The holodisk beeped in the rubble somewhere beneath the fragments of polished granite and marble. He was vaguely aware of the thumping behind his skull, the dust and powder layered onto his skin and in his beard, in his nose and mouth. He had prevented the fire and the initial impact of the detonating missiles from blowing him and Paddy Accu to pieces, but the entire weight of the building was just a little too much all at once. He was not strong enough to hold it forever in the bombardment of missiles and they were buried.

He could hear boots scraping clumsily on the uneven terrain of the ruins, the occasional muffled voice of a clone speaking through his helmet. The icy winter air was whistling in through the pinhole gaps of the rubble, ghosting over Obi-Wan's face and reviving him. He couldn't open one eye, something caked it closed. His head was bleeding and he couldn't move. What he could see was the occasional flicker of a flashlight from clone trooper armor. The sun had set and they were searching in the dark. At least he wasn't completely blind, even if he was pinned. This wasn't what he imagined in a lake house getaway.

Whatever panic trickled up his spine at the prospect of being trapped here, he chased away with slow, shallow breaths. He calmed his mind so that his body would follow, and he listened to the movements of the soldiers. They wandered right on top of him for far too long. But it was just one. Apparently the soldiers were spread out far over the likely broad expanse of the house that they had laid to waste.

Clone troopers were rarely this destructive for a mere arrest. He would have to wonder about that later.

"I thought I heard something…" That familiar clone accent spoke through a helmet right on top of him.

The holodisk was beeping again. Obi-Wan couldn't move even a finger to answer it or silence it. Using the Force, he switched it off.

"I'm picking up a faint life form reading! Might be another housekeeper… I'll investigate…"

Chunks of granite were being moved, though it hardly felt any lighter on top of Obi-Wan. He waited, the blinding light of a helmet-mounted light beaming right into his one good eye.

The clone saw him. Paused only a moment and waved a hand to beckon his brothers. "I found—"

"You found an animal, that's all… Moving on…"

"…Oh, it's just an animal… Never mind… Moving on..."

Obi-Wan wriggled where he was buried and found that he couldn't so much as budge a pebble. "Ah… On second thought… This animal could use a hand…"

"I'll just give it a hand first…"

The clone then continued to dig away the rubble until Obi-Wan's upper half was finally free. The other soldiers were still too far away to notice, and far too busy examining the rocks under their own feet. Obi-Wan waved a hand at the clone trooper who knelt confusedly beside him.

"You'll move on to search…. Over there…"

"Moving my search… over there…"

"Melee, stop telling us every little thing you're doing!" another clone shouted from the other side of a rubble mound. "Just find the Jedi! Commander Cody wants a body!"

Cody? Obi-Wan's confusion was manifold, but there was no doubt about one thing. He was as good as dead if he didn't get out of here. The clone called Melee was wandering away continuing his search, and Obi-Wan was slowly pulling the lower half of his body from the rubble. As a chunk of agate rolled aside, there was a bleeding and bruised hand among the rubble. Cold as the winter air. It was Paddy Accu. The man who had devoted his life to taking care of this Lake Retreat, had ultimately died under it.

Obi-Wan spared a moment, regardless of the risk to his own life, to touch that cold hand and wish him well in his return to the Force. He did not deserve this. It would not have happened if Obi-Wan had not been here…

No, he could not let the guilt seize him. He moved again, getting to his feet, but keeping his head down. There were fractions of walls still standing, barely enough for him to hide behind to avoid the lights of their armor.

He limped out into the frostbitten, moonless night, to take shelter somewhere in the forest that enveloped the hillside. He climbed the steep hillside for hours, finding a hollow in an old tree where he tucked himself in. Everything hurt, and the air was so cold that he could not feel his fingers. He did not have a coat, but the Force would be enough to keep him from succumbing to the worst of hypothermia.

Commander Cody. His old friend, the man he had fought side by side with, was looking for his corpse. He was intent on finding it.

Whose orders had it been to execute Obi-Wan? And so destructively?

He did not dare to call Padme. If her life was not already in danger, then by calling her, it surely would be. Instead, he put in a coded channel.

It was the emergency channel memorized by all Jedi. He did not have the right to use it, but he knew the Jedi would not have condoned this attack. The clones were under their jurisdiction... Weren't they…?

