Padme immediately felt her troubles ease as she stepped onto the lush red carpet of the Chancellor's office. Clone officers and Shilli guards hurried her inside, along with Bail Organa and Queen Tolame. All of them looked exhausted after the journey but they'd unanimously agreed to settle the treaty as soon as they had touched down on Coruscant. Light streamed in from the enormous windows, pouring over a large throne like chair in the centre of the room. As the chair swivelled around, Padme was met with the beaming face of one of her oldest friends.

"Senator Amidala! What a relief it is to see you safe," cried the Chancellor, smile lines deepening the wrinkles on his face.

He stood up as they briskly walked over to him, waving aside his assistant, Mas Amedda, as he tried to slow the older gentleman down. Padme returned the warm greeting with as much gusto as she could manage.

"Thank you, Chancellor, it's good to see you," she said, with a small bow. "Though I wish it were under less urgent circumstances. May I introduce Queen Tolame, Regent for the Shilli System."

She stepped aside to reveal the Queen, who's golden robes and headdress detailed with ornamental teeth glittered in the stark sunlight. By viewing her as a diplomat, one never would have guessed that as per Shilli tradition, she would have fought and killed the beast of whom the teeth belonged to. Padme knew it went a long way to show how quickly older civilisations had to adapt to their ever changing galaxy.

"Your majesty, I am terribly sorry to hear what has happened to you and your planet," he replied, lowering his head, his hands clasped in front of him. "Let us hope this alliance proves useful in preventing any other Separatist schemes like it."

The Queen did not move an inch. Her head remained firmly level. Padme could've sworn she seemed taller now than when she was on the cruiser.

"Your sympathy is noted, Chancellor Palpatine, but I require more than just pretty words. I need to see your senate take action to recapture my home," she urged with steel in her voice.

Bail threw Padme a concerned look as Mas Amedda raised an unamused eyebrow. They needed action, but the bluntness of the Queen's demand wasn't common practice in the Senate and wouldn't be seen as "accommodating". Padme understood her frustrations all too well from when Naboo was under attack by the Trade Federation.

"What her majesty is inquiring is if Republic reinforcements have already been sent to their system yet?" Bail clarified, as cool and collected as ever.

The Chancellor widened his arms in a welcoming gesture, attempting to settle down situation.

"Not to fret, your majesty, we sent a Republic cruiser as soon as we received your message. We will be certain of situation shortly, I promise."

"A single ship?" The Queen hissed. "We promised you an army and you send a single ship?"

Padme could see her pointed teeth under her curled upper lip. Sensing her ever increasing aggression, the clone officers stood at attention, ready to rush to the Chancellor's side. He straightened up and with a gentle shake of his head, they backed down. His demeanour shifted as he walked up the steps to the Queen's side, politely ignoring the Shilli guards whom towered over him.

"My dear, it brings me no pleasure to exert such caution. But we cannot afford to redirect an entire fleet to your system without more information," he lectured. "However, you have little to fear - with Masters Kenobi & Skywalker leading the charge, I'm certain that it will be good news."

Meanwhile, the clones standing behind the Chancellor had been locked in a hushed argument with his assistant for the duration of his placating speech. As Mas Amedda nodded at the troopers, he waved them away and started towards the group once more.

"Pardon the interruption Chancellor, but I'm afraid the news is less… optimistic than we'd hoped for," he begun.

Padme gritted her teeth. The sentence made her heart rate skyrocket and hearing it from a senator whom she wasn't particularly fond of only added to her aggravation. She tolerated Amedda's smug expressions and chilly demeanour only because the Chancellor seemed to respect his judgement. However, she had always found him to be rather callous whenever she tried to push for peaceful resolutions. The term "naive" was thrown her way too many times to count. Her breath tightened as the Chancellor responded.

"What is it?" Chancellor Palpatine insisted.

Mas Amedda bowed his head, eyes briefly catching Queen Tolame staring him down as if he were an insect in her way. The catch in his throat before he replied gave her more satisfaction than it should've.

