IV

When Padmé woke up, it took her some time to understand where she was. The unknown room was airy, full of light, but also impersonal and aseptic, like a hospital.

A hospital…the twins!

Padmé's hands ran to where her swollen abdomen should have been and met only air. Her belly was flat, empty.

Her heart started running as her breath got more laboured and panic invaded her. What had happened? Where were her children?

Padmé gritted her teeth and sat on the mattress, waiting until the room stopped spinning before posing her bare feet on the pavement.

She was about to stand when the door slide open and Qui-Gon entered, followed by Healer Eerin.

"Senator!" they said in unison, rushing at her side and obliging her to lie down again.

"Where are my children?" Padmé not bothering to hide her fear. "Are they all right?"

"Yes, they are," answered Qui-Gon. "They are sleeping in the nursery, but Healer Eerin can bring them here if you wish."

"Yes, yes, please. I need to see them," Padmé said urgently, needing to ascertain her children were really well.

Qui-Gon and the healer exchanged a look, then the Mon Calamari walked away.

The Jedi master took a chair from a corner, pulled it close to the bed, and sat down. "How do you feel, Padmé?"

"Scared…and sore," she raised her eyes to meet his own. "What happened?"

"You fell in shock after watching the security tapes with the events that occurred in Palpatine's office. Your condition was affecting the babies, so you were immediately operated on. Do you remember the records we showed you?"

"Yes…even if I wish I could forget," Padmé murmured. She closed her eyes briefly, fighting back her tears. "How is Obi-Wan?"

"He is in the intensive care unit. He has fallen into a coma, Padmé. Palpatine's blue bolts have caused an energetic overload in his nervous system. Some of his nerves have been damaged."

"How…how badly?"

"The healers do not know yet. He could recover completely…or be paralyzed…or blind…they don't know," Qui-Gon hung his head.

Padmé closed her eyes again, trying to block out the reality. Her husband was dead, her most trusted friend was in a coma, and the Republic was without a leader as the war still raged on.

"Who is controlling the Senate?" she asked, without opening her eyes.

"The Jedi Council, but we are already working to organize new elections—as soon as the war has ended, that's it. At the moment we are still negotiating the surrender of the last Separatists leaders."

Padmé nodded. "Yes, that's good…that's the right way. Diplomacy, not violence. I never understood why Palpatine chose to continue the war after Dooku's death."

Qui-Gon smiled bitterly. "Because the war was an elaborate trap for the Jedi and Sith orders."

"What!" Padmé's eyes snapped open.

"Palpatine and his apprentice Dooku planned everything to give the Chancellor an excuse to centre all the power in his hands, but also to oblige the two orders to stretch their numbers across the galaxy. It not only caused the death of many knights, but also kept them busy, unable to see what was happening under their very nose. And also…" Qui-Gon took a deep breath, "…it created situations in which the knights found themselves alone and surrounded by clone troops, not knowing the clones had been programmed to revolt against them at Palpatine's command. Do you remember? He called it Order 67."

Padmé nodded slowly.

"Order 67 meant the Clone troopers had to kill every single Sith Knight alive. There was a similar command, Order 66, for the Jedi."

Her eyes widened in horror, as she hoped she had misunderstood.

"The clones have bombed and attacked the Temple here on Coruscant and revolted against their Sith commanders all over the Galaxy. It has been a slaughter," Qui-Gon looked away, as pain washed over his stern features.

"A slaughter?" Padmé repeated.

"We have been able to save only ten younglings…their master must have sensed something, for he hid them in the basement. All the other Sith in the Temple have been killed, and so were the ones on the battlefields. We know for the clones reported the success of their mission to Palpatine's com unit…" Qui-Gon swallowed hard and rubbed his beard. "Obi-Wan…Obi-Wan is the only Sith still alive…and I don't know how I will be able to tell him."

Padmé watched devastated as the tall master buried his face in his hands, and despite all of her pain, her heart went to him. To this proud, gentle man who had seen the boy he had raised like a son betray everything he had been taught, before being killed by his best friend--

And she could not ignore that she had her share of guilt in this tragedy.

Padmé's hand reached out to grasp one of Qui-Gon's, giving and receiving comfort, until the moment the door slid open and Healer Eerin entered pushing a double cradle.

She sat up at once, her soreness forgotten and watched in wonder at her children. They were beautiful, perfect. They were sleeping and she did not dare to wake them, so her desire to hold them would have to wait a little longer. For the moment she was content to observe and learn each detail of their tiny faces and hands.

"The one with the darker hair is a girl-" the Mon Calamari healer whispered.

"Leia, her name is Leia," Padmé interjected.

"-and the blonde one is a boy."

"He is Luke."

"'Light' and 'Hope' in Nubian," Qui-Gon mused aloud, and she nodded.

"Yes. I just hope they will be auspicious, for them and the Republic they were born into."

Qui-Gon and the healer could not help but approve wholeheartedly.

§

Obi-Wan regained consciousness twenty days after his battle with Anakin and Palpatine, and the first person he saw was Padmé, who had been in that room almost all of her free time in the past weeks.

Their eyes met, hers moist with tears of joy, his full of confusion and then, after his memory returned, of regret.

"I…am sorry," he croaked out.

Padmé stood up and poured some water from a bottle on the bedside table, holding his head up as he swallowed. She was terribly moved by the fact he was not thinking of himself, asking about his condition, but focusing only on her. He was always so selfless…

"I am sorry," Obi-Wan repeated. "I could not save him…"

There was no need to explain who "him" was.

"I know," Padmé murmured. "I have seen… the security tapes of Palpatine's office."

"Forgive me…" Obi-Wan whispered, his blue-grey eyes fixed in her brown ones.

"There is nothing to be forgiven. You did your duty. It is I that must beg you forgiveness. Had I listened to your words after Geonosis, had I not allowed Anakin to break the rules for me, maybe this would have not happened."

Padmé was almost surprised by how strong her voice sounded. She had been rehearsing that speech in her mind for days, but she had not been sure she would be able to say it with Obi-Wan's solemn eyes looking at her.

"Maybe. We will never know," he commented, before taking a deep breath. "Is Darth Sidious dead?"

Darth Sidious? Oh, yes, Palpatine.

"Yes, he is. Master Jinn killed him."

"Good. And your children?" Obi-Wan tilted his head to indicate her flat stomach.

Padmé smiled. "They are well; a boy and a girl. Luke and Leia."

Obi-Wan smiled faintly. "Hope and light. How appropriate, now that the Dark Lords have been destroyed." Padmé just nodded. "Maybe I will now be able to take a long pause from active duty and teach to the Padawans," he whispered, his voice growing sleepy.

Padmé suffocated a sob as she watched his head loll on the side.

Oh sweet stars! What would Obi-Wan do when he was told there was no one left him to teach but ten infants?