The call went out. No one answered. Obi-Wan closed his only good eye as he waited, trying to clear his mind of the pain in his body. He heard static, and when he opened his eye, something blurry was flickering in a small humanoid shape in his hand.

"Can you hear me…?" The voice was clearer than the image.

"Senator Organa?"

"Master Kenobi! Is that you?"

"Yes… Although, the 'master' bit…"

The image was clearing and Bail's jaw went slack. "Are you alright?"

Obi-Wan wanted to make a joke, say something sarcastic to hide the fact that he was anything but alright. But there was something grim in Bail's expression, something that told him this was not an isolated event.

"Clones have destroyed Varykino…" Even as he said it, it didn't make sense. "I've barely managed to survive it… They're still searching for my body. I'm afraid they'll be quite disappointed…"

"Clones have turned on Jedi all over the galaxy… Including you, it seems."

"What?"

"We… we don't know if any survived… We are still looking…" The tremor of Bail's voice carried through the static. "Obi-Wan, can you stay where you are? I can send help as soon as it is safe…"

"No… I am alright… Do not risk yourself or your resources. I have a bump on the head, nothing more… I can think of a place or two to hide… Is Padme safe?"

"To my knowledge, she is perfectly well… But I will check on her, nonetheless. What shall I tell her?"

Obi-Wan winced to think of her learning that her family's lake house was gone, and the people with it. "The truth. But… let her know I'm safe."

"I shall… And whether you like it or not, I am sending help."

"When the time comes I will make sure you can find me…" Obi-Wan could not even plan beyond this hour, let alone tomorrow.

Bail's projection nodded. "May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan…"

"And with you, my friend…Thank you…"

The small projection flickered out, and Obi-Wan was once again in the darkness. Clouds were rolling in, covering the stars, and he was sure he felt a snowflake fall. His thoughts were a whirlwind of questions, but there was one that was answered almost immediately.

Besides Padme, who else had known he was here?

Anakin.

Every hour that passed in the night, she tried to call Obi-Wan, and there was no answer. The signal wasn't being blocked this time, it simply wasn't being answered. It was impossible not to think the worst, but she held onto her faith in him. He was notoriously hard to kill, and she felt it now more than ever, deep down at a place inside her that she did not fully understand.

The next morning, a special senate meeting was called by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. Some Senators were aware that something had happened overnight. Some had slept through it. And only a handful had seen any of it firsthand. It was then that Padme realized just how quietly that scourge passed through the night, bringing with it a new world when the sun finally rose.

As the morning hours went by and Padme dressed and gathered her things, she prepared everything to leave Coruscant the moment that the Senate meeting was adjourned. She made sure she included Obi-Wan's bundle—his Jedi robes—in her cases. And as she packed, news came trickling to her.

Senators were being arrested.

All of them on the petition of the Delegation of Two-Thousand. No one had come for her, and she wondered if it was Anakin's promise that she was protected, or if it was just a matter of time. Or perhaps her invitation to the Senate meeting was a means to draw her in one last time.

Regardless of the possibility that she was walking into a slaughterhouse, she dressed in her usual senatorial gown, made sure her hair was coiffed perfectly, and walked in with the other senators proudly and prepared for anything. She sat in her pod with Captain Typho, Jar Jar Binks, and her handmaiden, Motee.

When the Chancellor appeared on his podium, the Senate was aghast at what they saw. He was hooded and feeble looking, what they could see of his face no longer resembled a human. It was the color of ash and malformed, his eyes shielded by the darkness of his hood. He was a cloaked shadow with a mouth and chin, little more.

His steely voice cut through the antechamber as he recounted what had happened. That a group of Jedi masters, led by Master Mace Windu himself, arrived at his office under the pretense of arresting him, and immediately attacked him.

Padme was transfixed, her eyes glassy from not blinking, leaning forward in her seat. She almost didn't hear Bail Organa's arrival, as he joined them late into the meeting, but when she turned to him, she felt the first wave of joy at seeing him alive, well and—at the moment—free from incarceration.

"What's happened…?" he whispered.

"The Chancellor's been elaborating on a plot by the Jedi to overthrow the Senate…" she explained as matter-of-factly as she could, every word of it so foreign to her. Even as she said it, it wasn't real.

The Chancellor continued with gusto. "The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated!"

