Leia half-expected to find Han served with a restraining order when he left the conference room. It certainly wouldn't be the first time and he hadn't made the best first impression on the people of the Republic. Moreover, Han didn't have a particularly good sense of diplomacy when he was on an adrenaline high, which meant that he was either being very stubborn or blurting out the whole mission at the moment.

Given the level of caution that he'd exercised thus far on the mission, she could be fairly certain that it was the former, but it made her nervous nonetheless.

Being alone in the wake of an assassination attempt did not improve matters, either. Instability had hardly been a rarity in the Republic and the Empire had not improved that situation. As a result, Leia had witnessed assassination attempts, successful and otherwise. It was, however, the first time that it had threatened someone so personally connected to her.

An even greater difficulty arose from the fact that it drove home the idea that every person here was a potential enemy. She was perfectly aware of some later careers, but that did not mean that friends and allies of her own time wouldn't blindly inhibit the mission in this era.

As for the attacker, it was uncertain what his motivation had been or if it had anything to do with her reasons for being here. Even if they were able to identify the attacker, it was unlikely that the name would mean anything to her. Jango Fett was long dead and Boba Fett was still working his way up in the universe.

She feared enemies as was only natural, but she feared the nameless ones even more.

There were low benches along the windows that lined the outer corridor of the Senate and if she hadn't been so preoccupied, she might have been able to sink onto one of them and relax for a few moments. Instead, she concentrated on catching her breath and keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of trouble.

Instead, none came. She remembered the Senate as a place that had tended towards the ability to put any insomniac to sleep, but that was in the days when there were no debates simply because dissension was tantamount to suicide.

Since most of the Alliance presence in the Senate had either gone into hiding or accepted 'retirement' by the time she was elected, Leia had been one of the few with the 'naïveté' to argue with the atrocities.

"Lady Antilles?"

The voice had a familiar edge to it, but she could not pinpoint why until she turned and looked the man in the eye.

There were few civilians who had volunteered to enlist in the Grand Army of the Republic. With a steady supply of clones and a willing group of Jedi to lead them, it had been, on the whole, unnecessary. Towards the end of the war, however, more civilians had been given low-grade officer's commissions and assigned to the defense of their own sovereignties.

She had simply never given thought to what that might mean in a more practical sense. It had helped that she hadn't expected to arrive here by mistake.

"Yes?" she responded, keeping her features carefully schooled to betray nothing.

Not surprisingly, it was not terribly difficult, since the young man who stood before her had taught her how to keep a sabacc face about six years from now when he had taken it upon himself to teach the High Princess how to keep a secret. Keeping him from noticing things had been her personal challenge since she was old enough to know what deception was in anything more than principle.

"Lieutenant Rieekan," he introduced himself politely. "The Senate Guard asked me to keep an eye on you until the Senator has finished his conference."

"Thank you," she said with a genuine air of relief.

He studied her intently for a moment as if recognizing something familiar in the lines of her face or the way she carried herself, but apparently chose not to comment on it.

"An exciting first day," he commented instead. "Not many aides get an assassination attempt on their first day."

Her eyes crinkled slightly in amusement. "I guess I've been fortunate," she suggested.

"You're under the protection of Alderaan," Rieekan reminded. "You couldn't ask for a better haven."

"Really," she said with feigned curiosity.

"Senator Organa's doing," he confided. "He has no children of his own just yet, so he's an overprotective father to just about everyone."

It was a trait that Bail had always attributed to her mother.

"He's been very kind," she said carefully.

His gaze moved to the door of the conference room. "I understand a stranger intervened?" he asked with equal care.

"Not exactly a stranger," Leia said, color rising in her cheeks. "My husband."

Rieekan's dark eyebrows crept towards his hairline. "You've been fortunate in more ways than one," he observed.

She had no response to that. There were simply no explanations for what truth there was in that phrase, so she simply nodded.

He glanced over his shoulder. "If you'd prefer to sit on the Senate session," he offered, "the reading of the agenda is about to conclude and we could enter unnoticed."

