Author's note: This is a story that Ghost-of-Tatooine and I wrote together. She has always been generous enough to be my Padme. This is a very AU look at what could've happened if Padme was able to stop Anakin from doing all those things. It came from a conversation we had about what we thought Padme would've done, in our minds. We believed her to be a strong woman who would've fought for her husband no matter what the physical cost to her. We hope that you enjoy!
Chapter 1
She remembered spending several frightful hours alone, and watching in despair and helplessness as flames consumed the Jedi Temple. The building had stood for countless years as a symbol of strength and freedom, yet now from across the distance which separated that building and her own apartment, she watched with stunned disbelief as thick gray smoke consumed the temple walls.
And, Anakin was there.
She hadn't heard from him that day. For some odd reason, she hadn't been able to get a simple com-link through.
But she knew.
Padmé did not possess that mystical energy known as the Force, but she shared an intense bond with Anakin nonetheless. It was this connection which allowed her to somehow sense his pain; he had been weeping. But there was more, much more behind the pain; something in Anakin so angry and dark that she couldn't put a name to it any more than she could explain how she was able to sense it in the first place.
She didn't know how long she could stand it; watching with such helplessness while Anakin fought for his life inside the smoldering temple. There had to be something she could do. Picking up her cloak, she tossed it carelessly over her shoulders and headed for the door.
Rex was sweating inside of his armor and that was unusual, but he had also run five city blocks, fairly quickly. It was his duty to make sure that his former general was safe. Safe from the insanity which was happening now. Although, somewhere deep inside of him, he knew that Anakin was no longer here, Rex also needed to make sure that Senator Amidala was safe. She had surely seen all the commotion over at the Jedi temple and he knew that she would be worried.
...
He knocked timidly at first. Not very clone like, but he didn't want to scare her and he knew that she would be jumpy. Rex tapped again, louder this time and the door slid open to reveal the protocol droid the senator had started to use as her butler.
"May I help you?" it asked Rex in a very high pitched voice.
"I'm here to see the senator," Rex growled through the filter in his helmet. He didn't dare remove it now because if the others of the 501st noted that he was out checking up on people, he would be executed as quickly as the Jedi were being. Traitors to the other side weren't looked upon well.
Traitor. It's the first time he had even said it in his head, but that was what he was and he knew it. He had refused to shoot down the Jedi. The Jedi who he had served along side during a war that claimed so many of them and so many of his brothers. He wasn't going to take their lives. They had protected him during the time when he had been on the battlefield. Now was not the time to turn his gun on them because of an order that was supposed to be a question-less program inside of his head.
"Right this way," the protocol droid said and scurried towards where Padme was standing.
"Senator," Rex said and pulled his helmet from his head, the sweat running down his face. "I'm here to help."