She shuddered, her teeth clamping on her finger as if to stifle the fear so that she could hear every word. Dread was growing, the sickening sensation that a trapdoor into an incinerator was about to open up beneath them. The war was finally over, every droid in the system returned to its docking area or shut down completely. The attack deformed him, and he barely escaped with his life before help came. He did not give his savior a name, but Padme knew it was Anakin.

Where did Anakin stand in the eyes of the Republic? He apparently renounced the Jedi Order, but was he still in danger? Was he now a mere General of the Army? There were so many questions. She only hoped he was as safe as he seemed to believe he was. He acted invincible. But where was he now?

Her mind constantly turned towards Anakin, but her attention was fixed on the raised podium in the middle of the chamber where Palpatine stood with Mas Amedda and Sly Moore.

Even as he spoke of Jedi treachery and being deformed by the attack on his life, the senate clapped. They hung on his every word, they were electrified with every declaration he made of safeguarding the galaxy.

More and more, she could feel how hollow that trap door was beneath her. More and more, she knew what was coming.

"In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire! For a safe and secure society!"

They cheered. The chamber was deafening with the clapping and the praise, and in the middle, Palpatine stood with his arms raised as a savior standing before their congregation. Padme's pod was deathly silent.

"So, this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause…" The bitterness of failure momentarily overcame her fear. Or perhaps, it was disgust with the cheering rabble she once called her 'esteemed colleagues'.

They lost.

Everything was for nothing. The worst thing imaginable, the thing they tried to deny as a possible reality, was now their only reality.

A spy droid came hovering into view, its receptor lens fixed on them. Padme straightened her posture and she clapped, but she would not smile. She looked over her shoulder to Bail, who was as pale as she was. He followed her lead, and slowly, they all clapped. This small show of support, however disingenuous, may be enough to save their lives at least one more day.

Bail accompanied Padme and her small entourage back to her office. As soon as the door was closed, Padme's hands were on her desk, catching herself as her legs felt weak. Jar Jar was beside her quickly, his large, surprisingly strong arms supporting her.

"Yousa okeeday, Senator?" Even Jar Jar, who could be the simplest of them all, knew how dire this was.

"No…" she breathed. "Everything is ended, Jar Jar… Everything…"

"We need to act…" Bail's voice shook, not quiet with fear, but desperation. "How can we just allow this to happen?"

Padme was shaking her head, willing herself to stand on her own two feet, her hand gently set on Jar Jar's arm.

"No… We don't have a chance if we oppose him now… Emperor Palpatine… Others have already been arrested, Bail…"

His eyes widened. He didn't even know. He sank into a chair, slouching in a way that she had never seen the dignified diplomat do before. Completely deflated, at a loss.

"All of this was part of his plan…" Bail said in a quiet daze. "My own agents have brought me information of the engagement with General Grievous on Utapau… All of the Separatist Leaders were holed up on that planet—Nute Gunray, Wat Tambor, Poggle the Lesser—all of them were there. And along with Grievous they were all killed."

Padme stared.

Anakin? No, it wasn't possible.

"Are you sure…?"

He nodded weakly. "My intel tells me that the clones only found the bodies afterward, cut down by a lightsaber. One of clones said they had seen from afar the flash of a red blade through the windows of the droid control center."

Red lightsaber? That couldn't have been Anakin. A Sith, like Dooku or other Dark Side users who led the Separatists.

"Was Anakin on Utapau?"

"Evidently, yes. It was his battalion there. When his men asked him what happened, he told them it was Lord Vader. No one knows who this Vader is, but now… I can only wonder if he serves Palpatine…"

Anakin didn't tell her about this Vader person. It crossed her mind that Anakin was now working with a Sith… to serve the now Emperor, and her chest felt tight. She refused to believe it. Anakin was confused, that was all. She could not blame him when the Order he committed himself to had betrayed the man he considered his dearest friend. That was the kindness in her that saw him that way, though. The politician, the realist, could not forget the disturbing things he said to her the night before and the continued obsessive longing he had for her. He still believed they could be together, and she cringed to think about it.

A chime at her desk interrupted the silence. She moved to answer it, and the small hologram figure of Mas Amedda appeared in his horned glory.

"Senator Amidala… Your Emperor requests your service in a show of cooperation to the New Galactic Empire… Every system will be asked to declare their loyalty to the Empire. Naboo shall be the first to declare, to be a symbol for others to follow. As the native home of His Highness, there is no other choice."