"No need," Bail interrupted as he left the conference room with Han lagging behind. "I'll be heading back to the Consulate now and if you and Guardsman Solo would accompany me…"

Leia's gaze flicked to Han. The title explained the smug look on his face and she dipped her chin in an approximation of a grateful nod for his apparent and newfound ability to keep out of trouble for more than thirty seconds.

"Senator," Leia interjected, "shall I remain with the delegation?"

"I have arranged for a debriefing with the Senate Guard," Rieekan supplied. "They will doubtless want to take record of what you observed."

Bail nodded. "We'll need to get through some odious paperwork as well," he reminded, "for the both of you."

Han's arm snaked around Leia's waist. "As long as it means a place to call home for some time, we don't mind too much." "Well," Han said wryly, "this could be worse."

It was a suite of rooms that outclassed anything on an Alliance base and would have been at home in the palace at Antibes, but as he said, it could be worse.

"It could be better," Leia retorted.

He arched an eyebrow, passing over a stack of tunics from her case. "What doesn't live up to your standards, Your Worshipfulness? Are the Twi'lek silk sheets only 400-thread count?"

The smile came easily this time, but there wasn't much to smile about for one reason. "The sheets are fine," she assured him, "but there is only one bed."

Looking thoughtful, he nodded. "Could get cramped."

"Not really," she responded dryly, "but you're going to find out pretty quickly whether or not the floor makes a comfortable bed."

Without another comment, she lay back, spreading her arms in an almost cruciform position. It was a most comfortable form, allowed her to bleed some tension out of her muscles and best of all, it left no room for anyone else.

"Oh, no," Han protested. "I'm not sleeping on the floor."

"Fine," she said brusquely, "but I thought you were too much of a gentleman to let me rough it."

He regarded her for a long moment as if trying to decide how hard to hit her upside the head, but shook his head instead. "You dragged me here, two years before our target arrival, got me accused of domestic violence, nearly got me shot and now you're expecting me to sleep on the floor?"

"Better than risking a concussion every night," she shot back.

He rolled his eyes in an exacting imitation of her own exasperation. "I thought you were too much of a gentleman to rough me up," he teased.

"You're right," she conceded. "I'm just too much of a lady to let you within arm's reach."

"That'll change," he insisted.

"Maybe so," she agreed, "but I'm not taking my chances."

His brow furrowed. "I'm pretty sure that they'll be monitoring," he reminded. "How do we explain that we don't act like newlyweds?"

Rieekan had once joked that they fought convincingly enough to give the impression of being married, but that was beside the point.

"We fight enough to be estranged at times," she stated. "For the time being, that'll have to do."

Since the Senate met only three days out of each week, the next morning found Han still entangled in the blankets that he had used to make a bed on the floor. Leia was, typically, hard at work by the time dawn rolled around. When he managed to awaken about an hour after daybreak and headed into the living room, Han found that she'd already been to the kitchens to get breakfast and was looking rather triumphant for completely unknown reasons.

She was ready for the day, her damp hair pulled into an elegant twist at the nape of her slender neck, exposing the neckline of the borrowed white gown that left both shoulders bare. Moreover, her side of the table held three categories of things: food, datacards and both of their datapads.

She looked refreshed and energetic and terrifyingly ready to get to work. It was absolutely beautiful in a sickening sort of way.

"You look like you're in a good mood," Han said around a yawn. "What have you been up to?"

"Planning," she stated without a trace of fatigue in her voice.

"And how long have you been up?" he pressed.

"Not long enough," she responded. "I should have been up an hour longer, but I was tired."

Which meant that she had spent a token fifteen minutes lying on her bed and trying to sleep before she got up and started working herself to death again.

"Uh-oh," Han grunted, scrubbing his hands over his face. "You do realize that sleep is a generally accepted way of keeping yourself alive, don't you?"

She waved a hand dismissively with a slight grin. "Sleep is for mortals," she stated firmly. "I'm not exactly immortal, but I'm pretty indestructible, so I figure sleep isn't meant to be on the agenda."

Her tone was light, indicating her attempt to make a joke of the matter, but he knew that she was almost completely in earnest, even if she didn't know it yet. He had only seen her this way when she had built up her energy throughout the night. Leia Organa was simply the type who would not trust her own success to continue if she paused for breath.

