Far from the polished adornments, looped braids and pressed clothing was the woman before her now. Instead she wore rough, cream, cotton clothing, tightly bound at her wrists and waist to keep the sand out, with brown spacer’s boots. Brown braces covered her lower forearms, and Bana could see the vibroblade slid into one of them. She had a blaster strapped to her hip as well, a fold-out staff swinging from the other, and over the top of the whole ensemble a dark brown leather coat, its hood spilling down her back. Her hair was entirely covered by a plain cream wrap designed to shield from the sun.
“This had better be good,” was her only greeting.
“Colo-”
“No names,” the other woman hissed. “We’re on Tatooine. I’m Aimee to you here, you’ll be Bana to me, and you two,” she darted looks at the auburn-haired Jedi Master and the dark-haired knight.
“Ben and Caleb,” Kenobi replied.
“Ben and Caleb,” she confirmed. “What do your bosses want from me then?” The crisp accent of their previous encounters had softened at the edges and curled with a distinct tinge of the Outer Rim.
“We want to know if Ventures has any more intel about our mutual friends than they’ve shared,” Kenobi said quietly.
Kabadi raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think we know something that we’re not sharing?” she drawled. The Jedi Master simply raised an eyebrow. She grinned devilishly and then shrugged. “Maybe. But don’t look at me and claim that your bosses have shared everything with mine. Our mutual friends, as you’ve put it, have been making incursions on the Outer Rim for quite some time. It’s not our fault that you’ve chosen to ignore the Rim in the New Republic as much as the Old Republic. All those problems that caused the Clone Wars are still here, the previous administration just exacerbated them.”
“We’re not here to debate the Clone Wars,” Kenobi replied coolly.
“No,” the younger woman smiled, soft and vicious. “You people never are.”
The Jedi Master and Colonel locked eyes, with the Colonel dimpling prettily after a few seconds and settling her chin on her left fist.
“That’s new,” Breemu said hurriedly, gesturing to her hand and the shining golden ring that adorned it. “Congratulations.”
“Four months,” Kabadi said, twisting her head slightly and smiling at the tall man behind her who flashed one back at her. The smiles softened both of their faces.
“But now back to business, we’re not here to discuss my personal life,” the Colonel got back on track quickly. “You want to know if there’s anything that we’re not sharing? I’d like to know if there’s anything that you’re not sharing. Turnabout is fair play, ladies and gentlemen,” she leant back slightly in her chair and tapped her fingers on the table. “So?”
Breemu exchanged glances with the Jedi Master next to her who tilted his head slightly in agreement.
“We’ve heard that our mutual friends are getting bolder with their incursions,” Breemu confirmed. “There have been shipments disappearing in the Outer and Mid Rim, some of which can be used for building weapons, some of which we’re not sure of the purpose.”
“All things we know.”
Breemu swallowed. “People have also been disappearing along the Outer Rim.”
“Not new.”
“Force-Sensitive people have been disappearing,” Kenobi said carefully. “We are… concerned.”
“A few less recruits for your ivory towers?” Kabadi answered crudely. “You sure that’s not just slavers taking advantage of your less than careful eye on the Mid and Outer Rim? Force-Sensitives are a pricey commodity.”
“We’re sure,” was Dume’s flat reply. “They’re taking children. Children are easy to brainwash.”
Kabadi glanced at him, her face suddenly entirely serious. “We’ll keep our ears to the ground and let you know if we hear anything. Children,” she shook her head slowly. “Children are the future of us all. They deserve better than the world that we inherited. My parents,” she sighed. “My parents believe very strongly that we should give to our children better than we ourselves received. We’ll keep a close eye out.”
“Thank you,” Kenobi responded. “Now your turn.”
The Colonel leant forward again. “We know what those shipments are being used for.” A datastick slid out of her sleeve and into her hand. “Sheev liked to build big weapons. One of those was a planet-killer.” She slid the datastick forward. “We believe that the plans stalled for quite some time after the collapse of the administration, but that they’ve recently started again, and accelerated.” She nodded at the datastick. “That’s the information that we’ve collated, and the ideas we have about where this weapon might be being built.”