She knew the Queen's stance. She knew the Queen would be horrified and refuse. "And if she chooses not to declare her loyalty…?"

His small, ghostly face scrunched. "Then the Naboo will be deemed enemies of the Republic, and the system will be forced into Martial Law. For the security of the galaxy, there must be unity."

She held on for dear life to her politician mask, she did not want this being to see her fear. "I will depart for Naboo immediately, then…"

"It is your duty to make certain that Queen Apailana complies when the Emperor's emissary, Lord Vader, arrives. All she may need is your wisdom and guidance on the right thing to do, Senator Amidala…"

The communication was terminated from his end and she was left staring at the smooth top of her desk. Nothing was shocking anymore. Every blow was received numbly at this point.

"Who is this Lord Vader?" Captain Typho finally spoke, sharply, his thumb hooked on his utility belt as he approached. "Senator, I don't believe the Queen will be eager to comply…"

"I don't think so, either…" She sucked in a breath, shaking herself out of the fear that threatened to paralyze her. "We must return to Naboo. Now."

"Yes, My Lady…"

"Yousa wanten me to come with, m'lady?" Jar Jar asked, his standing eyes clearly at a loss.

When things were normal, she would leave Jar Jar in her place as her representative. But things were not normal, and Coruscant was beginning to feel more and more like a deathtrap.

"Yes," she looked up at him. "We should go home together. While we still can."

He gulped and nodded his bill. He was afraid, but he had learned not to voice it even if he couldn't hide it. She took both of his large hands in hers, squeezing them.

"It'll be okay… I promise…"

"But der bomba danger weesa goin' home…"

She managed a sad smile. "It never stopped us before. This is for home."

That was enough to bring at least a closed mouth smile on the Gungan's face and he nodded again, this time with more enthusiasm. "Mesa ready, m'lady!"

"Good… I must go pack." As if she wasn't already packed. She walked around the chair that Bail had sunk into to stand in front of him. "I can only assume they will be making the same… request of Alderaan…"

He nodded. "I can only assume the same… Ah, Senator…" he pushed himself out of his chair to his full height. "I hate to delay your departure… but would you mind joining me on a brief detour?"

"Where?"

"Just to my ship, in the dock… I would be glad to take you home after…"

He was acting very strange. But she recognized that he was trying to get her out of the official offices, away from any spy droids or recording devices. His ship would protect them from prying ears. She nodded and looked to Typho.

"Captain, will you take Motee home? I'll meet you both there… you too, Jar Jar… and we will leave for Naboo together."

Typho's one eye looked dubiously from Bail to Padme. He never did like leaving her unguarded. He knew better than to argue, though. "Of course, Senator…"

Padme walked out of the office alongside Bail and they passed casually among the other politicians in the curved halls of the building. They said very little along the way, even in the elevator. She followed him to his Alderaanian ship, Tantive III. The Corellian corvette was sizeable enough to carry a crew of at least two dozen, and was captained by Bail's most trusted confidant, Captain Antilles. The white interior of the ship was beautiful, befitting a royal consort. He walked with her slowly down one of the corridors, his hands behind his back.

"Now that we are somewhere safe…" he began slowly. "I can tell you that I had received a message last night from Obi-Wan Kenobi…"

She stopped and faced him. Her eyes fixed wide, her breath short. After trying to reach him all night… "Obi-Wan? Why did he call you?"

"He's been attacked, like all the other Jedi… He said that the clones destroyed Varykino."

"Destroyed it…" she had to repeat it, as if it could make it real.

He shrugged helplessly. "I have not seen it with my own eyes, but I saw Obi-Wan through the holocom… He is alive, but injured… He is in hiding now somewhere on Naboo in the lake country."

All that mattered was that he was alive. But her legs felt suddenly weak, her knees shaking with the effort to keep her standing. She had already decided that the first thing she would do when returning to Naboo was to find him, wherever he was.

Bail lightly touched at her elbow, silently motioning her to continue walking. "That is only one reason why I had brought you here, however. I hoped to keep you as uninvolved as possible, but I was asked to bring you here…"

"Asked? By whom?"

A door at the end of the corridor opened, and seated at a large conference table inside, was Master Yoda.