Han also knew, however, that she would resent his tendency to worry over her, since they both knew how frequently concern had turned into chastisement on both their parts. So, instead of suggesting she take better care of herself or complaining that she would get herself killed if she weren't careful, he dropped himself into the chair opposite her and looked over the spread of food with an approving nod.

"It's good to be Alderaanian," he surmised.

"We tend to take care of our own," she agreed. "Eat this and I'll tell you about what I've decided."

She passed over a plate, but her own remained untouched as she pulled up a datafile.

"You don't have to work yourself into a stupor," Han suggested.

"Yes, I do," she retorted. "We know that in roughly three months, Vader will have emerged and the Republic will have fallen. Given the fact that we haven't even had the chance to start looking, I don't want to take chances."

He hated that he couldn't argue with that. He hated the amused smirk on her face even more.

"Don't worry," she soothed. "You'll be working just as hard."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he admitted.

She glanced at the datafile, chewing idly on a julaberry torte. "We know that Vader was a Jedi of the Old Republic who was a student of Obi-Wan Kenobi," Leia summarized by way of review. "We know that he was not mentioned in the formation of the Empire, but that his first actions were recorded two standard months after the fall of the Republic."

"Which means he didn't join up with Palpatine until after the Empire started."

"Not necessarily," Leia countered, tapping the pad with her torte. "After all, Vader requires a respirator and a full body suit. I've been doing some research and have found one instance of such a system for a sentient."

"General Grievous," Han supplied.

She looked up in obvious surprise. "You've done research of your own."

"Not really," he said with a rather sheepish grin. "I was still young enough that Grievous was a spook story during the Clone Wars. Most of it was exaggeration, but he had a few of his natural parts and the rest was durasteel."

"Are we sure they're not the same?"

Han nodded. "Grievous was killed sometime around the first Empire Day."

She frowned slightly. "So, some time in the next few months, Palpatine will recruit a Jedi to become Vader. It's also possible that the Jedi has already joined him."

"What's your idea?" Han asked.

"Palpatine," Leia explained, "was advised or protected by several Jedi since his rise to power. Most notably, the Jedi Council met with him no fewer than a dozen times during the development of the Clone Wars. On the other hand, he probably had a few Jedi who were intensely loyal to him, both out of principle and out of a personal loyalty. That's where we need to look."

"It's not exactly a subtle way to go about things," Han reminded. "We can't just look at the Jedi vote for 'Most Likely to Commit Genocide."

"No," Leia agreed, "but we can start with one person in particular."

She pushed the datapad over and he nearly choked. "Anakin Skywalker?" he stammered. "You don't think…"

"Of course not," Leia snapped. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Then, why start with him?" Han challenged.

She tapped the header for the file. "This was an announcement of his Knighting," she explained. "Notice who his Master was."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," Han observed. "So he would know about the other students."

"Exactly," Leia confirmed.

"But we don't know him."

"We don't know anyone, Bail and Rieekan excepted," Leia shot back, "but Senator Amidala—Luke's mother—is aiding the early stages of the Alliance. Since Bail trusts me in that regard, I can make overtures through that."

Han grinned. "You have been thinking too hard," he commented.

"Of course," Leia responded with a matching grin. "I'm the only one likely to do so."

The day proceeded in a form that was only to be expected from a pacifist planet in the middle of a wartime crisis. Alderaan did not take part in the war effort so much as make an effort at keeping out of it, but Leia had spoken to many of the people who represented worlds that Bail had helped during the Clone Wars.

The downtime between the sessions, therefore, was spent mostly in meetings. Most were of the variety that involved petitions for asylum, legislative measures and such, but she had not expected to sit in on the convocation that Bail had called.

"The appointment with Senator Amidala will be at midday," he said quietly after giving her the day's assignments. "I would appreciate if you could attend."

It was a familiar request from the days when he could trust Leia to be his eyes and ears during meetings. She had her mother's intuition if nothing else and he had always found some kind of pretense to have her attend, whether it was note-taking or grooming her to take his place one day.