Master Kenobi summoned the datastick into his palm and tucked it into a belt pouch.
“Aimee,” Bana leant forward. “We need to be speaking more often, perhaps you could become a permanent representative on Coruscant?”
Kabadi sneered disdainfully. “A corporation in the Senate. When has that ever gone wrong before?”
“You refer to the incident on Naboo with the Trade Federation?” Kenobi questioned.
The younger woman tilted her head slightly. “Obviously,” she drawled. “You really have not leant from the mistakes of the past. And even if we agreed to that, it would not be me.”
“Why not?” the Senator asked. “You clearly have the knack for it.”
Kabadi grinned wickedly. “But not the patience sadly. I believe I’ve already told you, Senator, that I have no patience for the obfuscating niceties of the Core.”
Her husband shifted behind her stifling a chuckle, and she whacked at his leg without looking.
There was the sudden sound of a blaster discharging across the cantina, an uproaring of noise and movement that gained the attention of all three New Republic officials. By the time they looked back Lora Kabadi and her husband were gone and there was no sign of them in the cantina.
“They’re gone,” Dume reported into his comlink, giving a brief description of both. “Any sign of them outside?”
“None sir,” came the response. “A few groups of people just came out of the cantina, there was a guy who could have been your captain but he was with a Wookie. The only girl of the right age nearby just got into a speeder arguing in Huttese with the young man she was with. They were with an older man who had the look of a moisture farmer. Probably Tatooine natives.
“That incident in the cantina was a planned distraction to allow them to slip out,” Kenobi said decisively. “Come Senator,” he stepped out of the booth, and extended his hand to help her up. “Let’s get out of here, and see if we can figure out which ship is theirs on the way out. I doubt they’ll wait long on planet.”
30 minutes later
The Lars Farm
Tatooine
“Thanks for the help Uncle Owen,” Leia said, hopping out of the backseat of the speeder. “And thanks for having us to stay for a few days.”
“Family is everything,” the older man said gruffly as he got out the other side himself and went to unload the supplies on the back. “You’re welcome to stay an extra day or so to make sure you’ve really shaken them off your tail.”
“We can help with the harvest too,” Luke put in cheerfully. “A couple of extra hands would help wouldn’t they?”
His uncle grunted in agreement and then motioned for Leia to take the speeder into the garage.
Four hours later
Space outside Tatooine
“Either they got off planet before we got to our ship or they’re still there,” Caleb Dume said. “Either way, I don’t think we’re catching them this way Master Kenobi, Senator Breemu.”
“I agree,” the older Master sighed. “But still. Any advantage that we could get would have helped us. And it would have been nice to get a better read on Colonel Kabadi. She’s obviously been taught some rudimentary shielding at some point, by who I do not know, and that made it difficult to get a sense of her thoughts and intentions. Perhaps if she came to the Core…”
The younger Jedi chuckled at the memory. “I doubt that would ever happen Master. If only because she was so vehemently against the idea.”
“Strange to reference Naboo,” Breemu shrugged. “A true student of history.”
“So it would seem.”
“Let’s go home Master Jedi,” the Senator said softly. “We have much to report, and I for one, would like to leave this place as soon as possible.”
Three days later
Aboard ‘The Outcast’
“Force-Sensitive children are disappearing?” Anakin Skywalker demanded. “And their first thought is not the Sith?”
“They have no way of knowing about Palpatine,” his wife pointed out. “At least they’ve noticed. And with what intel we’ve been feeding them hopefully we can continue to point them towards Palpatine still being able to pull strings.”
Anakin began to pace back and forth. “They think he’s dead,” he said. “They have no idea about the clones, and we have no way of telling them that information without revealing that we got to Byss.”
A moment later the doors swished open and Mara Jade entered. Her face and posture were sombre. “Actually we do,” she said. “The last of the flash clones just died. We didn’t manage even a single one of them being able to live independently.”