"I - I regret to inform you that the Seperatists have overrun our Republic forces on Shilli. We failed to establish contact with any of the Jedi as we've recently received intel that they've been captured by the enemy."

"Then send in more reinforcements."

To everyone's surprise, it was Padme herself who was giving the order. The Queen actually turned around to look down at the passionate young senator at her side. But Bail's expression turned sympathetic as he realised what the news meant for her.

"Shilli is now officially allied with the Republic. We have an obligation to send in whatever reinforcements it takes to secure the planet - "

She caught herself on Bail's arm and realised that she'd been striding forwards as she spoke. The Chancellor took a deep regretful breath.

"We will, senator Amidala, I assure you that we will. But now, it will take considerably more time to organise the campaign needed to retake the planet, let alone to rescue Anakin and Master Kenobi..."

Queen Tolame turned on them in an instant, rushing forward in outrage. The people around her became blurred, their voices distant and filtered. The Queen was hollering obscenities as the Clones had stepped in front of Chancellor Palpatine. Mas Amedda was standing between them, fighting back in deep, condescending tones. Sometime during that, Bail had marched to the Queen's side, throwing out queries and liability clauses and everything else she may have resorted to had she been able to focus.

But Padme could only stand there, frozen as a memory reclaimed her time.

She remembered when Anakin spoke of what it was like to have a deep connection to the force. He would harp on about how "boring" Obi Wan's lessons were regarding how the force connected all living things. The same lessons that he nowadays desperately tried to recall when teaching Ahsoka. Once, on the rare occasion that they got to share the same room, she'd asked him point blank what the force felt like to him.

He laughed before responding with, "I don't know, what does breathing feel like to you?"

She glared him down after so easily submitting to the urge to tease her for not knowing something.

"Ani, you know what I mean. What does being connected to all living beings entail?"

Anakin stared at her more intensely this time, the smile never wavering from his face. Then he closed his eyes and she felt his breathing become more rhythmic, felt the rise and fall of his chest as she lay next to him. Within her, she felt a warmth swell in her core and begin seeping out to the tips of her fingers. The apartment air turned sweeter and more easily obliged the push and pull of her lungs as she felt her heartbeat fall in synchronicity with his.

Her body felt at once grounded and yet like she was floating in the salt water lakes on Naboo. A wave of soft whispering quietened the ever present chatter of scheduled meetings and drafted bills that occupied her mind. And what was more surreal - the weight was gone; the weight she'd carried around with her ever since taking the throne of Naboo when she was 14 years old.

The weight of an entire galaxy of innocent lives, both past and present; friends and strangers; was lifted out of her closed chest and opened up before her. She could still feel them, but their presence didn't weigh her down. Feeling it now it wasn't like they weighed anything. For light weighed nothing and that's all they were. Luminous beings.

Anakin squeezed her hand gently and she slowly blinked up at him, as if waking up from a deep sleep. He pecked her forehead and said, "the force flows through all living beings. So tell me; what does it feel like to you?" Her body was relaxed but her mind worked quickly, providing her answer within seconds. "Connection."

Standing on the lush red carpet of the Chancellor's office, Padme felt the world slip away around her, as if that familiar weight was dragging her through the floor. The fight continued on, having grown more passionate with each stake, arguing the politics of sending children into battle, the rumours of the Republic's corruption and Shilli's threats of joining with the Seperatists.

Padme couldn't hold onto a single sentence of it. Everything she'd done for peace, by fostering diplomacy with Shilli and having to let the ones she loves stay and fight in her stead, had ultimately been for nothing. The people she cared for were out of reach, most likely suffering, and she couldn't feel any of it. Anakin had helped her to feel the force, to understand what it was like to have that reassurance of connection.

But as she scrounged deeper to find that feeling again, for some sign of him, even just a flicker of light, there was nothing.


Hey all - so it's been a while. Personally, too much has been happening in my life for the past couple of months but even with exams on the horizon, I couldn't help but fall back onto Clone Wars to help get me through it. So here we are; it's good to be back.