This was, however, obviously not his intention in the current circumstances. She had neither proved herself to be loyal nor made her intuition known to him. She was, for the moment, someone who had simply stated her loyalties.

"Yes, Senator," she said, her voice reflecting her innocent curiosity and unabashed confustion, "but wouldn't another with more experience be preferable?"

He nodded, more out of understanding than confirmation. "Certainly I have aides that are more familiar with the situation. Even so, the number of people in my own delegation who can be trusted to remember our purpose here is dwindling."

"Yes, Senator," Leia said automatically.

His hand clapped her gently on the shoulder. "You need not worry," he assured her. "I believe you are to be trusted. I simply want to prove myself right."

She didn't ask any further questions, since that had been her priority for as long as she could remember.

The meeting took place in Bail's office, though it was hardly the most secure area of the Senate complex--Palpatine had seen to that. It was another one of the places that was inexpressibly familiar, the sensation only heightened by the fact that Threepio was wandering around as usual like an underappreciated busboy.

Most of the faces were unfamiliar, since they were either names that she had only heard in reports or people who had been assassinated in the early days of the Empire, but perched on a chair opposite the position that Bail and Mon Mothma had taken was the person she had hoped to encounter again.

There was, however, no time to consider how she would approach Padme, since the appointment of regional governors—the first move towards the official tyranny that had been known under the system of Grand Moffs—had been announced that morning. Understandably, this pleased no one, but they could not know yet that this was one of the symptoms of the end-stage of the Republic.

As a result, Leia sat with her stomach churning as Bail read the amendment, but said nothing.

"Now that he has control of the Jedi Council," Bail explained, "the Chancellor has appointed Governors to oversee all star systems in the Republic."

Leia looked up sharply at that particular mention, since no one had mentioned the control that Palpatine had over the Jedi Council. Since that seemed to be old news, however, the concern was on the administrative change.

"When did this happen?" Fang Zar inquired.

"The decree was posted this morning," Bail supplied.

"Do you think he will dismantle the Senate?" Padme interjected breathlessly as if she had been struck hard in the face by the statement.

It was starting to become very clear where Luke got the tendencies that made him a faithful Rebel and a conscientious leader.

"Why bother?" Mon Mothma scoffed quietly. "As a practical matter, the Senate no longer exists."

"The constitution is in shreds," Senator Danu concurred.

Just wait until you see what Palpatine has in mind for his post-Empire-Day legislation.

"Amendment after amendment ..." he enumerated. "Executive directives, sometimes a dozen in one day."

The sort of executive directives that had instituted mandatory conscription programs in the second year of the war, the sort that had put Palpatine in control of every military movement…

Bail's hands clenched in his lap and she recognized the gesture as one that he used to curb the urge to lose his temper. It was comforting to recognize that level of devotion even in these dark times.

"We can't let a thousand years of democracy disappear without a fight," he said simply, forcefully.

That had the same emotional effect on her that his inquiries into her loyalties had, but she was surprised to see that everyone else was on the verge of squirming in fear.

"What are you suggesting?" Terr Taneel asked, voice strained by caution.

"I apologize," Bail replied hastily. "I didn't mean to sound like a Separatist."

She had momentarily forgotten just how dangerous it had been, even at this point, to have loyalty to what the government should have been.

Mon Mothma's smile was unapologetic, only determined. "We are not Separatists trying to leave the Republic," she explained. "We are loyalists, trying to preserve democracy in the Republic."

"It has become increasingly clear to many of us that the Chancellor has become an enemy of democracy," Bail continued.

"I can't believe it has come to this!"

Finally, Padme had spoken, voice guileless and ringing clear in the silence that had followed Bail's pronouncement. Leia turned her gaze to her, found her expression frankly crestfallen rather than defiant.

She at least recognized how drastically wrong things were becoming.

"Chancellor Palpatine is one of my oldest advisors," she continued as if trying to convince herself that there was a logical explanation for what was happening. "He served as my Ambassador when I was Queen."

Danu adopted the sympathetic smirk of someone who recognized in another the blindness they had once been victim to. "Senator," he said gently, "I fear you underestimate the amount of corruption that has taken hold in the Senate."