Anakin dropped his head into his chest, and Padme crossed the three steps to pull the younger woman into a tight embrace. “He’ll pay for everything he did,” she vowed quietly. “To you, to the other children, and to those clones. I will see it done.”
“I know how to make a start on that,” Mara said, muffled into Padme’s shoulder. “Like I said, the last of the flash clones just died. Why don’t we leave his body somewhere that the New Republic will find it?”
“I don’t like to dishonour his body,” Anakin said, his brow furrowing. “But I believe that Mara is right. Start looking for somewhere to place him that the New Republic will be the only ones to find him.”
The younger woman pulled away from Padme’s shoulder, took a deep breath and disappeared out of the door.
“Do you think this is the right move?” Padme asked.
“I don’t know,” her husband said with a sigh. “But I know that the New Republic needs to know. They’re not taking the threat seriously enough, and they’re not looking in the right places. This is wrong, there’s no disputing it, those clones should be given a proper burial. But they need to know. They have to know or we’ll be back to those days before and during the Clone Wars when he manipulated a proxy war.”
One week later
Secure room
New Republic Security Offices
Coruscant
“Why were we all pulled out of our beds in the middle of the night and hurried to the depths of the security offices?” General Rieekan demanded crabbily.
“Because of this,” Cracken said, pulling aside a white sheet that was draped over a corpse.
“That looks like Sheev Palpatine,” Chancellor Mothma breathed.
“That’s because it is Sheev Palpatine,” Cracken replied grimly. “The DNA matches him perfectly, except for the markers of cloning. We estimate that the clone is about 20 years old.”
“Did it have his memories and personality?” Mace Windu demanded.
“No. The clone’s mind was completely blank like a clean datastick. Like it was waiting just to be overwritten. What did it have,” Cracken paused to bring up a hologram. “Was the original’s ability to use the Force. It seems he’s discovered a way to clone a Force-Sensitive without them going insane. We don’t know how many clones there were Madam Chancellor, we don’t know where they were made, and we don’t know if they’re capable of making anymore. What we do know, is that we need to start keeping a closer eye on the Imperial Remnant. If there’s any chance at all that the Emperor is alive…” he trailed off.
“The Jedi will start to mobilise around these Force-Sensitives,” Obi-Wan Kenobi chimed in. “If he’s kidnapping Force-Sensitive children we could be dealing with a whole army of Dark Acolytes,” he and Windu exchanged looks and then he hesitated, took a deep breath and: “We need to step up the hunt for Darth Vader as well. If, if Darth Sidious has returned then it’s likely Vader has returned to his Master. And I don’t need to remind anyone here how dangerous that could be.”
“There’s been no sightings of him in years,” Shaak Ti pointed out.
“We’ve assumed he’s been lying low,” Windu agreed. “But if Sidious is back we need to consider that there might be a more sinister reason. We’ll investigate further.”
“Good,” Mothma said decidedly. “Get to work Cracken, Master Jedi. I want answers, and I want them fast.”
3 hours later
‘The Outcast’
Undisclosed area of space
Anakin Skywalker looked up as the door to his office opened. Mara Jade slipped inside and nodded once briefly.
“Keep an eye on the Jedi’s movements,” he ordered. “Watch Kenobi in particular. If he’s within a system of me there’s a chance, if only a small one, that he could sense me or Ahsoka.”
“Yes sir.”
The young woman slipped out again and Anakin turned back to the datapads in front of him. But he couldn’t concentrate and tossed them down to sink his hands into his hair. He didn’t know how long he sat there before there was a soft sigh and a slender feminine body slid into his lap and pressed her cheek to his hair.
“Obi-Wan?” Padme asked softly. He nodded. “I miss him too.”
“You didn’t betray everything he ever taught you,” Anakin replied miserably. “You didn’t hurt him worse than any other person had. How could I ever have let Sidious turn me against you or him? My wife. My brother.” The last two words were hissed out.
Padme drew her husband closer to her again their joint grief pooling in the Force around them.