A/N: I am fully aware that these first few chapters are a little short, but we have to get through them before we can get the chapters to average the length of 'The Emperor's Gift, The Emperor's Curse.' These are intro chapters to get us up to speed with the characters before the story really begins.
Chapter 2: The Jedi and the Senator
Anakin and Padmé Skywalker had been married six months ago this day. However, the last time they had seen each other was a couple of hours after the wedding. Anakin had immediately been sent on a mission by the Jedi Council to dismantle the Imperial Navy. As the former Sith Apprentice, Anakin was the most knowledgeable about the Imperial forces and the best ways of decommissioning them.
The young couple never had a chance to celebrate their marriage with a proper honeymoon. Married at the inception of the new Republic, both were busy ensuring a peaceful transition back to democracy, Anakin as a Jedi and Padmé as a Senator.
Senator Padmé Amidala had her rank and title restored to her at the rise of the new Republic. She was no longer the slave of Darth Vader, but the wife of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Senator of Naboo. Elected Supreme Chancellor Bail Organa had proclaimed a decree renouncing all of Emperor Palpatine's decrees in order to make Padmé's reinstatement official.
With her new husband off on a Jedi mission, Padmé kept herself busy by performing her senatorial duties in building the new republic. Days seemed to pass by quickly with her massive workload, but the nights were lonelier with Anakin's absence. The two did send holotransmissions to each other everyday, but she still missed him and longed to see him again.
Dusk was falling upon the cityscape of Coruscant as Padmé watched the traffic flow by her balcony. She was daydreaming about Anakin, something she did a lot of lately. Their relationship had had a rough start. She had been given to Darth Vader, Apprentice of the Sith as his slave. Angered by this demotion, she had done everything in her power to make the young Sith's life miserable. She fought with him, disobeyed him, and nagged him to reveal his true name.
Never in her wildest dreams did Padmé think she would ever fall in love with the Sith. However, she found that the Sith Apprentice was not as evil as his master and was simply misguided. Darth Vader never treated her like a slave, and save for a few violent outbursts, treated her fairly well.
Deep within the Sith was a good man who was eventually revealed to be Anakin Skywalker, the man she loved. Padmé sighed as she glanced up in the sky. Her Anakin was up there clearing out the last remnants of his former master's Empire, performing his duty as a Jedi Knight of the new Republic. She smiled at this thought and slowly turned her gaze away and started to walk back inside their apartment. However, before she crossed the threshold of the balcony, she glanced back at the sky and smiled, for soon her husband would be coming home.
Anakin Skywalker had just finished decommissioning the last of the former Imperial fleet. He had met a few pockets of resistance, but after some brief aggressive negotiations, the former Imperials saw things his way and surrendered to the new Republic. With the fall of the last of the Imperial fleet, Anakin was now in the cockpit of his yellow Jedi Starfighter, flying as fast as he could back home to Coruscant, and more importantly to Padmé.
He had been given two weeks leave from the Jedi Council so that he and Padmé could have the honeymoon they did not get a chance to have with the sudden fall of the Empire. Padmé had it arranged so that she would take some time off from the Senate so that they could spend the two weeks together, uninterrupted. However, Anakin was hoping to arrive in Coruscant a day early as a surprise. He longed to hold Padmé in his arms again as they shared a lingering kiss.
He was still in awe that a beautiful creature such as his angel could love him after all the terrible things he had done. Anakin was ashamed of his past, in particular he was ashamed that Darth Sidious had manipulated him to perform heinous act against the people of the galaxy and that he had tried to make him hurt Padmé. Anakin did not know what he would do without her. She was his reason for living and had been there to prevent his fall to darkness. He loved her dearly and longed to see her again.
Over these past six months, he had stored every holotransmission she sent him and replayed them whenever he missed her. He would lose himself in the beauty of her image and the melodic sound of her voice, but now that his mission was complete he was delighted that soon he would see the real thing. He had briefed the Jedi Council consisting of Master Yoda and Master Kenobi while in transit so that he could immediately take his leave when he arrived at Coruscant.
No other masters had joined the Jedi High Council since the order was reinstated, the rest of the former members had been killed during the Sith's purge of the Jedi Temple and no other knights were experienced enough for the job. However, Master Yoda and Obi-Wan had been busy locating former Jedi Knights in hiding and finding new younglings to train as padawans. Additionally, slight revisions to the Jedi code were being implemented to prevent the mistakes that had led to the Sith's rise.
Anakin had been surprised that Masters Yoda and Kenobi had offered him the position as a Jedi Knight. As a former Sith Lord, he had assumed he would be unwelcome in the new Republic. However, the two Jedi had been understanding of Anakin's ordeal and were willing to give him a chance to redeem himself. Anakin was pleased that he was needed and could be an active participant in the rebuilding of a galaxy he almost unwittingly destroyed.
Anakin was smiling as he pulled his starfighter out of hyperspace and caught his first glimpse of Coruscant. As he steered his ship through the planet's atmosphere and into the flow of the city's traffic he whispered, "I'm almost home, my angel."