Mon Mothma concurred, "The Chancellor has played the Senators well. They know where the power lies, and they will do whatever it takes to share in it."

Her eyes lowered slightly as if she felt the guilt of allowing tyranny. "Palpatine has become a dictator and we have helped him to do it."

And that is why you have spent every waking moment since the founding of the Empire attempting to correct that.

"We can't sit around debating any longer, we have decided to do what we can to stop it."

No one responded, were clearly willing to follow Bail's lead as long as he was being reasonable about it.

"Senator Mon Mothma and I are putting together an organization…"

"Say no more, Senator Organa," Padme interrupted hastily. "I understand. At this point, it's better to leave some things unsaid."

"Yes," Bail confirmed. "I agree and we must not discuss this with anyone, without everyone in this group agreeing."

It was a common practice of Alliance cells, since they were too easily betrayed for anyone's tastes.

"That means those closest to you . . . even family ... no one can be told."

Leia immediately recalled that this had included her mother, since it had been two years into the reign of the Emperor that Breha Organa demanded to know what her peace-serving husband intended to do about the Empire. She had been fairly unsurprised to find how long ago he had been doing something about the Empire, but it had caused a minor rift that Leia had been somehow aware of at the time.

For the first time, however, her main focus was on whether or not Padme had ever voiced her loyalties to her husband.

In the next moment, however, Padme nodded. "Agreed."

She had no chance to approach the Senator during the meeting, but Padme lingered as the others made their way back to individual offices. Leia approached her as if her only priority were to ask Bail what more he required, but he gestured to her and then turned to Padme.

"You've met Leia before," Bail introduced her.

"The one who informed me of this meeting," Padme recalled. "Your loyalties match our own?"

"More than you might guess," Leia said with a slight smile.

Bail's smile matched hers. "What did you think of our meeting?"

"Very sensible," Leia commended, "but I have been considering the possibility of approaching a Jedi on this matter."

"To gauge where their loyalties lie?" Bail asked. "I've considered the same."

"Not formally," Leia clarified as she saw Padme's protest, "simply putting out feelers."

"It may be a good idea in the future," Padme conceded, eyes focusing on Leia's as if she were capable of reading her mind, "but I thought we had just agreed to keep others from knowing about our efforts."

"We will need someone we can trust in the Order," Bail reminded her, "and I would prefer not to leave a rift…"

Padme nodded as if no further explanation were needed, so Leia pressed on. "Your husband is a Jedi," she said as if guessing at his occupation. "Is he familiar with the Chancellor?"

She had expected an honest answer, but she had not expected the look of fond exasperation that almost perfectly matched the expression that Leia had seen on Luke so many times. "In a manner of speaking," the other woman said.

"Anakin Skywalker," Bail explained, "is the one Jedi that Chancellor Palpatine trusts implicitly and Knight Skywalker returns the favor."

Leia's gut wrenched sharply at that statement, but Padme's expression suggested that it was not as sinister as it sounded.

Or perhaps she was ignorant of what the Chancellor could do.

"Anakin came to Coruscant as a nine-year-old," Padme supplied, "and he felt very misunderstood, but the Chancellor was very kind to him. They have been friends for as long as I can remember them knowing each other, but he is more like a doting uncle than anything."

Unable to express the fear that would not let go of her, Leia simply nodded. "Do you think he might be willing to look out for the Chancellor's best interests?"

Her expression did not darken so much as change from a warm spring's day to a mid-autumn rainstorm. "I doubt he would think stopping Palpatine's tyranny would be in the Chancellor's best interests," Padme lamented. "If we approached him in the vein of wanting to know who the Chancellor can trust and who are potential enemies, he might be more cooperative, but I can't promise anything."

"What about Obi-Wan?" Bail recommended.

Padme's mouth turned even further down at the corners. "Possibly," she agreed. "His loyalty is to democracy above all else, even when it gets him in trouble, but he may know as much as his student."

This was a definite possibility, since Vader had been trained by Obi-Wan, but she would have to let these two take the lead.

"I'll see what I can do," Padme promised.